Class with Dolores Umbridge

It turns out, I've hit a small gold mine in the heart of London. had I not gone to the play "The Sea" last week, I would not have learned about the free "Masterclass" talk/workshop that was offered once a month at the theater. 

I went to the Royal Haymarket Theater, not knowing what to expect, beyond that Oscar nominee Imelda Staunton (Harry Potter, Very Drake) was going to be directing the workshop.  It turned out to be a scene study class in which three (brave) actors worked on a scene from a play called "A Chorus of Disapproval" and Staunton was directing and critiquing them before an eager to learn audience of mostly acting students. Since the play was a comedy, the work involved was fun to watch and produced a lot of laughs for those in the theater. And after working on and improving the scene for over an hour, a Q&A wit Staunton was held. The members of audience asked her questions about acting on stage and film, had she ever considered directing as a new venture, and what was her favorite role (she went into detail about Vera Drake) For the most part, she gave good, useful, and straightforward advice and got a round of applause from her listeners. 

I don't know yet if there will be another celebrity led workshop while we are here in London, but I'm going to keep looking for when the next one will be and for similar workshops that are also as reasonably priced.