ACADEMY 2025: Scene Study: Classic American Comedies
Kiki & David Gindler Performing Arts Center
Moderated by Geoffrey Wade
6:30-9:30pm
$425 for six 3-hour sessions
*Early Bird Special - Book by August 31 for $25 off!
Scene Study: Classic American Comedies
What's So Funny?
There's no better feeling than making an audience laugh, but as the old saying goes: "Dying is easy, comedy is hard." This scene-study course will explore the form of ‘light comedy’; a style often disparaged, but difficult to master. It ain't Ibsen, but it still requires commitment, precision, and a fierce degree of honesty to accomplish successfully. By focusing on the classic American comedy of writers such as George S. Kaufman, S. N. Berman, and Neil Simon, and plays ranging from Arsenic and Old Lace to The Front Page to Harvey to End of Summer to The Sunshine Boys, actors in this class will get to sharpen those skills required in any form of acting -- imagination, truth-telling, investment in the situation, wit, concentration, and physical ease -- with a payoff you can hear. These plays and their like are done everywhere, sitcoms are based on this format, and remember: if you can do comedy, you can do anything.
Bring a monologue to the first class—comedic preferred, but most important is that you're already comfortable with it. No need to learn something new.
October 7, October 14, October 21, October 28, November 4, November 11
*Please note, students under 18 require permission from the moderator to take this academy class. If you’re in this category, please reach out to us at academy@antaeus.org.
About Geoffrey Wade
Geoffrey has been teaching at the ANTAEUS Academy since 2003, and guest moderated at schools including USC, Kent State, UCI, and the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. He has performed on Broadway, played Snape in Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, done National Tours and worked extensively in regional theater, most recently in the The Reservoir at Geffen Playhouse. Others include SCR (Little Shop...), La Jolla, Rep Theatre of St. Louis, Baltimore Center Stage, Guthrie, Denver Center, Cincinnati Playhouse, The Old Globe, and a long association with Vermont’s Weston Theater Company. LA work includes La Mirada, Odyssey, and The Winter’s Tale, Autumn Garden, and The Malcontent at ANTAEUS. He works in television (NCIS, Mad Men, Mentalist, Numb3rs, “ER,” four Law & Orders…), radio, and films such as Steven Spielberg’s The BFG. He directed acclaimed productions of A Walk in the Woods and The Crucible. Trained at Central in London.
