WORKSHOPS
Intensive training, on your schedule.
Not every actor needs a full programme to make a breakthrough. Sometimes what you need is a focused, immersive burst of training that sharpens a specific skill, deepens your technique, or gets you ready for what's next — an audition, a role, a new chapter in your craft.
GFCA Workshops give you exactly that: short, intensive blocks of training, from 2 days to 4 weeks, taught with the same rigor and individual attention as our full-time programmes.
Hagen Teacher’s Lab
Monday 10 – Friday 14 May 2027 · Limited spaces
An intensive five-day programme for local and international teachers, teachers in training and professional actors, designed to deepen your understanding of Uta Hagen’s approach to both the stage and the classroom.
Experience the depth and value of Hagen’s object exercises and scene study process, led by HB Studio teaching artists Snezhana Chernova and Francesca Ferrara, who both studied directly with Uta Hagen herself.
Explore the potential of the actor’s daily practice and bring those same rigorous values to scene work. As an actor, you will prepare an exercise and rehearse a scene with a partner. As a teacher, you will consider how to empower each actor’s discovery through clear, specific guidance, gaining inspiration from both the instructors and the colleagues around you.
An intensive time frame, your professional experience, and our shared commitment to high-quality training: a combination built for heightened creativity, renewal and optimum learning.
YOUR TEACHERS
Snezhana Chernova
Snezhana graduated from the Leningrad Institute of Theatre, Music and Cinema (LGITMIK) and acted at the Baltic Repertoire Theatre in St Petersburg before moving to America, where she studied with Uta Hagen at HB Studio, New York. She also trained in Lecoq with Norman Taylor in New York, and in theatre pedagogy with Anatoli Vasiliev in Venice.
She has taught Speech, Speaking Voice and Acting at LGITMIK and GITIS Scandinavia, was on the faculty at Trinity/La MaMa Performing Arts, and in 2024 was invited to teach Uta Hagen’s Master Class at the Shanghai Theatre Academy.
She has performed across the USA, Canada, Russia, Ukraine, Germany and South Korea. Her favourite roles include Arkadina in Chekhov’s The Seagull (HB Playwrights Theatre), Natasha in Three Sisters, Margarita in The Master and Margarita, and Abby in O’Neill’s Desire Under the Elms. She is a leading actress with Literary Theater Dialogue, New York, and has performed at the Metropolitan Opera since 2010 under directors including William Kentridge, Richard Eyre, David McVicar and Bartlett Sher. Her screen credits include The Americans, Law & Order: Organized Crime and Mr & Mrs Smith.
Francesca Ferrara
Francesca is Co-Executive Director, Programs of HB Studio, where she teaches technique and scene study. She took her first class at HB Studio aged 12 and went on to study with Herbert Berghof and Uta Hagen over many years, before training at Catholic University with Bill Graham, James Petosa, Halo Wines and Mikel Lambert. In 2024 she was invited to teach Uta Hagen’s Master Class at the Shanghai Theatre Academy.
She is Co-Founder of Acting Out, a workshop for formerly incarcerated artists, whose production The Odets Project was remounted due to popular demand. Her theatre credits include I Never Sang for My Father (Chain Theatre), national tours of Romeo & Juliet and 1984, and The Taming of the Shrew (Olney Theatre). On screen she has appeared in The West Wing, Grey’s Anatomy, Masters of Sex, How to Get Away with Murder, Gossip Girl, The Blacklist and the series finale of Mad Men.
KEY DETAILS
When: Monday 10 – Friday 14 May 2027, 10am – 5pm daily
Where: GFCA London, 2A Royal Mews, Dean Street, London W1D 3AR
Price: £800 for the full 5-day course
4-Week Advanced International Course — April 2027
Spring in London. Four weeks that change everything.
Twice a year, GFCA London opens its doors to an international intake of serious, driven actors — and the April course is where many begin their year the way they mean to continue: with total commitment to their craft. Personally led by Giles Foreman alongside our team of leading industry coaches, this is a chance to train at the level that has shaped actors now working across UK, European and international stage and screen.
Across 120 demanding hours, you'll be taken through Core Intensive Actor-Training, Character Analysis across all 4 Stages, Movement Psychology, and Voice Technique and Movement for Actors — reinforced by rigorous, hands-on Rehearsal Exercises. Scene work ranges from Shakespeare and Classical Scene Study to Contemporary work, built on the foundational approaches of Uta Hagen and Strasberg. Five full days a week, 10.30am–6pm, for a month — this is serious, sustained work, not a taster.
You'll be training shoulder-to-shoulder with actors who've travelled from around the world for exactly this — a small, focused international group, all pushing each other forward. Backed by GFCA's network across London, New York and Paris, and set in a city just waking up for spring — the Globe Theatre, Tate Modern, the National Portrait Gallery, Greenwich, the Royal National Theatre all within reach — this course offers genuine international-calibre training in the city where it all began.
Places are limited and go quickly — apply early to secure your spot.
Workshop Details:
Schedule: Monday to Friday, 10.30am–6pm
Dates: 5th-30th April
Fee: £2,000 (held at this rate for April 2027)
Who it's for: Actors ready to push their craft to an advanced, international level
Group size: Kept deliberately small, so coaching stays personal
Enrolment is open now
4-Week Advanced International Course — August 2027
Four weeks that change everything.
Twice a year, GFCA London opens its doors to an international intake of serious, driven actors. The August course is where many make their summer count, spending it the way they mean to continue: with total commitment to their craft. Personally led by Giles Foreman alongside our team of leading industry coaches, this is a chance to train at the level that has shaped actors now working across UK, European and international stage and screen.
Across 120 demanding hours, you’ll be taken through Core Intensive Actor-Training, Character Analysis across all 4 Stages, Movement Psychology, and Voice Technique and Movement for Actors, reinforced by rigorous, hands-on Rehearsal Exercises. Scene work ranges from Shakespeare and Classical Scene Study to Contemporary work, built on the foundational approaches of Uta Hagen and Strasberg. Five full days a week, 10.30am–6pm, for a month: this is serious, sustained work, not a taster.
You’ll be training shoulder-to-shoulder with actors who’ve travelled from around the world for exactly this: a small, focused international group, all pushing each other forward. The course is backed by GFCA’s network across London, New York and Paris, and set in London at the height of summer. Long, light evenings, the Globe in full swing, open-air theatre in Regent’s Park, and the South Bank, Tate Modern, the National Portrait Gallery, Greenwich and the National Theatre are all within reach. This is genuine international-calibre training in the city where it all began.
Places are limited and go quickly. Apply early to secure your spot.Places are limited and go quickly — apply early to secure your spot.
Workshop Details:
Schedule: Monday to Friday, 10.30am–6pm
Dates: 2nd -27th August
Fee: £2,000 (held at this rate for August 2027)
Who it's for: Actors ready to push their craft to an advanced, international level
Group size: Kept deliberately small, so coaching stays personal
Enrolment is open now