As an actor, DAVID HALL has worked in film, television, and stage with some of the most respected filmmakers in the entertainment Industry including Mel Brooks, John Frankenheimer, Terrance Mallick, Garry Marshall, Gordon Parks, Aaron Spelling and Gene Wilder, to name just a few. He is a director for television and stage. Also a writer, his first effort as a playwright, TAPROOT, was one of seven plays selected out of fourteen hundred that were submitted to receive a main-stage production at the prestigious Cast Theatre in Hollywood. It was extended three times beyond the original scheduled run of the play. TAPROOT was also produced at the landmark Red Barn Theatre in Pittsburgh.

It was while taking an acting class with emmy award wining director Gordon Hunt (father of actress Helen Hunt) that David began teaching acting. Mr Hunt had a waiting list of students for his classes, and after observing some of the work David was doing in his class not only as an actor, but also as a director and writer, he asked if David would be interested in giving the students on the waiting list a place to work and to grow by teaching his own class. David agreed, and almost immediately this class expanded beyond the students on the waiting list to include not only other actors, but also directors and writers. This class became THE ACTORS SANCTUARY – a class that has spawned the growth, development, and careers of countless numbers of actors, producers, and directors in the film industry. It continues up to the present time. David has also conducted THE ACTORS SANCTUARY in Vienna, Austria.

David offers private acting coaching, and has worked as a dialogue coach for Film, TV and stage productions. David also conducts an all-exercise workshop for adults and children : CHILDHOOD DREAMS - a class devoted to the spirit & exploration of play.

THE ACTORS SANCTUARY:

WHAT IT IS: A scene-study/monologue class that begins each week with an exercise. Exercises often consist of cold-reading, and audition technique work. The purpose of this work is to prepare the actor for the interviews and auditions that are at the heart of the audition process. The second half of the class is devoted to scene-study and monologue work. This is scripted material that the actor has memorized and rehearsed and is performed without a script. In addition to the growth potential inherent in this work, monologues are also a tool through which the actor without a film demo, can, if the opportunity presents itself in a casting session, perform something right on the spot.

Occasionally a guest speaker is invited to speak to the class, and/or view monologues. Guests have included: Linda Hunt (BEST ACTOR Academy-Award winner for The Year Of Living Dangerously), Bill McKinney (Deliverance), Amy Lieberman* (Casting Director: The Mark Taper Forum), and H. Wesley Kenney (Multi-Emmy Award Winning Producer/Director for The Young & The Restless, among others.

* “The best performed and organized showcase I’ve ever attended.”

WHEN: Mondays @ 7PM

WHERE: North Hollywood, CA

AUDITS: A FREE one-time audit is available.

FEE: Payable monthly; due on the first class meeting of the month.

COMMENTS: I don’t subscribe to a method, per se. I believe actors get cast in parts not only because of their acting abilities, but also because of how they come across in the audition arena – as individuals. I also believe that each actor has the richest of tapestries to draw upon: his or her own life experience. Exploring the acting process should be FUN, rather than being complicated and ponderous. Acting tools must be concise, and easily accessed in order to best serve the actor’s needs and expressiveness - tools that are most serviceable when the actor is creatively “stuck.”

I also believe that acting is more about ‘being’ than ‘doing.’ The camera records the actor who is willing and able to ‘be’ in front of it, as well as the one who is not. Our work at THE ACTORS SANCTUARY is centered around this belief. Some of the exercises that take place in the class explore and develop that elusive quality known as "PRESENCE," which is wholly conjoined to BEING.

THE ACTORS SANCTUARY is a safe harbor for the actor to learn and to grow: creatively, personally, and spiritually.

www.theactorssanctuary.com