We work with all kinds of working performing artists. Our performers get work and everything we do is designed to help you get work in film, television and/or theater. We are working artists with an intense and long-term commitment -- to the creative process; to exploring the profound intelligence of the imagination; to cultivating successful careers in the performing arts; to developing political consciousness; to developing ethical consciousness; to expanding interpersonal and intrapersonal consciousness; to developing cultural consciousness; and most of all, to being an amazing, versatile entertainer.

We believe acting classes should feel like home, where you come to feel safe, explore, develop, grow and fail, over and over -- without abuse or judgment. Our students are professional and supportive. If you study here, you will find we genuinely care about one another. To us, this profession is more than a job, for many of us it seems to be a "spiritual" calling.

We believe acting classes should be practical and intense – our professional acting classes arm with very specific processes you can use in the real world – acting processes you fully understand. We push our students to achieve the highest level of professional acting possible, with a professional level of commitment.

Jason Bennett and faculty use the principles outlined below to guide our work with actors. But if you are a previously trained actor, Jason will investigate your current acting process, "filling in the blanks" and "deepening your process," based on your agenda.

If you are an advanced professional performer, perhaps the imaginative and emotional process work below is second nature to you and you are looking for a place to shape and polish your performance skills. We can help you. The training here is tailored to you...

1. You expand your imagination and learn how to “act” from it. You may do imagination exercises and play classic theater games.

2. You develop easy-access to all kinds of archetypes and states of being. You may participate in numerous exercises designed to free you from imaginative blocks, fears and inhibitions. These exercises expand your range of expressiveness. These exercises also shine a spotlight on your "inner life." In our way of working, taking inventory and exploring yourself on the deepest levels is basic work for professional actors. It is fun and exciting. Expanding your ability to experience life is basic -- the journey of the actor, the journey of increasing liberation.

3. You learn how to maintain and develop your instrument: your voice, body and mind. You may participate in intense and freeing physical and vocal warm-ups, ensemble theater games, and learn how to stay open and available while working with other actors. We offer voice and movement training, which we consider vital for actors, and refer students to the best movement and voice teachers in the city.

4. You learn the fundamental acting tools great actors use to do their work: Externals, the Sensory Process, Imaging, Archetype Work, and Improvisation.

5. You learn how to work on a script in the pre-rehearsal phase. This means you will learn classic and modern script analysis techniques, how to build an imaginary world in which to live fully, how to build a character’s inner life, and how to create a character’s outer life: physicalization and vocalization. You will learn acting techniques from all the great acting teachers.

6. You learn how to work with other actors in rehearsal and in performance. You will explore the Rehearsal Techniques Worksheet. This worksheet contains literally hundreds of hours worth of sample rehearsal processes. You work with other professional actors in rehearsal, as you experiment with or deepen your acting process. You may work on monologues, scenes, or songs, depending on your personal agenda.

7. You learn how to work in a professional setting, on a film or television set, or in the professional theater. You learn how to transition from the pre-rehearsal and rehearsal phase, to the performance phase of your work. You learn how to work with a director, to block scenes, to keep what works and throw out what doesn’t work, and much more. You may participate in performances for family and friends, and in showcases.

8. You learn how to audition and get work. You develop an audition process, and simulate auditions in our classes and workshops. You learn the business and marketing skills required of a professional performer. You learn professional etiquette and how to handle any kind of audition or interview.

If you commit yourself to this work and go into it wherever it takes you, you will experience profound change in your acting in a very short amount of time.

The Jason Bennett Actor's Workshop offers you:

• Acting exercises from many of the great teachers: Jason Bennett assigns over 25 acting exercises, as you need them, taken from the work of many of the great acting teachers, designed to develop the various acting “muscles” you use in your work. These exercises are fun and intense, many requiring outside-of-class preparation. The results in your acting will be obvious and dramatic.

• Improvisation: Improvisation can be used to develop your imagination, increase access to your emotional life, to approach working on a script and performance, or to make comedy. You may explore all kinds of Improvisation in our acting classes.

• Sensory Process: The Sensory Process is misunderstood by many actors. It is the process of creating objects (people, places, things, events, memories) for use in your work. It is the how of creating a multi-dimensional, imaginary world to genuinely live in. You may explore the Sensory Process in-depth at The Jason Bennett Actor’s Workshop.

• Imaging: Imaging is the process of creating mental images. Dreaming is Imaging. Day-dreams are Imaging. Imagining anything is Imaging. Actors can use Imaging for many different kinds of purposes: to achieve performance/audition goals and increase confidence; to create the imaginary world of a play; to create a character's past and memories; to create objects (people, places and things) to respond to in your environment; to stimulate specific kinds of emotional life and thought processes; to access archetypes; and on and on. Imaging is vast, books are written on this subject. You may explore this vast tool in the on-going acting classes and acting workshops.

• Externals: This is also called "Outside-In Approach" by many acting theorists and teachers. Externals is one of the most powerful acting tools. Externals is the primary (and sometimes only) tool many actors use to create specific and original characterizations that are far different from their habitual personas. Externals approaches can totally alter your appearance and emotional life very quickly. Externals can begin with the very specific observation and study of the characteristics of an object: a person, animal, or thing. Once the observation/study is complete, you rehearse the specific physical and/or vocal characteristics of the object until you are able to "live" those characteristics without conscious effort.

• Archetype Work:  Archetype Work is a very powerful acting tool. It could almost be an entire approach to acting. An archetype is a basic and universal "unit" of your personality. Each of us has hundreds of archetypes that make-up our personality. Archetypes within the same person possess extremely different thoughts, values, abilities, emotions, voices, images, energetic tones and physicalizations. You will learn how to rapidly access any kind of archetype you need for your acting.

• All kinds of things go on in our classes based on what you need and where you are in your process – our acting classes are tailored to you. You can always work on songs, monologues, auditions, exercises, scenes, professional work, anything.