Acting Technique I (First Year)

  • 1st Year
  • 6 Hours/Week

The first year utilizes improvisational exercises and written texts to guide the actor to a full realization of self and the building of a truthful acting instrument. The class instills basic principles of good acting, stresses the actor’s connection to their spontaneous impulses and fosters a sensitized connection to their fellow actors.

Acting Technique II (Second Year)

  • 2nd Year
  • 6 Hours/Week

Extends the work of Acting I into the area of advanced character work and interpretation. Students work with texts by major writers such as Tennessee Williams, Arthur Miller, Eugene O’Neill, Sean O’Casey and Henrik Ibsen among others. Actors explore their interpretive powers without losing their authentic sense of self.

First Year

First Year

Williamson Technique: Physical training for the organic actor. Level 1 stresses physical freedom, emotional openness, and release. This work pinpoints and dissolves physical blocks in the body, which inhibit the actor’s ability to freely process their ongoing experience. The work then progresses to alignment and physical characterization, and extends the work into the realm of period physicality.

This class focuses on the basics of good speech and voice production. Students learn to free their voices into vibrant, flexible instruments. They learn the phonetic alphabet in order to aid them in their mastery of American Standard speech, and the elimination of any regional or foreign accents.

Students learn to recognize and release mental and physical habits that interfere with presence and performance. Technique is taught through language, movement and a unique, guiding touch. Students receive individual, private instruction from the teacher throughout the semester, along with weekly group class. Students become aware of their individual movement tendencies in daily life as well as performance situations.

Students learn the basic skill set of hand-to-hand stage combat, the responsibilities of partnership and the challenge of choreography all while bringing a fight to life. The basics learned in class will be applicable to both stage and screen.

Dance enhances the actor’s ability to use their body as a dramatic instrument, allowing the artist to be more physically agile and expressive during rehearsal and performance. In connecting with the rhythms and music, actors train to be “out of their heads” and living in the moment expressing strength, playfulness, exuberance and grace.

Actors ARE improvisers. Working from moment to unanticipated moment demands that we are heightened listeners and observers, acutely tuned in to our scene partners and our environment. Prepared and open and ready. Improvisation requires that we understand story and character so well that we are able to compress our choices into ‘spontaneous’ actions. Meisner-trained actors are particularly well prepared to incorporate the skills of improvisation into their work. Improvisation gets at the core of the actor’s imagination, as truthful characters and scenes and stories are created from nothing, in the moment.

This course offers ideas and practical skills for the actor who wants to be a theater artist today in hopes they create their own vision of theater-making now, informed by, and in the context of, theater history. This class explores what theater artists have done before and what we, inspired by history, might do now and do next.

Mask work gives the actor a safe place to explore deep parts of the unconscious. It is the catalyst that awakens the imagination of the actor, and can create the safety barrier that allows for deep transformation. It demands physical, vocal, emotional and imaginative boldness. It is a study of how to listen with the full body while playing with ease.

This course provides an introduction to Mime and Pantomime, and will include physical warm-up, corporeal style work, and movement improvisation. Students will learn basic illusory skills, and gain an awareness of how mime can augment their actor training.

Second Year

Second Year

Williamson Technique: In Level 2, students do extensive research of historical periods, in particular the unique physical behaviors of the Elizabethan, Victorian and Restoration periods.

Continues with the work from Voice and Speech I and extends the work into a concentration on classical texts including Shaw, Moliere and Shakespeare.

Alexander skills are developed and refined, with an increased application to acting challenges.

Taught by a working director, this class teaches actors how to read scripts and understand the author’s intentions. Students gain a clear understanding of play and film script construction, as well as the ability to discern different genres and styles.

The art of swordfighting and scene work using the saber sword.

In Level 2 Improvisation, students continue to 'get themselves in trouble' while exploring character and style endowments, and more advanced scenework. Completion of Level 1 Intro to Improvisation is a pre-requisite.

Second Year-2

This course explores the foundational skills needed to work dynamically on camera and the application of the Meisner technique to that work. Actors will learn to make choices based on the script and/or sides, receive tools for creating behavior that tell a clear story, and explore emotional range, size, and scale in front of the camera.

This course deals with the problem facing the actor when they must audition with material given on the spot. The actor is guided in making quick and decisive choices.

This class is designed to help you make a monologue your own. Elements such as: where to find a monologue, what makes it good textually, how to approach it from an “active” perspective and the materials and tools you need to build it (including actions, personal meanings, objective, connection with whom you are speaking) will all be covered. Actors will have the opportunity to work on two to three monologues every class. The goal is to find and develop a monologue (or two!) that will get you an acting job.

Study of accents and dialects such as: Standard British (RP), Estuary, Cockney, Irish (Northern and Southern), Scottish, French, German, Italian, Russian, Boston, New York, Southern (with and without ‘r’ coloring), Jamaican, Mexican, Puerto Rican.

Level 1: Your Creative Zone - Learn easy, new and ancient energy techniques to boost your confidence, open your imagination, and free your mind to act on instinct. Turn color, music, movement and creative visualization into powerful tools to free your artistic expression, allowing you to be more physically grounded, mentally alert, and emotionally present.

Level 2: Embody Any Character - Explore innovative techniques to shift your life force to exactly match the different aspects of a character. Expand your acting range as you play with the energy—the color, light and patterns—that make up emotions, archetypes and character traits.