now in its 51st year

directed by S.M.P. Artistic Director
Chris DeCarlo

Actors' Workshop Brochure in Adobe Acrobat .PDF Format

Upcoming Sessions:
 

Monday evenings, 7:00pm to 10:00pm   

 

Fall Session: October 17 - November 21, 2011

 

Winter Session: January 9 – February 13, 2012

DUES: $200.00 for each six-week session

$500 if paying for three six-week sessions at one time

Acceptance is by interview only, and
enrollment is limited.

FOR INITIAL INTERVIEW and FREE PERSONAL
CONSULTATION and EVALUATION

please call: 310-394-9779 ext. 3 

For a more Stage Intensive
Experience consider the...

 
Actor's Workshop
Performance Theatre Lab

(click HERE for more information)

"One of L.A.'s most respected companies."
HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

 


“Thank you for all you have given me!”
Rina Mimoun (Pushing Daisies, Gilmore Girls)

“You make magic!”
Connie Stevens

“Great in so many ways!”
Mickey Madden (Maroon 5)
“Your work is  brilliant!”
The English Shakespeare Company
“Thank you for your guidance!”
Priscilla Morrill
 
An extraordinary way to enhance your acting skills in only eight weeks!
UNLEASH YOUR CREATIVE SELF CONQUER THE CRITIC WITHIN
CONQUER COMPETITION FEAR CONNECT YOUR PERSONAL DRAMA TO YOUR PUBLIC FACE
ENGAGE IN CREATIVE PROBLEM-SOLVING FIND YOUR INNER VOICE
CONNECT WITH EVERY CHARACTER YOU PLAY EMPOWER YOUR IMAGINATION
    MAKE THE WRITTEN WORDS COME ALIVE
The unique approach of Actors’ Workshop allows beginners through professionals from all walks of life to explore and expand personal boundaries. In addition to working professionals in the performing arts, members of Actors’ Workshop have included students, athletes, attorneys, educators, therapists, engineers, architects, painters, poets, neurosurgeons and veterinarians.

Artists who have worked under Mr. DeCarlo’s direction include Frank Aletter, Haskell Anderson Jr., Zina Bethune, Joe Bologna, Michael Callan, Molly Cheek, George Coe, Sandy Faison, Deborah Harman, Alice Hirson, Peter Jason, Matthew Laurence, Barbara Minkus, Priscilla Morill, Ron Palillo, Stuart Pankin, William Schallert, Albie Selznick, Sammy Shore, Louise Sorrell, Todd Susman, Renee Taylor, Dianne Turley Travis, Renn Woods and playwrights Brenda Krantz, Rose Lieman Goldemberg, Jerry Mayer and Annie Reiner.

Chris DeCarlo's
work is

"Spellbinding"
L.A. TIMES

"Imaginative!"
L.A. MAGAZINE

"Spectacular!"
DRAMA-LOGUE

"Thrilling!" 
The OUTLOOK

"Superb!"
VARIETY

CHRIS DeCARLO combines teaching with an active career as performer, writer and director in theatres everywhere from the Henry Street Settlement Theatre in New York to the Hitori Memorial Hall in Tokyo, and has been directing, writing and acting in Los Angeles for over forty years. As Co-Artistic Director of Santa Monica Playhouse and its resident acting company, Actors' Repertory Theatre since 1973 together with his partner Evelyn Rudie, he has been responsible for bringing over 500 World, American and West Coast premiere productions to the boards and has created more than 300 roles, with more than 10,000 on-stage performances.

Mr. DeCarlo is co-founder and director of Actors' Workshop and the Young Professionals' Company. Under his direction, members of these groups have participated in over forty-five international tours, performing as well as teaching and directing in New York, Canada, Japan, Ireland, England and Hong Kong. Former students include Kate & Oliver Hudson, Zooey & Emily Deschanel, Jason Ritter, Jon Kasdan, Obi Ndefo (Stargate), Rina Mimoun (producer, writer Dawson’s Creek, Gilmore Girls), Mickey Madden (Maroon 5), and Cami Anderson (New York Superintendent of Alternative Schools and Programs). His innovative methods are changing the face of theatre education worldwide.

Under his aegis, the Santa Monica Playhouse has been honored with the Los Angeles Drama Critics' Circle's prestigious Margaret Harford Award, over 25 Drama-Logue Awards, and eleven Mayor's Commendations.

Acceptance is by interview only, and enrollment is limited.
FOR INITIAL INTERVIEW and FREE PERSONAL CONSULTATION and EVALUATION

please call:  310-394-9779 ext. 3
 

Actors' Workshop

Performance Theatre Lab
 

A specially scheduled performance-based session directed by Playhouse Co-Artistic Director Chris DeCarlo, internationally renowned for his Short-Burst Theatre projects

 

“Spectacular! Please do more!”

Giuseppina Candia, Deputy Director, Istituto Italiano Di Cultura

 

“Our performers learned so much! Amazing!”

Masa Ota, President, Model Language Studio, Tokyo

 

 

Short-Burst Theatre combines movement, voice, performance art, text, ensemble work and the artist’s voice to create intense, intimate, original theatre productions performed for the public.

 

Sessions are scheduled at the discretion of Mr. DeCarlo and the Playhouse Education Conservatory Staff when there are a requisite number of eligible and committed theatre artists.

 

Class times are arranged based on the schedule of the participants and  theatre availability (sometimes weekends, sometimes weekday mornings, afternoons or evenings), typically in an intense two to three week time period, with two, three or four culminating performances.

 

Prerequisite: director approval and participation in at least one Monday Night Actors’ Workshop Session.

 

For more information, and to find out how to become eligible, contact us at 1-310-394-9779 ext 3 or education@SantaMonicaPlayhouse.com

 

Casting Opportunities

Although plays at Santa Monica Playhouse are cast through open auditions, it is Playhouse policy to use workshop members whenever appropriate in order to give them the opprotunity to bring their work to the stage and to apply their training in a public, professional setting.

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Santa Monica Playhouse, a not-for-profit 501 (c) 3 educational corporation founded in 1960, provides exciting and entertaining dramatic and comedic, classic and contemporary live theatrical productions, Family Theatre musicals, birthday and tea parties, year-round and summer theatre acting classes and educational programming for kids, teens and adults, create-a-play classes and Mommy and Me events for pre-schoolers, daytime and after school field trips,  enrichment classes and in-service in public and private schools, cultural exchange, international touring, and community outreach, as well as theatre rental space for productions, seminars, solo shows, concerts, recitals, lectures, meetings and more.