Followspot spring 2015 final 2

FOLLOWSPOT TISCH DRAMA

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A Day in Studio TISCH DRAMA’S STUDIO SYSTEM IS LIKE NO OTHER

There are many ways to train for a career in the performing arts. With its unique studio system, Tisch Drama exposes students to many of them. In addition to a rigorous Theatre Studies and general education curriculum, students in the Department of Drama are “in studio” three full days a week.

From about 9:00am to 6:00pm, they study a conservatory program designed to hone their creative technique in classes that include acting, movement, voice, scene study, production and design, and more. “Our goal is to provide students with the artistic skills and intellectual know-how for a sustained career in the performing arts,” explains Admissions Director, Chris Andersson.

Upon admission to the department, incoming Tisch Drama students are placed in a “primary” training studio. For two years, students focus on learning the basic vocabulary, skills, and exercises of a specific technique— Meisner’s repetition, for example, or Strasberg’s sense memory, Focusing on one approach for an extended period enables students to lay a strong and confident artistic foundation.

In consultation with their faculty and advisors, students in their junior and senior years can choose to explore additional techniques in the department’s “advanced” training studios. In The Classical Studio, for example, students concentrate largely on the works of Shakespeare. The Stonestreet Screen Acting Studios teaches on-camera acting. Advanced training options are also available at study away sites that include a semester at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London and in spring 2016 a new curriculum will be launched in Berlin.

In this issue of FollowSpot, recent and current Drama students talk about a typical day in studio. It’s only one of many days of artistic exploration and creative endeavor at Tisch Drama.

ATLANTIC ACTING SCHOOL PATI AMOROSO

Studio was extremely exciting today! The Atlantic Company believes in the motto “learning by doing.” I arrived at 7:30am with coffee and suitcase in hand, ready to change costumes for three different scenes. I started by presenting a ten-minute scene alongside another actress. The other actors watched and offered insights, while the teacher directed us, improving our work.

Then I quickly changed into my corset and puffy dress for my self-written solo performance as Marie Antoinette. The project consisted of many weeks of research for a portrayal of the 14year-old Archduchess.

Quickly, after that one-hour experience, I jumped into the skin of a 5-year-old child talking about God in a two-minute scene from Parallel Lives. Finally in my last class of the day, exhausted but completely satisfied, I had the chance to improvise a scene. During the exercise, I focused on speech and learning about the anatomy of the body in order to produce a powerful, yet natural, stage voice. I worked with four directors in one day. It was amazing!

A native of Sao Paulo, Brazil, Pati has performed Off-Broadway as an opera-singing poodle in Bark! The Musical.

A Word from the Studio At the Atlantic Acting School, we train actors in Practical Aesthetics, an acting technique and philosophy developed by David Mamet and William H. Macy. Students learn to act, to be a part of an ensemble, and to create their own work by continuing the tradition of the Group Theater and forming a theater company.

Members of our alumni family have fulfilling careers in theatre, film, and television.

In my early years at NYU, studying acting and taking academic classes, I met lifelong friends and colleagues. NYU is truly a community, one that may seem large to you today but will feel smaller with each passing year.

We look forward to meeting the class of 2019!

Mary McCann, Executive Director

STELLA ADLER STUDIO OF ACTING MAX MEYERS I have breakthrough moments all the time in studio. Just today, I took a step forward during Voice and Speech class. We were working with a sonnet and our teacher asked us to face a wall and sing it, while maintaining a "connection to an acting partner.” We often sing during exercises, and I always get self-conscious. People know that I love to sing, and I often feel that I am being scrutinized when I do it in class.

Today, I made a decision to not worry about what others were thinking. I ended up connecting with my partner more than I ever had this year. I told my teacher about this realization.

We concluded that the biggest obstacle standing in my way of finding “truth with ease” in my acting is the way I judge my work. I'm looking forward to letting go of my inhibitions even more.

Max was born in Cincinnati, Ohio. He started studying theatre at the age of seven and sings with the N'Harmonics, NYU's “loudest, craziest,” a cappella group.

A Word from the Studio What a pleasure it is to greet you and welcome you to the community of Tisch Drama. It is with considerable family pride that I do so, as it was under the leadership of my father, David Oppenheim, who served as Dean of the Tisch School of the Arts from 1969 to 1992, that this unique arrangement between New York University, the various studios, and actor training programs was born and took shape.

The Stella Adler Studio of Acting, founded by my grandmother in 1949, is particularly comfortable in this relationship with the University. After all, what animated Stella’s work and entire worldview is the insight that “growth as an actor and growth as a human being are synonymous.”

We heartily embrace this ethos today and strongly advocate the idea of actor as thinker, as engaged citizen, as ever-evolving human being.

And so it is with great excitement that we hope to welcome you into this utterly unique beehive of theatrical and academic activity!

Tom Oppenheim, Artistic Director

EXPERIMENTAL THEATRE WING ARIANA TAVERAS Recently my classmate and I were working on our first scene together in an acting class. At the time, we were experiencing personal issues that made it difficult to be fully present in our work. We were distracted and weren’t able to receive from each other and become affected by the scene.

I spoke with my teacher about these challenges. Together, we discussed how we have to decide if we can work at a given moment. I realized I had to make that choice for myself. My partner and I spent time just talking during one of our rehearsals. We shared our thoughts about the obstacles preventing us from connecting to one another. We helped each other bring down walls.

We were able to work together in a way that was more productive.

We realized how helpful it could be to take a step back from the work of acting in order to move forward. We learned what it means to really trust the person you're working with. I made a really great friend, too.

Ariana was born in the Bronx and raised in Newark, New Jersey, where she attended a Catholic high school. She is excited to live and study in New York City.

A Word from the Studio The Experimental Theatre Wing provides students with a rigorous actor-training program that will prepare them to meet the far-ranging demands of contemporary and traditional d i re c t o r s , c h o re o g r a p h e r s , c o m p o s e r s filmmakers, and playwrights. ETW’s goal is to facilitate the development of young artists who have the skill, vision, courage, and will—as well as the personal and social consciousness—to create vital new theatre.

ETW was established at NYU in 1975. The first faculty was drawn from major experimental theatre companies and leaders in contemporary theatre, dance, and music. This group collaborated to develop the core ETW curriculum—a program based on innovative approaches to physically based acting. ETW’s training covers a wide range of approaches to acting, dance, self-scripting, and vocal performance. Rather than imposing a single aesthetic frame, the ETW curriculum provides its students with a myriad of performance skills, while helping them discover and shape their own artistic visions.

Rosemary Quinn, Director

MEISNER STUDIO NIKITA CHAUDHRY

A Word from the Studio

My day started with movement class, followed by voice and speech, and ended with acting. In between classes, I ate lunch with my fellow classmates. We stressed out about finding activities for acting exercises, chatted together, laughed, cried, and screamed about our lives.

Many years ago my husband received a card from The National Portrait Museum in Washington, D.C. On it was the unmistakable back of the playwright Samuel Beckett watching an actor in rehearsals, with a quote from one of his short stories on the bottom of the picture:

I was completely unsure of what to expect entering Meisner. I knew it was going to be a wild ride. And it has been, but so much crazier and more incredible that I could have ever imagined.

My classmates have become my family and my rock. Working with this ensemble has allowed me to explore parts of myself that I didn't know were there. I learn something new every moment I am in studio. While I was worried at first, I feel that I have been placed in the perfect studio. I feel like we were destined to train as artists—and human beings—together.

I pinned it up over my husband’s desk and, later, printed a copy and put it on the studio bulletin board when I became the Director of the Meisner Studio. Years later, one of our alums projected the image and painted it on the wall to inspire us all to live with this understanding that nothing really worthwhile is attained without risking failure in every venture, every class, every production. It is the spirit of adventure we strive to imbue our students with, the creative state of the artist. It is the excitement we feel as we begin the journey with each new exercise, each new skill introduced, each new play we attempt to bring to life.

Nikita is from Baltimore, Maryland. When she arrived in New York City, she worried about missing her family, friends, and golden retriever, Krishy. Today, Nikita feels lucky to have found “exhilarating communities” at Tisch Drama.

“No Matter. Try Again. Fail Again. Fail Better.”

From April 30th to May 9th, the studio’s thirdyear students and new grads are presenting the American premiere of Lars Von Triere’s Dogville, directed by acclaimed playwright and director, Robert O’Hara. Come to a performance if you’re in town. I think you will be excited by the work that you will experience.

Vicki Hart, Director

NEW STUDIO ON BROADWAY JAMES FRANCH

Today in studio I had acting, voice, ballet, vocal performance, and sight singing. I performed a Shakespearean sonnet, danced for an hour and a half, worked on a scene, and sang a hilarious song. On top of that, I got to watch my best friends do incredibly moving, original work.

We all get nervous about acting class because it's intense and personal, but once you are in a scene, everything else can drop away and you remember why you love acting so much.

This semester my breakthrough moment was when I realized how to trust my instincts and relax into my acting. I started having so much fun performing, more than I’ve ever had before.

James is from Atlanta, Georgia. He loves to dance and says that he has found “the natural grace and joy in movement” at Tisch Drama.

A Word from the Studio The New Studio on Broadway integrates foundational acting training in vocal and physical techniques by drawing upon both the repertoire of the American musical and the classical acting canon to hone the actor’s instrument in all aspects of both disciplines.

The course of study emphasizes exposure to new work, world music, and contemporary, global, diverse performance forms. Teaching students the power and value of the ensemble, the young practitioners of both acting and music theatre have their core acting, speech, and movement classes together.

New Studio focuses on the union of rigorous physical and vocal training, always connected to the manifestation of character, the clear playing of a dramatic action, and the illumination of ideas within the text. Rather than embracing and espousing a single methodology or approach, the studio’s classes offer practical application of competencies required for an actor to develop a dynamic versatility that will enable them to fluidly move through a multi-faceted range of performance styles.

Kent Gash, Director

A YEAR

IN PRODUCTION

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: Our Lady of 121st Street, The Secret Garden, Engaged, The Wild Party, Troilus & Cressida

PLAYWRIGHTS HORIZONS THEATER SCHOOL MARK TAYLOR

Playwriting is amazing. In today’s class we analyzed scenes that were written by my classmates. They were read out loud, without rehearsal and the class shared their experience of each piece with its author.

My breakthrough this semester was realizing that character is not a mask that an actor lives behind. “Character” is permission to release elements of yourself that you would normally keep suppressed. You will never find a character looking for it outside of yourself. You have to find it within.

I was terrified on my first day of studio, but throughout the year exciting new ideas were presented to me at every turn. Now that I’ve learned to become comfortable letting my guard down, I’ve been able to take them all in.

Mark comes from Watertown, New York.

Since arriving at NYU, he has developed an interest in avant-garde theatre and has performed at La MaMa Experimental Theatre.

A Word from the Studio At Playwrights Horizons Theater School, students make original, innovative. and risk taking theater that seeks to answer those questions that most excite the minds and spirits of our young, emerging artists. Our students build and present work from the first to the last day of class, developing artistic muscle through a process-focused training program that is both rigorous and collaborative.

April is a particularly exciting time at our studio, seeing as production season is in full swing.

Our students will perform, write, direct, devise, design, film, choreograph, workshop, stage manage, and produce twenty-one productions this semester, including a student-produced festival, a new musical, and an original film.

With the support and guidance of fellow students, faculty, and artistic partners ranging from the staff of Pulitzer Prize-winning Off-Broadway theater Playwrights Horizons, to downtown innovators our students really know how to put on a show! Performances are ongoing between now and the end of the semester. Don't miss it!

Jean Andzulis, Director

PRODUCTION AND DESIGN STUDIO AUDREY KETCHELL An average day in studio is hard to describe since a studio day is hardly average. On any given day we learn so much—from hand drafting and puppet making to how a not-forprofit theatre company is run. When I’m not in class, I can usually be found in studio with the other members of my year, discussing upcoming projects, various productions, or if we should listen to show tunes or childhood pop music during “Fundamentals of Painting” class.

We have “Fundamentals of Stagecraft” every day. In that course, we learn the basic skills of costuming, lighting, scenery, and sound design. In other classes we learn about drafting, theatre organizations, and more. The days are long but always filled with new and interesting things to learn—and lots of laughs.

Audrey is a native New Yorker. She loves the way design enhances the magic of theatre, transporting audiences out of the everyday and into the world of the play.

A Word from the Studio The Production and Design Studio has been thoroughly enjoying our new studio spaces. In the fall of 2014 we moved into three renovated studios: a fantastically well-equipped lighting and sound lab, a spacious computer lab and seminar space, and finally a bright, naturally lit studio, overlooking Broadway. (You'll be able to tell your friends you're designing on Broadway, OK - officially "lower" Broadway...)

We have been fortunate to have a visiting scenic design professor from the Shanghai Theatre Academy. Professor Alice Shi has been observing classes, adding her opinion to design c r i t i q u e , a n d w i l l p re s e n t l e c t u re s o n contemporary scenic design in China. Recently our costume students went to a dress rehearsal of the new musical Something Rotten.

Several students interned on this show, and they were excited to see their names in Broadway Playbills!

Finally, the production season is on a roll, from main stage and studio shows to rep productions of Henry V and Romeo and Juliet. It's a very active spring here with lots of opportunities to be involved with shows.

Chris Jaehnig, Director

LEE STRASBERG THEATRE AND FILM INSTITUTE TERREASE AIKEN Like all of the studios, Strasberg’s training is intense. I think the studio’s “method acting” not only improves your acting capabilities, it also gives you a better appreciation of life. That helps me become a more truthful actor.

We did sensory work in acting class last semester. I was led through a “place” exercise and asked to recreate a childhood home. As I practiced the exercise, I became overwhelmed with emotions when I started to remember things about my early home, a place that I haven't thought about in years. I was able to recreate a past experience as if it were happening for the first time. Now I can use this on stage.

Terrease was born in Upstate New York, and is a professional harpist.

A Word from the Studio Our program is student-centric. We encourage our actors to be inquisitive, make brave choices, and take risks. The Lee Strasberg Method trains actors to use their physical, mental, and emotional experience to conceive the character.

It provides them with a craft that helps them create a reality and respond truthfully under imaginary circumstances.

Our students interact with established actors, playwrights, and directors, who teach classes, give StrasbergTALKS, and direct studio productions. Each year, the senior Practicum Program culminates with the performance of an original play commissioned for the class. This summer, the Institute was excited to be invited to an international theater festival in Poland for the second time and will present a recent production of Adam Rapp’s Red Light Winter.

Victoria Krane, President

THE CLASSICAL STUDIO MOLLY O’BRIEN One of the cornerstones of The Classical Studio is the idea of “Yes, and...” Some acting instructors approach teaching with a focus on, “No, you’re not quite getting it but try again.” The Classical Studio never negates an idea. Instead its teachers take whatever concept you bring in and add to it. “Yes, and what if you looked at it THIS way?” It requires thinking on your feet but it makes rehearsals that much more challenging.

This year, we’re presenting Romeo and Juliet twice—during the fall and spring semesters.

At our first spring rehearsal, I felt myself approach a scene exactly as I had performed it earlier this year. Our directors encouraged us to discover something new and make the spring performances totally different from the show we played in the fall. Somehow a light bulb went off and the scene came alive in a way I never could have predicted. I realized that there is no one “right” way to do anything in acting, nor is there a ceiling to how much you can learn. Half the fun is playing around with that spontaneity of discovery.

Molly was born and raised just outside Boston, and says she has as much “Beantown pride” as any person could. It should come as no surprise that Molly loves Boston’s sports teams.

A Word from the Studio The Classical Studio is one of Drama’s advanced training studios. Students can audition for the studio after two years of primary training. The Classical Studio is a productionoriented ensemble concentrating largely on Shakespeare as a basis for the acting of both classical and modern texts. Our alumni have found success well beyond Shakespeare: in Broadway musicals, on TV, and in film.

Each semester, a complete play is presented, focusing on the interaction of actor and language. By the end of the year, students will have participated in sixteen performances.

“Spending a year devoted to the range of challenges Shakespeare's writing presents to the actor will prepare you for anything written before or since,” says Daniel Spector, the studio’s Associate Director.

Acting classes at The Classical Studio focus on the intensive development and presentation of monologues, soliloquies, and scenes. In the second semester, added emphasis is placed on the development of contemporary monologues for professional auditions.

Louis Scheeder, Director

STONESTREET SCREEN ACTING STUDIOS SAM FINN CUTLER A day at Stonestreet, no matter what class you're in, is all about making the transition from a student to a working professional. First semester is structured around classes that prepare us for the change, while second semester gives us full responsibility. Classes continue, but the environment for second semester is one of collaboration. Stonestreet treats us as working professionals and gives us the tools to take our careers to the next level. We learn the “ins and outs” of the business, prepare for showcases with agents and casting directors, and get time in front of a camera to practice our craft and build material for our demo reels.

This semester I filmed a scene that I had written. I was given the chance to take charge and create the material I wanted to be doing, as well as the professional-level resources and equipment for that material to see the light of day. Watching the edited film of a script that I had created was extremely exciting, and encouraged me to keep going.

Sam grew up in dairy country, Jericho, Vermont. An accomplished guitarist, singer, and martial artist, Sam’s greatest passion is to entertain, and “to give people whatever bit of peace and joy” that he can.

A Word from the Studio Recently a slew of alums came back to talk with students about their work, their time at Stonestreet, and life after Tisch Drama. While they were unique, their stories were quite similar.

Many are in front of and behind the camera.

They’re acting, directing, writing, and producing.

The alums shared how their advanced training at Stonestreet empowered them; how it built on their primary training and was a gateway to doing the kind of work they loved.

The alums seemed to be enjoying their current projects. They were creating new work and said they weren’t disabled by the limitations of the business. Instead they were navigating, changing, and challenging the performing arts industry. They were the drivers of their own careers and artistic work, and I’m glad our training had a part in inspiring that confidence.

We look forward to meeting future Tisch Drama students, and to working with them in our film studio's unique conservatory program and professional-level environment.

Alyssa Rallo Bennett, Artistic Director

ADVISEMENT

A HELPING HAND FROM DRAMA’S STUDENT SERVICES The list of opportunities available to NYU/Tisch Drama students is enormous. There is primary studio, advanced studio, theatre studies and general education curricula, study away, studio productions, StageWorks productions, StageWorks production showcases, minors, double majors, (double minors!), and much, much more.

“It’s exciting but it can be a lot to sort through,” said Scott Loane, Student Services Director.

“It’s important that students know they don’t have to do that on their own.”

Each Tisch Drama student is assigned an advisor who will work with him or her from Orientation Week through graduation. Some alumni even come back to chat with their advisor. The advisement team is comprised of higher education professionals with backgrounds in the performing arts. They are experts in assisting students to get the most out of their NYU experience and all that the Department of Drama has to offer. The advisement team helps students to articulate interests, identify courses and opportunities that feed their passions, and navigate the complexities of the university.

FollowSpot is published by the Department of Drama of NYU/Tisch School of the Arts and edited by Joe McGowan. We welcome your comments at tisch.drama.ug@nyu.edu.

WELCOME

NEWS FROM OUR DEPARTMENT CHAIRS

KENNETH NOEL MITCHELL

EDWARD ZITER

SHANGA PARKER

ROSEMARY QUINN

Chair

Associate Chair, Professional Training

Associate Chair, Production & Performance

Associate Chair, External Outreach/Admin.

What are the roads to success?

We of course are extremely proud of our many alums working on Broadway and re g i o n a l t h e a t re a n d i n f i l m a n d television. We are just as proud of those alums for whom theatre training has lead to rich and fulfilling lives as teachers, entrepreneurs, and in countless other professions.

I have the opportunity to meet with faculty and staff from all ten of the professional training studios affiliated with the department. Together we gather and review syllabi, discuss curricular matters and faculty development, and address student concerns. It is such a pleasure being able to collaborate with people who are so passionate about teaching and learning about acting.

This year has seen an explosion of production all around the department.

Shakespeare’s Troilus & Cressida launched our StageWorks season, followed by the Victorian comedy Engaged, the musical The Secret Garden, the drama Our Lady of 121st Street, and finishing with Dogville, about a woman on the run from gangsters.

Exciting things are happening abroad! Beyond our campus in New York City lies a world of opportunity within NYU's Global Network. With NYU Abu Dhabi and NYU Shanghai, our new degree-granting campuses, as well as eleven international academic centers across five continents, NYU offers an array of global experiences.

Among the many shows and rehearsal projects this semester in some of our studios: Romeo & Juliet and Henry V (in rep!), Dark of the Moon, a drama set in Appalachia, 27 students tap-dancing to classic Gershwin in Crazy for You, and Ultimate Beauty Bible, a brand-new dark comedy about sex, death, accessories, and friendship.

Our goal is to offer our students opportunities to perform, design and direct in large and small scale projects and productions of the widest variety.

Many new sites are also under discussion within the Department of Drama. Our aim is to provide students a semester-long immersion into a culture or theatrical practice unique to its origin.

In the spring of 2016 we will celebrate our inaugural semester in Berlin, where the students will participate in classes and workshops led by the finest German theatre artists. So from the moment they arrive, we encourage students to think about where they’d like to study away during their advance training.

Regardless of the many roads they take, our graduates are reinventing the fields they enter. That's what comes of synthesizing rigorous training in diverse acting, directing, and design methodologies, sustained inquiry into the history of the stage and analysis of performance, and the humanities and science offerings of a great research university. There's an exciting synergy in the Department of Drama at NYU. Come be a part of it.

While the methodologies differ, what all of the studios have in common is excellent training and a strong identification with the Department of Drama and New York University. It is a great joy to work with such skilled practitioners and to assist them in educating young, emerging artists at Tisch Drama.