COMING to Perth this July is Elizabeth Kemp, acting coach to Bradley Cooper - star of The Hangover trilogy, The A-Team and Silver Linings Playbook.
Perth's The Actors' Hub and Melbourne's 16th Street Actors Studio are bringing Kemp to WA for a masterclass known as the Character Dream Workshop.
When
Bradley Cooper appeared on Inside
The Actors Studio in 2012, he offered thanks to Kemp as one of his teachers.
"I was never able to relax in my life before," he said. "The most sacred experience I ever had was in [her class]. No question about it - she's an incredible teacher." (The interview can be viewed here
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gpw24nTN9zo)
Kemp is associate artistic director of the drama department at The Actors Studio, a New York-based organisation for professional actors, theatre directors and playwrights best known for its work refining and teaching method acting.
Founded in 1947, it is currently run by Al Pacino, Ellen Burstyn and Harvey Keitel - an actor Kemp still coaches.
"Her workshop, which she has formed and conducts both within and outside of
The Actors Studio, is extraordinary," Keitel says.
"Her knowledge of the work has been demonstrated both on the stage and off, as a teacher and innovator, in the way she has conducted and further developed new aspects to add to the technique of acting employed in the dream workshop.
"I'd consider her one of the finest acting teachers around."
Academy Award-winner Burstyn added: "Students love her [Kemp] and come away truly inspired and transformed."
Australian actress Sigrid Thornton, recently seen in Perth as Blanche in A Streetcar Named Desire, has also been coached by Kemp.
"Elizabeth has a really profound understanding of the essential link between the life of the person and the work of the actor," she said. "I'm still basking in the afterglow of [her] extraordinary work."
Kemp was one of the youngest members to be admitted to
The Actors Studio and has been a life member since 1975.
She was in the original cast of the hit musical The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas and had roles in TV's LA Law and thirtysomething before finding her calling as a drama coach.
"I had learned a great lesson from a mentor,
Elia Kazan [director of the films A Streetcar Named Desire and On The Waterfront]," she said on the same edition of Inside
The Actors Studio.
"I only want to work with people who give everything they have to give and make their work the most important thing to them in their life."
The Actors' Hub director Amanda Crewes said being part of Kemp's masterclass was a rare opportunity.
"It's a great chance for actors, screenwriters, directors and people genuinely interested in the actor's process," she said.
The masterclass runs July 14 to 19 in Perth - go to
www.actorshub.net to apply. The Actors' Hub is located at the Subiaco Arts Centre, 180 Hamersley Road, Subiaco.
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