THE ACTIVATED CLASSROOM
Margolis Method Fundamentals for Educators
a new self-paced online course
Take the mystery out of acting with theatrical tools that unlock your students’ creative potential.
Teach students to shape impulse, justify action, embody language, and build fully realized theatrical moments from the smallest seeds of an idea.
Early-Bird Discount Ends May 15
Early-Bird Discount Ends May 15
Break Habitual Patterns
Identify and release the tendencies that keep students stuck in imitation, indication, and generalized acting.
Margolis Method Fundamentals for Educators offers more than a way to train students physically. It provides practical tools to open the voice, expand the imagination, and bring fresh perspectives to text interpretation, directing, and theatrical composition. The following six core benefits sit at the heart of the course.
Awaken the Actor’s Instrument
Unite physical, emotional, and intellectual life to unlock immediate, vivid, and playable imagination in students.
KEY BENEFITS
TRANSFORM YOUR CLASSROOM
Build Creative Confidence
Free students from the paralysis of uncertainty with reliable, dramatic structures they can always return to.
Offer Transformative Feedback
Deepen interaction across the classroom through a shared vocabulary that is specific, objective, and actionable.
Move Beyond Self-Expression
Help students shape raw instinct into crafted choices that create compelling, story-driven characters.
Cultivate Generative Actors
Equip students to own their process and carry the spark of rehearsal discoveries into repeatable performance.
In Practice, Margolis Method creates a dynamic ecosystem for teaching and learning, where rigor supports imagination, structure supports freedom, and students take active ownership of their artistic development.
ABOUT MARGOLIS METHOD
CREATE THEATRE WITH EVERY BREATH
Margolis Method is a comprehensive actor training that organically merges physical, vocal, and intellectual expression. Rooted in universal principles of physics such as weight, momentum, resistance, and rhythm, it creates a concrete framework for developing responsive, theatrically dynamic performers.
Every exercise and improvisation cultivates and synthesizes the skills of actor, director, and playwright, expanding the performer’s role within the creative process. With the audience’s perspective always in mind, the training provides a systematic approach to daily practice and theatre-making, both collectively and independently.
It makes the invisible teachable.
Margolis Method offers physical pathways that organically generate repeatable emotional states, replacing general prompts like “feel it” or “be more vulnerable” with tangible tools for embodied practice.
It builds agency from the inside out.
Central to Margolis Method is the cultivation of ownership. Students are not passive recipients of instruction, but active participants in their own development, building confidence and autonomy.
It gives each artist room to emerge.
Through embodied practice, Margolis Method illuminates and releases the social patterns and learned behaviors that can flatten individual expression, inviting curiosity, playfulness, and artistic discovery.
It changes the culture of feedback.
Margolis Method’s rich vocabulary for offering and receiving feedback is grounded in clear observation rather than personal opinion, making communication specific, objective, and creatively energizing.
Margolis Method is not a style to imitate.
It is a training system that strengthens performance across theatrical approaches and aesthetics, supports diverse learners, and fosters a more trauma-informed pedagogy.
WHAT’S INSIDE THE COURSE
This 20-hour course offers an immersive, on-your-feet learning experience led by Kari Margolis, featuring demonstrations and insights by company members, pedagogical breakdowns of every study and improvisation, in-depth written notes, and optional quizzes to reinforce your learning. The guided path includes one-on-one meetings with Kari and lead faculty.
Created to feel like an in-studio intensive, the course includes invited participants who ask questions and contribute to the exploration, helping you feel part of an active, engaged cohort as you work.
SESSION I
Where Choice Begins
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Begin in the actor’s most available state, where choice is possible but not yet made.
Engage with the floor as an active, expressive partner.
Develop breath patterns that support groundedness and clarity.
Cultivate the ability to make inner life perceptible to the audience.
Build internal and external worlds that send, receive, and transform energy.
Generate the need for action rather than performing outcomes.
Practice improvisational decision-making through structured physical choices.
Use repetition and variation to create clarity, surprise, and dynamic storytelling.
SESSION II
From Impulse to Structure
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Engage a three-dimensional core connecting inner and outer worlds.
Work with and against gravity as a source of dynamic action.
Shape timing through short and long transitions.
Initiate action from will and need rather than extremities.
Train through opposition by contrasting habit with alive choice.
Apply resistance at varying levels to make dramatic conditions legible.
Shape meaning through expansion and contraction of the core.
Distinguish actor from character in physical and dramatic terms.
Construct dramatic packets as foundational units of physical grammar.
Apply packet structure to text to reveal expressive units.
Use feedback as a pedagogical tool for refining work.
SESSION III
Making the Invisible Visible
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Return to neutral as a playable emotional state.
Expand breath-muscular coordination through rooting, weight, and core energy.
Distinguish internal from external musculature to deepen embodiment.
Clarify indicating versus manifesting through weighted, physical action.
Apply gravity as a force that shapes and grounds performance.
Explore up/down causality to establish oppositional physical logic.
Initiate action through muscular engagement rather than skeletal reliance.
Reframe staging as an active field of possibility.
Map present position to potential destination to activate space.
Differentiate voluntary and involuntary action to generate story.
Use the vertical plane to express internal emotional states.
Contrast vertical and outward action to clarify dramatic attention.
Develop dramatic timing through effort, momentum, and suspension.
Prepare specifically for short and long actions.
Connect physical structure to text through packets and pattern.
SESSION IV
Specificity Elicits Creativity
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Develop choice as a trainable and repeatable skill.
Expand available options through directional variation.
Identify multiple viable next actions within a given moment.
Cultivate strategic awareness through the “master chess player” mindset.
Scale structures from solo practice to ensemble interaction.
Practice repeatable systems that increase perception and possibility.
Use specificity to generate dynamic and responsive partnership.
Elevate group work through inspired specificity and commitment.
Embody artistic leadership through specificity of preparations.
Deepen understanding of oppositional forces in action and thought.
Strengthen empathy through responsive partner awareness.
Carry physical history forward to enrich present action.
Activate the will to live against gravity as a dramatic force.
SESSION V
Turning Concept into Craft
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Define acting concepts as trainable through concrete practice.
Integrate the work into teaching, rehearsal, and classroom structures.
Use breath patterns as repeatable tools for focus and preparation.
Explore narrow and broad states as physical and dramatic conditions.
Manifest states clearly rather than showing emotion.
Deepen core support to connect inner and outer life.
Apply cause → absorb → effect as a foundational storytelling structure
Create contrast by avoiding harmonizing inner and outer worlds.
Maintain gravity and preparation through locomotion.
Reengage between actions to sustain choice and possibility.
Structure text through packets and phrasing.
Define honesty as physical congruence between action and condition.
Build a personal toolkit through targeted skill development.
Use floor work as ongoing training infrastructure.
SESSION VI
Training Is Performance
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Use actor preps as repeatable structures for training timing and readiness.
Transform exercise into lived action with visible dramatic change.
Organize movement through core musculature rather than skeletal dependence.
Transition between inside-to-outside and outside-to-inside pathways.
Increase pace through reduced resistance rather than increased effort.
Support vocal expression through physical alignment and energy flow.
Train sending and receiving through specific energy patterns.
Revisit contraction and expansion as playable conditions.
Apply gather-and-give structures to animate action and text.
Build phrase structures through short scripted sequences.
Rework material through multiple theatrical lenses.
Sustain energy between beats through springs and elastics.
Apply tools in rehearsal and teaching.
Integrate stretching and floor work as active training.
SESSION VII
The Drama of Distance
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Reaffirm core grounding through a lowered center of gravity.
Shape story through breath-driven phrasing and transition.
Maintain theatrical presence while moving through space.
Sustain dynamic movement and avoid static positions.
Train memory and timing through pattern-based structures.
Use elemental actions to generate poetic meaning.
Translate structure into character-driven intention.
Express character through spatial travel and direction.
Explore relational energy through springs and elastics.
Activate space between actors as a dynamic field.
Shape relationships through spatial compression and expansion.
Apply conform, contrast, and resist in partner work.
Translate structural text into dramatic language in duos.
Use spatial imagery to define shared action pathways.
Track how the work develops across multiple iterations.
SESSION VIII
Muscular Grammar
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Reinforce standing actor preps as foundational training structures.
Guide gravity through the core with controlled resistance.
Organize action through inside/outside physical and vocal pathways.
Structure phrasing through navel-centered initiation and release.
Integrate voice and body as a unified expressive system.
Explore vertical direction as a generator of dramatic meaning.
Expand phrasing through three-beat packet structures.
Create private and public expression within a single action.
Transition from internal to external expression to shape audience perception.
Deepen voluntary and involuntary action with psychological detail.
Align physical and vocal storytelling to resolve disconnection.
Generate scenes through structured improvisational scripts.
Apply both inside-out and outside-in approaches to process.
SESSION IX
The Generative Actor
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Manifest public and private worlds within simultaneous action.
Make inner life legible through the body as a transparent vessel.
Structure action through cycles of sending and receiving.
Sustain duration by allowing action to fully live in time.
Use transition as preparation for what come next.
Link actions into continuous, evolving sequences.
Balance outward action with inward transformation.
Distinguish voluntary and involuntary forces within character.
Justify repetition through “in order to” structures.
Define movement as action or preparation through dynamic contrast.
Construct packets as complete units of story.
Extend packet logic into monologue structure.
Integrate actor, playwright, and director perspectives.
Use feedback to refine specificity and awareness.
Sustain continuous change to avoid stasis.
SESSION X
On the Precipice
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Explore strength and vulnerability through physical states of opening and closing.
Direct audience focus between internal and external experience.
Shape dramatic space as an active, expressive medium.
Structure action through phases of preparation, effort, suspension, and return.
Create voluntary and involuntary action within complex sequences.
Activate supportive resistance within all forms of action.
Justify directional change through clear physical transition.
Sustain and redirect dramatic states over time.
Build complexity through layered internal and external scripts.
Maintain continuity so each action grows from prior events.
Preserve the life force and momentum within each beat.
Generate empathetic response through dynamic action.
Integrate voice and body through puppeteer-based logic.
Ground text in physical timing and structure.
Sustain giving and receiving as a continuous exchange.
WHAT EDUCATORS ARE SAYING
A Note From Kari
When developing The Activated Classroom: Margolis Method Fundamentals for Educators course, I wanted to respond to a frustration that educators have been sharing with me over the years. They could see potential in their students and sense where their work was blocked, but they needed more concrete, embodied ways to help students make change. This course grew out of that need. It was built to bridge the gap between identifying a limitation and building powerful, accomplished actors.
Here, you’ll find tools, structures, and experiential pathways that help you reconnect with your own physical intelligence so you can guide others with more clarity, vitality, and precision. This work is not about imposing a style. It is about translating abstract acting concepts into a repeatable theatrical practice, while still nurturing each artist's individuality.
Margolis Method’s vocabulary and structured debriefing processes support feedback that is safe, specific, and objective.
Whether you are new to Margolis Method or beginning your path toward certification, you are stepping into a living theatrical practice and joining an international community of theatre artists who value connection and creative agency.
I very much look forward to meeting and working with you.
I’m so glad you’re here!
Margolis Method is an invitation to a different kind of practice.
This practice cultivates an environment in which students become owners of their own growth as artists.
Do the Work. Feel the Change. Or It’s On Us.
Engage fully with the course and spend time with the material.
If, within 30 days, you feel the course has not given you new tools, fresh perspectives, or a meaningful shift in your approach to actor training, we will refund your enrollment.
We believe in the integrity of this training—and we stand behind it.
Train with specificity. Teach with clarity. See your students transform.
Enroll now before the doors officially open on May 1st.
Get an early-bird $100 discount and begin your Margolis Method journey when the time is right.
FAQs
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This course was built for acting teachers, directors, vocal coaches, movement instructors, and theatre educators who want practical tools to help students develop specificity, imagination, and stronger connections between voice and body. If you work with performers, you’re in the conversation.
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The course opens on May 15, 2026, and once it is live, you can begin at any time. No synchronized starting pistol, no need to rearrange your life around a launch day.
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The course includes approximately 20 hours of training, divided into 10 thematic sessions. Each session contains 5 to 10 focused lessons you can complete at your own pace. So yes, you can go deep — no need to wait for a sabbatical.
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Yes. We’re guessing you already have at least seven overlapping deadlines. You can move through the material on your own schedule, pause when needed, and return to the lessons and exercises as often as you like.
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You can! The course was designed for working educators. The material is broken into manageable sessions, and many participants begin using the work in their teaching immediately — often before they finish the full course.
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You will have lifetime access. That gives you plenty of time for both comprehension and hindsight — and for revisiting the material whenever you want to refresh your teaching or return to a concept with new eyes.
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Each session includes video lessons, extensive written notes, quizzes to reinforce key concepts, and teaching insights that help you bring Margolis Method directly into your classroom or studio. Plenty to geek out over.
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Not at all. This course is designed as an entry point for educators who are new to Margolis Method, while still offering depth and structure for those who already know the training. So whether you’re brand new or already Margolis-curious, you’re in the right place.
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This training meets you where you are, and every exercise can be modified as needed. The focus is not on being “in shape,” but on developing specificity, awareness, and a deeper understanding of how the body generates dramatic life. The body you currently occupy will do nicely.
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The course is designed for educators, but many actors find it deeply valuable as well — especially those who want to understand the why behind the work, create their own material, or eventually lead a room. If you’re an actor who wants a deeper relationship to Margolis Method, you’ll find a great deal here.
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That’s absolutely fine. This course can support you now as a learner and later as an educator. The training gives you a strong foundation in Margolis Method, so when you step into the classroom, studio, or rehearsal room, you’ll already have language, structure, and practical tools to draw from.
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Yes. The course is designed to be immediately applicable in university, conservatory, and studio settings. You’ll leave with practical studies, clear language, and repeatable structures you can begin using in your teaching right away.
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Because Margolis Method is not an abstract theory; it’s a physical training system with clear exercises, precise language, and repeatable structures you can use right away. This course helps you see more, teach more clearly, and build more specific, alive, and dramatically compelling work in your students. It turns “I know something’s off” into “I know what to do.”
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Yes. You can choose the one-time payment option and save, or select the monthly installment plan if that works better for you. We’re very much in favor of making the logistics less dramatic than the training.
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You can take the course independently or choose the guided version, which includes one-on-one meetings with Kari Margolis and Margolis Method faculty. These sessions give you space to ask questions, receive feedback, and get support as you apply the methodology in your own teaching. It also gives us the chance to work with you directly, which is one of our favorite parts.
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Yes. This course is designed to be both a stand-alone experience and the prerequisite for the Margolis Method Certification Program. It gives educators the foundational training needed before moving into certification. The guided option is required to receive a Certificate of Completion or enter the Certification Program. This is the place to begin if you’re interested in dipping your toes, deeper study, guided mentorship, or the next phase of the training.
A Fundamental Shift in How We Inspire Change in Our Acting Students
Through focused physical studies and clear pedagogical structure, this immersive training helps you identify what limits expression, refine what you ask of your students, and build a teaching practice that develops actors who are precise, energized, and fully alive on stage.
How Margolis Method Came to Be/Kari’s Story
I’ve often been told that I came out of the womb taking a bow, so I clearly knew from my very first breath that I wanted to be an actor.
But as a young student, I struggled in acting classes. I was shut down by the competitive atmosphere, and when I was told what wasn’t working, the feedback often felt frustratingly vague. I didn’t understand what was meant by not being “honest”, “vulnerable”, or “really listening” — especially when I was trying so hard! What I wanted most was a clear, practicable way to grow, all within a supportive environment.
I saw that musicians, dancers, and athletes were given concrete skills to practice, and I wanted the same for actors. I also realized how easily the constraints of social behavior can disconnect us from our bodies, voices, and imagination, limiting not only how we perform but also how we teach.
I began a long search to understand what the teachable, repeatable skills of acting actually were. That search took me across the country and around the world, through years of study, performance, experimentation, and discovery.
I also pushed myself physically before I knew how to take proper care of my body.
By twenty-four, my knees hurt so badly I had to slide down stairs on my backside. Undiagnosed scoliosis left me immobilized for over a year. At one point, I was told I would never touch my toes again or regain full use of my body.
I wasn’t willing to accept that reality.
Acting is a learnable skill, and training can be both rigorous
and deeply supportive.
Much of what has become Margolis Method’s approach to acting came out of the years I spent rebuilding my own body — developing the strength and physical intelligence I needed not only to recover, but to build a powerful actor-instrument.
What emerged from that experience has become a tested truth: embodied training does not simply make actors more physical; it opens the voice, expands the imagination, and invites fresh perspectives on text interpretation, directing, and theatrical composition.