Robert Benedetti

Producer/Director - Writer - Teacher - Consultant

Workshops for Schools

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Robert Benedetti, PhD, has had a forty-year career as a teacher, director, and producer, and is the author of six books on stage and film. He was Dean of the School of Theatre at the California Institute of the Arts and Chairman of the Acting Department at the Yale Drama School, and won three Emmys and the Peabody Award for his films for HBO.

Based on his work with actors, he has evolved a workshop on focused transaction. It uses breathing, moving, sounding, and ordinary life experiences to explore the give and take of energy, how it may be shaped by intention, how it generates personality, and finally how focused transaction can enhance our effectiveness and appreciation of the drama that we call everyday life.

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I have done extended workshops at such schools as Australia's National Institute of Dramatic Art, The National Theatre School of Canada, the Victorian College of Arts in Melbourne, the O'Neill Center, Marquette University, Roosevelt University, the University of Utah, Indiana University, the University of Michigan, James Madison University, the University of Colorado, Reed College, Stephens College, Pan American University, and many others. In November, 2004, I joined with Cicely Berry of the Royal Shakespeare Company to give a three-week workshop for professional actors and teachers in Sydney, Australia.

All workshops are two or three hours in length and may be combined in various ways. The three stage acting workshops require no advance preparation of materials, and each may be designed for any level, from beginner to advanced.

ACTION AND CHOICE

An Aristotelian view of dramatic action and its relationship to character, with special focus on the role of strategic choice in the pursuit of an objective.

THE FLOWING SCENE

This experiential exercise explores how energy moves through a scene and is shaped for maximum dramatic effect.

CHARACTER, THE BODY, AND CHOICE

A workshop that uses bioenergetics' principles to provide an experience of how character, through repeated behavioral choices, comes to reside in the structure of the body.

CAMERA ACTING WORKSHOP

This workshop requires a simple one camera system with immediate playback and monitor large enough for entire class to view. A basic lighting plot in front of black is preferred. Students select short realistic two-person scene segments (three minutes or so) from material they have performed previously in class or production. Each scene is worked for ten to fifteen minutes. This workshop is NOT recommended for beginning actors.

GIVING GOOD NOTES

A workshop for directors or teachers in the best ways of giving notes or evaluation of an actor’s work.

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SEEMING, BEING, AND BECOMING

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FROM CONCEPT TO SCREEN

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