Experience brings students to acting studio

Joseph Bernard has been sharing his love for the art of acting with valley residents since 1980. The Broadway, television and screen actor, writer and director attracts students to his acting studio from all over the area. Classes are held in the evenings twice a week on an intimate stage at Orr Middle School.

Nearly half of the class drives in from Green Valley. Others come from Summerlin and the northwest. Bernard's experience is the attraction. He was executive director of the Lee Strasberg Theater Institute in Hollywood for seven years. He taught acting at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in both New York and California. He has acted alongside or directed industry legends like Bob Fosse, Henry Fonda, Marlene Dietrich, Judy Garland, Montgomery Clift, Rock Hudson, Marlon Brando, Ernest Borgnine and Julie Andrews.

Local residents can catch a free showcase of scenes prepared by members of Bernard's studio June 12 and 13 at the Winchester Center Theatre, 3130 South McLeod. Showtime is 7 p.m.

Bernard has around 16 students now, all coming to him with a passion for the craft of acting.

"I'm going to be a professional actor," Michael Angelo Taylor vowed. "I had stopped acting 10 years ago and I needed to get back into the art and get to know the technique."

"I'm in the same boat as Michael," Jason Leinwand said, "I stopped acting and wanted to get back into it for the challenge." Leinwand and Taylor will present a scene called "Boys Will Be Boys" about a set of college roommates looking for love.

Adam Lowry plays a doctor in a scene from "Anything for a Buck." A gangster (played by Pat Lazzara) facing trail wants to be infected with a designer disease to avoid jail time.

"And I'm the doctor to give it to him," Lowry said.

Alicia Horban and Mike Barbera will present a scene from "Born Yesterday."

"We call the scene `Too Hot to Handle,' " Bernard said.

"It's PG-13 definitely," Barbera said.

Ron Krause and Mariana DeCrasto will do a scene from "Beyond Therapy" called "People Who Need People."

"That's when I pull out all my Streisand," Krause teased. The actor does pull out all the stops to play an emotional bisexual in the scene.

Danielle Geihs and Cody Broslow will present a scene from "Love and Politics" about a liberal democrat who goes off to live with a right-wing republican.

Jennifer Beaton and Diane Lanciloti will do a scene called "Girls Will be Girls." Ron Kusiak and Molly Kate Bernard are the cast for "Everybody Loves Uncle Willy." Vanessa Marti and Sagirah Mahuammed will give audiences a look at "Modern Women."

Studio members come from all walks of life, be it bartender, singer, student or independent business owner.

Leinwand, a film student at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, has taken acting courses on campus but believes time with Bernard is vital.

"It's just good to get as many different teachers and experience as you can get. It all helps," Leinwand said.

For some in the studio acting is just a hobby, for most it's a dream they hope to pursue.

"We're going to Hollywood to try out for the actors studio that Al Pacino runs in New York," Krause said pointing to Geihs.

For Taylor, acting is an opportunity to explore alternate realities.

"Every time you create a character it gives you a chance to become someone you're not. It helps you escape the every day," Taylor said.

Bernard puts on the showcases several times a year to give his apprentices real-world experience.

"In the actors studio they learn the skills and then they get up on stage as quickly as possible," he said. "A few have done shows before and some have never done it so it will be their baptism by fire. They'll find out how they feel about acting performing for an audience. That's why it's so important to have an audience."

Bernard said even for his more versed students, the performance will be a challenge. Students explore varied characters each time they pick up a new scene.

"That's part of the learning process," Bernard said.

"Even the 20th time you discover something new," Krause added.

Taylor has been in Bernard's studio for more than a year and a half, but he said it's not a program he feels he will ever "graduate" from.

"Not until I'm a big on the screen, but even then, even Al Pacino goes back to the theater. It's something that will always be with me."