Completely Ridiculous Classes and Workshops in Los Angeles

Completely Ridiculous
Classes and Workshops in Los Angeles

In the spirit of inclusivity, accessibility and diversity we offer
Need-Based Partial Scholarships for All of Our Classes and Workshops

Upcoming In-Person Classes in LA

The Études Technique (or, scheduled f*ck around time) with Annelise Lawson

Two Day Workshop
Saturday and Sunday | April 23rd and 24th
1-4pm PST
$165. Open to 10 students.
Sign up below.

Études are a rehearsal tool developed from Stanislavski’s final experiments. This course seeks to foster a dynamic interaction between actor and text. Through a series of exploratory improvisations called études, actors unpack and personalize the given circumstances — following their own impulses to achieve profound and thrillingly original interpretations. The course focuses on how to activate “bookwork” through imagination, awareness, and sense of spontaneous play. The method gives students practical tools to pull even the most intimidating texts off their pedestals and make them their own. Students will gain confidence in the legitimacy of their own impulses, having followed their interpretations of text and character to the furthest possible point.

"The most human space I've ever stepped into. Annelise prioritized humanity and what it revealed for the work was unprecedented. It was a new way of freeing ourselves from the fetters of I suppose lifelong conditioning. Empowering study of ourselves as flesh and air reinforcing our resilience as humans first and then bringing it to the game. Inspiring that to achieve such a thing requires us to simply look at ourselves as we are. Grateful for the experience."

Annelise Lawson (she/her/hers) is a bicoastal actress and theatre-maker. Recent credits include Anna in Babes in the Woods (world premier, Signature Theater), Edmund in King Lear (Here Arts Center), Helena in MIDSUMMER (The Araca Project), and Masha in Dmitry Krymov’s √3 Sisters (International Festival of Arts & Ideas). Other theatre credits include Arcadia (Yale Repertory Theatre); The Last Act (world premier, Israeli Stage); I Should Have a Party for the Thoughts I Didn’t Say (Source Material Collective); The Oresteia, Our Lady of 121st Street, The Troublesome Reign of King John, The Tempest, In Arabia We’d All Be Kings (Yale School of Drama); Middletown (Yale Summer Cabaret); The Secretaries, (Yale Cabaret); The Madness of Edgar Allan Poe (First Folio). Film: Close-Up (NY Indie Theater Film Festival Winner). Annelise holds certificates in acting from the Moscow Art Theatre School & the British American Drama Academy, and is a graduate of the iO training program in Chicago. As a teacher, Annelise’s work focuses on developing technique and style through students’ personal sense of fun. Her areas of expertise include Clown, Commedia dell’arte, and the Russian Étude method – an improvisatorial rehearsal tool designed to unleash an actor’s imagination into the world of the text. She teaches Chekhov at the Yale School of Drama, The New School for Drama, and the Stella Adler Studio. She has also taught at New York University Tisch School of the Arts, The Shakespeare Academy at Stratford, and is a founding member of The Pandemonium Studio.

The Body in Dialogue: A New Approach to Shakespeare with Joby Earle

Two Day Workshop
Wednesday May 4th and 11th
1-4pm PST
$165. Open to 10 students.
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Thinking and feeling are not limited to the small space between our ears - our experiences express themselves throughout our whole body. This class will help actors embody intellectual ideas by heightening awareness of the chakra system. Each session will begin with a psychophysical warm up, followed by individual monologue work. Students will work on a speech from the Shakespeare canon to fold in their new awareness and understanding of where these words, ideas, wants and desires may be living inside themselves, and what centers they are hoping to affect in their partner.

Joby (he/him/his) has performed at Lincoln Center, Playwrights Horizons, Yale Rep, South Coast Rep, A.R.T., The Berkshire Theater Festival, The Huntington Theater, Center Theater Group, and The Geffen Playhouse. His television credits include The Blacklist, The Exorcist, and The Good Fight. He holds a BFA from NYU's Tisch school of the arts and an MFA from the Yale School of Drama. He has been teaching actors since 2006 and has taught at Columbia, NYU, Yale as well as at the City College of New York. His teaching is based on the combined works of Kristin Linklater and Katherine Fitzmaurice as taught by master teachers Walton Wilson and Grace Zandarski. He has also studied with Andrew Wade, former head of voice at the Royal Shakespeare Company. He was first introduced to chakra work through Fay Simpson’s Lucid Body technique, as well as Beth McGuire’s and Pamela Prather’s classes at Yale. He is a member of the Actors Center as well as the National Alliance of Acting Teachers.