Begins september 26, 2023
Monday – Thursday
6:45pm – 10pm EST
Additional rehearsal hours required
Application Deadlines
Regular Decision Extension: February 1, 2023
Questions? Email admissions@atlantictheater.org.
Designed for the working actor, the Evening Conservatory distills the physical, emotional, and analytical tools of acting into a concentrated three-semester program. Students will push beyond their creative comfort zones to take their talents to new heights.
Evening Conservatory Training
Atlantic Alumna Ella Rae Peck (Image: The Hollywood Reporter)
Opportunities:
- Rigorous scene study training
- Final performance project
- Graduates eligible for Annual Alumni Showcase
- A professional network for life
- & more!
The Fall Semester
The first semester concentrates on the foundational work of the Atlantic Technique. Emphasizing script analysis, playing an action truthfully, and working moment to moment, students learn the basics of vocal production, speech and movement technique, while taking work habits to a higher professional level.
The Spring Semester
The second semester solidifies the students’ understanding of script analysis and encourages integration of emerging skills. Students perform an exploration of a structured improvisation that they write, research and perform.
The Summer Semester
The last semester challenges students to apply their training under the pressures of performance. Work includes advanced scene study, an ensemble performance project and preparation for the business.
Core Classes Include
Script Analysis, Moment Lab, Performance Technique, Voice, Speech, Movement, Production, Business, and Casting.
Evening Conservatory Courses Include:
The first year includes an introduction to the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) with a concentration intentional and clear speech that serves the story. The importance of IPA fluency is stressed as a practical tool for ‘scoring’ classical text and learning dialects. During the second semester, poetry and Shakespearean sonnets are introduced as application opportunities for further skill development. Advanced Speech classes formally introduce dialect work and can include coaching on full-length productions.
Professional Casting Directors examine how on-camera acting differs from acting for the stage. Students are videotaped as they work on prepared material. They explore on- and off- camera auditions, including: Monologues, Cold Readings, Audition Sides, Callbacks and the Interview Process. Students gain confidence and experience in front of the camera, as well as the necessary skills to aid them in winning the role.
The Laban/Bartenieff principles are used to explore, describe and analyze movement to promote physical clarity and specificity. The class is designed to develop body awareness, strength, flexibility, and to coach actors toward becoming more physically centered for ease and efficiency in movement. By the year’s end, movement exercises are applied to and explored in scene work.
Business class defines and demystifies how actors actually go about getting a job. This class looks at what function agents, managers and casting directors fill and how actors engage with them. Students learn self-tape technique and prepare materials, such as resumes and headshots, in order to effectively enter the professional arena.
Students work on scenes of increasing length and difficulty in order to learn the steps of analysis and develop their stagecraft. Emphasis is placed on finding clear, compelling objectives, playing those objectives truthfully and learning how to stage scenes effectively. Great attention is paid to developing professionalism, maturity and ensemble spirit in the class groups. In advanced Script Analysis, students take on a Throughline project in which they analyze the leading role of an entire play. Scenes from the plays are brought in for multiple rounds. In each round, the scenes lengthen and the students learn to deepen their interpretation of the scene and the play. For their final presentations, students address the design aspects of their plays, using their ingenuity to stage the scenes as fully as possible. Advanced Script Analysis may focus on canon-specific work such as Chekhov or American Writers.
The goal of the first year is to provide students with a set of physical habits that complement those learned in Script Analysis. The actors learn how to implement an analysis through improvisation-based exercises and scene work. The focus is on how to simplify acting and find the parallels between behavior in real life and behavior on the stage, bringing together skills learned in Moment Lab with those learned in Script Analysis. Advanced Performance Technique classes look to explore the integration of skills through their application to media-specific (such as film and television) or canon-specific (such as contemporary female playwrights) work.
In Moment Lab, actors explore their potential to “act before they think.” They are readied to dive into the given circumstances of a play with impulsive freedom, curiosity, and dynamism. By prioritizing heightened presence, holistic listening, and brave intimacy in their acting, students learn to deepen and expand their improvisational skills, with and without text. The lab encourages the honest and specific connection to another actor in each and every moment of performance. Using Sanford Meisner’s Repetition exercise as a touchstone to practice heightened moment work, and drawing on ideas and philosophies from various performance aesthetics, actors will focus on the concept of “radical presence” in their acting via a range of exercises, etudes, improvisations, and short scenes.
The first semester focuses on creating a strong, flexible instrument to support active choices by employing Chuck Jones’ methodology. Various exercises strengthen and tone the muscles involved in making sound, release excess tension and focus concentration. The class also addresses issues regarding vocal health and the care and maintenance of the professional voice. Students finish the first semester with a dependable warm-up. In the second semester, exploration of the warm-up exercises continues, while various assignments put the voice into action using a wide range of material. Advance Voice classes introduce the work of Catherine Fitzmaurice and students working on full-length productions are supported with vocal coaching as they would on a professional production.
Alumni Testimonials
“The Atlantic technique has given me so much confidence. When I get an audition or take on a new monologue, I have a toolkit that makes connecting with roles so much more fluid and natural.”
– Michelle, Class of 2018
“Learning a technique for script analysis is the greatest gift I have received as an actor.”
– Chris, Class of 2019
“I learned so much from the faculty and gained an entire group of fellow actors as friends. Being a part of that group has been invaluable toward my growth as a performer.”
– Vienna, Class of 2019
Health & Safety
In order to safeguard the health of our entire community, we are requiring all incoming and current students to be fully vaccinated and boosted. Our COVID-19 vaccination policy applies to all Atlantic faculty, staff, and incoming/returning students. Click here for additional information!
2022 Evening Conservatory Graduates
Donaidh Allen
Mary Click
Andrew Dobbie
Ekemini Ekpo
Brooke Elizabeth
Lauren Gamiel
Brea Glosson
Tess Cameron Gundlah
Luke Hodgson
Chase Lee
Christine Hillary Lee
Corinne Menzies
Genevieve Moreland
Kairis Rivera
Sierra Rostal
Kristina Shakhpazian
Brian Shaw
Louis So
David Ventura
Jason Nkosi Watt
Sinclair Willman
