In your first year, you spend time getting to know how your body, voice, imagination, and feelings are released through the elimination of tension/muscular holding. The Alexander Technique (a technique for freeing and centering the body) is the hub of the work and relates to all the other classes—voice, speech, singing, even circus. Theatre games allow you to explore "imagined realities" and evolve into a student-invented project in January.
A class called The Actor's Space explores exercises that give you an entrance into your three years of training and asks you to define theatrical and personal values.Your first year ends with a studio performance of a Shakespeare play.
The same faculty sees you through the next two years, joined by other teachers and directors along the way. Scene study begins in the first year and continues in years two and three. In these classes, through the work of a wide range of playwrights, you are guided to an understanding of process: What does going moment-to-moment mean? What really is listening? How does an actor play an intention? What's the difference between "representing" and "being"? Movement classes deal with the same subject matter in their way. Text as well as voice and speech classes challenge you to explore language and characters through a wide range of authors. You continue singing and begin to learn stage fighting, then armed combat. You learn how to be a clown, and in the second semester, you extend your ability to live inside of texts with a wide range of styles. The second year includes a cabaret performance—a highpoint of the year—that emerges from singing classes.
In the final year of training, there's an increased emphasis on individual tutorial work, specialized dialect work, and coaching in connection with productions. Important classes as you near graduation prepare you to function confidently in the professional world—taking charge of business affairs and learning how to audition as well as your many options in the world of theatre, film and television. You also have the opportunity to work on-camera with experienced professionals as well as students from the NYU Graduate Film Department.
Photo Credit:Ella Bromblin
