Acting Classes in Chicago, IL

Adult classes are taught in a positive and encouraging environment for beginners, returners, and professionals. Adult classes are open to drop-in students.

Apply your Piven training to advanced-level scene work. The Scene Study Extension provides advanced and returning students with the opportunity to polish scene work for performance. Led by an expert instructor, students will work in pairs to build the world of their scene and then present their final performances to the community in an Open Workshop...

The “Acting As A Craft” (AAAC) workshops are uniquely designed master class workshops incorporating a broad range of basic skills that an actor absolutely needs. Students will be given scene assignments from various film and stage plays and then paired up to work that particular scene as a homework assignment which will then be performed at the...

Musical Theater is a dance class focused on choreography from Broadway musicals, and integrates many styles of jazz as well as acting. Recommended for dancers and performers at Beginning/Intermediate level in ballet and jazz.

Learn how Piven’s signature improvisation style can take your monologue to the next level and rehearse and perfect your audition technique in a supportive environment! Cover all of the steps of a theatrical audition process, including the ins and outs of resumes and headshots, monologue selection and rehearsal, the first round of auditions, and...

Are you interested in getting into a theater class, shaking off the dust, and activating your creativity?  This class allows students to discover the Piven Technique by learning theatre games and improvisation in a fun, supportive, ensemble-based environment. Perfect for all students looking to discover and re-discover our work!

Acting is an emotional art form, yet as Meisner told us, ‘acting is not emoting.’ So how do we deepen our emotional life without becoming indulgent, self-conscious actors? How do we meet the emotional demands of the script without faking anything? Intensive 3 has the answers. You will be guided through a series of exercises specifically designed...

In this class, students prepare and rehearse scenes from contemporary plays and utilize improvisation and games to deepen characters and relationships.  Students explore how Piven uses the impulsiveness of improvisation during the rehearsal process, while being restrained by and respectful of a script. Best for students who have taken Improvisation,...

Musical Theater is a dance class focused on choreography from Broadway musicals, and integrates many styles of jazz as well as acting. Recommended for dancers and performers at Beginning/Intermediate level in ballet and jazz.

Piven Theatre Workshop has been devising new literary adaptations since our inception over forty years ago. In this class, we will give our adult students the opportunity to experience the creative energy of an ensemble-driven, text-based devising process. Through six weeks of group improvisation exercises and text exploration, students will adapt...

Do you want to gain confidence, lose inhibitions, have fun & learn acting? Then this beginning acting class is for you. Experiment with improvisation, speech & personality exercises designed to bring out your special strengths & talents. Work in a relaxed atmosphere with an emphasis on positive attitudes, and acquire performance and presentation...

The Meisner Approach Intensive 2: Bringing “the work” to Text In Intensive 2, we will continue to explore ‘imaginary circumstances.’ New elements will be added to the exercises that will work to broaden your imagination, exercise your faith in given circumstances and ground your acting in your own unique point of view. We will also begin...

In this level, we will begin to explore ‘imaginary circumstances.’ New elements will be added to the exercises that will work to broaden your imagination, exercise your faith in given circumstances and ground your acting in your own unique point of view.  As you continue this work through the advanced exercises, we will begin to show...

Sanford Meisner said that, "acting is the ability to live truthfully under imaginary circumstances."  In our first ten weeks together, we will work on the first half of that statement: living truthfully. Working through this series of innovative, step-by-step series of improvisational exercises will train you to be thoroughly responsive, emotionally...

The Expressive Body: A Two-day Alexander Technique Intensive for Actors It’s easy to get tense and clench up your body when you perform. Tension creeps in when we’re nervous, self conscious, or afraid of not being enough. Imagine the most beautiful nights sky the world has ever seen-but its covered by a layer of thick, gray clouds. It doesn’t...