Master Class Series
Since 1999, the Actors' Training Project of Oakland, CA, has sponsored a broad series of master classes and visits with dynamic artists who are working around the country and abroad. All of these extraordinary visitors are interested in the integration of acting, voice and movement skills that is the particular work of the Actors' Training Project; they also have a wide range of other profession-related interests and areas of expertise. Informal videotapes of all of the sessions are archived for student viewing. The Master Class Series has engendered exciting performances, collaborations and projects, both trans-national and trans-continental.

Andre Bernard: Teacher of Ideokinesis, Creative Body Alignment
H.S. Shivaprakash, Ph.D.: Poet and Playwright
Kunsu Shim, Gerhard Stäbler: Composers
John McConville, M.Div.: Dancer, Choregrapher, Teacher, Director
Anna Hadzi: Actress and Producer
Michele Cuomo, MFA: Director, Actress, Dancer, Teacher
Nathan Thomas, Ph.D.: Actor, Director, Composer, Teacher, Scholar
Bill Smith, MFA: Teacher, Director, Filmmaker, Writer, Actor

July 2000
JOHN MCCONVILLE: DANCER, CHOREOGRAPHER, TEACHER, DIRECTOR
The Actors' Training Project was fortunate to receive a surprise visit from John McConville, one of its three co-founders. McConville created the Movement for Actors curriculum for the program in 1985, and taught there before returning to his artistic home, Thailand.

Lissa Tyler Renaud writes, "After many years of conventional dance training, my interest in movement took a decisive turn when I met dancer/choreographer John McConville in 1984. Mr. McConville's inquiry into Physical Alignment represented a profound synthesis. It brought together his own professional bodywork practice and bel canto studies with the movement disciplines of Joseph Pilates, Moshe Feldenkrais, Mabel Todd, ballet, modern dance, eastern dance, yoga and many others."

The night of McConville's July visit, he treated the class to an extended Physical Alignment sequence; he also worked with ideas of weight, spatial sense and partnering.