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levite · 02-21-2008, 04:58 PM

There are a lot of places that offer good acting workshops. Any decent university should have an acceptable acting program. The important thing is not where you go, it's who's teaching you, and what style(s) they teach. You need to work with an acting teacher that suits you. Be prepared to shop around. Picking an acting teacher is as nuanced and critical as picking a therapist, and that's not necessarily an off analogy, since a good acting workshop has elements of group therapy to it. You can't act unless you can confront yourself and know yourself, and open yourself to others.

As for style, obviously, you need to be certain it's method training. Almost no one doesn't do method of some kind or another, but there are a few holdouts here and there for the old presentational school of acting, so it's good to check. Others may have different feelings, but I was trained in Meisner method (with a seasoning of Adler method), and I am deeply convinced of the excellence and utility of Meisner. I've done a couple of workshops with people who were doing Strasberg or Hagen, and it just didn't work for me. Too abstract. My advice is to hold out for a teacher who is teaching Meisner.

You should probably start with either university courses, or lessons at a private studio. The major conservatories and professional craft schools that you can sometimes hear about-- The Actors Studio, ACT, Juilliard (USA), RADA or LAMDA (UK), NIDA (Australia), the National Theatre School, or Studio 58 (Canada)-- are hard to get into, expensive, and usually require experience before admission.

With most college or private acting programs, you either have to start with a very basic "Acting for Dummies" type of class, or if you want to go right into a real studio class, you do have to audition. Check with your chosen school: they'll tell you what to expect.

02-21-2008, 04:58 PM	#2 (permalink)
levite Minion of Joss Location: The Windy City	There are a lot of places that offer good acting workshops. Any decent university should have an acceptable acting program. The important thing is not where you go, it's who's teaching you, and what style(s) they teach. You need to work with an acting teacher that suits you. Be prepared to shop around. Picking an acting teacher is as nuanced and critical as picking a therapist, and that's not necessarily an off analogy, since a good acting workshop has elements of group therapy to it. You can't act unless you can confront yourself and know yourself, and open yourself to others. As for style, obviously, you need to be certain it's method training. Almost no one doesn't do method of some kind or another, but there are a few holdouts here and there for the old presentational school of acting, so it's good to check. Others may have different feelings, but I was trained in Meisner method (with a seasoning of Adler method), and I am deeply convinced of the excellence and utility of Meisner. I've done a couple of workshops with people who were doing Strasberg or Hagen, and it just didn't work for me. Too abstract. My advice is to hold out for a teacher who is teaching Meisner. You should probably start with either university courses, or lessons at a private studio. The major conservatories and professional craft schools that you can sometimes hear about-- The Actors Studio, ACT, Juilliard (USA), RADA or LAMDA (UK), NIDA (Australia), the National Theatre School, or Studio 58 (Canada)-- are hard to get into, expensive, and usually require experience before admission. With most college or private acting programs, you either have to start with a very basic "Acting for Dummies" type of class, or if you want to go right into a real studio class, you do have to audition. Check with your chosen school: they'll tell you what to expect. __________________ Dull sublunary lovers love, Whose soul is sense, cannot admit Absence, because it doth remove That thing which elemented it. (From "A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning" by John Donne)