The STUDIO offers adult acting classes that run year-round and can be taken as students’ schedules permit. Students receive regimented training twice a week in five-week increments. Training can be immediately applied to auditions and performances. Advanced STUDIO students are eligible for Professional Series guest artist classes.
The STUDIO training logistics:
- Evening + weekend adult acting classes
- Three-level core training program
- Students finish core curriculum with a repeatable process applicable to all areas of the industry
- Supplemental technique and guest artist classes for all levels
Our curriculum trains you to:
- Own your impulses and act on them
- Exercise imagination and commit to high stakes
- Own who you are onstage without apology
- Apply your process in the professional world
- Work from an honest, brave, and present place…consistently
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The Core Curriculum:
B1: Human Behavior is a Meisner Technique and Viewpoints class which teaches the fundamentals of physical and emotional repetition, the activity and walking in exercises, and seven of the nine Viewpoints.
B2: Power of Imagination is the bridge to working with text. B2 uses an expanded version of Meisner’s activity and walking in exercise to introduce script elements such as relationship and truths, teaches the final two Viewpoints while reinforcing the connection between imagination work and physical work, and ends with an introduction to script work.
B3: The Professional is where all of the pieces of The Black Box Method come together. In B3, students learn the four stage Homework Process which gives them a framework for script analysis building on their B1 and B2 Meisner training, a physical approach to memorization that eliminates preplanning, and a methodology to use the vocabulary of Viewpoints to implant their prep work in their muscle memory. This last component is expanded upon in The Go Time Process, which teaches students to quickly start a scene emotionally full, to be in the moment with their scene partner, and to take adjustments with ease and integrity. Students leave B3 with a concrete process that can be applied every single time they have an audition or a booking, whether on stage or on screen.
STUDIO students range from 18-65+ years of age, spanning from brand new to acting to seasoned professionals looking for a new process or a tune-up. All new-to-Black-Box students begin in B1: Human Behavior regardless of experience. As we teach a specific technique, this ensures all students have a shared vocabulary and understanding of the process.
While we strongly recommend finishing all three levels to ensure total understanding of The Black Box Method, each day of acting class from the very first day of B1 is designed to be immediately applicable to auditions, rehearsals, and performances. STUDIO students are seen regularly at Chicago casting offices such as Claire Simon, PR, and O’Connor, and casting directors from these offices often teach guest classes for our students who have completed the core training. STUDIO students have booked network and streaming TV roles, shot regional and national commercials, and have worked on stages across Chicago.
If you’re ready for more intensive training, click here to learn more about our annual conservatory: The ACADEMY.