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Based on the principles of the Meisner Technique, this acting program for high school students, ages 14-18, provides essential skills and techniques to grow your craft.
January enrollment is now open!
Limited spots available.
Don’t miss this opportunity to ignite your passion for acting and embark on a transformative journey.
Cost: $1900 + $100 registration fee (non-refundable)
Program Dates: January 18 – March 8, 2025
Schedule: Saturdays, 10am – 6pm
Apply Now Tuition CostTuition prices listed below are for the first academic year of the Two-Year Program. Tuition for all programs may be paid in full or in three pre-scheduled installments.
Part Time: $4,500 + $100 registration fee
Core: $10,200 + $100 registration fee
Full Time: $19,700 + $100 registration fee
International Students: $20,700 - $25,500* + $300 visa application fee
*Reduced course load/pricing options may be available for International Students and can be discussed during your interview.
Esper Studio’s Two-Year Professional Actor Training Program provides training in the Meisner Technique and a full offering of conservatory-style classes.
In the Two-Year Program, students attend classes a minimum of two days per week, and may attend as many as five or six days per week depending on their choice of program and scheduling. Please see above descriptions to learn more about our Part-Time, Core and Full-Time offerings. Morning, afternoon and evening classes are available. Program choices and schedule options can be discussed during the interview process.
Students who enroll in the fall typically start mid-September and complete their first year in the beginning of June.
After reviewing our application requirements, we invite you to complete our online application.
The Studio provides the opportunity to begin the training program in January of each year. Students on this schedule begin in January and continue until the end of July. If invited to return for second year, students will begin the 2nd year work in the third week of September and finish at the end of the first week of June. The Fall and January programs have identical course work and requirements for completion.
APPLY NOWWork at the studio derives from William Esper’s close association with Sanford Meisner, with whom he worked as a teacher and director for 17 years. For 25 years, Mr. Esper was a Full Professor and Head of the Professional Actor Training Programs at the Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University.
| SUMMER INTENSIVE START | June 17, 2024 |
| JUNETEENTH | No classes Wednesday, June 19, 2024 |
| INDEPENDENCE DAY | No classes Thursday, July 4, 2024 |
| SUMMER INTENSIVE AND JANUARY SESSION END | August 1, 2024 (Individual classes may end earlier) |
| FALL PROGRAM START | September 16, 2024 |
| INDIGENOUS PEOPLES' DAY | No Classes October 14, 2024 |
| THANKSGIVING | No classes Wednesday, November 27 through Sunday, December 1. Classes resume on Monday, December 2, 2024. |
| WINTER BREAK | Last day of classes is Friday, December 20, 2024. No classes Saturday, December 21, through Tuesday, January 7. Classes resume on Wednesday, January 8, 2025. |
| JANUARY 2025 SESSION START | January 8, 2025 |
| MLK DAY | No classes Monday, January 20, 2025 |
| SPRING BREAK | No classes Monday, March 17 through Sunday, March 23, 2025 |
| MEMORIAL DAY | No classes Monday, May 26, 2025 |
| FALL 2024-25 PROGRAM END | June 6, 2025 (Individual classes may end earlier) |
Karen Chamberlain teaches Meisner-based Acting Technique at the Esper Studio. She is an Associate Arts Professor at NYU, Tisch School of the Arts, where she teaches in The Meisner Studio and serves as Director of The Future Theatre Artists Workshop, an outreach program for high school students. She has worked as an actor, director and on-set coach for over twenty five years and feels privileged to have been teaching for just as long. Karen taught Advanced Acting at The Playwrights Horizons Theatre School at NYU and was also on the faculty of the BFA Professional Actor Training Program at Rutgers where she taught Voice and Speech, Acting and served as the first on-site Resident Director of The Rutgers Conservatory at Shakespeare’s Globe.
Additional teaching credits include the NYU Summer HS Meisner Intensive, Performers Theatre Workshop in Maplewood, NJ, the Idyllwild School of Music and the Arts in CA, and the University of The Arts in Philadelphia. Karen’s most recent Acting credits include regular appearances on Comedy Central’s “Inside Amy Schumer” and “Life and Beth” on Hulu. As a coach, she was most recently on set for “Crashing,” an HBO comedy drama series, and “Master of None” for Netflix. Karen holds an MFA in Acting from Rutgers and was trained as an actress and a teacher by William Esper.
Deb Jackel has been teaching Meisner-based acting technique, Audition Technique, and Cold Reading at the Esper Studio since 2000.
Winner of the Backstage Readers’ Choice Awards for both “Favorite Audition Technique Teacher” and “Favorite Cold Reading Teacher,” Deb brings extensive experience with the business of acting to her teaching. Prior to training as a teacher with the world-renowned William Esper, Deb spent years in the New York talent agency world, representing actors at agencies including Don Buchwald and Associates, Ambrosio/Mortimer and Associates, and A3 Artists Agency (fka Abrams Artists). In her many years working on both sides of the business, Deb observed the most common roadblocks to successful auditions and has since used her knowledge to empower actors.
She is an expert in helping actors cultivate and protect their passion, vulnerability and uniqueness during the often misunderstood, stress-inducing audition process. She coaches actors privately on audition material and technique, and also leverages her experience to serve as a career consultant for emerging actors who wish to better understand the business of acting.
At the university level, Deb works in the BFA Acting program at her alma mater Rutgers’ Mason Gross School of the Arts, where she teaches first year Meisner technique, Meisner based, Audition Technique, co-directs and -produces the graduating actor showcase, and serves as an artistic advisor, guiding the graduates as they transition into the industry. In addition, Deb co-created “The Empowerment Weekend for Actors” with Alaine Alldaffer (casting director, Playwrights Horizons) in 2010, an intensive weekend workshop devoted to the psychological and spiritual approach to the art and business of acting and auditioning. She has also led audition workshops at NYU Tisch School of the Arts’ Meisner Studio.
Devin is a teacher, actress, casting director, and private audition coach. In addition to teaching at the Esper Studio, Devin is on the acting faculty at NYU Tisch School of the Arts, where she teaches advanced acting at The New Studio on Broadway. Devin has been a guest lecturer at many prestigious undergraduate, graduate, and conservatory programs, nationally and internationally, including NYU Graduate Acting, UT Knoxville MFA Acting Program, Middlebury College, American University, The Conservatory at Completely Ridiculous Productions, Bilingual Acting Workshop Paris, and many others. Devin’s most notable casting credits include Season II, House of Cards. She is also currently the NY Casting Director for SF Playhouse. Devin’s mentors include Emmy Award Winning Casting Director, Julie Schubert; Master Physical Acting Teacher Jim Calder; Master Voice Teacher Tessa Lang; and the late Master Acting Teacher and Academy Award Winning Actress, Olympia Dukakis, without whom, she would not be the teacher that she is today.
Caitlin Rigney is a movement specialist, choreographer and actor. She has been teaching physical technique to actors since 2014. She studied at the professional acting conservatory at Mason Gross School of the Arts and graduated with her BFA in 2012. Ms. Rigney has been on faculty at Rutgers and currently teaches Movement at the Esper Studio. In addition to teaching, Caitlin is a movement coach for a variety of working actors in New York, LA, and the UK. She has worked with actors in projects such as Secret Invasion (Disney +), Primo (IMDb TV), Lady in the Lake (Apple TV), Roswell, NM (CW) and The Republic of Sarah (CW). In working with a variety of artists of all levels, Caitlin has a special ability to help them release tension, expand capacity for connection, and cultivate a deeper understanding of their physicality. In addition to private coaching and teaching, Caitlin is a director and choreographer, working in live performance in the Tri-State area.