Atlantic Theater Company Acting School — Local services in New York

IMHO: far and away the best acting classes in New York. Great training. Serious facilities in Chelsea built out in the Google building with its own off-broadway theater up the block

When I moved to NY, I got interested in their evening program through a friend, who knew I needed a class with a downtown Manhattan connection, closer to work.( I also wanted a quick connection to the subways. I didn't want some far-flung Brooklyn location that gets sketchy and desolate after 10pm on weeknights in the winter.)

Review the success of the alumni: so many of the most versatile actors you see on film --with big careers like, say, Elizabeth Olsen or Gina Rodriguez or Stephanie Hsu-- got their start at the Atlantic.

Because the Atlantic Theater is so prestigious and well-known for cutting edge material, the alumni get a more attention from people in the industry, ...

I did not have a good experience with one class I took and I realize that is not the best barometer of the overall school. It was a class they put together at the last minute as there was a waiting list. What we got was weeks of unconnected theatre games of repetition straight from the BFA handbook. The instructor didn’t seem to know what to do every class and seem to just make it up and have us walk around the room for an hour while they watched. It was a beginning acting class but that doesn’t mean it had to have nothing to do with acting. The instructor was in over their head and seemed to get a little ego kick from the class. Yes, it was bizarre. My emails to the instructor went unanswered and we were never asked for feedback on the class. That really shocked me. Maybe this works for some folks, but it was a waste of time and...

I went to their recent one-act festival (summer 2023) and I have to say it was bizarre and disappointing.

The students seemed very talented, and that they were doing the best work they could given the circumstances.

However, the program/content choices seemed dubious to me. This was a series of one-act plays, perhaps 80% of which loosely had something to do with "outer space," and the remaining 20% were strange representations of fairly unengaging and confusing interpersonal drama. Everything was poorly-written.

To me, it seems like some of the program directors really phoned it in on this one. What strange choices. I'd say I'll give them another shot, but...