Summer High School Drama Programs

The Atlantic Technique: Simple, honest and straightforward, Practical Aesthetics is both an acting technique and a philosophy. The technique gives actors an empowering set of analytical and physical tools. The actor learns to analyze scenes for tangible, physically-playable objectives, and to use their imagination, voice, body and sense of play to bring the character and the story to life. The philosophy teaches self-reliance, professional work habits, and mutual support and respect between artists. The summer program integrates acting classes with rigorous training in voice, speech, and movement. Classes include: Script Analysis, Scene Study, Shakespeare, Performance Technique, On-Camera Technique, Song & Choreography, Games/Improv, Audition Technique with a professional Casting Director, and guest classes with industry professionals.

The Atlantic Theater Company is an award-winning Off-Broadway theater that produces great plays simply and truthfully by utilizing an artistic ensemble. Since its inception in 1985, Atlantic has produced more than 150 plays including "The Band’s Visit" and "Spring Awakening", garnering 22 Tony Awards, 25 Obie Awards, 21 Lucille Lortel Awards, 11 Drama Desk Awards, 8 Outer Critics Circle Awards, 5 New York Drama Critics’ Circle Awards, 4 Theater World Awards, 4 Drama League Awards, and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Founded by David Mamet and William H. Macy, the Atlantic has the only conservatory program in the world that offers in-depth training in Mamet and Macy’s unique and influential approach to acting: The Atlantic Technique: Practical Aesthetics.

The Experimental Theatre Wing is a unique, physically based acting program with an international reputation for developing creative artists, courageous actors at ease in their bodies, who are alive to new ideas. The professional training program combines the physical impulse-based acting techniques of Jerzy Grotowski with the psychological character work of Stanislavski. In addition, the primary curriculum emphasizes movement and includes Viewpoints (a method for separating, examining, and experimenting with the elements of acting), contact improvisation, extended vocal technique, singing, and various approaches to creating original work. ETW is dedicated to providing students with a comprehensive training program that enables them to shape their own artistic visions and to perform in a wide range of theatrical styles. ETW faculty members are vibrant professionals in the forefront of creating contemporary theatre, dance, and music.

Summer studio training consists of physically based acting, character-based scene work, improvisation, speech and vocal performance (focusing on freeing the voice and finding each student’s unique quality), movement (heightening body awareness with training in contact improvisation, Viewpoints, and hip-hop), and self-scripting classes where students have the opportunity to create original work.

Meisner Technique is prized for its integrity and ability to provide actors with the means to engage and access their talent. Sanford Meisner based his technique on the principle of the Reality of Doing and in the belief that good acting should reveal the humanity in every character.

Students will take classes in Acting, Vocal Music and performance, Speech and Dance.   Dance classes will explore the dynamic range from Ballet, Broadway Styles and Contemporary popular dance vernaculars, such as Hip-Hop and Salsa, as they are used in the Music theatre.  Vocal Music and performance will explore healthy, vocal production, breathing and properly supported sound, the ability to act on the lyric and the wide range of musical styles reflected in today’s contemporary Musical theatre.  Acting and Speech courses will explore fundamentals of Acting through exercises and scene study. All of these courses will be taught with an emphasis on the Music theatre as a collaborative ensemble art form requiring proficiency in Music, Dance and Acting, first and foremost. 

The Production and Design Workshop offered through the Department of Undergraduate Drama is for the student who wants to pursue a career in the design, technical, management and other production areas of the performing arts.

Learn more.

The Stonestreet Screen Acting Workshop (SSAW) is a unique and comprehensive program that has pioneered the art and craft of screen acting since its inception in 1990.  SSAW is conducted at Stonestreet’s 6,000 sq. ft. film, television and internet studio, where professional directors, producers, and casting directors develop and produce movies, pilots, commercials, television and webseries.  Students train and work in the same environment with access to full production and post-production facilities (including several editing systems and editors) with the guidance of constructive teachers who are industry professionals.   The emphasis of the workshop is on becoming imaginative and creative actors who are both believable and interesting cinematically in any genre while embracing a wide variety of characters and material from different periods and cultures.

While screen acting can utilize many of the same techniques and tools of theater acting, there are significant differences with regard to subtext, how the current technology can be used in creative and non-limiting ways, as well as with creating organic and compelling characters that often appear in a medium or long shot but also under the magnifying glass of the close-up.  Ultimately students are guided from audition to rehearsal to performance with the hopes of inspiring with ideas and stories that are meaningful to both the actor and the audience. Workshop classes include: Screen Acting & Character, Muliti-Camera Screen Acting, Sit-coms, Improv & Comedy on Film, Commercials & the Business, the History of Screen Acting, Voice-overs and Voice on Screen, and Introduction to Audition & Performance.

All students will be registered in this course.

This weekly theatre studies seminar is taught by NYU faculty. It introduces the fundamentals of critical analysis of many of the live events students will attend as a group.  Some of the shows students have seen include "The Nance", "The Trip to Bountiful", Pilobolus Dance Company, "Kinky Boots", and "Eat the Chicken", among others.

Classes take place Monday to Friday. Studio workshops, during which each studio interacts collaboratively, typically take place every Tuesday and Thursday evening. Additionally, weekly evening curricular events are required. Studio classes include Acting, Movement, Voice and Speech.

This sample schedule is based on previous summers to give prospective students an understanding of the highly structured and rigorous training offered in the Tisch Summer High School Drama program. This sample schedule is an overview of one of the four weeks in the program. Students accepted and confirmed for the program will be given their actual schedule on orientation day.

Monday

9:00 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Studio
Lunch
2:30-5:30 p.m. Studio
Dinner
7:00-10:00pm Possible evening curricular event  

Tuesday

9:00 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Studio
Lunch
2:30-5:30 p.m. Studio
Dinner
7:00-9:30 p.m. Studio Swap session

Wednesday

9:00 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Studio
Lunch
2:30-5:30 p.m. Studio
Dinner
7:00-9:30 p.m. Possible evening curricular event  

Thursday

9:00 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Studio
Lunch
2:30-5:30 p.m. Studio
Dinner
7:00-9:30 p.m. Studio Swap session

Friday

9:00 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Studio
Lunch
2:30-5:30 p.m. Studio