At the beginning of the year (jan 2 – jan 7), 16th Street Actors Studio in Melbourne brought out Chubbuck to run an intensive four-day masterclass espousing her famous ‘Chubbuck’ technique. There were 32 places for professional actors based on submission then selection. You paid about $1200 to participate and it really gave one a taste of what these regular classes are like.
Each actor was assigned a scene partner and allocated a scene, which Chubbuck chooses. The instruction was then to read Chubbuck’s book, Power of the Actor (which you are given), and apply her 12 steps to the work. Once that is complete you continue with your rehearsal process before presenting the scene on stage at the Malthouse Theatre in Melbourne for Chubbuck, your classmates and 300 auditors in the audience.
After working on stage with Chubbuck for about an hour, you then watched the remaining scenes for the day before heading back to the rehearsal room at night to re-work the scene with the new notes, in preparation for a second performance.
One got to see every single actor grow enormously in the work they produced. Pia Miranda and Natalie Imbruglia tackled playing a lesbian relationship infused with drug addiction in a scene from GIA. Refining objectives, then really pursuing those objectives, seemed the key to unlocking great performances time and time again. At the end of the four days one had the privilege of being able to share such an intimate yet exposing working environment with 31 incredibly talented actors.
Excerpts from Zoe Naylor’s blog entry at if.com.au
