Did you make a New Year's resolution to hone your craft this summer? From Meisner to Method, from Stella to Steppenwolf, studios across the country offer intensive acting programs, with a menu of options ranging from conservatory-style approaches to à la carte classes. So if you want to pick up a scene-study class, concentrate solely on voice or movement, or steep yourself in Stanislavsky, read on for a range of opportunities.
The Meisner-inspired William Esper Studio (now at a new location near Manhattan's Penn Station) offers two options for actors seeking to spend the summer in the studio. Actors can enroll in a six-week package (three days a week of classes) in acting, voice, and speech, a special workshop with Esper, and a course taught in cooperation with the Actors Movement Workshop; or they can take à la carte classes in acting, voice, and speech, a Shakespeare Workshop taught by Mr. Esper, or script analysis. In fact last summer's script analysis class was so popular, the students themselves elected to extend the course beyond the six-week scope of the program.
No more than 22 students are in a given class. According to William Esper, many of them come in from L.A. "Agencies send people who are commercial in appearance. It gives the studio a chance to see if they can act," he notes, adding that 60-70% of summer students go on to the full, year-round program. Actors study within a carefully worked-out system. Esper told Back Stage, "The summer program represents the beginning of the work we do. It's surprising how much they can accomplish." The approach to the craft is based on all the years Esper spent with Sanford Meisner. All of the teachers in this studio have studied with Esper. "You can't really get a bad teacher, or a weak teacher. They care passionately about what they do, and create an enlivening, enriching spirit to be around, based on the principles of truthful acting."
William Esper Studio, 261 W. 35th St., NYC 10001. Phone: (212) 904-1350; fax: (212) 904-1349. Summer program dates: mid-June to end of July: Tuition: $550-$575 for the six-week program; call for prices for à la carte classes. Application process: interviews with Esper start in May.
Use Your Imagination
The Stella Adler Conservatory of Acting in New York offers a variety of intensive summer programs, for the full-time and the part-time student. The full-time 10-week program introduces actors to the fundamental elements of Stella Adler's technique, offering them the ways and means to enter the imagination, and to free the body and mind for the expression and communication of an idea‹their own as well as the playwright's.
This intensive full-time program provides 20.5 hours of classes in voice and speech, movement technique, technique, acting exercises, scene study, mask work, and improvisation. Actors spend two additional weeks developing a project to be performed at the Conservatory Theater.
This program also prepares a solid foundation for students who may wish to join the Conservatory's two-year professional training program. In addition to the coursework, several workshops are available in acting for film and television, audition technique, introductory and advanced scene study, improv, body and voice, and basic acting. Workshops are six weeks long during the summer, and prospective students must interview and/or audition.
The 10-week part-time evening program offers 12 hours a week of intensive coursework in voice and speech, movement and mask, technique, and scene study. For acting students wishing to delve into an extremely focused aspect of their craft, a six-week intensive course in Shakespeare and a five-week course in Chekhov are available. The Stella Adler Conservatory also teaches a five-week summer program for young people .
Prospective students are requested to call the school for a brochure and application, or sign onto the website listed below.
The Stella Adler Conservatory of Acting, 419 Lafayette St., NYC 10003. Phone: (212) 260-0525 or (800) 270-6775; E-mail: . Website: . Full-time program (June 2-Aug. 6): $2,550; part-time evening program (June 1-Aug. 5): $1825; Shakespeare intensive (July 5-Aug. 13): $2,350; Chekhov intensive (May 31-July 2): $2,050; Young people's program (July 5-Aug. 6): $1,850. Application/audition process: Sign onto the website, or phone the studio.
The Stella Adler Academy in Los Angeles is, according to the school's director, Irene Gilbert, the only west coast school to teach Miss. Adler's technique.
During the summer, a full 10-week semester of courses is offered à la carte. Classes generally have fewer than 15 students. Interviews are required for admission, and auditions are necessary for the scene-study and advanced classes. Courses are available in technique, scene study, movement, Shakespeare, dance, improv, and speech.
Gilbert explains that Adler's technique focuses on using the imagination, rather than emotional recall (Stanislavsky). So in the land of sunshine and celluloid, why should actors study techniques perfected by one of the luminaries of the New York-based Group Theatre? "Because every art form needs a craft, and if you've got a good craft, you can use it in any medium because it's your base," replies Gilbert. "Stella Adler said, "The only tools you have as an actor are your voice, your body, and your mind. You have to use them all.' "
The Stella Adler Academy, 6773 Hollywood Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90028. Phone: (323) 465-4446. Call school for class dates and tuition costs.
With Rigor
Michael Howard Studios in New York offers a five-week intensive summer conservatory program, about to begin its fifth year. "It's a rigorous program," stresses Larry Singer, the school's associate director. "Students are in class five and a half to eight hours a day, six days a week. Their bodies change [by the end of the intensive] because there's so much physical work."
Two separate tracks are offered (professional and university level), with a maximum of 16 students in each track. It's an eclectic curriculum that focuses on the individual. The program has roots in Stanislavsky, and encompasses two hours of movement class, five days a week, and three days a week of vocal production. Singer says that more hours are spent in scene study in than anything else. Additionally, actors are taught sensory technique, improv, Shakespeare, clown/mask work, and audition skills, and are given a business seminar with Back Stage contributing writer Brian O'Neil.
The students' age range in the '98 professional track was 22-51. "The older students tend to mentor the younger ones, and the younger ones bring in a youthful energy which revitalizes the older actors," Singer commented.
Additionally, the summer-intensive teachers are the same as the year-round teachers‹e.g., the scene-study teacher is Deborah Kampmeier, who has been Michael Howard's assistant for 10 years. At Michael Howard, "a teacher can match a student's level and see where they can use support, challenging, and growth, and bring them along," says Singer. "The thrust is for students to learn how to use themselves as fully as possible. Some of the most exciting acting happens when the actor reveals himself."
Michael Howard Studios, 152 W. 25th St., NYC 10001. Phone: (212) 645-1525; fax: (212) 645-9159. Program runs July 5Aug. 6 (five weeks). Tuition: $2,100; early enrollment was $1,875 in '98. Admission deadlines: April 1 for early admission. Final decisions by May 15. Prospective students are asked to phone the studio for an interview appointment.
Macy and Mamet
"Use your will‹learn to act" is the motto of the New York City-based Atlantic Theater Company, founded in 1983 by playwright David Mamet and actor William H. Macy. Mamet's technique synthesizes the writings and styles of Stanislavsky, Freud, Aristotle, Joseph Campbell, and Bruno Bettelheim, to give the actor a very clear set of analytical and physical tools. Emotions are explored through the use of imagination, and in the pursuit of a physical action onstage. The technique, devised by Mamet, is called "Practical Aesthetics," and is taught during the summer in an intensive, six-week conservatory-style program, which runs this year from June 28 to Aug. 6.
The program, comprised of two sections of 18 students each, is open to beginning and professional acting students, and to New York University students for credit.
Mark Torchia, director of the school, describes the program as a two-part approach to acting based on script analysis and repetition. Incorporation of the other training elements (voice, speech, and movement) is also a primary focus of the training, supplemented by guest classes with industry professionals.
Classes meet six days a week and study script analysis; performance technique; repetition; a technique called committed impulse; improv techniques, which cover several international systems; movement for actors; voice; and speech.
Atlantic Theater Company, 453 W. 16th St., NYC 10011. Phone: (212) 691-5919. Summer program dates: June 28-Aug. 6. Tuition: $1,300. Housing at NYU is an additional $1,100. Call for brochure (which fully defines each course), and explanation of the complicated admissions process.
Stanislavsky Retranslated
Begun in 1992, the Stanislavsky Summer School is a six-week intensive, two-part program. Twenty to 35 students from all over the United States and from several foreign countries spend their mornings studying movement and the Michael Chekhov technique (which utilizes exercises in "impulsive work inside yourself" and "how to use your own emotions to create a character"). Afternoons are spent in theatre history and scene study/rehearsal classes, six days a week, for about eight hours a day. The program is taught by the best teachers from the Moscow Art Theatre School, so students have the opportunity to learn the Russian methods firsthand.
What Americans think of as Stanislavsky's "method" are really fragments of his methods, which worked for specific disciples, such as Meisner, Strasberg, and Adler, explains Anatoly Smeliensky, one of the master teachers. "We have only three volumes of what Stanislavsky intended to be a 12-volume approach to the craft. For instance, "sense memory" is only one element of his system. "In the U.S., Stanislavsky is a psychologist, a scholar. In Russia, he's a practitioner," stresses Smeliensky. Because all of the teachers in the Stanislavsky Summer Program are pupils of Stanislavsky's pupils, the students in the A.R.T./Moscow Art Theatre program are getting practical work."
Smeliensky stressed that the English word "method" itself is an inaccurate translation of a word in Russian slang, and believes that only the Russian teachers in this program can reconstruct Stanislavsky's often mistranslated (into English) text and put it into practical terms for the actor. With great glee, he takes to task the translated archetypal Stanislavsky term "find a task." "Stanislavski never said you have to point out the task!" Smeliensky exclaims passionately. " "Find a task,' " he scoffs. "It should be to find a way to inflame the actor's imagination!"
Stanislavsky Summer School (the Moscow Art Theatre School), hosted by American Repertory Theatre, 64 Brattle St., Cambridge, MA 02138. Phone: (617) 495-2668. Call after late January for brochure and exact program dates. Tuition: $2,500 includes meals. Dormitory housing made available through the school at the Harvard Episcopal Divinity School (where classes are held) for additional cost. Application process: Application form, plus audition, required with $35 fee. Auditions generally held in Cambridge, Mass., and NYC. People who cannot easily make those auditions can send an audition on videotape. Deadline for applications is usually late spring.
Not for Campers
Founded in 1884, the American Academy of Dramatic Arts is the oldest school of professional actor training in the English-speaking world. "This is a very intense, focused program. It's a lot of work. It's not summer camp," says Karen Higginbotham, director of admissions at the New York academy.
The American Academy offers a conservatory approach to summer training for the serious actor. There are 14 actors in a class; usually 150 students are accepted to the entire program. Broken into morning and afternoon tracks, students take classes in acting, voice and speech, vocal production, and movement. Electives in mime, fencing, makeup, and musical theatre are held on Fridays, or in the hour of 1-2 pm, between sessions, and cost an additional $60-$90 depending on the class. Many of the teachers in the summer program also teach the full-time program.
Students come from all over the country. Over the past few years, there have been a number of international students (from Sweden, Israel, Germany, and several South American countries), although English language proficiency commensurate with the demanding text work is a must, and is determined at the audition.
American Academy of Dramatic Arts (N.Y.), 120 Madison Ave., NYC 10016. Phone: (800) 463-8990; website: . Summer program: July 6Aug. 12 (six weeks); two sessions: either 9 am-1 pm or 2-6 pm, Mon-Thurs. Tuition: $950, not including housing. Some dormitory-style facilities are available for an extra charge. Application process: Application form, audition, medical form, and fee required. Call academy for details. Rolling admissions policy.
The American Academy of Dramatic Arts also has a Los Angeles school, which offers virtually the same summer program. Accepted students must return registration forms with full payment of tuition and fees no later than June 25, and all the electives are held on Fridays. Sign onto the website listed below for further information about the program and the application process.
American Academy of Dramatic Arts (L.A.), 300 Halstead St., Pasadena, CA 91107. Phone: (800) 222-2867 or (626) 351-0051; website: . Program dates and prices are the same as in N.Y.C.
Steppenwolf or Schreiber
The School at Steppenwolf is going into its second year of summer programming, an intensive 10-week session for 20 actors, which meets five days a week from 8 am to 5 pm, offering courses in movement, voice, improv, scene study, and rehearsal and performance.
"One of the goals is to pass on the history and legacy of Steppenwolf Theatre Company," Apphia Parsons, the school's summer coordinator explains. Thus, the focus is on an ensemble approach, for which this Chicago theatre troupe has become famous. Founded by nine actors (including John Malkovich and Gary Sinese) in 1976, Steppenwolf rose to national prominence with relative rapidity, winning a special Tony Award in 1985 for Regional Theatre Excellence.
"We're not teaching any real style of acting," Parsons emphasizes. "The program is for professional actors who already have their own method(s) of working. Actors are there to focus on an ensemble approach to working, listening to, and working with each other."
Classes are taught by members of Steppenwolf's professional ensemble company, the resident director of the theatre, local directors, and theatre staff, supplemented with guest classes, usually in the form of a Q&A with members of Steppenwolf's acting company, guest teachers, and guest directors.
The School at Steppenwolf, 758 W. North Ave., 4th fl., Chicago, IL 60610. Phone: (312) 335-1888 ext. 5603. Summer program dates: June 14-Aug. 20. Tuition: $1,500. Some housing assistance available for non-residents, on a strictly "need-oriented" basis. Contact this address and phone number for application materials. Deadline: Feb. 15 (postmark date).
Established in 1969 by Artistic Director Terry Schreiber, the T. Schreiber Studio is committed to providing an atmosphere that fosters risk-taking and growth for the professional actor, offering ongoing classes ranging from beginning technique class to advanced scene study. Students are welcome at any time of the year, providing there is space available, and may select from a menu of courses offered in technique, scene study/exercise, body and voice, playwriting, acting for the camera, and directing, as well as special classes in playing Shakespeare, and audition technique. The studio also offers actors the opportunity to participate in professional productions in the Director's Unit and Playwriting Lab. Facilities include a 75-seat versatile performing space with lights, sound system, and dressing rooms, with a second studio available for classes and performances.
T. Schreiber Studio, 151 W. 26th St., 7th fl., NYC 10001. Phone: (212) 741-0209; fax: (212) 741-0948. Call studio for brochure which explains application/payment process and gives full course summaries.