Actors with visual impairments often don’t have as many opportunities to receive quality acting training to practice their skills and hone their craft in a way specifically designed for them. This is the goal of the Access Acting Academy: to offer tuition-free inclusive and accessible training programs to visually impaired actors. The Academy’s new no-cost five-week Professional Actor Training Program, which will take place in Los Angeles from Jan. 6–Feb. 7, aims to do just that while providing students with small class sizes for individualized attention.
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“Actor training of this caliber and level of accessibility for blind and low vision actors has never been available before. It’s making history,” says Russell Boast, the Operations Consultant and Casting and Business of Acting Advisor for the Access Acting Academy (as well as CSA president), in a press release.
The first-of-its-kind program encourages visually impaired actors at any level in their career to apply, including those who are partially or fully blind, or have recently lost their vision. As stated in the Access Acting Academy’s press release, “The immersive five-week acting program will offer classes in the core skills of acting, voice, and movement for both stage and screen, as well as opportunities to create original work, become savvy about the business of acting, work directly with industry professionals, and develop a network of future collaborators and casting professionals.”
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Legally blind actor, director, teacher, and creator, Marilee Talkington, founded the Access Acting Academy to provide skills and opportunities for others with visual impairments within the industry. As a performer with a vast collection of work onscreen, onstage, and in print, Talkington has been working to change Hollywood’s views on disability for years.
“The foundation of the work is the belief that all actors are whole, valid in their lived experience, and inherently rich with imagination and potent creative potential,” states Talkington in the Academy’s press release.
Talkington has collected several awards throughout her 25-year-long career for directing, screenwriting, and playwriting, and has privately coached actors for over 15. Along with the Access Acting Academy, Talkington is also the Founding Artistic Director of Tearany Theatre and Vanguardian Productions.
Find out more about Access Acting Academy and the program, including how you can participate if you live outside the L.A. area, and apply by Nov. 30 here.