THE LION'S ROAR

What's New

Summer 2010

Penny has had amazing turnouts for her Free Sample Acting Classes on Wednesday nights. Because we don't have room. These classes were supposed to stop for the summer but because of demand we have added classes on July 14th , July 28th and August 11th. We will resume the bi-weekly schedule in September.If you know any actors who might benefit from Penny's approach to the craft please tell them about these 3 hour classes. They are a great way for actors to get to know Penny, what she teaches and how she teaches, at no cost or obligation.

SUMMER SAMPLE CLASSES July 14th, July 28st and August 11th

Shooting Private Ryan

Saving Private Ryan
Hits the Web

Several times a year, Penny likes to find a great film scene to work on in the Master Classes. First up in 2010 was Saving Private Ryan. After 3 weeks of rehearsing and finding all of the moments in the scene, it was time to shoot. The Actors came dressed in fatigues. Hank provided a couple of army helmets, make-up and camouflage were applied. After editing, adding titles, music, the Master Class scenes are now on our website. Be sure to watch both the Wednesday class and the Thursday class! We are very proud of all of you. We want to offer a special thank you to Oliver Gray, who so generously gave of his time to give us the perfect video.

Penny teaching the Camera Class

The Next Advanced On Camera Class Starts July 12th.

We have reduced the maximum number of actors in this class from 16 to 12 to give all of the actors more screen time, and allow Penny & Hank to spend more time individually on the intricacies of working in front of the camera. But, this also means there are less openings for actors, so the classes fill up much sooner. The last class was sold out. Don't wait too long.

ACTING UNDER FIRE
CREATING ACTING LIONS

Penny's new book on the craft acting is coming down the home stretch. We distributed a limited number of special edition copies to leading industry figures for feedback before completing the final edit.

The other factor is the DVD that will be included with book.We have just finished the first rough edit of over 6 hours of video into a 120 minute DVD. Penny's thoughts are you "can't learn acting just from a book." This accompanying DVD will allow actors to actually see the exercises and concepts being acted out.

When these elements all come together in the first printing we will be sure to let you know too you can be the first to own your own signed copy of ACTING UNDER FIRE : CREATING ACTING LIONS

JULY & AUGUST MASTER CLASSES
SOMETHING DIFFERENT

For the summer months Penny likes to give the actors a break from the norm and stretch them with new and creative exercises and material. For July, the classes will approach these acting challenges, and the techniques used to solve them:

Laughing & Crying
Dying on Camera
Depth Perception & CGI
Sensory
Different kinds of Preparation
Environment
Using what's bothering you
Chemistry
Plugging in Substitutions
Controlled Anger

For the month of August Penny has found a great scene from the film MEMENTO. The actors will rehearse and work on the scene for three weeks. In the fourth week the scene will be filmed and placed to run alongside Saving Private Ryan on our website.

LOOK WHO'S WORKING

Ramon Rodriguez "BATTLE LOS ANGELES" starring with Aaron Eckhart post production,

Sarah Wynter Lead in new ABC series "CUT THROAT" starring Mia Maestro

Lauren Meley Starring as Katie in the Independent Feature"FLOWERS" now shooting

Tiler Peck World Premier of "ESTANCIA', choreographed by Christopher Wheeldon NYC Ballet

Carly Capone as Lumpa in the Shawnee Playhouse production of "WILLIE WONKA"

Bern Cohen Featured in "HOLY ROLLERS", also Featured in "FALLEN STAR" with Tova Feldshuh

April Lee Hernandez Starring on "DEXTER" SHO - 11 episodes in the fall 2010 season

Dana Cuomo Guest starred as Heather on "RULES OF ENGAGEMENT" CBS

Sage Lumsden as Lumpa in the Shawnee Playhouse production of "WILLIE WONKA"

Johnny Ostensoe Screen Writer and Lead in the Short Film "THE LAST GAFFE"

Gavin Hammond Recurring as Reed Wagner on "ONE LIFE TO LIVE"

Jessalyn Wanlim co-star "SCOUNDRELS" ABC with Virginia Madsen

Cassandra Espita Lead in the Short film "LILA'S RING"

Jim Lynch Lead in "THE LAST GAFFE"

Marisa Costa Cassio in the TAI Company production of "OTHELLO"

Makenzie Maula Shprintze in "FIDDLER ON THE ROOF" at the Walnut Street Theatre

Rachel Bloom Lead in "SING OUT LOUISE" at the Upright Citizen's Brigade

Ryan Kessler Director of "THE LAST GAFFE"

Kirsten Lewis Lead Dancer in "THE TROJAN WOMEN REDUX" in East Hampton, NY

Michele Athena Morgen Featured in "JOAN RIVER'S GREAT HAIR DAY" Infomercial

Rita Rehn Lead in ".22 CALIBER MOUTH" Workshop, Kate in "SYLVIA" at Florida Studio Theatre (July), "THE DEEP THROAT SEX SCANDAL" Bleeker Street Theatre (Previews Sept. 15th)

Danielle Vetro Lead in the Short Film "THE LAST GAFFE"

Tom Tomovitch Featured in "RECONSTRUCTION" at the WOW International Theatre Company

Colin Eggelfield Co-Star "SOMETHING BORROWED" with Kate Hudson & Jennifer Goodwin

We are are proud of all of you. Please let us know when you are working so we can include you on this list.

CONGRATULATIONS

RAMON RODRIGUEZ

Nominated for

Best Performance By A Latino Award

Posted 6/17/10 4:10 pm ET by MTV Tr3s in Celebrity, Cine, Television

The 2010 MTV Movie Awards are over, but the jury's still out on who gave the Best Performance by a Latino this year!

Ramón Rodríguez shares a few things in common with one of our other nominees, John Leguizamo. Aside from the fact that they were both born in Puerto Rico but grew in New York, they both worked on "Carlito's Way" films (John in the first version and Ramón in the sequel, "Carlito's Way: Rise to Power") and have starred on popular television series (Rodriguez on "The Wire" and Leguizamo on "House of Buggin'").

Ramón may not have as many movie credits as John Leguizamo, but with featured roles in "The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3" and "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen," this star is rising fast.

In "Revenge of the Fallen," Ramón's character Leo Spitz is pretty out there. As if being osbessed with kitten calendars wasn't weird enough, Leo is so convinced that the government is hiding robots from the public that he runs a web site called "The Real Effing Deal" to prove his theories. When Sam becomes his roommate, Leo's life is forever changed when he finds out that his new roomie is being hunted by Decepticons.

Here are the four stellar candidates:

Michelle Rodriguez (Avatar)
Zoe Saldana (Avatar)
John Leguizamo (Ice Age)
Ramón Rodríguez (Transformers 2)

ACTING IN PENNSYLVANIA
The Arts in the Pocono Mountains

Our newest acting class in the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania is catching on. After testing the waters with an 8 week course in the fall we began on-going weekly classes in March on the campus of East Stroudsburg State University. We had planned to take the Summer off from these Saturday morning classes but the actors were adamant about continuing. In light of that we have decided to keep the classes going year round. It is a new and interesting learning experience for us as well. The age range in these classes runs from 11 - 70. The classes are already bearing fruit. Two of our young actresses are in Wille Wonka at the Shawnee Playhouse and one actress is appearing in Fiddler on the Roof at the Walnut Street Theatre in Philadelphia. On July 24th the entire class will be taking a road trip to see The Merry Wives of Windsor at the renowned Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival in Allentown, Pa.

NOTES FROM SUNDANCE
My Two Weeks at Sundance with "HOLY ROLLERS"

Bern Cohen

Hiring a publicist was best thing I did, as it resulted in access to parties and events which had LISTS at the door. "It's all about the lists," and we were on them, me being "listed" as an actor in Holy Rollers which was getting great buzz. We went to 4-5 parties and events each of the first few days.

My role in Holy Rollers turned out to be a bit larger and more prominent than I'd thought. The director's prediction that I'd "get a lot of attention if I showed up at Sundance," was true. Since the 40,000 in attendance were all there with positive attitudes, the attention was fun. After the screenings started, restaurants, parties, bars, even sidewalks were occasions for being interrupted by strangers about the film. If we sat near a restaurant window, people would tap on the window and wave.

Gifting suites were awesome. I was glad to be on the inside of the gifting suites, even though I was "rated" a low-level celeb and given a green bracelet in most of them. That meant we could only get one gift apiece from each of the gifters.

A real celeb could take what they want with their orange bracelet. Be that as it were,. I got some sweet gifts, too, from Dockers, and some shirt companies. Several of them had the actors sign a product they were going to auction off for charity.

The parties into which we were "listed" were great fun and wonderful connections to which I'm devoting lots of follow-up time. I was honored at the Columbia U. party which was packed with Hollywood biggies who'd gone to Columbia. They had 12 of us Columbia grads onstage to pimp our films. Out of that party may come several major links from networking. Same with the NYU Party.

Also listed into Indievest party, and several others which gave me opportunities to be with directors and producers and film fest folks interested in my writing projects as well as Remembering Woodhaven.

All this was in addition to 4 screenings and Q&A's for Holy Rollers and also catching a few other films, as well. It was too tiring staying up until 2-3 a.m. and getting up to see morning screenings. BUT, it was the only place I've been besides NYC where it can be crowded on the sidewalks at 2 a.m. and its constant fun because it's all about film making.

Thanks,

Bern

Note: HOLY ROLLERS opened and the Lowes 84 Cinema in NY on May 21st

IN THIS ISSUE

NOW SHOWING SAVING PRIVATE RYAN

Notes from Sundance

Free Sample Class
a Success

Who is Working

UP COMING CLASSES

Script Analysis
September 8th

Advanced On Camera
Starts July 12th
September 13th

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BOOK UPDATE
The latest on Penny's book; ACTING UNDER FIRE : CREATING ACTING LIONS

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Coming in the Fall

Actor Tips

Who's Working Now

The On Set Experience

QUICK LINKS

Camera Class

Script Analysis

Free Class