Training School Profiles

Chapter Twelve Training School Profiles

Presented by Matt, Larry, & Aleesha

Actor’s Studio New School For Social Research New York, NY

• Tuition: $16,040 per year

• M.F.A. Three year program

• The program is heavily based on Stanislavski’s three books, with each year corresponding with each title.

• The first year is titled “An Actor Prepares” and focuses on the Actor’s work of their own self. All first year students take the same courses.

• The second year is titled “Building a Character.” During this time, students with different theatre majors, such as acting, directing, and playwriting separate into various courses that correspond with their major.

Actor’s Studio New School For Social Research New York, NY

• The third year is titled “Creating a Role” and combines the work of all theatre disciplines. Students with focuses on acting star in works directed by students who focus and directing. These works are also penned by students who focus on play writing.

• The program focuses on the methods of Stanislavski, Sanford Meisner, Strasberg, and Stella Adler while offering courses in period style, theatre history, movement, and voice as well.

American Conservatory Theatre

• San Fransisco, CA

• M.F.A. Three year Program

• As one of the most competitive and prestigious acting schools in the country, A.C.T. accepts only eight students for each incoming class. These companies of actors will work, perform, and develop together as an ensemble

• In their first year, student’s learn and practice techniques to develop “the authentic and imaginative use of self in all acting work.”

•The second year focuses on creating character, with an emphasis on classical and dramatic texts.

American Conservatory Theatre

• The primary focus of the third year is public performances in which students combine the previous two years of their education.

• During this third year, students star in “A Christmas Carol,” and several other production in the bay area. During this year student’s are allowed to audition for other A.C.T. professional productions.

• Courses focus on voice, speech, speech, movement (Alexander technique, physical theater, circus skills), singing, text analysis, and theater history, as well as t'ai chi, stage combat, and improvisation.

University of California San Diego


• Classes focus on movement, speech, and learning to work from the outside-in.

• Classes include playwriting, makeup, theater sound, acting ensemble, improvisation, and many others

• For the improvisation class students have the chance to perform in front of many different crowds

• All auditions for plays take place in the Galbraith Hall, and not all auditions are for just UCSD, but for all San Diego theater companies.

Herbert Berghof Studios (HB Studios), New York, NY

• Full time tuition: $1,666 per year

• Private acting studio created by Herbert Berghof in 1945

• Most famous for the presence of actress and teacher Uta Hagen

• Teachers focus on actions, objectives, circumstances, truthful behavior, concentration, imagination, sense and emotional energy, and improvisation. • Classes are divided between beginning and advanced and then technique and scene. • Curriculum includes directing courses, Shakespeare classes, Linklater vocal technique, and yoga. • Auditions are required to get into any classes. .

Herbert Berghof Studios (HB Studios), New York, NY

• Curriculum includes directing courses, Shakespeare classes, Linklater vocal technique, and yoga.

• Auditions are required to get into any classes. .

The Juilliard School, New York, NY


• Co-founded in 1968 by Michel Saint-Denis and John Houseman

• The school is a combination of both their approaches to acting

• Saint-Denis was influenced by the ideas and work of French theater artist Jacques Copeau who felt that the actor’s job was to serve the literary form created by the writer.

• Saint-Denis strove for the idea of an actor being comfortable with many different styles of world theater, which is still the focus at Juilliard

The Juilliard School, New York, NY

• John Houseman brought an American approach to Saint-Denis’s ideas. Together the training is based of eclecticism incorporating the views of two different traditions.

• Juilliard is a four year program leading to a B.F.A. or a Certificate.

• Voice training is given almost everyday for four years, as well as the Alexander movement technique which is taught three days a week. • Juilliard feels that if an actor can master the classics he/she can do anything

The New Actor’s Workshop, New York, NY

• Tuition: $5,100

• New training institution founded by three former students of University of Chicago- Mike Nichols, George Morrison, and Paul Sills

• Nichols is one the original members of Second City theater. He teaches a weekly class to second year students depending on his availability. He has studied with Lee Strasberg and has numerous amounts of training in improvisation

• Morrison was also a student of Strasberg. He taught at Juilliard. He teaches acting classes for both first and second year students

The New Actor’s Workshop, New York, NY

• Sills is the son of Theater Game creator Viola Spolin. He was co-founder of Compass Theater and the director of Story Theater. He teaches intensive five week courses that concludes in a performance of a Story Theater by the second year students

•Two year training program gives equal value to Stanislavski/ Strasberg based training and improvisation work of Viola Spolin.

• School offers both training in Alexander and Feldenkrais body technique, speech, and Linklater vocal technique

New York University Tisch School of the Arts• Tuition: $19,000 per year

• Three year program and offers an M.F.A. in acting

• First year focuses on freeing the body, voice, emotions and imagination

• Second year focuses on textual analysis and character development. Also students appear in productions

• Third year performance is the main focus

New York University Tisch School of the Arts• The program includes movement, voice training, speech training, make and movement

• Recent NYU graduates have had tremendous success in professional acting world

Northwestern University Department of Theater• Evanston, IL

• Tuition $17,000 per year-Based on undergraduate program

•Undergrad's leave with Bachelor of Science degree in Speech

•Within the School of Speech is the Department of Theater

• Acting courses are offered in a three year program and focus on basic techniques, study of plays, and the performance demands of different styles of acting-Many dance classes and fencing are taught

• Voice classes are required and mime work is also taught • There are six mainstage productions a year

Northwestern University Department of Theater• The school emphasizes on a mainly a liberal arts education

• Some special programs at the school are the Children’s Theater Tour and Participation Theater.

• The Children’s Tour lets actors experience the demands of the long run and also what it’s like to perform for children

• They also offer a Certificate in Music Theater; training includes courses in acting and characterization with classes in music skills, voice classes and music theater techniques

Stella Adler Conservatory of Acting

• Stella Adler was an American actress and an acclaimed acting teacher, who founded the Stella Adler Conservatory in New York City in 1949, where she taught the Method acting technique of acting for over four decades. She was born February 10, 1901 and died Decemebr 21, 1992. • Adler was the only American actor to be instructed in the art of acting by Konstantin Stanislavski himself.

Stella Adler Conservatory of Acting

• Her acting school is located in New York and in Los Angeles. Tuition for the 3-year program in New York is $7,000 per year or $5,000 for the Evening Conservatory (for students who cannot commit to a day program). The training at the Conservatory focuses on voice, speech, movement, mask, improvisation, physical acting, actions, circumstances, justifications, subtext, character elements, theater history text analysis and scene study. The studio in Los Angeles focuses on the same, but is taught in an intensive workshop format as there are no academic programs designed just yet. The workshops coast anywhere between $575-$605

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

• The Department of Theatre offers a comprehensive array of theatre programs at both the undergraduate and graduate levels while exploring virtually every academic discipline through some 4,000 different courses in more than 150 fields.

• Each year, the Department of Theatre presents a complete series of plays at Krannert Center, consisting of a wide variety of genres to familiarize students with

the full scope of professional theatre.


• The M.F.A. program here takes three years to complete. The first semester covers improvisation and Stanislavski's methods as they apply to the plays of Antone Chekov. Anton Pavlovich Chekhov was a Russian short-story writer, playwright and physician, considered to be one of the greatest short-story writers in world literature. In America, Chekhov's reputation began its rise slightly later, partly through the influence of Stanislavski's system of acting, with its notion of subtext: "Chekhov often expressed his thought not in speeches," wrote Stanislavski, "but in pauses or between the lines or in replies consisting of a single word, the characters often feel and think things not expressed in the lines they speak."


• Tuition for non-residents for the B.F.A. is $24,8074 per year (four year program) and for residents its $10,372.

• www.illinois.edu

• (217) 333-2371

http://www.yale.edu/




University of Washington

• The University of Washington School of Drama is one of this country's leading training institutions for theatre artists and scholars. The School offers a four-year undergraduate liberal arts education, Masters of Fine Arts degrees in acting, design, and directing, and a PhD in theatre history and criticism. The Theater program here intergrates the work of character intentions with dramatic circumstances and chacter demands. The program attempts to combine the teachings of Stanislavski with the Suzuki Method.

• (217) 333-2371


• The Suzuki Method of Actor Training develops the actor's inner physical sensibilities, builds the will, stamina and concentration and include a series of exercises centered around the use of the feet in relation to one's center. These exercises are designed to throw the body off center while maintaining a consistent level of energy and not swaying the upper body. The energy necessary to accomplish this task is considerable and constitutes a primary focus of this work. In the course of doing these exercises the body becomes more centered, and thus changes the manner in which the actor views his/herself within their body. This change is also related to how the actor views their work onstage. Issues such as engrained habits become more apparent as do strengths and weaknesses. By developing the body awareness of the corporal center, and a consistent level of energy, primary elements of

the actor's awareness are heightened.


• www.Washington.edu

• (206) 543-4140

University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee

• The program here offers both a B.F.A. and an M.F.A. in Acting. Both Feldenkrais and Alexander movement techniques are available.

• The Alexander Technique (named after Frederick Mathias Alexander, an Australian actor who cured himself of chronic hoarseness) is the teaching of proper posture, suggesting that poor posture and body mechanics prevent the body from functioning properly. The simple exercises improve balance, posture, and coordination using gentle hands-on as well as verbal guidance in an effort to

change bad habits that are causing discomfort and pain.


• The Feldenkrais Method (developed by Moshe Feldenkrais, who had a doctorate in physics and was also known as the first European to earn a black belt in judo) teaches individuals to become more aware of personal habits of movement and how to improve body motion. The Feldenkrais Method is designed to alleviate pain, reduce stress, and enhance self-image. When people have any discomfort, they tend to hold their bodies in altered positions in order to protect the offending area. These positions become habit and often lead to other aggravating symptoms.

•The professional Training Program is affiliated with the Northern Stage Company so students have the chance to work alongside experienced professionals. Members of the training program have the opportunity to perform in different countries around the world through the World Theater Training Institute.


• www.uwm.edu

• (414) 229-4947

Yale University

• The Yale School of Drama is one of the nation's most prestigious and successful training grounds for all professional theater disciplines, from playwriting and acting, to design, directing, dramaturgy, management, and production. Angela Bassett, Charles S. Dutton, Paul Giamatti, Paul Newman, Liev Schreiber, Meryl Streep, John Turturro, and Sigourney Weaver and many other well known professionals are among the many celebrated artists who began their careers as drama students at

Yale.

Yale University

• The program focus on realistic acting, teaching the basic techniques of Stanislavski including actions, circumstances, and objectives. Voice, speech and movement, are constants throughout the training program. Robert Lewis taught here from 1967 to 1976. Robert Lewis was an American actor, director, teacher, author and founder of the influential Actors Studio in New York in 1947. He was an early proponent of the Stanislavski System of acting technique and a founding member of New York's revolutionary Group Theatre in the 1930s. His emphasis on a seamless melding of inner and outer technique is still a hallmark in this Drama Department.

Yale University

• www.yale.edu

• (203)432-1507

Training School Profiles

Education

Transcript of Training School Profiles