UPDATE July 20, 2020: Out of an abundance of caution due to local government quarantine regulations, the two-day acting workshop that Basil Hoffman was scheduled to lead at Blue Light New Mexico on July 25-26 has been canceled.
ALBUQUERQUE, NM — June 30, 2020 — Actors must always work on their craft to stay relevant. Toward that end, prolific actor Basil Hoffman will be in Albuquerque July 25 and 26 to teach Acting and How to Be Good at It at Clear Light New Mexico, 123 Broadway Blvd SE, Albuquerque, NM 87102.
The workshop is based on principles of the craft of acting as explained by Hoffman in his book Acting and How to Be Good at It (The Second Edition), which includes a foreword by Sydney Pollack. The workshop concentrates on monologues (a monologue is uninterrupted speech by one person). The in-person weekend workshop is $240. One day of the workshop is $150 and a Private 1-hour Coaching session is $100. Every actor who attends the workshop will receive a signed copy of Basil’s book Acting and How to Be Good at It. Workshop reservations are available at www.BasilHoffmanWorkshops.com.
For actors outside of New Mexico, the Zoom webinar of the live workshop can be streamed for $99. The streaming link is also being provided for free to 2,715 casting directors, directors, and producers in the North American film industry to watch those attending as they work with Hoffman on their monologues.
“Monologue Power is the name I have chosen to describe the importance of monologues to the actor’s craft,” says Hoffman. “Monologue work is powerful because it releases the actor from dependence on the personality or performance of any other actor and from being victimized by the unforeseen circumstances of auditions, rehearsals, and performances. It forces the actor to be so knowledgeable about his character and so immersed in the character’s life that the character becomes responsible for his own behavior, no matter what happens.”
Hoffman will speak about his 50 year acting career and share his insights into building and sustaining a Hollywood career at the highest levels of the industry. He expects and welcomes questions and conversation about acting and the acting business. “His book and his teachings have had a huge impact on me as an actor,” said Chris Ranny, a co-owner of SOL Acting Academy.
The workshop will follow the Center of Disease Control (CDC) guidelines with regard to social distancing practices, mask wearing and sanitation. We ask that our clients disclose their recent history and continue to implement these sanitation and disinfection procedures. Classes will not exceed eight students and distancing measures will be enforced.
ABOUT BASIL HOFFMAN
Basil Hoffman is best known for his work, often in classic films, with distinguished film directors, including Peter Bogdanovich, Mario Monicelli, Richard Benjamin, Carl Reiner (twice), Peter Medak (six times) and Alan J. Pakula (twice); Academy Award winners Joel and Ethan Coen, Paolo Sorrentino, Michel Hazanavicius, Steven Spielberg, Delbert Mann, Blake Edwards, Stanley Donen, Sydney Pollack, Ron Howard and Robert Redford (twice as director); and many others.
A long-time private acting teacher and coach in New York and Los Angeles, he has also been a frequent guest lecturer and teacher at prestigious academic and professional institutions, including (among many others) the American Film Institute, the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, the University of Southern California, National University of Theatre and Film in Bucharest, Romania, Confederation College in Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada and, in Beirut, Lebanon: the Academie Libanaise des Beaux-Arts, Notre Dame University, Lebanese University and St. Joseph University.
In 2008, Hoffman returned to Beirut as a U.S. State Department Cultural Envoy to Lebanon to teach acting and directing at the University of Balamand’s Academie Libanaise des Beaux-Arts, Lebanese University, Notre Dame University and St. Joseph University’s Institut D’Etude Sceniques Audiovisuelles et Cinematographiques.
A former member of the Board of Directors of Screen Actors Guild and the Fine Arts Advisory Council of Loyola Marymount University, Basil Hoffman is an Advisory Director of the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and is a member of both the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
He is also the author of two acting textbooks: Cold Reading and How to Be Good at It and Acting and How to Be Good at It? (The Second Edition), the second of which includes a foreword by Sydney Pollack.
