Begins August 26, 2024
Monday – Thursday
9am – 6pm et
aDDITIONAL OUTSIDE HOURS REQUIRED
Applications are Now Open! Apply by Nov 17!
Questions? Email admissions@atlantictheater.org.
The world-renowned conservatory program is a two year full-time course empowering aspiring acting professionals with technical, creative, personal rigor, and a lifelong community that fuels success beyond our doors. 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.
Full-Time Conservatory Training
Atlantic Alumna Gina Rodriguez (TIME Magazine photo by Rita Moreno)
Opportunities:
- Perform on one of Atlantic’s Off-Broadway stages
- Perform in a Virtual Showcase for industry professionals
- Graduates are eligible for an Annual Alumni Showcase
- See all of Atlantic Theater Company’s professional Off-Broadway productions & engage with the artists
- Work with a faculty of industry professionals including Tony Award nominees, Emmy Award winners, and Broadway artists
- A professional network for life
- & more!
The First Year
Start by building a solid foundation in the Atlantic Technique, with training that balances development of analytical, physical and collaborative skills. Working as an ensemble, actors engage with the fundamentals of the Atlantic Technique: script analysis, playing an action truthfully, and working moment to moment. Students synthesize their physical skills with in-class performances of scene work and look ahead to entering the profession with classes that orient them to the landscape of the theater community and introduce business skills.
Core courses: Script Analysis, Moment Lab, Performance Technique, Voice, Speech, Movement, Improv, Professional Development, Introduction to Theater in New York, Theater History, and Staging Intimacy and Violence.
Additionally, first year students participate as a part of the crew for second year performances.
The Second Year
Year two broadens the application of the Atlantic Technique to an expansive repertoire of genre, style and media-specific work, applying these skills to performance and transitioning into the professional community. Second-year students are guaranteed casting in a final production that takes place on one of Atlantic’s Off-Broadway stages as an exercise to synthesize their training. Students prepare for graduation through business classes geared towards both theater and Film/TV.
Core courses: Advanced Acting, Advanced Performance Technique, Advanced Script Analysis, Film Technique, Shakespeare, Advanced Voice, Advanced Speech, Suzuki/View Points, Stage Combat, Business, and Auditioning.
Full-Time Conservatory Courses Include:
The Suzuki Method is a rigorous physical and vocal discipline for actors created by Tadashi Suzuki and his company. Drawing on a unique combination of traditional and innovative forms, the training strives to restore the wholeness of the body as a tool for theatrical expression. The Viewpoints training is a technique of improvisation that was born out of the Post Modern dance era. In the Viewpoints training, actors explore elements of Time and Space, such as, tempo, repetition, gesture, shape, floor pattern and kinesthetic awareness. This exploration helps the actor to gain physical expressivity and to learn to build work as an ensemble. The Viewpoints training develops in an actor strength in movement, full body listening and the ability to follow a physical impulse.
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.
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. Once students have a solid understanding of the professional landscape, they prepare material – including monologues, resumes and headshots – in order effectively enter the arena. Students learn self-tape technique and set realistic, achievable goals for their entry into the profession.
A technical approach to Shakespeare immerses students in the nature and practice of poetry. Students learn to revolutionize the imagination and to investigate the experience of passion.
Students learn to deepen their understanding of specificity with on-camera study. Students perform scenes in front of the camera and then watch the work with their peers. This class helps the student to understand the technical aspects of film-making and to develop the skills required when working in front of a camera.
In this course, students examine the current landscape of the New York theater scene, investigating the artistic climate of Broadway, Off-Broadway, Off-Off Broadway and regional productions. The course covers the history of New York Theater and traces its evolution over the past two hundred and fifty years. Since the mid-eighteenth century, professional theater has acted as the beating heart of New York culture. What influence does theater have on society? How do you design a contemporary season? What are the current staging trends and where are they heading? How has the commercial success of Broadway ebbed and flowed in recent decades and why? Students are asked to attend professional productions. Their thoughts and experiences provide a rich component to class discussion as we evaluate how theatrical motifs translate from the page to the stage.
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.
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.
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.
Alumni Testimonials
“Atlantic has changed the way I perform entirely. I am grounded and strong on stage, I have a dynamic voice that allows me to take on challenging material, and a strong analysis technique that helps me navigate any play or scene I might encounter.”
– Georgia, Class of 2019
“My classmates, Atlantic staff, and faculty are a support system I know I can turn to at any point. That’s a huge piece of this thing; who are your people in this business? Mine are at Atlantic. That is so lucky.”
– Rory, Class of 2019
“At Atlantic, I think it’s all about getting reps in. I’ve done it so many times that I’m no longer afraid of the playing field. I’m capable of allowing the words to play me. Rather than me playing the words.”
– Wyatt, Class of 2019
Health & Safety
At this time we will no longer be requiring masks or proof of vaccination from Atlantic staff, faculty, or students. Click here for additional information.
2022 Graduates
Jasmine K Bernard
Rose Callaghan
Max Cattana
Julia Corrin Coffey
Rachel Collignon
Emma Crockett
Zoe Dean
Sara Demetree
Aaliyah Dru
Xander Furman
Kaila Galinat
Joni Grommesh
Diletta Guglielmi
Lauren Hambleton
Matthew X Wong Ken
Charlie Lockwood
Brittany Molesworth
James Overton
Samantha Overton
Helen Owolabi
Miranda Renée
Olivia Rubin
Grace Rucci
Kailah Santos
Sara Santucci
Maya Shoham
Amanda Lynn Smalley
Christine Treuhold
Anand Tripathi
