Local art collective Emerge CDA is offering a five-week workshop that addresses all facets of the professional actor’s agenda. This includes exploring and expanding the range of the acting instrument, improvisation, auditioning, cold reading, memorization, script analysis, scene and character work, acting in movies and television, career management and more.

"At acting's highest levels, the work is an exercise in living truthfully under imaginary circumstances," Emerge marketing director Mary Hanlin said. "Improvisation is the means by which the actor explores and expands the range of the acting instrument, as well as an absolute prerequisite for genuine interpersonal communication."

Interested persons are welcome to audit a session at no cost, and if they want to register and join, they will be invoiced a pro-rated fee for the remainder of the sessions. The total cost to attend all sessions in the series is $225. Limited scholarships are available.

The workshop is recommended for all performers and working professionals as well as those who seek initial training.

Sylvia Darcy, who has been a student in the workshop since August of 2022, has enjoyed her time working with acting coach David Livingston and the rest of the class.

"It's an ongoing process. It's not something that's just one and done," she said.

Darcy said she's taking the courses for the personal experience.

"I feel like we're growing together. From each other. Through each other. It's my dream that this will lead to something else. What? I don't know," she said.

Livingston is an accomplished actor, director and Emmy-nominated producer who has come to be known as an acting coach to the stars. His renowned workshop was originally created in collaboration with Sydney Pollack, one of the top directors in Hollywood, and was a popular fixture among the entertainment world's elite performers for a quarter century.

"David has been offering his unique brand of coaching to our community for several months now and is establishing a growing group of serious acting students," Hanlin said. "Through specific exercises and games, his class offers a safe environment where students are free to explore emotions, and 'living truthfully under imaginary circumstances.'"

The next session is set for Monday, Jan. 9, from 6 to 10 p.m. at the Human Rights Education Institute, 414 W. Fort Grounds Drive in Coeur d'Alene. The workshop will reoccur on the following Mondays for the next four weeks. Participants must 18 or older.

For more information, contact Emerge at programming@emergecda.com.

Emerge CDA is a collective art experience engaging all members of the community in a variety of high quality creative outlets, while offering a platform for emerging artists to cultivate their careers as professionals.