SYNOPSIS

What does it take to act in the time-honored genre of the horror film? How does performing the horror of seeing the devil or an evil alien from another planet register differently from performing the horror of betrayal in a naturalistic drama? Spend an evening learning how the cinematic nuts and bolts of a horror film enhance a performance of suspense and fear. Learn the technique you can develop to scream without hurting your vocal cords, or how to let special effects heighten your character. Horror films offer some of the greatest challenges an actor can face – so much is done with the imagination and the rest is added in post-production. You’ll leave this discussion knowing how to make a mean blend of scary thrills for the audience member.

PANELIST BIOS

Harley Kaplan - Casting Director 

Harley Kaplan is a co-founder and casting director with Powers/Kaplan Casting, a bi-coastal casting agency which specializes in independent film. Current and upcoming projects include the features NEW MONEY, FLORENCE, YESTERDAY, RIVER OF DARK PURPLE, SWING AWAY, ONE PENNY, TELL ME I LOVE YOU, 15, ROOM SERVICE, LAKEVIEW and the television pilots "In Reality" and "Couch Crashers". Harley began his casting career with the legendary office of Hopkins, Smith, Barden, where he worked as a casting assistant on movies such as BOYS DON'T CRY, THE CIDER HOUSE RULES and SIMPLY IRRESISTIBLE, as well as HBO's television series "Sex and the City". He later served as associate with PalmStar and S2 Entertainment on an array of films including JACK AND DIANE, FOR ELLEN, GUN HILL ROAD, UNION SQUARE, SILVER TONGUES and THE GIRL IS IN TROUBLE. Since forming Powers/Kaplan in 2010, Harley has cast the award-winning BLUE RUIN and THE COMEDY, as well as MAMAROSH, THE SECTOR, THE TELL-TALE HEART, and promotional campaigns for Sony, Random House, EF Language Schools, and Puristics. Harley has also written and produced short films and executive-produced the features DEATH4TOLD and TEMPTATION.

Kim Plumridge - Acting Teacher/Feldenkrais Practitioner

A professional actor for over 30 years, Kim Plumridge has performed Off-Broadway, in regional theatre and in film and television. She is a veteran of numerous national commercials and voice-overs and is a member of the SAG-AFTRA union and Actors Equity Association. She is a graduate of the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and has studied with many of NYC’s most respected Acting teachers throughout her career.
Kim began teaching her own acting classes in 2000 to private students and small groups in NYC and Westchester. In 2010, at the invitation of her teacher, the respected and acclaimed NYC Acting Teacher Mary T. Boyer, Kim began teaching at Mary’s studio, MTB Studio.

At the Studio, Kim created and currently teaches Foundations of Acting, Scene Study For Stage & Camera, Freeing Your Voice with The FELDENKRAIS METHOD: Integrating Your Voice, Body and Spirit, Children and Teens class and The Sample Class. In addition to teaching, Kim became more involved in the managing and marketing of the Studio and, in 2011, she became the Associate Artistic Director of the Studio-a title Kim considers a great honor.

As an acting teacher, Kim specializes in providing a warm and supportive environment for both beginners and professional working actors. Her goal is to help students discover a deeper connection to themselves and to scripted material. In Kim’s classes, careful attention is paid to script analysis and character development as well as to the development of the actor’s instrument; vocally, physically and emotionally. Many of her students have gone on to professional careers, appearing regularly in commercials, films, television, operas, Broadway and Off-Broadway productions and in regional and community theatre productions.

In 2006, Kim became a GUILD CERTIFIED FELDENKRAIS PRACTITIONER CM and has incorporated the FELDENKRAIS METHOD into her teaching of acting. She uses the gentle movement of the method, along with diction and breath work and impassioned speeches, to help Actors develop their instruments and to act from an open grounded center…and, ultimately, to be more receptive and expressive in their work.

Teaching the tools of Acting and the FELDENKRAIS METHOD, Kim Plumridge has helped actors, dancers, singers, business executives, homemakers, doctors, professors, attorneys, seniors, children, teens and many others to find greater freedom of expression in their work and in their lives. www.kmpcreative.org

Jay Van Hoy - Producer, The Witch

With Lars Knudsen, Jay Van Hoy established Parts & Labor, a production company dedicated to director-driven, collaborative filmmaking in 2004. Parts & Labor has produced over 20 films that have brought emerging auteur filmmakers into the limelight.

Upcoming films include Robert Eggers’ THE WITCH (winner of the Best Director award at Sundance film festival 2015), Andrea Arnold’s AMERICAN HONEY, Matthew Ross’ FRANK & LOLA, Robert Edwards’ WHEN I LIVE MY LIFE OVER AGAIN, Joshua Marston's next film as yet untitled, Shaul Schwarz’s next documentary TROPHY, and Per Fly's next film BACKSTABBING FOR BEGINNERS.

Past films include Mike Mills' Oscar winning BEGINNERS (starring Ewan McGregor and Academy Award winner Christopher Plummer), Julia Loktev's THE LONELIEST PLANET, Braden King's HERE, Andrew Dosunmu's MOTHER OF GEORGE, David Lowery's AIN'T THEM BODIES SAINTS, Aaron Katz's COLD WEATHER, Cam Archer's SHIT YEAR, Kelly Reichardt's OLD JOY, Ira Sachs' LOVE IS STRANGE and KEEP THE LIGHTS ON, photojournalist Shaul Schwarz’s documentary NARCO CULTURA, and more.

Jay graduated from the University of Texas at Austin. He has been a longtime advisor at the Sundance Institute Creative Producer Lab, a participant in the creation of the Catalyst program at Sundance, and a mentor for Cinetrust mentorship program at Cinereach. He is on the board of Artists Public Domain and has taught or lectured repeatedly at various colleges, including NYU, Columbia, CUNY, and the Atelier Ludwigsburg-Paris. Lars and Jay gave the keynote speech at the Sundance film festival Producers Lunch in 2011.

Moderator Bio

Lori Hammel - Actor/Author
Lori Hammel is a NYC-based actress and writer who has performed on Broadway and Off Broadway and has toured around the world. Film work includes playing a morning show host in the Coen brother's feature Burn After Reading; An Invisible Sign; She's Lost Control (2014 Berlin Film Festival, SXSW) and playing the lead in Coney Island Queen (2014 Cannes Shorts Corner). TV includes 30 Rock, The Following, As The World Turns, The Colbert Report and the Today Show. Lori's improvisational skills have been put to use as recurring political pundit Leslie Hillerman on the Onion News Network series, In The Know and as her alter ego NY2 Broadway reporter character, Margo Rose Ferderer (www.margorose.com). 

Lori performed on Broadway and in the national tour of Mamma Mia!, the national tour of Dolly Parton's 9 to 5: The Musical and just returned from portraying Ethel Mertz on the national tour of I Love Lucy Live. Off Broadway credits include the 2013 world premiere of the play Unbroken Circle; I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change; Forbidden Broadway and The Bardy Bunch. Regional theatre includes Handicapped People in Their Formal Attire (Premiere Stages); Forbidden Hollywood (Jeff Award & After Dark Award); The Bikinis (Long Wharf, Goodspeed); Little Me (Jeff nomination) and Singin' in the Rain (Jeff nomination & After Dark Award). In national commercials Lori has had the pleasure of being directed by David Steinberg, Oscar winning documentarian Errol Morris, Phil Morrison and Rupert Sanders. In August, she was given an Excellence in Acting Award at the New York International Fringe Festival. She is the 2014 recipient of the SAG-AFTRA Joseph C. Riley Service Award. Lori is co-author of Minding the Edge – Strategies for a Fulfilling, Successful Career as an Actor (2012 Waveland Press).