Theatre (THR)

This course introduces the core of the program. Stanislavski divided his system into two parts: “work on the self” and “work on the role.” Year 1 of the program is devoted to work on the self. In the first semester, the focus is on fundamental exercises in Relaxation, Concentration, Observation (the essential difference between looking and seeing, between listening and hearing), In-the-Moment Behavior and a broad panoply of Sense Memory exercises in a carefully graduated syllabus. In the first year, playwrights and directors work side-by-side with the actors, acquiring a thorough grounding in the technical foundation of the Stanislavski system.

Advanced "work on the self." The more advanced exercises, including Affective Memory, Private Moment, "Song and Dance," Animal Exercises, Improvisation and Repetition.

An exploration of the historical development of the artists, literature and craft of the theater, beginning with Greek and Roman theater, and proceeding in the first semester to the European playwrights of the seventeenth century. In sharp contrast to the other classes in the First Year, these classes focus not on the performance of dramatic art, but on its historical development both as literature and craft.

Theater as literature and craft from the seventeenth century to the early twentieth century.

The Workshop unites all the students at the end of each week in an intensive session of applied technique. Designed to expose the students to the principles and techniques of the Actors Studio's most experienced artists, the Workshop enlists Moderators of the Actors Studio in a four-week rotation. At the end of each week, the various sections reunite in the collegial atmosphere this program is designed to foster, for a workshop conducted by a roster of teachers drawn from our greatest resource: the vast technical knowledge, practical experience and luster of the Actors Studio 800-member roster. The Workshop will differ markedly from the Basic Technique classes in that every four weeks a new instructor will arrive on the scene with his or her own three-hour agenda for the class. In this way, the students will be exposed to the individual views, principles and techniques of some of the most illustrious and gifted member of the Actors Studio. The Workshop offers a refreshing end to each week with new and sometimes surprising challenges - Mask Work, Stage Combat, Improv (Movement or Comedy), and ensemble building sessions taught in Master Class fashion.

The Workshop reflects, utilizes and builds on the more advanced work of the Basic Technique 2 course, continuing the transition to the Second Year Scene Work course, the Actors Lab, and the Playwrights and Directors Unit.

The voice work is based on Kristin Linklater's progression of exercises as described in her book, Freeing the Natural Voice. The course provides a series of exercises to free, develop, and strengthen the voice, first as a human instrument, then as the actor's instrument.

Continuation of Voice and Speech 1.1. The exercises this term will include resonators, breathing power, range, and articulation.

Required for selected actors. Two 90-minute classes per week. For international students or students with pronounced regional accents, for whom the acquisition of standard American speech is important.

Continuation of Neutral American Speech 1.

In Improvisational Movement, students learn a physical language that offers ways to discover one's own body. The course investigates their relationship to space, to each other, and to situations. This course is ultimately about creating a space where anything can happen.

Continuation of Movement 1.

This course is a high-powered, rhythmic dance experience, bringing together the body, the mind, and the spirit in an energetic union of the music, dance, and oral tradition of the people of West Africa. Students learn regional songs of welcome and praise, accompanied by live drumming to provide an understanding of the relationship between the dancer and the musician and the common language they must speak in order to execute an African dance style.

Continuation of Movement 1.

This course provides directors with the practical tools they will need when they are ready to apply the fundamental principles of the Stanislavski System and the work of the Actors Studio. This course is designed to provide students with a solid theory of the basic elements of stage directing, along with enough practical experience to understand the theory organically.

The second semester of this course is devoted to preparing the directors to meet the demands that will be made on them in their Directing classes and the Playwrights and Directors Unit in the second year.

This course will examine, through readings, reports, screenings, and discussion, the central issues that underlie the development of the principal innovative theater directors in the modern period, beginning in the late 19th century and extending to the present day in both Europe and the United States. The first semester will provide an overview of the directorial landscape with key essays, interviews, and other writings by Meiningen, Antoine, Stanislavski, Vaghtangov, Meyerhold, Copeau, Artaud, and Brecht. The course will also explore the extension of the Stanislavski tradition to America by way of the Group Theater and the foundation years of the Actors Studio.

A continuation of History of Directing 1, the course in the second semester will continue with the development of the Actors Studio during the Kazan years and thereafter, exploring, through a discussion and analysis of film and video productions, a wide spectrum of directorial innovators, ranging from the British school (Brook, Hall, Nunn) to the Europeans (Grotowski, Strehler, Mnouchkine, Chaikin, and Wilson).

This course is an introduction to set design and the use of space as a vehicle for storytelling. The course will illustrate how subtle choices can dramatically impact an actor's entrance and how scenic elements can contribute to storytelling and perform as supporting characters to reveal the director's intentions.

The second semester of this course involves the assignment of plays to the Directors and presents them with complex stage opportunities for them to explore. The course culminates in a final presentation by the students.

The First Year writing course constitutes the playwright's Basic Technique class. Emotional honesty and moment-to-moment life are explored from the writer's perspective. Writing exercises access the unconscious, develop the writer's "voice" and dominant themes, and help the writer learn to tell a story on the stage.

Evolving out of Playwriting 1, this course applies the techniques learned in the first semester to the development of the scenes and one-act plays that will seed the entire program in the Second Year Playwrights and Directors Unit.

It is in this course that the students move from the preparation of themselves to the preparation of the part. Through Stanislvavski's historic investigations of action, objective, beats, characterization, and given circumstances, the students learn the principles of scene analysis and the actor's obligation to the text. Although the directors and playwrights are specializing in this second year, their training would be incomplete without this second phase of training. So Scene Work (1 and 2) is also required for them. The directing students in this class continue to participate in the work as actors (as do the playwrights). Scenes and exercises are not directed in Scene Work: the actor must be free to find his or her own way into the character and the scene, making his or her won, not a director's mistakes, on the theory that we learn best from our own mistakes. This year the directors and playwrights also exercise their muscles, and learn from their mistakes, in the Playwrights and Directors Unit. Most of the material used in the scene work classes is taken from the traditional repertoire of American and Foreign realistic plays, from the 1890s to the present. It is chosen by the students, with the teacher's approval or recommended by the teachers to present particular challenges to the student. Scenes from "classic plays – Shakespeare, the Restoration repertoire, the Greeks- are not explored until the Third year, when the M.F.A students have the technical grounding that will permit them to face the stylistic demands of the classical repertoire without falling back on rhetorical convention.

It is in this course that the students move from the preparation of themselves to the preparation of the part. Through Stanislavski historic investigations of action, objective, beats, characterization, and given circumstances, the students learn the principles of scene analysis and the actor's obligation to the text. Although the directors and playwrights are specializing in this second year, their training would be incomplete without this second phase of training. So Scene Work (1 and 2) is also required for them. The directing students in this class continue to participate in the work as actors (as do the playwrights). Scenes and exercises are not directed in Scene Work: the actor must be free to find his or her own way into the character and the scene, making his or her won, not a director's mistakes, on the theory that we learn best from our own mistakes. This year the directors and playwrights also exercise their muscles, and learn from their mistakes, in the Playwrights and Directors Unit. Most of the material used in the scene work classes is taken from the traditional repertoire of American and Foreign realistic plays, from the 1890s to the present. It is chosen by the students, with the teacher's approval or recommended by the teachers to present particular challenges to the student. Scenes from "classic plays – Shakespeare, the Restoration repertoire, the Greeks- are not explored until the Third year, when the M.F.A students have the technical grounding that will permit them to face the stylistic demands of the classical repertoire without falling back on rhetorical convention.

Theater as literature and craft from the early twentieth century to the present.

The voice work is based on Kristin Linklater's progression of exercises as described in her book, Freeing the Natural Voice. The course provides a series of exercises to free, develop, and strengthen the voice, first as a human instrument, then as the actor's instrument.

This course is a continuation of the voice work based on Kristin Linklater's progression of exercises as described in her book, Freeing the Natural Voice. The course provides a series of exercises to free, develop, and strengthen the voice, first as a human instrument, then as the actor's instrument.

For international students or students with pronounced regional accents, for whom the acquisition of standard American speech is important.

For international students or students with pronounced regional accents, for whom the acquisition of standard American speech is important.

This beginning level of Horton technique for beginners, lays the foundation for all that follows in the more advanced levels. The basic warm up is taught: flat backs, primitive squat descent and ascent, lateral stretches, release swings and deep lunges. The shapes that will be used throughout the training in Horton technique are emphasized: the T positions, stag position, cross lunge and coccyx balance. When Lester Horton created this technique in the 1940's he designed many of the material into series of studies which concentrate on training specific areas of the body. These studies stretch, lengthen and strengthen the body. Many of the beginning level studies focus on the Achilles tendon, the abdominal muscles, and movements that lengthen the spine and the hamstring muscles. Simple combinations of movements, that include turns and jumps, are taught to introduce musicality and dynamics to the beginning dancer's vocabulary. Performance qualities are emphasized at the very beginning of the dancer's training.

Required for actors (elective for others). Two 90-minute classes a week.

In Improvisational Movement 3, students learn a physical language that offers ways to discover one's own body. This course investigates their relationships to space, to each other, and to situations. They will also gain a basic understanding of anatomy.

Students learn a physical language that offers ways to discover one's own body. This course investigates their relationships to space, to each other, and to situations. They will also gain a basic understanding of anatomy.

This course applies to the director's craft the principles of the Stanislavski System that the student directors have been learning in Basic Technique and Scene Work Classes. The directors and actors (and playwrights) have learned the "common grammar" that inspired Stanislavski to begin his exploration, precisely so that the various disciplines could communicate with each other. That Communication is at the heart of this course, as the First year's theory becomes the Second Year's process, enabling the directors to deal directly and effectively with the play, the playwright, the actors, and the audience. In the first semester, the directors work on realistic material based on short plays and short stories. In a stet-by-step, hand –on- process the director learns how to tell the play's story through every theatrical means, by working on the play before rehearsals begin; conducting auditions and casting the play; conducting reading rehearsals around the table; introducing the actors to the director's concept of the play and the production; guiding the actors in the creation of character; organizing the rehearsal time; putting the play "on its feet"; leading the actors toward the play's events; creating truthful, organic moment to moment blocking; and incorporating all of the external elements of setting, lighting and costume.

Advanced work in challenging scenes and short plays from the full panoply of realistic and non-realistic theater, some of which are emerging as both director's and actor's theses for the Repertory Season.

This course's attention is on the page, on the writer's craft, and the craft expands to include the development of full – length plays. Like the scenes and one-acts that were read, criticized, rewritten, reread, rewritten, reexamined by the class and the instructor in the first year, the writer's effort to develop full-length plays are subjected to the same process. NYC: Fall.

This course's attention is on the page, on the writer's craft, and the craft expands to include the development of full – length plays. Like the scenes and one-acts that were read, criticized, rewritten, reread, rewritten, reexamined by the class and the instructor in the first year, the writer's effort to develop full- length plays are subjected to the same process.

The PD Unit is designed to focus two disciplines in a course that emphasizes the development and direction of original material in circumstances that begin to mirror the professional theater. The original work of the playwrights, completed in Playwriting 1 and 2 comes through the pipeline to the PD Unit. There, it is cast by the second year actors, directed by one of the directors, rehearsed by the actors cast, and then presented for analysis and criticism in the unit.

The PD Unit is designed to focus two disciplines in a course that emphasizes the development and direction of original material in circumstances that begin to mirror the professional theater. The original work of the playwrights, completed in Playwriting 1 and 2 comes through the pipeline to the PD Unit. There, it is cast by the second year actors, directed by one of the directors, rehearsed by the actors cast, and then presented for analysis and criticism in the unit.

This course taught by Shawn Lewis, artistic adviser and scenic designer of our MFA Program's Repertory Season, in association with the acclaimed scenic and costume designer Tony Walton, delves deeply into the artistic collaborative process of theatrical design. Walton created this course to celebrate the real-life procedures and problems that theatre artists face in the course of developing and presenting a show. Prominent designers from the Broadway theatre are invited to share their unique methods of confronting the major artistic and practical issues of the design process. Students will be encouraged to devise their own creative projects through traditional and non-traditional presentations. This course is required for directing students and is an elective for acting and playwriting students.

The directors continue to learn the crucial elements of the design process through a step-by-step process.

This course is a practicum, reuniting all three disciplines to create the works that will comprise the students' graduation exercises. It is in the Process Lab that the works developed in the Second Year become the students' masters degree thesis in the fall of the Third Year. The works are shaped and sharpened for the experience that will dominate the final semester: the Repertory Season. Since every actor, director, and playwright will be represented in the final repertoire, both students and faculty will be involved in the process from the first session in the Fall to the last session in the Spring. It will be the assignment of the faculty to make sure that the work of each student is shown to the best possible advantage.

The final 15 weeks of preparation of the graduation scenes, one acts and plays, using all the experience and techniques in the previous five semesters. The technical crafts-décor, lighting, costume, stage management, etc.-will now comes into play as the work moves from classroom to the stage. As students complete their theses and Rep Season appearances, Process Lab 2 affords them a forum to assess and expand the lessons learned on stage.

Advanced scene work, continuing the second year’s training. This scene work class is only for actors. It provides deeper understanding of the work and intensifies their preparation for their public appearances during the spring Repertory Season. Most of the material used in the Scene Work 3 is taken from the American and foreign repertoire of realistic and non-realistic plays.

Advanced scene work, continuing the first semester’s training. In this class the actors will also learn audition techniques for the stage and the camera.

This course prepares the third-year student for the practical entrance into the professional worlds of stage, film, and television by means of a thorough training in the essential techniques for auditioning in the various situations he or she will face. The techniques will address the several types of auditions, including those for agents and managers, casting calls, and cold readings. The student will leave the course with a foundational repertoire of contrasting audition monologues, suitable for general, large-scale auditions or the narrower scope of casting and talent agent offices. Cold-reading instruction will address general protocol, side preparation, and working on-camera. Required for Actors. Elective for Directors and Playwrights.

This course prepares the third-year student for the practical entrance into the professional worlds of stage, film, and television by means of a thorough training in the essential techniques for auditioning in the various situations he or she will face. The techniques will address the several types of auditions, including those for agents and managers, casting calls, and cold readings. The student will leave the course with a foundational repertoire of contrasting audition monologues, suitable for general, large-scale auditions or the narrower scope of casting and talent agent offices. Cold-reading instruction will address general protocol, side preparation, and working on-camera. Required for Actors. Elective for Directors and Playwrights.

For the actors, this course is another practicum, as they bring classic, period and style scenes and play to life on stage, not as museum pieces or textbook readings, but as new extensions of the contemporary student's souls and craft. The works encountered in this course are not approached as literature or history, but within the context of the Studio's process, employing the techniques that the actors have acquired in the past two years. NY: Fall.

The second semester of this course involves advanced scene work on styles of drama ranging from Goldoni, Moliere, Congreve, Sheridan and Goldsmith to Wilde, Shaw and Eliot to O’Neil and Williams.

: The course begins exploring the content of language: vowels and consonants, words and images, words into phrases and meaning and progress to finding the balance between the internal pulsation of content of language, and the skeleton of the form. Work will progress from sonnets, to monologues, to a final scene. Students may elect to pursue musical theatre and singing interest. NY: Fall.

: This semester explores the content of language: vowels and consonants, words and images, words into phrases and meaning and progress to finding the balance between the internal pulsation of the content of language and the skeleton of the forum. Work will progress from sonnets to monologues to a final scene. Students may elect to pursue musical theatre and signing interest.

: Warm-up and cool down routines involving stretching, core strengthening, and self-massage. Exercises to work on relationships: to partners, to space, and to emotions. Exercises for advanced partnered movement, geometrical descriptions of the body, and the breath connected to motion and temp. Exercises in building the body as an instrument. NY: Fall.

Continuation of Movement 5, this course moves the actors to exercise the full use of the body as an instrument and to perform advanced movement without restriction.

: Directing 3 is an intense, practical course, focusing on detailed analysis of text, to determine what is happening in every moment of the play – and why it is happening. The texts analyzed and scenes performed are from the classics. This is the Classics, Period and Style course for Directors. NY: Fall.

This course is a continuation of Directing 3. Directing 4 is an intense, practical course, focusing on detailed analysis of text, to determine what is happening in every moment of the play – and why it is happening. The texts analyzed and scenes performed are from the classics. This is the Classics, Period and Style course for directors.

This course is the final crucial step in moving the works that have been developed by the Playwrights to the stage of the Rep Season and to the stage readings of their full-length plays. The course also will introduce the writers to the development of screenplays. NYC: Fall.

This course offers firm, continuing support to the writers in the Rep Season and of equal importance, a forum in which to assess their experiences in the Rep Season, apply the lessons learned to what they have written and prepare full-length plays for the stage reading of the work and for the professional world they will soon enter.

This workshop is designed as an introductory course for playwrights interested in writing for film and television. Film, much like theatre, is a storyteller’s art-but now we are telling those stories principally through images rather than through action on the stage. We playwrights must make a transition from our theatrical vocabulary into a cinematic one. As we begin to learn how to write for a visual medium, it will be one of our goals to develop a story to fit for the big screen-as well as perfecting our own cinematic voice to tell that story best.

This workshop is designed as an introductory course for playwrights interested in writing for film and television. Film, much like theatre, is a storyteller’s art-but now we are telling those stories principally through images rather than through action on the stage. We playwrights must make a transition from our theatrical vocabulary into a cinematic one. As we begin to learn how to write for a visual medium, it will be one of our goals to develop a story to fit for the big screen-as well as perfecting our own cinematic voice to tell that story best.

This course is designed to give students the opportunity to gain tools for crafting and branding careers based upon the path they wish to embark on as professionals in the entertainment industry. Students will learn how to effectively communicate who they are through personal branding, network analysis, professionalism and skill building activities, and more. Students will leave the course with a clear, organized, and effective plan for achieving their career goals.

This course is designed to give students the opportunity to gain tools for crafting and branding careers based upon the path they wish to embark on as professionals in the entertainment industry. Students will learn how to effectively communicate who they are through personal branding, network analysis, professionalism and skill building activities, and more. Students will leave the course with a clear, organized, and effective plan for achieving their career goals.

This course is a practical workshop in support of the student's Repertory Season projects, with the full attention of the students and the program's design faculty, staff, and the stage crew focuses on the work that is moving from the classroom to the stage.

The final 15 weeks of this craft course, hands on, in collaboration with the Playwrights and Directors Unit, as the various works developed over nearly three years are prepared for the graduation exercises.