Atlantic Acting School: train where the work happens
Train in the heart of New York with Atlantic Acting School, where acclaimed conservatory training, industry-leading professionals and close ties to an award-winning theatre company prepare aspiring actors to thrive professionally
For aspiring actors, Atlantic Acting School offers something unique: internationally renowned conservatory training in New York, just a few blocks from Broadway, within a community closely connected to a multi-award-winning theatre company.
Atlantic’s acclaimed acting technique, Practical Aesthetics, grew out of workshops at New York University in the early 1980s and was founded on a simple principle: the actor’s job is to serve the story. Through detailed script analysis, playable actions and moment-to-moment responsiveness, it gives actors practical tools designed to replace mystery with clarity and preparation with freedom.
“It was a reaction to the Method in the early 1980s,” explains executive director Mary McCann. “This technique is really about telling the story of the play. What is our job as an actor in order to do that?”
McCann has been part of that story almost from its beginning. One of the original students to study Practical Aesthetics, she became Atlantic Theater Company’s first artistic director, began teaching the technique in her mid-20s and has run the school for around 30 years.
It is important to McCann that the technique does not remain frozen in the 1980s. As she and the faculty observe performances and talk to students, they identify how the training can continue to evolve.
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The rise of phones and social media, for example, has prompted new exercises around connection, community and placing attention on the other actor rather than on oneself.
“We need to explore what the truth of the moment is differently,” McCann says, “because today’s students have grown up with different ways of communicating.”
Training at Atlantic remains so up-to-date and responsive because faculty work is conducted by active professionals from across theatre, film and television, who bring their current experience into the classroom. The school’s close relationship with the multi-award-winning Atlantic Theater Company also creates an unusually direct route between training and work. Over four decades, the company has won more than 30 Tony awards for its groundbreaking theatre work.
McCann describes students “walking out the door of the classroom and on to the stage together”. The school recently held an internal open call for students and alumni, giving them the chance to audition for the theatre company’s upcoming season.
‘You don’t know what it is that will release each student, but when you finally watch them soar in front of an audience, it’s really exciting’ – Mary McCann
“We want students to learn the technique, and then work, and we want to work with them,” McCann says. That is why the school’s motto is ‘Atlantic actors work’, a phrase borne out by its many successful alumni, including Rose Byrne, Anna Chlumsky and Elizabeth Olsen.
McCann makes clear that a successful career needs a strong grounding. The school offers various pathways for aspiring actors who are ready to learn.
The two-year full-time conservatory is a five-day-a-week immersion, while the evening conservatory offers intensive training around other commitments.
Classes are demanding, punctuality matters and professionalism is expected from the outset. “It’s like training for a marathon,” McCann says.
The reward, though, is enormous. “It is so gratifying seeing students develop from their first day,” McCann explains. “You don’t know what it is that will release each student, but when you finally watch them soar in front of an audience, it’s really exciting.”
For more information, visit: atlanticactingschool.org
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