Tony and Oscar Winner Mercedes Ruehl to Lead Scene Study at HB Studio

This winter, Tony- and Oscar Award-winning actress Mercedes Ruehl returns to the faculty at HB Studio, one of New York's most venerable institutions for theater training and practice, to teach an advanced scene study class for professional performers.

The course, "Scene Study - Studio Practice," is intended for serious actors who seek a nurturing yet challenging environment in which to take risks, push their boundaries, and maintain an ongoing relationship with the practice of their craft. Applications are still being accepted for a few remaining seats in the class, which is scheduled to start February 7th.

Ms. Ruehl will work with participants on Tuesday and Thursday evenings over the course of six weeks, focusing on the specifics of language, action, subtext, circumstance, and relationships in order to connect with the work at the deepest most personal level. Actors are encouraged to push boundaries with the aim of building ever more complex characters and situations, allowing and exploring what is powerfully, unexpectedly revealed.

Ms. Ruehl, herself an alumna of HB Studio, says of her teaching, "I would describe the work in my class as helping the actor develop a personal technique for tapping into the imagination and opening the sluice gates of his or her inherent emotional power. This goal is approached through exercises, monologues and scene work."

Mercedes Ruehl has appeared in the films THE FISHER KING (Academy Award, Golden Globe Award, Los Angeles and Chicago Film Critics Association Awards), MARRIED TO THE MOB, THE WARRIORS, BIG, HEARTBURN, SLAVES OF NEW YORK, ANOTHER YOU, LAST ACTION HERO, LOST IN YONKERS, WHAT'S COOKING?, THE AMATI GIRLS, ROSEANNA'S GRAVE, CHU AND BLOSSOM, ZEYDA AND THE HITMAN, SPOOKY HOUSE, MORE DOGS THAN BONES, and THE MINUS MAN. She has been seen on Broadway in Neil Simon's LOST IN YONKERS (Tony, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, and Helen Hayes Awards), THE GOAT, OR WHO IS SYLVIA? (Outer Critics Circle Award, Tony nomination), THE ROSE TATTOO, THE SHADOW BOX (Tony nomination), and I'M NOT RAPPAPORT. Her Off Broadway credits include WOMAN BEFORE A GLASS (Obie Award), OTHER PEOPLE'S MONEY (Clarence Derwent Award), THE MARRIAGE OF BETTE AND BOO (Obie Award), COMING OF AGE IN SOHO, THE VAGINA MONOLOGUES, and Edward Albee's THE OCCUPANT. Ruehl's television credits include HBO's INDICTMENT: THE MCMARTIN TRIAL, GIA, HallMark Hall of Fame's THE LOST CHILD and LOVING LEAH, EL JEFE, DOUBT, STAR SPANGLED BANNERS, Showtime's NORTH SHORE FISH, GUILT BY ASSOCIATION, and A GIRL LIKE ME. She also made guest appearances on "Entourage," "Law & Order," "Monday Mornings," "Luck," "Psych," and "Frasier," among others.

HB Studio, founded in 1945, is a non-profit organization that provides an artistic home and vibrant creative community where both aspiring and professional artists find opportunity, education, encouragement, and support. HB's practical approach to theater and high artistic principles are the enduring legacy of its founders, Herbert Berghof and Uta Hagen.

For more information, visit hbstudio.org/scene-study-mercedes-ruehl.

IF YOU GO:

Scene Study - Studio Practice with Mercedes Ruehl

DATES & TIMES: Tuesdays & Thursdays, 6:30-9pm, February 7 - March 21, 2017 (6 weeks, 12 sessions / no class Feb 28)

LOCATION: HB Studio (120 Bank Street in Greenwich Village, NYC).

COURSE FEE: $545

APPLY NOW (act fast, space is limited!) and learn more at hbstudio.org/scene-study-mercedes-ruehl

HB Studio is a nonprofit organization that supports vigorous, lifelong practice in the theatre arts based on a solid foundation of practical training. The Studio was conceived as a place where artists at all stages of their careers could continue to work and train between engagements, supported and challenged by their more experienced colleagues, in a space free from pressures related to commercial success. HB is open to any person with a serious interest in the theater and its related disciplines. Its students, faculty, and alumni form a vibrant community of actors, playwrights, and directors.

HB Studio alumni include some of the most notable actors of American theater and film including Christopher Abbott, F. Murray Abraham, Carroll Baker, Matthew Broderick, Stockard Channing, James Cromwell, Billy Crystal, Robert DeNiro, Faye Dunaway, Whoopi Goldberg, HAl Holbrook, Christine Lahti, Jessica Lange, Linda Lavin, Bette Midler, Liza Minnelli, Al Pacino, Sarah Jessica Parker, Amanda Peet, Doris Roberts, Mercedes Ruehl, George Segal, Molly Shannon, and Barbra Streisand.

Founded by Viennese actor/director Herbert Berghof in 1945, HB is one of the original New York acting studios. In 1947, Berghof met the celebrated actress Uta Hagen and invited her to join him in teaching at the Studio. The two later married, and Hagen, author of the seminal acting texts Respect for Acting and A Challenge for the Actor, became one of the most renowned and respected acting teachers of the 20th century. HB's faculty of master teachers and practicing artists carry on in that tradition today.