High School Pre-Professional Program

9:30-3:00pm
​​Price per session: $695.00

This program is designed for High School students who enjoy theatre, performing, and learning new skills. Whether this is your first year or fifth, there are always new skills to learn and acquire to develop your acting muscles. Our courses are designed for the serious High School drama student ready to tackle more complex material in singing and acting. Whether a participant in summer workshops, High School plays & musicals, or a paid professional, there are always new skills to learn and acquire to develop your acting muscles.

These young actors will get more intense Meisner-based technique training. In the words of Sanford Meisner "Acting is doing." Students will learn the reality of doing, and continue to make strong choices, work off behavior and experience emotional penetrability. You'll focus on acting techniques to build concentration as you live truthfully under imaginary circumstances. Students will learn the beginnings of the Meisner work in repetition, activities, living in the moment, listening and answering, and working off behavior.

Strong focus on interpretation will continue in the other classes: Improvisation, Song Interpretation, and Movement for the Actor. Punctuality, attendance, conduct, and performance will be closely monitored. The high school program is divided into two sections in order to maintain a conservatory environment.

Classes in:

Meisner Acting
Sanford Meisner (Acting Faculty 1935-1990), an original member of the legendary Group Theatre, is considered one of the most influential acting teachers of the 20th century. His particularly approach to training actors developed into what is commonly known as The Meisner Technique. It is one of the foremost acting techniques taught all over the world, but nowhere more successfully than where it first began, here at the Neighborhood Playhouse. Students will participate in exercises that are crafted to give young actors the ability to live truthfully under given imaginary circumstances, which is the foundation of the work created by Mr. Meisner. This course is taught by senior faculty from the adult conservatory program - all of whom were trained to teach by Sanford Meisner.

Song Interpretation
Students will learn the technical terminology of music and the skills needed to perform a song with confidence and ease. Faculty will guide students through vocal exercises to warm them up to prepare for singing. Songs will be approached from the position of an actor with the logic, intention, and emotion behind the music & text being analyzed and then truthfully expressed. 

Improvisation
Improvisation is about spontaneity and committing to choices in performance. Improvisation class will give students the tools to become creative, impulsive, and fearless as a young actor. Students will be asked to use their imagination while the teacher guides them through effective, energetic exercises tailored to provide the skills necessary to keep their performance alive and organic. Improvisation in grounded in spontaneity, however, there will be times, when more structure and planning will be incorporated.

Movement for the Actor
Agility and range of physical motion are vital qualities for the actor. Movement is taught in all age groups and in all programs (Summer & Saturdays). The teacher works with each student on an individual level to refine their specific ability to dance and express through movement. The class will consist of warm-up, floor exercises, improv exercises, and dance combinations becoming more intricate and challenging as the students age through the program. Students will be able to use movement as a form of storytelling, understand and implement the fundamentals of Commedia Dell-Arte into performance, and apply movement exercises into character building and development.  

Monologue
This class prepares students with a one-two minute theatre monologue (s) for performing arts programs, director showcases, agents and casting directors. Building on the tools learned in the Meisner Technique Classes and improv classes that "acting is doing," this workshop will help the students interpret text and use their emotional foundation to convey meaning and make an impact in a short amount of time. This class will also help build self-esteem and confidence. Monologues will include classical and modern texts. 

Flex Courses
(Students choose one specialty class to attend at the the end of their full-day schedule)

​Improvisation 
​Improvisation is about spontaneity and committing to choices in performance. Improvisation class will give students the tools to become creative, impulsive, and fearless as a young actor. Students will be asked to use their imagination while the teacher guides them through effective, energetic exercises tailored to provide the skills necessary to keep their performance alive and organic. Improvisation in grounded in spontaneity, however, there will be times, when more structure and planning will be incorporated.

Advanced Improv & Sketch Comedy
Previous experience with improvisation is required. 
​A class for students who have already had experience with improv at the Junior School, this clinic will enhance students' abilities to listen, free associate, and collaborate. Students will be introduced to long-form improv in which they will create characters, scenes, and monologues based on an audience suggestion.

Fans of Saturday Night Live and YouTube will be liberated by this introduction to the mechanics of sketch comedy. Students will learn and practice every stage of creating short comedic scenes, from the pitch to writing, design to rehearsal, and finally performance. Students will learn how to time their lines and pauses for the best comedic effect, as well as how to shoot and edit filmed sketches on mobile devices. Culminates in a 10-30 minute performance for families.
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Acting for Film & TV
This class, also known as “acting for everything but the stage,” will help students prepare and audition for TV, Film, and Radio spots. They’ll learn technical skills and terminology, make quick acting choices grounded in truth and display vulnerability in front of the camera and/or microphone. Students will be exposed to the various scripts used for these different genres and what’s expected when you walk into the room, or self-submit material. From cold reads to rehearsed sides, these students will be knowledgable and prepared. Acting for Film & TV introduces young performers to what it means to act in front of the camera, moving through the process of being part of a production. Students are expected to act as professionals, as they get a sense of the demands of a real on-set experience. 

Click here for Course Descriptions

​Rates are subject to change. ​