Workshops
Hone your skills or learn something new!
We offer workshops in acting, directing, improv and other stagecraft throughout the year.
​
​Chekov & Meisner Techniques
with Bruce Avery & Lana Palmer​
Sept 21 & 22, 10 am to 5 pm (with lunch break)
The paradox of acting well is this: how does one tell the truth by lying? This workshop addresses that question by exploring two different acting approaches: the Michael Chekhov Method and the Meisner Technique.
Day One of this two-day workshop will be a crash course in Meisner, to begin the process of learning to avoid self-consciousness so that one can respond honestly to each moment as one encounters it.
Day Two will introduce the methods of Michael Chekhov, whom Konstantin Stanislavski declared his most brilliant student. Chekhov’s ideas help one to achieve what he called “inspired acting.” Inspired acting requires one to respond to the moment authentically while embodying someone else. To “embody” a character requires a symbiosis of external and internal elements, which Chekhov’s work combines and develops.
Each day will feature two 150 minute sessions, with a two-hour break for lunch and rest. Wear loose, physically comfortable clothing that will allow you to move briskly. Each day will start with a lively, thirty-minute warmup to bring us physically and vocally into the space, followed by exercises developed by Meisner and Chekhov.
Maximum of 16 participants. Price is $125 for the two-day workshop.
Actors of all levels and experience are welcome to attend.
Email sccactorstheatre@gmail.com or use the PayPal button below to sign up.
​
Pre-pay to ensure your spot!
Bruce Avery is the Artistic Director of Bread & Butter Theatre, and a professor of Theatre Arts at SF State University. His PhD is from UC Santa Cruz, where he also worked as dramaturg for Shakespeare Santa Cruz
Recent directing credits include Marisol, Learning Alone, Pericles, Prince of Tyre, Much Ado About Nothing, and Venus in Fur at SFSU, along with Funeral Game, As You Like It, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream for Bread & Butter Theatre.
Lana Palmer is a Canadian-born, San Francisco-based film and theatre maker. Her plays have had staged readings and productions at Playwrights’ Centre of San Francisco and PianoFight, and Bread & Butter Theatre.
As a sound designer and composer, she is proud to have designed over 40 productions with leading companies in the Bay Area and throughout North America. Lana is a proud member of SAG-AFTRA, AEA, and the Dramatists Guild.
"It’s rare to find instructors in possession of the right mix of technical skills,
teaching skills, and playfulness to be able to pull off a quality weekend workshop.
Bruce Avery and Lana Palmer have put together a program that offers a great introduction to both schools of acting in a way that enables the actor to find the best places to use each or both of these approaches. Their workshop is an exceptional learning experience."
--David Leach
Chekhov & Meisner workshop
Words, Words, Words: A Workshop in Understanding and Performing Shakespeare
with Bill Peters​
October 21 through December 2, 6:30 pm to 9:30 pm​
Paul Robinson, an English director recently said, “English is the only language that you can’t translate Shakespeare into.” Many actors and directors come to rely on substituting subtext for Shakespeare’s actual language as they work through the plays in rehearsal. The result of which is the creation of vague, watered-down performances that are confusing to audiences.
This workshop is designed to help actors and directors master the intricacies of Shakespearian text. It is designed to serve actors and directors who have experience performing Shakespeare, as well as those who don’t. Over the course of 8 sessions, we will explore the nature of Shakespeare’s theatrical imagination, and the linguistic tools he used to create his themes, plots and characters. The work will consist of studying and performing various monologues and scenes from his collected works. This workshop will also serve to enhance the participants' responses to other styles of playwriting.
Maximum of 16 participants. Price is $160 for the 8-week workshop.
People who are Shakespeare-phobic are particularly welcome.
Email sccactorstheatre@gmail.com use the PayPal button below to sign up.
​
Pre-pay to ensure your spot!
Bill Peters is a professor emeritus at San Francisco State University where he taught playwriting, acting, directing and Shakespeare performance for many years.
His directing credits include projects at the Manhattan Theatre Club, The Denver Center, Indiana Repertory Theatre, Jewel Theater in Santa Cruz, and the Magic Theatre in San Francisco. He has directed many times for Actors' Theatre's 8 Tens @ 8 Festival.
"What a privilege to be able to take a six-week directing class with Bill Peters. It was utterly fascinating to watch Bill dissect a performance, pulling it apart, thread by thread, to show how there is no right or wrong way to say something, only a way unique to that director.
A memorable six weeks."
--Sally Bookman
Directing for Actors workshop
Writing Your 10-Minute Play:
A Workshop for Imagining, Creating, Polishing & Submitting Your Script
with Wilma Marcus Chandler
Saturdays, Sept. 20, 27 & Oct. 4 & 11, 2025
11:00 am to 12:30 pm
Ten-minute play festivals began on the East Coast with Actors’ Theatre of Louisville and on the West Coast with Santa Cruz Actors' Theatre! Since that time, they have blossomed all over the country and there are myriad opportunities to submit your work nationally. Have an idea for a play? Join others in bringing those ideas to the page and the stage!
Topics will include:
-
Developing your ideas
-
Characters
-
Plot line
-
Settings
-
Style and genre
-
Pitfalls
-
Formatting the script
-
Table reads
-
Submission opportunities
​
Cost: $50. Maximum of 16 participants.
Email sccactorstheatre@gmail.com or use the PayPal button to sign up.
She is Emerita Chair of Theatre Arts at Cabrillo College, Aptos. She is the founder of the on-going annual 8 Tens @ 8 Festival at Actors' Theatre and was the Festival's artistic director for many years. She is the founder and producer of the In Celebration of the Muse writers' festival and co-founder of the National Festival of Women's Theater and My Kin Talk, a Jewish Readers' Theatre Company. To date she has written, directed and/or produced over 100 productions and literary festivals in the Bay Area.
Wilma Marcus Chandler is a playwright, theatre director, and teacher. Her many books on theatre scholarship, directing, stage combat, and scene study have been published by Smith & Kraus, Inc.
The Actor's Toolbox
Techniques for Building Your Craft
with Christopher Peak and Suzanne Schrag
Mondays, Nov 3, 10, 17, 24, Dec 1, 8, 2025
6:30 to 9:00 pm
This workshop series is designed to give actors concrete techniques to develop their craft and enhance their performances. We will explore specific ways to deepen your work physically, vocally and textually—all of which can lead to greater freedom of expression in your body, voice and intention. Develop the tools that will help you build a truthful and truly engaged performance.
​
We will cover the following topics over the six sessions:
-
Journey to Neutral—Finding a Starting Point Free of Pretense
-
Three Vocal Channels and Dropping In—Bringing Greater Life to Your Lines
-
Entrances and Exits—Coming and Going with Physical Comedy
-
Geography of Thought—Taking Them with You with Your Words
-
Action!—Bringing Physicality to a Script
-
Free Climbing the Vowel Tree—Mapping a Vocal/Emotional Journey
​
Cost: $75. Maximum of 16 participants.
Email sccactorstheatre@gmail.com or use the PayPal button to sign up.
Christopher Peak holds an MFA and BFA in Acting and Theater. He served as an Associate Professor of Theater at University of California, Davis, and taught at the Berkeley Rep School of Theater.
He has extensive movement training including Lecoq technique with a focus on mask and character work, stage combat, clowning, and a wide range of movement methodologies, including Suzuki Method, Viewpoints, Laban Movement Analysis, Alexander Technique and commedia dell'arte, where he has performed several stock characters.
Suzanne Schrag has been exploring the craft of acting for most of her life. In addition to her many years of performing and teaching with Um...Gee...Um Improv Troupe, she has studied Meisner Technique with Ian
​McRae and trained with Bay Area Theatresports, the New Actors' Workshop in NYC and Shakepeare & Company. She has also had the great good fortune to work with and learn from the many amazing theater teachers here in Santa Cruz. She is excited to share some of the favorite implements in her own acting toolbox with the wider Actors' Theatre community.
Bill Peters is a professor emeritus at San Francisco State University where he taught playwriting, acting, directing and Shakespeare performance for many years.
​His directing credits include projects at the Manhattan Theatre Club, The Denver Center, Indiana Repertory Theatre, Jewel Theater in Santa Cruz, and the Magic Theatre in San Francisco. He has directed many times for Actors' Theatre's 8 Tens @ 8 Festival.