he prestigious Actor Training Program (ATP) is a conservatory-style training program for students who seek careers as professional actors. Designed to prepare students for performance of classical and contemporary theatre, the curriculum is fundamentally craft-based and offers rich, diverse and intensive training in voice and speech, movement and acting. Rigorous instruction is also provided in verse drama, acting styles, audition technique, singing and dialects. The faculty is comprised of nationally and internationally recognized working professionals who bring their talents, skills and experience to the classroom. We also have a commitment to bringing in guest artists and other visiting professionals to complement our existing curriculum.

Graduates from our program regularly perform on Broadway, Off-Broadway, and with major regional theatre companies including the Actor’s Theatre of Louisville, Arena Stage, Cincinnati Playhouse In the Park, Circle Repertory Company, the Guthrie, Milwaukee Repertory Theatre, Minneapolis Children’s Theatre, the Old Globe Theatre, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Pioneer Theatre Company, Seattle Repertory Theatre, and Yale Repertory Theatre. Many pursue advanced training at leading institutions such as American Conservatory Theatre, American Repertory Theatre at Harvard, Circle in the Square, Juilliard, New York University, the University of Delaware, and Yale. Students from the ATP are regularly seen on stage, in film, and on television in the United States and abroad.

Our comprehensive course of study requires that students who successfully complete the program must be motivated, committed, hard-workers, as well as gifted. Students must demonstrate continued progress and development and pass ongoing faculty evaluations in order to remain in the program.

The curriculum provides a broad coverage of theatre rather than intensive concentration on a single segment or specialization.

Learning Outcomes

• Understanding what theatre is--its historical origins and evolution, cultural sources, socio-political power, popular appeal, and how it compares with related performance modes.
• Understanding how theatre is made--its component parts and structural elements, including script, new-script development, production design, directing, and performance, and how these both affect and are shaped by aesthetic and cultural environments.
• Understanding how theatre is received and experienced--its aesthetic properties, how audiences respond and have responded, and the range and methods of popular and scholarly critical analysis.
• Gaining a foundational and experiential knowledge of how to make theatre, including developing skills in one or more areas--e.g., acting, construction, design, directing, dramaturgy, or playwriting.