Graduate Studies: Professional Actor Training Program:
Curriculum
Training: Course of Study
First Year: Foundations
Acting (Drama 720): Action and objective, personalization and creative use of self, affective memory, moment-to-moment awareness, given circumstances, “targets”; beginning acting for the camera; appropriate roles with PlayMakers Repertory Company; projects.
Movement (Drama 724): Balance, physical/psychological extension, flexibility, stress/adaptive strategies, sensory acuity. Empty handed combat; circus skills.
Voice/Speech/Text (Drama 722): Breathing, alignment, dynamic relaxation, support, warm-up, range extension, resonation, vocal care and stamina, connecting text to emotion, improving clarity, General American pronunciation, text analysis with particular application to Shakespeare and other verse.
Second Year: Variations
Acting (Drama 721): Application of acting process to a variety of classical and formal texts including Shakespeare; continuing use of camera; appropriate roles with PlayMakers Repertory Company; projects.
Movement (Drama 725): Transforming and masking, increasing physical and imaginative range, understanding how movement creates meaning.
Voice/Speech/Dialects (Drama 723): Application of basic and more advanced vocal technique (Lessac orientation) to varying acting styles and playing spaces, and increasingly demanding performance situations; introduction to International Phonetic Alphabet with application to stage dialects.
Third Year: Synthesis
Acting (Drama 726A): Self-scripting; the business of acting; showcase preparation and presentation in New York City; continuing use of camera; appropriate roles with PlayMakers Repertory Company; projects.
Movement (Drama 726M): Aikido and T'ai Chi Ch'uan for the actor.
Voice/Speech (Drama 726V): Refining and integrating performance skills on and off stage, auditions; auditions; basic microphone and voiceover technique.
Guest Workshops
Course of Study is supplemented by workshops and special classes taught by distinguished guests. Past workshops: Pat McCorkle (McCorkle Casting), Daniel Swee (Lincoln Center Theatre), Jay Binder (Binder Casting), Janet Foster (Janet Foster Casting), Zan Sawyer-Dailey (Actors Theatre of Louisville), Stephanie Klapper (Stephanie Klapper Casting), Julie Tucker (Law and Order SVU), Liz Woodman (Liz Woodman Casting), Heidi Griffiths (NY Public Theater), Mary Harden and Nancy Curtis (Harden/Curtis Associates), Mark Schlegel (Cornerstone Talent Agency), and creative artists such as Libby Appel, Liesl Tommy, Trezana Beverly, Anne Bogart, Hume Cronyn, George Grizzard, Jeffrey Hayden and Eva Marie Saint, Eli Wallach and Anne Jackson, Rosemary Harris, Delbert Mann, P.J. Paparelli, Mark Rydell.
