Caymichael Patten Studio

You can also reach out to Kieran directly for classes in NYC at [email protected]

NYC-based Caymichael Patten Studio teacher Kieran Mulcare is teaching Sundays in Philadelphia:

November class enrollment is open! Admission by interview.

SCENE STUDY:
Live classes-$300/mo
Mon & Wed nights @6:30p
Zoom classes-$200/mo
Thu night @6:30p

OTHER CLASSES:
Drill (Zoom)-$200/mo
Fri @2:00p
Beg Acting(Zoom)-$200/mo
Tue @6:00p

One thing we’ve learned during the last year and a half is that the world changes in a hurry - and will continue to in coming months.
But forward we move, both live and online.

LIVE CLASSES SCENE STUDY:

Cay will teach two live and in-person classes at 2067 Broadway (Fifth Floor) beginning in mid September, just steps from the 72nd Street subway stop.

One class will meet on Monday nights, from 6:30 to 9:30, and the other on Wednesday nights, from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m.

We’ve taken pains to make sure we are safe when we gather.

All participating in-person students must be vaccinated, and proof of vaccination must be furnished, either with a photo of the vaccination card or New York State Excelsior Pass, attached and sent via email, before payment can be accepted and assignments made.

All in-person participants, including the teacher, will be masked during class, unless the student is performing or Cay is giving notes.

Both Monday and Wednesday night classes will consist of three four-week sessions over twelve weeks.

The first Monday session will run September 13th through October 4th; the first Wednesday session will begin on September 15th.

The second session will begin the week of October 11th and run through the week of November 1st, while Cay's final classes for the Fall will begin the week of November 8th and run through the week of November 29th.

Each four-week session will cost $300, payable by Venmo or check only, and in advance, before assignments are made.

ONLINE CLASSES SCENE STUDY:

For those who live outside New York or are not yet ready to return to in-person work, Cay will teach a Zoom class on Thursday nights, from 6:30 to 9:30, beginning September 16th.

Each four-week session will cost $200, payable by Venmo or check only.

BEGINNING ACTING:

Kieran will teach Beginning Acting, via Zoom, on Tuesday nights, beginning at 6:00, starting September 14th.

Each four-week session will cost $200, payable by Venmo or check only.

DRILL:

Fred will teach Drill on Friday afternoon, from 2 until 4 in the afternoon, via Zoom, beginning September 17th.

Each four-week session will cost $200, payable by Venmo or check only.

This schedule should provide each Scene Study, Beginning Acting, and Drill class with three four-week sessions, all ending no later than early December.

As usual, new students are admitted by interview only; please email the Studio at [email protected] set up an appointment.

We are also available, by phone or email, if you have questions or concerns. We look forward to seeing you all and getting back to work.

Take good care,

Cay, Rob, and Skuggi

Caymichael Patten Acting Studio Moment to Moment - Nanosecond to Nanosecond

April class enrollment is open! Admission by interview. $200/month. All classes held via Zoom.

-Scene Study
-Drill
-Beginning Acting

A New Class! AUDIOBOOK NARRATION with Vivienne Leheny:

Explore and reveal the emotional truth – your emotional truth – that powers the best audiobook narrations. This class is for actors interested in pursuing work as an audiobook narrator, as well as authors interested in narrating their own work.

We'll do a deep dive into shaping winning reads – the ones that persuade authors to hire you to narrate their audiobooks and compel audiences to listen. We'll develop the necessary skills for self-direction, analyze text for cues on tone and genre delivery (fiction and non-fiction), identify narrative point-of-view (and how to handle shifting POVs), and techniques for delineating characters. Production requirements for the major online audiobook platforms will be reviewed, and students will create their own online profiles. Practice narrations on microphone, get constructive critique of your work, and record samples to publish on ACX, Findaway Voices and other audiobook platforms.

- 6 weeks for $300
- Wednesday nights from 6:30 to 9:00
- From March 3 to April 7, 2021

Zoom! Zoom!

For over two decades, Vivienne Leheny has worked professionally in New York City and Los Angeles as an actor and voiceover artist. She’s appeared Off-Broadway and on regional theatre stages, been screened at numerous film festivals (including the Sundance 2019 opening night with AFTER THE WEDDING), and toured the northeast doing stand-up. And over those 2+ decades she’s returned regularly and happily to study with Cay and others at the Caymichael Patten Studio.

Over the last several years Vivienne has built a successful and self-sustaining audiobook narration business. To date, she’s recorded over 150 titles under her own name as well as under the pseudonyms, Nola Zandry and Lily Collingwood. She’s produced a number of series for successful indie writers and continues to narrate titles for Simon & Schuster, Recorded Books, Macmillan, Harper Collins and Audible, among other major audiobook publishers.

Vivienne has recorded over a thousand promotions for NBC programming (Saturday Night Live, Nightly News, Days of our Lives, Late Night with Conan O’Brien), including over a decade as the promo voice for The Today Show. She’s also done promotional spots for HBO, Showtime, and Bravo and voiced numerous national commercial campaigns, including Coca Cola, Fruit of the Loom, Florida Orange Juice, Bristol Meyers Squibb, Maxwell House and Revlon.

Her TV narration work has run the gamut, from Chain Gang Girls on Oxygen to Charles and Di: Once Upon a Time on TLC, from Fine Living’s Esquire’s Man at His Best to the six-part series Killer Outbreaks on Animal Planet, where she was the voice of the Bubonic Plague and West Nile Virus. She’s also the voice for the mysterious and disturbing “Phoenix Project” in the popular video game Assassin’s Creed, Unity

Two spots left in Thursday night Scene Study for February. 6:30pm-10:00pm. Meets once per week starting this Thursday the 4th. Reach out to us if interested!

HAPPY! HAPPY!

JOY! JOY!

It's a new page!

It's a new chapter!

We're about to mix our metaphors!

It's a new year!

(It's 2021! And honestly, have you ever been so happy to turn a page on a calendar?)

Our classes continue on Zoom.

Cay teaches Scene Study on Monday nights, Wednesday afternoons, and Thursday evenings.

In February she will adding an Ongoing Audition class, specifically for students who have already completed her eight-week Audition class.

Kieran leads Beginning Acting on Tuesday nights, and Fred captains Drill class on Friday afternoons.

As always, admission to all classes is by interview, so please reach out to [email protected] to arrange. Classes are $200/month and continue on a rolling basis.

Current and former students, there is still availability for January zoom classes so if interested, please contact the studio ASAP.

Audition class is BACK and scene study continues!

For those new to the studio, welcome! Please send us an email to schedule your interview with Cay; we look forward to working with you.

Contact: [email protected]

We don't need to remind you of the myriad changes and challenges we've all been through these past months, but sometimes change and challenge present unexpected, and welcome, opportunities.

Over these past months, we've not only learned new technologies, like Zoom, but how to utilize those technologies, which allow us to rehearse, self-tape, and hold effective, meaningful classes. We've also learned that it's a good thing that we are learning, because we'll be seeing these technologies as part of our theatre community for a long time to come.

Our current inability to gather together to practice our craft in person has, by necessity, steered us toward true and literal distance learning. But because of these limitations, we are now able to reach out and connect with actors across the country in a way we never have before. Because of technologies like Zoom we are able to welcome students, previously limited by geography, into our classes and into our Studio.

We will begin a new year, as well as a new month, of classes the week of January 4th.

Cay teaches Scene Study on Monday nights, Wednesday afternoons, and Thursday evenings. Kieran’s Beginning Acting class meets on Tuesday evenings, and Fred leads Drill on Friday afternoons.

Additionally, Cay will be teaching an ongoing Audition class, beginning Tuesday afternoon, January 19th, at 1 o'clock. This class is for those students who have already completed Cay's initial, eight-week Audition class, and will cover business and interviews, a system for approaching the text, the monologue, and self-taping.

If you're a familiar face, we'd love to see that face again (deposits for returning students are due on Monday, December 28th).

If you're new to the Studio, please reach out, regardless of zip code, so that we may set up an interview via Zoom or FaceTime, to see if we would be a good fit.

And, most importantly, no matter where you lay your head, happy holidays and please stay well.

The Caymichael Patten Studio

"Ring the bell, close the book, quench the candle."

You might wonder why I'm starting this holiday letter with a version of the phrase that excommunicates someone from the Catholic Church. While trying to write this holiday letter, I couldn't find an opening to express how much I wanted 2020 to be over. Stalling, I turned on the television and there on TCM was BELL, BOOK, AND CANDLE, a scene in which Ernie Kovacs quotes this line, explaining that it was used by the church to start an exorcism.

Perfect, I thought. Let's exorcise 2020! A lot of people would like to do that.

So I watched the rest of the movie, a 1950's technicolor feast expanded from the Broadway play of the same name for Jimmy Stewart and Kim Novak, did a little research and started this letter.

Turns out the screenwriter was using the phrase incorrectly; it's not used to start an exorcism, but an ex-communication from the church. So while Hollywood stretched its meaning; let's go with it anyway as the beginning of a partial exorcism of 2020: Partial because amidst all the grief and loss the year has brought, it also spurred reconnections with former colleagues, mastering new devices and techniques, and a reimagining of what good work is and how it can be taught online.

For these things I am very grateful, particularly the joy of having different generations of studio students working together in virtual scene study.

So even though we won't have a holiday party this year, I submit two requests: First, let's have a big ol' party when we can gather again - date to be determined - and Second, let me hear from you about your 2020, the good and the bad. We can share a drink over Zoom, commiserate via email, and celebrate one another.

Because I do: I celebrate all who work hard to tell stories well, who open themselves to swapping all sorts of boundaries with colleagues and audiences to have the communal experience before returning to day to day life.

Happy holidays to you all and hope to be in touch soon!

XXCay

P.S.: Ring the bell, close the book, quench the candle. A letter about classes in the New Year will follow next week.