HB Studio & HB Playwrights Foundation Host Benefit For Hagen Institute 11/8

HB Studio and the HB Playwrights Foundation will host a special benefit to celebrate the launchof the Hagen Institute for Intensive Study on November 8, 2010 at The Players, 16 Gramercy Park South. A reception at 6 PM with open bar and passed hors d?oeuvres will be followed by a presentation at 7:30 PM. Tickets start at $150. To purchase tickets and for more information, go to www.hbstudio.org.

The evening?s program will include readings and reminiscences from the papers of HB?s renownedmaster teacher Uta Hagen, featuring Richard Easton, Katie Finneran, Rochelle Oliver, Victor Slezak, and Fritz Weaver. This fall marks the inaugural year of the Hagen Institute?s year-long, full-time curriculum, the Hagen Core Training Program. The yearly benefit is the perfect opportunity tocelebrate Hagen?s living legacy at HB and the lasting foundation her artistic methods and idealsprovide for the new program.

The Hagen Institute serves as the artistic umbrella for HB?s highly successful Hagen Summer Intensive and the brand new Hagen Core Training Program. These programs offer students theopportunity for full-time, cohesive, immersive study with the same established artists and master teachers who have made HB?s studio classes the choice of students from around the globe for 65 years.

In addition to the basics of technique and scene study from the exercises developed by Hagenin her classic acting texts "Respect for Acting" and "A Challenge for the Actor", the Institute?sprograms incorporate sessions to develop students physically, vocally, verbally, and mentally. "UtaHagen always said that ?acting is doing?. The Core program continues Uta Hagen's strong belief thatto be an actor, to do, you must combine the hand, heart and head," said long-time HB teacher andHagen Institute Programs Administrator James Boerlin. Artistic Director Carol Rosenfeld says, "It?s exhilarating for actors to experience the joy of probing a role to the fullest following Ms. Hagen?sapproach to the craft.

"As HB Studio looks to the future, benefit presenters and guests will come together to look back andhonor Hagen?s pioneering work. Rochelle Oliver and Fritz Weaver have been students and teacherswith HB since the 1950?s.

"It is an an extraordinary privilege to have seen Uta Hagen develop her methods during HB?s early years. We look forward to sharing our memories of that time with HB?sfamily and friends while we celebrate the advancement of her legacy in the work of the HagenInstitute."The benefit celebrating The Hagen Core Training Program, hosted by HB Studio and the HBPlaywrights Foundation will be held at The Players, 16 Gramercy Park South, starting at 6 PM on November 8, 2010.

For more information or to purchase tickets, go to www.hbstudio.org, or call212-675-2370