Stars in Their Eyes : Education: Young hopefuls hone their acting skills with the help of Moorpark College’s Les Wieder.

Standing under the heat of harsh klieg lights, Les Wieder squinted into the glare and spoke bluntly with 20 of his Moorpark College students.

He said they had done well, each performing bits during a trial performance for Wieder’s Television and Film Acting class.

Typically, two or three students will freeze on camera. The pressure is too much. And just as some studio hand counts down--”Four, three, two . . .” and points for action--they stand frozen in the light.

The sudden unflinching scrutiny stuns them, and the want-to-be actor stammers, red-faced, sweating or--worse--in tears.

But this time, except for one student with a case of laryngitis, there was none of that. Some students acted, and others did everything from a karate demonstration to reciting bad poetry for the cameras.

Standing on his mark after the two-hour class, Wieder wrapped up the session.

“That nervousness you had before your performances,” Wieder said to the ring of students at the edge of the light, “that never goes away. How you deal with it might change, but you are always going to be nervous.”

There were few surprises that recent afternoon for Wieder, 52, who has taught drama and television acting for 17 years at Moorpark College after a decade of professional backstage work.

He said he wasn’t overly impressed by anybody.

“This was their first shot,” he said. “A lot of them will cringe when they see themselves on tape. What will be more impressive is to compare this tape with the ones we make at the end of the semester.”

Wieder sees a lot of student actors, about 200 a year. But of those he has taught, about half a dozen are “making it” as full-time actors.

Josh Morrow, 20, was the latest to score. He was discovered during a school production of “Dark of the Moon” last spring. By June, he was starring as the newest heartthrob in the daytime soap opera “The Young and the Restless.”

A break like that does not happen very often. Wieder can easily count the lucky few who have landed jobs on screen. But fame is just a short drive away, and the students never forget it.

“You see what happened to Josh and you think it could happen to you,” said Steve Connell, 19, who has been a student of Wieder’s for two years.

Connell said he is torn between going to New York to study acting or “just getting in my car and driving to Hollywood.” He is not sure if he should continue studying or just “do it.”

While he cools his heels, he listens to Wieder’s advice and tries to improve.

“You know, I have a big ego,” he said. “I think I’m going to succeed, but I want to be my best. Les is helping me do that.”

Wieder’s only maxim is “acting is doing.”

Jennifer Infante, 23, who has been Wieder’s student for two years, called the teacher’s advice on acting “controlled freedom.”

“He gives you the space in which to let go,” she said.

Students take his class because they know he is very professional, she said. What they learn under his tutelage is that acting is a lot of work and, according to Infante, if you don’t measure up, he will bluntly tell you.

“You can teach the craft,” he said. “You can’t teach the art.”

Wieder does not shy away from telling a student that he or she does not have talent.

“I tend to be supportive, but I am also very honest,” he said. “They prefer it that way.”

Some who take the class have no intention of going further with it. But he says the class makes them appreciate good theater.

One student attending a class last week is majoring in law, with a minor in drama.

Others want to improve their self-confidence or public speaking. But increasingly, Wieder said, his class attracts dozens of students who want to make acting a career.

“The actors are really dedicated,” he said. “They tend to be much more serious these days.”

He said it is that dedication that keeps him so committed to his work.

“You have to be very courageous to be an actor,” he said. “This job is really very hard. They have a lot to be proud of.”

Prince Hughes, 47, is another former student who makes his living by acting. He appeared for six years as “Bubba” on an HBO series called “First and Ten.” When he was at the college, he and Wieder produced Moorpark College’s first all-black theater production in 1977.

He remembers little lessons--a tai chi movement to gather his energy before each performance, for instance. But the most important thing for Hughes was not a lesson at all.

“He told us this is no slouch craft,” he said. “This is something to be admired. There are no actor / bus drivers or actor / accountants. You are an actor, period. He taught us to say that with pride.”

Wieder’s acting experience is limited to college productions as a student at Cal State Northridge. He did well, earning awards, but he quickly became enamored of directing.

He began with a string of odd jobs such as holding cue cards for television productions “The Dean Martin Show” and “Days of Our Lives.” He did stage production work at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles, and even was involved in making television commercials.

After getting a master’s degree in drama, he landed a job in the drama department of Moorpark College.

“This job gives you a kind of umbrella under which to work,” he said. “And the students keep you honest.”

Over the years, he also has begun to write.

Critics praised his 1991 play, “Voices.”

The story is about an interracial relationship in which a black woman is haunted by the voices of former slaves. The woman is involved with a white professor.

But Wieder said the play was not modeled after him and his wife, Tyree Warren, who is president of Valley College. They have a 13-year-old daughter.

“I write and direct plays with issues that are important to me,” he said. “There are scenes in the play that are similar, but my own life is very different. In the play, the couple struggle with who they are. We both know who we are.”

Wieder is now directing a Moorpark College rendition of Tennessee Williams’ “The Glass Menagerie” and an operatic version of “Elijah” at the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza.

In fact, Wieder is a busy man these days. His classes take up most of the day, then he rehearses “Glass Menagerie” between 3 and 6 p.m., followed by work on the opera.

For Wieder, rehearsal is where art comes through.

“The best part of directing is rehearsal,” he said. “By the time the performance comes around, everything is set. It’s out of your hands. But in rehearsal, you see things transforming, getting better day after day until you have it.”

During one recent rehearsal, while working with two young actors on an intimate scene from the Williams play, Wieder quietly whispered his instructions.

They played the scene in which shut-in Laura and her “gentleman caller” dance an awkward but liberating waltz. Wieder had them do it again and again, even guiding them through the steps.

They repeated the scene until the nuances came together, until two people were no longer acting but, instead, dancing in a living room. And Wieder smiled in satisfaction.