What's On - Adult Acting Course - Beginner Friendly!

Learn to Act, Speak and Live with Confidence!

In this exciting, accessible 8-week course we use a blend of professional techniques and practices from British theatre and American film actor training to develop a solid foundation for acting with truth, emotion, imagination and spontaneity. This empowering course is open to complete beginners and to experienced actors looking to refresh their skills or work with new techniques. The classes are fun and challenging and take place in a structured and supportive environment. (Age 16 plus).

We will do warm-ups, which will involve exercises to improve your vocal, movement and listening skills, spatial awareness, concentration, relaxation and stage presence. We will work with improvisations and will learn about the basics of stagecraft. We will provide guidance on memory and line-learning techniques. There will also be exploration and development of character in various ways using, for example, scene analysis, hot seating and creating objectives. It's like a mini-version of drama school (and that means homework - some preparation for classes will be assigned every week).

You will have the chance to work with various partners on simple scripted scenes then do more in-depth work with a chosen partner by developing a scene from a theatre play or film script or do a monologue if you prefer to work on your own.

There will be an exciting opportunity to perform scenes for each other in the last class.

The Acting Lab has been running high-quality acting and improv courses in Dundee since 2015.

Tutor: An experienced actor, director and teacher, Elaine Newton graduated from RSAMD in Glasgow (now the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland). She also trained in film acting in Los Angeles and at the Bilingual Acting Workshop in Paris, using American models for naturalistic acting. In addition, she has trained in London, Paris, Rotterdam and Glasgow with renowned practitioners including Mike Alfreds, Scott Williams, Amy Werba, Nadine George, Jo Estill. She has trained in Improv with the world-leading Second City Improv Chicago, Free Association in London and The Improfessionals in Paris. After teaching acting, voice and movement in Paris and Strasbourg, she established The Acting Lab in her hometown of Dundee ten years ago – a space for innovative actor training. Her international training has given her the knowledge base and breadth of experience to provide students with support and inspiration along with structured, practical acting skills and professional techniques from which great confidence can be gained and transferred to any aspect of life.

Elaine also teaches Improv courses and Speaking with Confidence courses. She also offers One-to-One Coaching for Acting and for Public Speaking (working both in person and on Zoom).

Information published by Leisure and Culture Dundee.