This workshop is designed for writers and actors seeking an embodied practice to character creation. This class moves beyond the “book report” of character traits and into characters living with vitality, specificity, and the need to speak.
Drawing from Yale MFA training, somatic practices, Grotowski, Balinese performance (BMTT), and Michael Chekhov exercises, participants will investigate the idiosyncratic nuances that make us distinctly human. Through a combination of physical and writing exercises, we will dive into imagination, impulse, behavior, and relationship. The practice emphasizes both rigorous transformation and care for the artist’s own body, cultivating the ability to empathetically create another life without abandoning your own.
Saturday, October 10, 1-3 PM EST
Saturday, October 17, 1-3 PM EST
Saturday, October 24, 1-3 PM EST
Saturday, October 31, 1-3 PM EST
Saturday, November 7, 1-3 PM EST
WHERE:
All classes take place on Zoom
COST:
$425
Sliding scale: $400, $350, $300, $250 $200
Payment plans available
BIO:
Chalia La Tour is a Tony Award–nominated actor, director, and educator based in New York and working internationally. She received a 2020 Tony nomination for Best Featured Actress for her work in the original Broadway company of Slave Play, and reprised the role in the Los Angeles and West End productions. Raised in Stockton, California, La Tour began her artistic training and early career in the San Francisco Bay Area. She is a graduate of the Yale School of Drama MFA Acting program, Cal State East Bay for Design, and the British American Drama Academy at Oxford. Currently apprenticing with Master Balinese Mask & Grotowski teacher Dr. Budi Miller (BMTT).Most recently, her acting work was showcased at SXSW 2026 in the film Ugly Cry. Her acting filmography includes: The Future is Bright (MVAAFF & Inaugural African American Smithsonian Film Festival), Mother Melancholia (International Film Award recipient), The Year Between, The Good Fight (CBS), Elementary (CBS), The Code (CBS). Onstage she has been seen on Broadway, New York Theatre Workshop, The Women’s Project, Yale Repertory Theatre and more.
La Tour is the co-director of Encompass Collective, an acting collective dedicated to empowered training for BIPOC actors and acting educators, and serves as a mentor and teaching artist with Broadway for Arts Education. She is currently a directing lab fellow at the Mercury Store.
