Feldenkrais School of Acting
Winter – Spring 2012 Schedule
Amber Barbara Grumet, Artistic Director
At Feldenkrais Associates
41 Union Square West, Room 1009
New York, NY 10003
(22 East 17th Street, eves and weekends)
646-638-1369 or 212-242-2309
“Feldenkrais studied the body in movement with a precision that I have found nowhere else.
—Peter Brook, Film and Stage Director
Mission Statement
The Feldenkrais School of Acting integrates the Feldenkrais Method® with traditional approaches to acting in order to enhance the performing instrument. All our teachers are Feldenkrais Practitioners with a professional background in theater.
The Feldenkrais Method® can help you achieve greater stage presence, expand your performance skills, enhance your creativity and refine your acting talents.
All courses are 6 weeks long. Registration begins now with the individual course instructor.
Download registration form (PDF):
Workshops and Courses
Walking to Develop Characterization
Course Instructor: Amber
In this workshop we will explore the dynamics of walking utilizing Awareness Through Movement® lessons. Class participants will find new ways of varying themselves to develop new characters. We will also do scene study and improvisation around the subject of walking.
Wednesdays, 11am-1pm
4 series:
Series 1: Jan 11 - Feb 15
Series 2: Feb 22 - April 4
Series 3: Apr 11 - May 16
Series 4: May 23 - June 27
Fee: $175 for each series
Contact: Amber, or 212-242-2309
The Integrated Monologue
Course Instructor: Kim Plumridge
The Feldenkrais Method® addresses many of the same issues an actor addresses — staying present, flexible, relaxed and focused, having an intention and exploring choices.
In this workshop, personal monologues as well as speeches from the stage, film and television will be explored using Feldenkrais® breathing lessons and ATMs. Learn how the Feldenkrais Method® can help you to own your work in a deeper, more integrated way.
Fridays, from 6pm-9pm
4 series:
Series 1: Jan 13 - Feb 17
Series 2: Feb 24 - Mar 30
Series 3: Apr 6 - May 11
Series 4: May 18 - June 22
Fee: $250 for each series
Contact: Kim Plumridge, or 914-772-0780
Scene Study
Course Instructor: John Quinn
We will use Feldenkrais principles to prepare the actor to work in scenes, to establish a physical and mental reality, to establish the true self of the character which the actor is preparing.
Saturdays, from 10am-1pm
4 series:
Series 1: Jan 14 - Feb 18
Series 2: Feb 25 - Mar 31
Series 3: Apr 4 - May 19
Series 4: May 26 - June 30
Fee: $250 for each series
Contact: John Quinn, or 347-453-5254
“He’s not just pushing muscles around, but changing things in the brain itself.
—Karl Pribram, M.D., Ph.D., Neuroscieintist, Stanfrod University
Course Instructors
Amber Barbara Grumet
Amber Barbara Grumet, Artistic Director of The Feldenkrais School of Acting, has an M.A. in Theater from Brooklyn College. She has been a Guild Certified Feldenkrais PractionerCM for 20 years and has been fascinated by the tremendous improvement in her performance skills utilizing The Method. She has been a member of the Living Theatre for more than 20 years, has performed for 10 years with Theater for the New City's Street Theater group plus other indoor plays at that theater. In addition she is co-founder of the political cabaret group, The Wycherly Systers. Acting and performance are a strong thread throughout her life. It is with great enthusiasm that the Feldenkrais School of Acting comes into existence.
Kim Plumridge
Kim Plumridge is a Guild Certified Feldenkrais PractionerCM and has been a professional actor for more than two decades. She is a veteran of numerous national commercials and voice-overs and has worked on stage and in film and television. She teaches both the Feldenkrais Method® and acting to groups and private students in NYC and Westchester. Her students have appeared in commercials, operas, Off-Off-Broadway, regional and community theatre productions and on television in Law and Order and The Sopranos.
John Quinn
John Quinn has had a long and varied career in the theatre. He has been an actor, playwright, director, acting teacher, and acting coach. Besides acting in numerous plays in NYC he has had four of his own plays produced Off-Off Broadway, to critical acclaim. One was produced in Paris, France. He has had roles in plays by Pinter, Ionesco, Schisgal, Noel Coward, and many others. He has studied The Feldenkrais Method® since 1967. He has taught Feldenkrais to actors since 1972. He was the second teacher, sans portfolio, of The Feldenkrais Method® in New York City.
Michael Kevin Ryan
Michael Kevin Ryan trained as a dancer with Martha Graham, Hanya Holm and Merce Cunningham. As an actor Michael Kevin Ryan has worked extensively in his native Australia as well as Germany where he studied with Eugenio Barba and Jerzy Grotowski. He has been a long-standing company member of Creation Production Company NY, with whom he has performed in Chromatic Spectacles, Ice Station Zebra the OBIE Award winning Abandon, The BESSIE Award winning Memory Theatre of Guilio Camillo, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, Propaganda, Nighttown, The Inferno, The Tower and most recently in Man Made at The Ohio Theater NY. Also in New York: Uncontrollable Elements at The Kitchen, his own The Pasolini Tapes at The Knitting Factory, Escalator, a performance piece by architects Diller and Scofidio at The Museum of Modern Art, Moist Tiny Elephants, and eveningland at the Marilyn Monroe Theater NY. He recently directed John Websters The Duchess of Malfi and a Shakespeare adaptation midnight's dream for The Lee Strasberg Theater and Film Institute NY, where he has been on the faculty for over a decade. He has also taught Movement for The Tisch School for the Arts NYU, The School for Film and TV and Fordham University, as well as maintaining a private practice in the Feldenkrais Method® specializing in actors.