Acting II

• Implement the tools of the first year training and apply to plays of various periods and styles
• Style works focuses on scenes from Chekhov and Shaw and the speeches of Greek Messengers
• Examine the use of intention/obstacle in plays of heightened language
• Explore the work of contemporary playwrights in scene study

Movement II

• Focuses on the fundamentals of physical conditioning including flexibility and alignment with exercises from yoga, Pilates and modern dance
• Explores the basic understanding and control of the body
• Prepares for contact improvisation through spatial and group awareness, tumbling and lift skils, and choreographic technique
• Incorporates a clowning unit with improvisation, guided exercise and collectively generated performance

Combat

• Encompasses the skills required for executing violence on the stage in a safe artistic manner
• Covers unarmed combat and single rapier, and may include broadsword, quarterstaff, rapier and dagger

Musical Theatre

Musical Theatre Styles

• Continues dance training through musical theatre study.
• Apply ballet technique to combinations based on the styles of choreographers in musical theatre from 1930s to the present
• Supports this work through warm up, across the floor work, and learning combinations
• Emphasizes the rapid acquisition and retention of combinations for dance auditions

Musical Theatre Ensemble

• Focuses on the importance of every actor on the stage through work on a musical theatre ensemble piece which is shared with the Conservatory at the end of the term
• Through projects and essays, students create fully realized characters to exist within the chosen piece
• Musical Director teaches melodies, harmonies and vocal dynamics which students work to maintain through their performance and characterizations.

Shakespeare II

• Develop advanced skills in textual analysis by focused work on a single Shakespearean text
• Expand and hone mastery of rhetorical devices, scansion, rhythm, personalization of imagery and activation of language
• Students investigate through soliloquies and scenework

Voice and Speech II

• Build stamina, resonance, and breath-energy through the techniques of Rodenberg, Fitzmorris and Lessac
• Directly activate the voice from physical and emotional impulse to achieve greater freedom and power
• Hone Muscles of speech through poetry, verse, logic and rhetoric texts and striving for clarity, color and sensitivity to language nuance
• Acquisition of dialects

Circus Skills

• Encourages students to embrace each learning opportunity and to remove "I could never do that" from their vocabularly
• Promotes focus in the moment - each time is fresh and unique
• Introduces students to tumbling, juggling, balancing, bongo board, mini-trampoline, tight wire

Actor's Lab II

• Introduce students to non-realistic Acting Styles focusing on solo and choral exercise using classic Greek texts.
• Explore physical and vocal size through the Heroics vocal approach. Participate in student created pieces exploring impulse, gesture, rhythm, mask and textual deconstruction.

Singing Techniques

• Emphasizes individual coaching for the singing actor
• Utilizes and explores Alexander Technique, Carl Stough Breathing Coordination
• Works to clear unnecessary habits of tension
• Draws on a variety of musical theatre styles to encourage open channels within the body/voice to move freely, powerfully and expressively

Audition Techniques & the Business of Being an Actor

• Explores audition techniques for theatre, musical theatre, callbacks, and university/graduate school auditions.
• Investigates the business elements in the acting professional's life.
• Work includes mock auditions and callbacks, communication with theatre companies and industry professionals.
• Workshops and guest speakers are a part of this feature.