The rule to taking classes as an actor is that you should be taking them when you aren’t currently working a job. This is because classes are the only way that you can keep working as an actor without actually having booked something. They offer you practice, a place to produce things, and helpful critique of your work. The only problem with classes, that I have found, is that it is difficult to find a class that you enjoy with teachers and students that you actually look up to and find are helpful. My biggest issue with classes is that they were never fun. It was a lot of work for little to no pay off. Why would I want to be preparing a scene for two weeks that I am only going to get to perform once in front of my classmates only?
This is where the performance aspect of classes comes into play for myself personally. If the class isn’t offering a performance in front of people other than my classmates, I wont usually go for taking it because I don’t find it benefits me the same as performing. That is typically what I look for in a class. So finding UCB was great in that it offered a performance. The thing I would offer advice for in looking for classes is finding one that offers a performance. That is where you will gain the most because it allows you to exercise your talents and skills in a way that you would not have been able to do before.