Courses & Programs
The Theatre Lab offers the area’s most comprehensive theatre arts curriculum for adults, teens, and youth, most taught by the area’s finest theatre professionals. With both in-person and online classes in acting for the stage and screen, musical theatre, voiceovers, playwriting, directing, and drama criticism, you can shape a unique training program that is right for you.
Adult Classes: Read class policies. Apply for financial aid.
Youth Classes: Read class policies. Apply for financial aid.
Results
Techniques for interpreting lyrics, connecting to the character you're singing to, committing to the circumstances, making strong movement choices, and using your voice to maximum effect. For every singer who acts and every actor who sings.
No class 6/19
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Prepare, rehearse, and perform in a series of staged readings, working with professional directors and actors as part of a core company of students playing substantial roles. Issues explored in the class include the expectations involved in professional work, how to make strong acting choices within a compressed schedule, and the specific demands of staged readings versus full productions. This session, for the first time, we'll be working on one (huge!) play, the famous but rarely produced eight-hour adaptation of Nicholas Nickleby. The play will be divided into four parts, and students will perform one part each week for four weeks. Acting in a Professional Production provides the perfect opportunity to take this masterpiece on, with all students playing multiple roles, and a series of professional actors in the role of Nicholas. Many roles for all types.
Class Thursdays 7-10pm
Rehearsals Saturdays 1:30-5:30pm
Performances Tuesdays at 7:30pm. Students arrive at 6:30pm.
No class 10/10, 10/12, 10/15
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If you've ever seen a corporate training video (think of the pre-flight instructions you see on passenger planes) then you've seen an industrial film. You may not know the actors' names, but they're making a living with their talent. In this class students will learn to apply the same tools one brings to a three-act play to a 30-second commercial or a three-minute instructional video. Students will go through the process of cold-reading scripts for auditions as well as shooting their performances and reviewing them on TV afterwards. The goal of this class is to get students proficient at the types of material that provide a substantial amount of the paid acting work in the DC-Baltimore market.
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Acting is not about being someone different. Reveal your particular way of responding to the world by capitalizing on your personality, experience, vulnerabilities, physicality, intellect and attributes to create complex, fully realized, emotionally connected characters. Students receive individual attention in class; no rehearsal with a partner required between classes.
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No class 7/4
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No class 11/27
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An exploration of the numerous elements that go into a successful audition for the screen. Topics will include preparation, appropriate dress, demeanor, techniques for quick character analysis, cold readings, callbacks, and screen tests. All students will be recorded on video for playback and critique.
No class 10/10
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No class 6/17
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Techniques for interpreting lyrics, connecting to the character you're singing to, committing to the circumstances, making strong movement choices, and using your voice to maximum effect. For every singer who acts and every actor who sings.
No class 6/19
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Student Level
Adults (18+)Acting a Song
Instructor
Sherri Edelen
Day
Wednesdays
Dates
Jun 5 - Jul 17
Time
7 - 10 PM
Techniques for interpreting lyrics, connecting to the character you're singing to, committing to the circumstances, making strong movement choices, and using your voi...
MORE INFOSESSION
Summer
LOCATION
onsite
COST
$380
-
Student Level
Adults (18+)Acting in a Professional Production: Nicholas Nickleby
Instructor
Deb Gottesman
Day
Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays
Dates
Sep 26 - Oct 29
Time
See description.
Acting in a Professional Production: Nicholas Nickleby Prepare, rehearse, and perform in a series of staged readings, working with professional directors and actors ...
MORE INFOSESSION
Fall I
LOCATION
onsite
COST
$480
-
Student Level
Adults (18+)Acting in Commercials and Industrials
Instructor
John Judy
Day
Mondays
Dates
Jul 22 - Aug 26
Time
7 - 9:30 PM
If you've ever seen a corporate training video (think of the pre-flight instructions you see on passenger planes) then you've seen an industrial film. You may not kno...
MORE INFOSESSION
Summer II
LOCATION
onsite
COST
$340
-
Student Level
Acting Through Yourself
Instructor
Naomi Jacobson
Day
Tuesdays
Dates
Jun 4 - Jul 9
Time
7 - 9:30 PM
Acting is not about being someone different. Reveal your particular way of responding to the world by capitalizing on your personality, experience, vulnerabilities, p...
MORE INFOSESSION
Summer
LOCATION
onsite
COST
$340
-
Student Level
Adults (18+)Actions and Objectives
Instructor
Naomi Jacobson
Day
Thursdays
Dates
Jun 6 - Jul 18
Time
7 - 10 PM
A practical course for the actor. This class will use monologues to explore the power of actions and objectives – probably in more depth and with more intensity tha...
MORE INFOSESSION
Summer
LOCATION
onsite
COST
$380
-
Student Level
Activating Language
Instructor
Naomi Jacobson
Day
Thursdays
Dates
Jul 25 - Aug 29
Time
7 - 9:30 PM
Learn to make the audience believe that everything that you speak or sing is your own original thought. Create an intensely personal interpretation of language by usi...
MORE INFOSESSION
Summer II
LOCATION
online
COST
$310
-
Student Level
Adults (18+)Auditioning for Musical Theatre
Instructor
Sherri Edelen
Day
Wednesdays
Dates
Oct 30 - Dec 11
Time
7 - 10 PM
This class focuses on preparing the actor for musical theatre audition and performance, through careful attention to each actor/singer’s strengths and weaknesses. E...
MORE INFOSESSION
Fall II
LOCATION
onsite
COST
$380
-
Student Level
Adults (18+)Auditioning for the Camera
Instructor
John Judy
Day
Thursdays
Dates
Sep 12 - Oct 24
Time
7 - 10 PM
An exploration of the numerous elements that go into a successful audition for the screen. Topics will include preparation, appropriate dress, demeanor, techniques fo...
MORE INFOSESSION
Fall I
LOCATION
onsite
COST
$380
-
Student Level
Adults (18+)Beginning Scene Study
Instructor
J.J. Johnson
Day
Mondays
Dates
Jun 3 - Jul 15
Time
7 - 10 PM
An intensive introduction to scripted work through preparation and performance of scenes and monologues. Emphasis on learning effective rehearsal techniques and expan...
MORE INFOSESSION
Summer
LOCATION
onsite
COST
$380
-
Student Level
Adults (18+)Beginning Scene Study
Instructor
J.J. Johnson
Day
Mondays
Dates
Jul 22 - Aug 26
Time
7 - 10 PM
An intensive introduction to scripted work through preparation and performance of scenes and monologues. Emphasis on learning effective rehearsal techniques and expan...
MORE INFOSESSION
Summer II
LOCATION
onsite
COST
$380