Atlantic Acting School Curriculum

The First Year provides a solid foundation in Practical Aesthetics, the Atlantic Technique, with training that balances development of analytical, physical, and collaborative skills. The curriculum includes instruction in a disciplined approach to script analysis, working truthfully moment-to-moment and bringing these competencies together in performance of the material. Training of the physical instrument in classes complementary to scene study consists of work in voice, speech, and movement. Working as an ensemble to produce studio work, actors gain collaborative skills which foster interdependence and afford the greatest growth for the group and the individuals who compose it. First year students are introduced to more senior cohorts and gain technical experience by serving as crew on second and third year productions.

Students are encouraged to participate in our Summer in Vermont program after their first year. This three-week, intensive program, which brings together an intimate ensemble to work with a founding member of the Atlantic Theater Company and a master teacher of the Atlantic Technique, is an ideal bridge into the work of the second year.

The Second Year broadens the application of the Atlantic Technique to a more expansive repertoire of genre, style and media-specific work, strengthens integration of the physical skills honed in voice, speech and movement classes and cultivates individual imaginative expression. Courses in Chekhov, Shakespeare, film and the comedy of contemporary female playwrights are our focus. Second year actors engage advanced questions about the technique’s employment and, by understanding it as malleable, begin to appreciate the way it can best serve their unique creative needs as artists. Through an extensively rehearsed, semester-long scene study project in the spring term, individual aesthetic is recognized, nurtured and expressed and technical facility is tested and strengthened. Second year students rehearse and perform an evening of one-act plays as an exercise to synthesize their training.

The Third Year focuses on polishing skills, applying them in performance and transitioning into the professional community. The combination of classes, sophisticated full-length productions and mounting of the company show, a production selected and produced by the student ensemble, challenges actors to refine their performance skills while preparing them to begin their careers. Master classes introduce actors to working professionals and form a bridge to the professional world while continuing to provide critical support in advanced skill-building. Studying with professional casting directors and working with up-and-coming directors on curricular productions has resulted in many actors being cast in professional roles in theatre, film, and television upon graduation. Individualized coaching in voice and speech support the rehearsal of the productions, advanced scene study, movement and audition classes continue to enhance technique, business classes help identify achievable artistic goals and realistic professional opportunities, and the student company is introduced to the professional community with the performance of its first show and supported in planning future work. Third year productions and the company show are performed in the Atlantic Theater Company’s professional off-Broadway house, Stage 2.