An 8-week workshop for high school students preparing auditions for college acting programs.

The Workshop is limited to 10 students.

Students will choose and develop two contrasting monologues.

Students will be taught by three professional actors/acting teachers, all of whom have been through the college audition process and have earned their degrees.

At the end of the workshop, all students will undergo a mock college audition with current or former faculty members of college theater programs.

Sundays, 10:30 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. for 8 weeks.
March 1 - April 26. No class on Easter Sunday (April 5).

Brad's Class
1646 20th Street
Santa Monica CA 90404

Workshop Fee: $465 cash, check or credit card.

OUR GOAL:

We intend that our students leave the workshop with two contrasting monologue performances with which to audition for college drama programs.

We do this by addressing the top three complaints of college auditors:

1. Poor choice of material
2. Inadequate preparation
3. Lack of personality, potential, curiosity, enjoyment.

While we cannot solve these problems per se, we can provide our students with the tools that will enable them to solve these problems for themselves.

WHO IS THIS WORKSHOP FOR:

Our workshop has been designed primarily for high school juniors and seniors who will be auditioning for college drama training programs. The workshop is also valuable for high school sophomores, or any college students intending to audition for MFA programs. Middle school students will not be accepted.

We offer our workshop throughout the year so that students can start early on their preparation. It takes a lot of time and attention to find suitable material, and then to work it up into a performance. Various colleges want various materials. UCLA wants two monologues. NYU wants three. Julliard requires four. So, depending on the students' goals, we offer the opportunity to get started early in the year and to repeat the workshop as often as necessary until the student's auditioning goals are met.

WHAT WE DO:

The first thing we'll do is get to know the students - age, physical type, personality. We'll also ask what kind of roles they like to play, what they think they're good at. Then we'll try to match them to acceptable material.

Once we've chosen material, one teacher will work with the students to get their material up to an interesting, personal and compelling audition piece that's within a conventional time limit. The process will then be repeated with a second monologue and a second faculty member.

By the seventh week of the workshop, each student will have two contrasting monologues that they've developed in the class. Students will then go through a mock audition using that material before a panel of current or former college faculty members. The auditors will submit written evaluations and, after some general feedback from the auditors, they will leave. Then the teachers will discuss the evaluations with the students. The auditors' notes will then be incorporated into the students work on the last week of the workshop.

Students who attend all eight sessions of the workshop will leave with two performance-ready monologues for auditioning for drama programs. They will also have a solid understanding of what kind of material to look for, how to prepare a monologue performance for an audition, and how to deal with the pressure inherent in the process. And they will be better actors overall than when they started.

Our Workshop is limited to 10 students. Every student will work in every class.

We will also provide basic information on what are currently considered the "best" schools, as well as a list of resources (books, websites, etc.) and plenty of audition material for students to use.

To see the class-by-class syllabus, click here (pdf document).

WHAT TO EXPECT:

Students should wear comfortable clothing that does not inhibit movement.

Students will have homework - memorizing, working a monologue, reading plays.

No texting or gaming is allowed in the classroom. All electronic devices must be turned off. Students should always bring a notebook and pen/pencils to take notes.

Students are welcome bring food if they like. While food is not allowed in the studio proper, there will be a break midway through each session during which time they can eat. There is a small refrigerator on premises.

Parents are invited to stay for the first half-hour of the first class. Parents are also invited to a closing-workshop party at the completion of the workshop.

For the first class, students are encouraged bring in two monologues. They can be classical, contemporary, or one of each; they can be dramatic, comedic, or one of each. The monologues do not have to be memorized, nor performance-ready. But if they are memorized and performance-ready, the student will be that much ahead of the game.

WHO WE ARE:

BRAD GREENQUIST has been teaching the craft of acting for nearly 30 years, starting as a teaching assistant at the Michael Moriarty Acting Studio in New York in the 1980s. He has since taught at the David Kagen Film Acting School, the Governors' School, the Idaho Film and Television Workshop, the Classical Theatre Lab, the Elizabeth Mestnik Acting Studio, the Promenade Playhouse, and at the Pacific Resident Theatre Company's Young Actors' Conservatory. He has also led several on-camera seminars at Backstage's annual actor convention, ActorFest. Mr. Greenquist has been running his own highly popular on-camera acting studio, Brad's Class, in Santa Monica for about ten years.

Mr. Greenquist's own actor training includes a BFA from Virginia Commonwealth University. He trained for eight years with Michael Moriarty and six years with Ian Tucker. He has also taken classes and workshops with Pasty Rodenburg, John deLancie, Ginger Friedman, Michael Donovan, Richard Hankins and at HB Studios.

As an actor, Mr. Greenquist has been working for nearly 40 years. At the Pacific Resident Theatre: Nora, Becky's New Car, Orpheus Descending, Four Dogs and a Bone, Our Town, Macbeth, Entertaining Mr. Sloan, Closer, and The Unfryable Meatness of Being. New York theater credits include a Broadway production of Night of the Iguana (with Michael Moriarty and Jeanne Moreau); Off-Broadway productions of Abundance (with Amanda Plumber) at the Manhattan Theatre Club, The White Rose at the WPA, and his own one-person show The Grand Inquisitor at Primary Stages. On the big screen, Brad is best known for playing Victor Pascow in Stephen King's Pet Sematary. Other film credits include Water for Elephants, The Lone Ranger, Across the Hall, California Solo, Ali, The Bedroom Window, Lost Souls, Gang Related and many others. TV movies include The Trials of Cate McCall (with Kate Beckinsale), Inherit the Wind (with George C. Scott and Jack Lemmon), The Pennsylvania Miners' Story, The Yearling, In Cold Blood, Crime of the Century, Dead Man's Walk and many others. Recent television guest star appearances include Bones, The Mentalist, most of the CSIs, Cold Case, NCIS, Heroes, ER, Sleeper Cell, most of the Star Trek incarnations, The Practice, Eleventh Hour, Medium and plenty of others.

Mr. Greenquist is a member of the Pacific Resident Theatre Company, and a member of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.

www.bradgreenquist.com

CHRISTOPHER SHAW currently teaches Acting /Scene Study and Acting Techniques Classes as an adjunct faculty member at CSU Fullerton and CSU Long Beach in the BA and BFA acting programs. He also teaches acting at the American Music and Dramatic Academy (AMDA) in Hollywood. Mr. Shaw was also the head of the highly successful PRT Young Actors Conservatory, a conservatory acting program he developed for children ages 9-18 in conjunction with the Pacific Resident Theatre Company in Venice, CA.

As an actor, Mr. Shaw has been most recently seen in the award-winning Echo Theatre Company production of Fugue. Los Angeles stage acting credits include: The 39 Steps at the Ensemble Theatre in Santa Barbara; Blackbird and The Love Song of J. Robert Oppenheimer at Cal Rep. At the Pacific Resident Theatre: Becky's New Car, Fuddy Meers, The Time of Your Life , The Hasty Heart, The Blue Dahlia, and the Brecht/Weill musical Happy End (Best Ensemble and Revival awards). Other L.A. Theatre credits include: Apollo parts 1, 2 & 3 at the Kirk Douglas and at Portland Center Stage; the Echo Theater Company's production of War Music at the Geffen and at LATC (Ovation award for Best Ensemble and Best Play); Never Land at The Rogue Machine. NYC theater includes: Marvin's Room at Minetta Lane, Walking the Doa at Circle Rep, Painted Rain at Playwrights Horizons, Romeo and Juliet at The Public. Regional Theater credits include: Marvin's Room at Seattle Rep and The Kennedy Center; Present Laughter at Baltimore Center Stage; Innocent's Crusade (directed by Joe Mantello) at Long Wharf; as well as three seasons at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre Center. TV credits include the mini-series Bella Mafia (with James Marsden). Feature films include Annabelle and Dogfight (with River Phoenix and Lili Taylor), and the award-winning short Sunnyslope directed by Chris Fields.

As a theater director, Mr. Shaw recently directed Farragut North in the Grand Central space at CSU Fullerton.

Mr. Shaw is a member of the Pacific Resident Theatre Company and The Echo Theatre Company. He is also a member of Actors' Equity and SAG-AFTRA.

MICHAEL HANSON is well known to Westside LA high school students as a private acting coach and math tutor. Mr. Hanson has a BA from UCLA School of Theatre, Film and Television where he trained under Joe Olivieri, Marilyn Fox, and others. Mr. Hanson was also a teaching assistant at the UCLA Arts Camp, where he coached teenage actors in monologue auditioning.

As an actor, Mr. Hanson's theater credits include Nice Things at Rogue Machine, Gospel According to First Squad and Group: The Musical, both at L.A. Theatre Ensemble, The Fisherman's Wife (directed by Gates McFadden) at Ensemble Studio Theater, Mukashi Mukashi at the Geffen, Richard III with Salty Shakespeare, and The Laramie Project: 10 Years Later at the LA Gay and Lesbian Center. Performances at the Pacific Resident Theatre include: Our Town, SubUrbia, Becky's New Car, Blunt Force and Fuddy Meers. TV credits include appearances on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Switched at Birth, 1000 Ways to Die and Mr. Mayor. Feature films include supporting roles in Vampires Suck and Penumbra.

www.MrMichaelHanson.com

Our 8-week workshop is offered three times per year: in spring, summer and fall.

SPRING WORKSHOP, 2015:

Sunday mornings from 10:30 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.

March 1 through April 26.

There will be no class on Easter Sunday, April 5.

SUMMER AND FALL WORKSHOP DATES TBD.

The College Audition Workshop is located at:

Brad's Class Acting Studio
1646 20th Street
Santa Monica, 90404

On the west side of 20th Street between Colorado Blvd. and Olympic Blvd.

Directions:

The studio must be approached from the north (driving from Colorado toward Olympic). The parking lot entrance will be on your right about halfway down the block, just past the sign for the 10 freeway. You'll see a semi-fenced lot between two yellow-ish buildings. Pull in and park. Then look for the building with the sign Brad's Class. That's where we are.

There's plenty of free parking on the premises.

The area is safe and clean, in the heart of Santa Monica. Eateries (Starbucks, Mondo Taco, Quiznos & others) a block away.

click for directions

PRICING:

The Workshop costs $465 for 8 weeks, one class per week, each class 3 ½ hours (total of 28 class hours).

A non-refundable $100 deposit is required in advance to reserve your place in the class. The balance of $365 is due on the first class.

Cash, checks or credit cards are accepted.

CREDIT CARD:

Credit Card payments can be made on-line, at: http://mkt.com/brads-class

CHECKS:

Checks should be written to: Brad Greenquist

Please mail checks to:

Brad's Class
1646 20th Street
Santa Monica 90404

CASH:

To pay by cash, please email Brad Greenquist at workshop@bradsclass.com and arrange a time to come by the studio to pay. A receipt will be issued. Please do not send cash through the mail.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

What's the class size?

The workshop enrollment is limited to 10 students so that we have the time to devote to each individual student in an individual way. It is also vital that every student works in every class.

How qualified are your instructors?

We all have theater degrees. We have all been through the process of auditioning for college programs, and were successful. We also have strong ties to many current faculty members at various colleges and professional training programs.

Why take this workshop so early? The auditions are many months away!

UCLA wants two monologues. NYU wants three. Julliard wants four.

Like any other college testing preparation, developing a repertoire of audition material for colleges should start 12 months prior to the audition season (November - February). This gives the student time to find appropriate material, try it out, keep it or reject it. If you're auditioning for more than one college, you'll need an assortment of audition pieces - 5 or 6 - to suit the varying requirements of each school (classical, contemporary, dramatic, comedic, 1 minute, 2 minutes, etc.)

By taking our College Audition Workshop early in the year, you will have the opportunity to repeat the workshop over time. The student will be able to find and develop new material, as well as polish the previous material. In an ideal situation, a student will take all three sessions of the workshop (spring, summer and fall) and go into the audition season armed with 6 solid monologues -- enough to suit everything from Julliard to UCLA.

Though your workshop is geared toward high school juniors and seniors, can a sophomore take your workshop? Can a post-high school actor take your workshop? What about a candidate for an MFA program?

Yes, yes and yes! Anyone who is in high school or older and who is planning on auditioning for a training program that requires monologues is welcome to join the workshop. And of course, if high school freshman and sophomores want to get an early start, they too are welcome.

The workshop is not suitable for middle school or elementary school students.

Does your workshop guarantee success in being chosen by a college?

No. The competition to get into these programs is fierce, and there are no guarantees. What our students will get is good solid training in the very specific craft of auditioning with a monologue. And they will leave the workshop with confidence in their ability to deliver their best work under the pressure of the college audition circuit.

Will your mock audition give me an "in" with a particular college?

No. Our guest faculty for the mock audition participate only as an aid in the training process. They are not looking for new applicants.

Do you work on musical theater auditions?

No. If a student wants to audition for musical theater programs, we can help him/her with the acting portion of the audition (the monologues). But we're not prepared to offer guidance in the singing portion of the audition.

Can I see a syllabus?

Of course! To see a class-by-class syllabus, click here.

Can parents stay and watch?

No. Due to the personal nature of the work we'll be doing, it's best if the students do not have the pressure nor distraction of an audience other than their fellow students and their instructors.

We do encourage parents to stay for about a half an hour at the beginning of the first class. We will introduce ourselves, talk about both the process of auditioning for colleges and the process we'll be taking your kids through in the workshop. This is a good opportunity for the parents to meet the instructors and to ask any questions they may have.

We will also have a small party at the end of the workshop to celebrate the students' work and to wish them well. Parents are encouraged to join in.

During the course of the workshop, all of our instructors will be available for questions from parents either before class, after class or via email or phone.

How important is it that my child get into a "top" school?

"Top" schools are "Top" based on many criteria, including the number of alumni who have successfully forged a career. The benefit of going to one of these programs is not only for the training - which is truly top notch - but also for the network of alumni working in the business, i.e. people who will hire their fellow alumni if possible. This is a great help in such a competitive business.

But it is not necessary. Many successful actors come out of solid college programs that are not ranked as "Top" schools. Nearly all BFA programs offer excellent training. That is the most important reason to attend a college actor training program.

Is it even necessary for a young actor to go to college? Will having a degree help?

No, it's not at all necessary for an actor to go to college. And no, having a degree does not count for anything in an actor's career. Many parents prefer that their child earn a degree, as it may help in case the acting career does not get off the ground. This is reasonable. The prime importance for the student, however, is what he or she learns on the way to getting the degree.

The great benefit of attending a full-time conservatory program (BFA program) is that the student lives in the theater world morning to night, day after day for several years. In this way the student is transformed from an enthusiast into an actor.

TO SIGN UP:

Congratulations on taking this first step towards preparing for your college audition!

Here's what you need to do to get started:

STEP 1: EMAIL US!

workshop@bradgreenquist.com

Let us know that you would like to sign up for the workshop (and ask any questions you might have). We'll email you back, acknowledging your request to join and letting you know if there's room in the workshop.

STEP 2: DOWNLOAD THE REGSITRATION FORM

Fill out all the required information in the Registration Form.

Download Registration PDF Here

Then you can either:

• sign, scan and email the form back to us at workshop@bradsclass.com
• or you can mail the form (with a check for $100 to reserve your spot) to us at:
  
  Brad's Class
  1646 20th Street
  Santa Monica CA 90404

STEP 3: PAY DEPOSIT

You will not be guaranteed a spot in the workshop until you pay a $100 non-refundable deposit to hold your place.

There are three ways to pay.

• send a check for $100, made out to BRAD GREENQUIST, along with your Registration Form, to:
  
  Brad's Class
  1646 20th Street
  Santa Monica CA 90404
• pay with credit card on-line at: http://mkt.com/brads-class
• email Brad at workshop@bradsclass.com and arrange a time to drop by the studio and pay via cash, check or credit card.

Remember, your place in the workshop will not be held until a $100 non-refundable payment has been made.

First you will receive a receipt for payment of the deposit.

Then you will get an email from us welcoming you to the workshop, and giving you any special instructions for the first class.

Please bring the balance of your payment ($365) to the first class. Payment is by cash, check or credit card.

We'll see you on March 1 at 10:30!

If you have any questions, please feel free to email us: workshop@bradsclass.com