Riddell acknowledges that space is a major problem, stating, "We need to address some of the space needs of the Institute."

Still, whether or not undergraduates are satisfied, Institute students are privileged to study with some of the biggest names in the dramatic world. They meet with the ART's voice and movement coaches three times a week, and study for shorter lengths of time with actors from the Company.

This semester Geidt taught a character improvisation class, supplying masks, clothes, wigs, golf clubs, and "lots of just junk" from which students created characters for themselves.

"Characters ranged from club singers to old German frauleins dressed as men to sex maniacs who rumped as much as they could played by men," Zamsky says.

Students wore masks and viewed themselves in mirrors to see how they could develop their character.

"He [Geidt] wanted to show us how the externals of a character feed the internals of a character," says acting student Sheryl Taub, whose character in the class was Mini Affluence, an "obnoxious, gauche casting director."

"You think a mask would constrict, but actually it releases them," Geidt says. "You have to teach the actors to use themselves."

Bamboo Poles and Decapitated Heads

Serban led a six-week workshop in which students worked with six-foot bamboo poles. The poles served as extensions of self, with students learning new ways to move with the poles, as well as ways to switch them with partners. The class was "an exercise in concentration and awareness," according to Lodge. "Serban was trying to get us in touch with our instrument. I really learned a lot about myself in that class," he says.

And Ken Howard led a class in which he instructed his students to present as emotional a monologue as they could find.

"Very often the great roles require great monologues, when you're out there all alone," explains Howard, who has numerous Broadway, film, and television credits including a Tony for his performance in Child's Play. The monologue "is what sets the men from the boys" in acting. he says.

One student in the class played Tom from Tennessee Williams's The Glass Menagerie, another portrayed Strinberg's Miss Julie and another played Hickey from Eugene O'Neil's Iceman Cometh. One woman did a piece from a Greek tragedy entirely in Greek and another portrayed "a woman who basically was having sex with a decapitated head."

Once a week the students attend "The Repertory Ideal" with Brustein and Riddell to discuss dramatic issues and meet with guests like director David Mamet. Last week the students had a question and answer session with actress Claire Bloom, who advised them to "keep your eyes open" for opportunity.

Yet classes are only half of the experience. Performances--either at the ART or in student projects at the Institute--make up the other half. Director David Wheeler cast four Institute students in the production of Gillette, which opened last week. Many other students are understudies in the Hauptman study of the good ole' boy. And Cabaret Sauvignon is entirely a student production.

Janitor Genius