Bill Cobbs
is Coming Home to Cleveland to teach
“Tricks of the Trade:” Scene Study and Monologue Development for on-Stage & on-Camera for the WAKE UP and LIVE’s Actors’ Studio and “Wake Up And Live with the Arts” TV

The Cleveland Play House - Rehearsal Hall C
8500 Euclid Avenue
(Complimentary Parking)

Are you an aspiring or experienced actor or director? Then, let Bill Cobbs, Cleveland native, veteran stage, film and TV actor and director, help you hone your craft for better auditions and performance on stage, screen or TV. Bill is coming from Los Angeles to lead this 8-hour, video-based intensive which will give you the opportunity and techniques to develop, rehearse and perform your character monologue or scene for Bill and on-camera.

Make your auditions and performances come alive with the skills and techniques to make your characters rich and real. You will work on important components of your craft:

Rehearsal: “In the Wings.” Getting Ready for Your “Close-up”
Performance: “Tape’s Rolling. Countdown. Lights! Camera! Action!”
Director’s Notes: “Applause.” “That’s A Wrap”

Registration Date Register by 3/26/2010 $135.00 Register after 3/26/2010 $165.00 Saturday Only Register by 3/26/2010 $100.00 Register after 3/26/2010 $135.00 Sunday Only Register by 3/26/2010 $100.00 Register after 3/26/2010 $135.00

WU & L’s Actors’ Studio, AEA/AFTRA/SAG, (valid card) students & seniors (valid ID), $10.00 discount DVDs, additional fee and by arrangement. “WU&Lw/Arts” TV Audience Observer (non-performing artists, only). Observer fee by arrangement. Or, Make checks payable and mail to: WAKE UP And LIVE’s Actors’ Studio P.O. Box 201524 Shaker Heights, OH 44120

OR click here to download a registration form.

Biography

Wilbert “Bill” Cobbs is a film and television actor. He has starred in over 120 television programs and movies.

Born in Cleveland, OH, Cobbs began his acting career in Ossie Davis’ Purlie Victorious at the historic Karamu Theater in Cleveland.

In 1970, at the age of 36, he left his car salesman job and headed for New York to seek work as an actor. There he turned down a job in the NBC sales department in order to have time for auditions. He supported himself by driving a cab, repairing office equipment, selling toys, and performing odd jobs. His first professional acting role was in Ride a Black Horse at the Negro Ensemble Company. From there he appeared in small theater productions, street theater, regional theater and at the Eugene O’Neill Theater. He made his Broadway debut in First Breeze of Summer.

Cobbs’ first television credit was in Vegetable Soup (1976), a New York public television educational series, and he made his feature film debut in The Taking of Pelham One Two Three in 1974. Cobbs has appeared and been a regular on many television programs including: The Others, The Michael Richards Show, The Outer Limits, I’ll Fly Away, Yes, Dear, The Sopranos, JAG, The Drew Carey Show, and October Road. Perhaps his most memorable television appearance is his role as Regina Taylor’s father on I’ll Fly Away as well as in the TV movie version I’ll Fly Away: Then and Now.

Throughout his film career, Cobbs has built a long list of credits playing kindly fathers, grandfathers, and even Moses (in The Hudsucker Proxy). He was Whitney Houston’s manager in The Bodyguard, an old man in New Jack City, and Grandpa Booker in The People Under the Stairs. In 2002, he played wisened elders in Sunshine State, Enough, and Sweet Deadly Dreams.

In 2006, Cobbs played a supporting role in Night at the Museum as Reginald, a security guard on the verge of retirement. He also played basketball coach and retired basketball player Arthur Chaney in Disney’s Air Bud and Medgar Evers’ older brother Charles Evers in Rob Reiner’s Ghosts of Mississippi. He had a pivotal role in the Coen Brothers’ The Hudsucker Proxy, and played a jazz pianist in Tom Hanks’ That Thing You Do.

He was awarded the 1988 Joseph Jefferson Award for Actor in a Principal Role in a Play for Driving Miss Daisy in Chicago, Illinois.