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WHAT IS STONESTREET STUDIOS?
Stonestreet
pioneered the craft and teaching of screen and film acting
when other acting schools and pundits said there was no
such thing as a craft of "film acting." Others
claim to have started earlier, but it was Stonestreet that
elevated film acting to an artform, to think of it as a
unique artform, and tried to understand it as a craft, rather
than some simple adjustment from stage acting.
Stonestreet
is an acting conservatory that does not instruct in just
ONE acting technique. We respect all backgrounds, all training,
and we have instructors and working professionals that do
NOT decry any technique. We are an OPEN acting school, the
primary focus of which is the art and craft of screen and
film acting.
Stonestreet
also pioneered the concept of "actor empowerment"
in film. Stonestreet does not believe actors should wait
around for filmmakers, casting directors, agents and producers
to "discover" them, or cast them. At Stonestreet,
we empower actors by helping them make their own films,
and we give them the tools and the contacts to do just that.
And we need not simply point to the work our acting students
get, but the films they have made and are making in our
program:
The 47 Floor, an internet dramatic series
The Code, a feature film
Sonnets in the City, a feature film
Revengers, a feature
film
The Pack, a feature
film
Miscast, a television pilot
AND to add to that list, Stonestreet students have made
hundreds of short films, many of which have been and continue
to be in major film festivals. We are proud of them, and
we show them to you on the internet. Check them out at www.stonestreetmovies.com.
In addition, Stonestreet produces several short movies a year cast with our students and written by writer-students from the NYU Department of Dramatic Writing. These short films are showcased each year in the Stonestret-Goldberg Film Festival.
In 1991, Alyssa founded Stonestreet Studios, a film and television studio in downtown Chelsea, New York City that develops and produces projects for film and TV. Stonestreet Studios is the home of The Stonestreet Screen Acting Workshop where she trains NYU Tisch School of the Arts Drama students in acting, directing, and producing as part of their BFA degree program.
In 1982, after having studied acting with renowned Robert Lewis, as well as the techniques of Sanford Meisner, Lee Strasberg, and Stella Adler, Alyssa worked professionally as an actor, in both the theater and in many films with such directors as Woody Allen, Franco Zeffirelli, Jeremy Kagan et al, soaps, pilots and commercials, she started teaching actors about the differences between film and theater acting as well as how to adapt and use their theater training for multiple types of screen acting.
In 1987, she was invited to teach Acting for Film & Television in the Drama Department at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts along with Acting as A Business where she had received a BFA and later an MA in Theater and Psychology. Alyssa taught in the Drama Department while becoming the Director of Acting Training and overseeing the conservatories (Stella Adler, Lee Strasberg, Experimental Theater Wing, Atlantic Theater Company and Playwrights Horizons) that serve the Drama Department's BFA students. While at NYU she began to create a more in depth program, that allowed students to train in the environment that they would later work in, take their training from audition to production level, and to not only prepare to become a professional actor but to open doors and build bridges from school to the professional world before students graduated. She also initiated the Industry Auditions in the Drama Department so that Drama students would have an opportunity to reach the industry professionals. In 1991, she opened her own studio, Stonestreet Studios, which officially became one of the upper level conservatories for NYU Tisch School of the Arts Drama Department. Over the next seventeen years she continued to innovate and expand the program and the studio to serve students needs as actors continuing to train for the screen and the profession.
Stonestreet
Changes Workshop Name
Stonestreet
Studios has officially changed the name of its Workshop
to the Stonestreet Screen Acting Workshop.
We used to refer to ourselves as the Stonestreet Film and
Television Acting Worksop. But increasingly, the differences
between film and television , and the proliferation of venues
for “screen” acting, from one-hundred foot arena
screens to the tiny screens of an iPod and the Youtube window
on a computer monitor, have made it, we think, necessary
to change how we think about acting for the screen. “Film-like" medium shot acting appears on television, and
broad comedic acting shot in wide angles appear in film.
The distinctions between film and television are becoming
specious. So it is “screen” acting we are teaching,
the realities presented by the great variety of screens
that fill the entertainment space, and how actors can adjust
to those realities. So it is not only screen versus stage
acting, but it is “large screen” versus “small
screen” acting. Does this make a difference? Should
it make a difference? Stonestreet struggles with these issues,
and has created a learning environment where these new realities
are explored, fleshed out, debated, and together, student
and teacher as well as actor and director, will garner a
continuing wisdom about the demands on, and the beauty of,
the craft of screen acting. Joining our Workshop is to join
us on this journey of exploration. Stonestreet does not
re-hash with religious mantra (though we have regard and
respect for the work that has come before) the old thinking
about acting and technique but attempt to continually question
and grapple with the changing demands placed on the craft
of acting.
Stonestreet's Philosophy
The
primary driving philosophy of the Stonestreet Screen Acting
Workshop is that the craft of screen acting is different,
indeed, significantly different, than stage acting. Screen
acting is a different artform than theater, and the screen deserves
equivalent respect to theater as a venue for the actor to
develop a special craft, a craft that is both extremely
difficult, challenging, not to mention magical and mysterious.
We believe that film acting is an artform, a craft, all
onto itself, not some minor adjustment to stagecraft! Are
we an "on camera" acting conservatory? NO! We
are a film acting conservatory with cameras.
Why
"screen"? There is "stage acting" and
there is "screen acting." And there are many types
of screens, from 100 foot arena screens to iPods and YouTube
screens. What are the adjustments from stage, and what are
the differences between the variety of screens?
We
do not simply provide students with professional casting
directors who "teach" "on-camera" acting.
We believe such an approach is a disservice to students
as well as derogatory to the special craft of film acting.
Screen acting is not just some minor adjunct to stage acting
that is conferred upon or taught to students by casting
directors and agents. Screen acting is surprisingly difficult,
fresh, new and different...more different than pundits of
theater training are generally willing to admit. At Stonestreet,
we recognize that film acting is a craft. Read on for further
clarification.
In
addition, unlike other "on-camera" conservatories,
we are not dominated by just ONE technique. We at Stonestreet
make it a fundamental requirement of our faculty for them
to be trained, understand and respect the great variety
of technical training that exists. And if a student's training
is weak, we introduce him or her to the new and various
techniques. If his or her training is very strong and limited
to one technique, we open their eyes to others, and assist
in adapting their technique to the demands of film.
Reflections on Acting Training
Acting
is an artform and a craft. It is both extremely difficult
and delicate, and often provokes heated and almost religious
debate as to what acting techniques are preferable. In addition
to the doctrines promulgated about acting technique, many
professional actors, directors and drama instructors believe,
with dogmatic conviction, that live theater is the only
venue where an actor's craft can be realized, and further
they espouse that the stage is a higher artform than film
and television. Many professionals often promote the notion
that a great theater actor need only make minor adjustments
for film and television. Theatrical drama conservatories
promote the false notion that film acting is simply a matter
of cheating to the camera, or "sitting on" certain
impulses. The Stonestreet Film & Television Acting Workshop
debunks the foregoing notions and trains actors to understand
the numerous and significant differences between theater
and film.
Have
you ever sat in an acting class and heard the teacher exclaim
that a student's work in class was "good" or "bad",
and you scratched your head thinking just the opposite?
"Good" acting and "bad" acting is something
for an audience to judge, not just a teacher. The instructors
at Stonestreet believe that an actor can master a technique
but nevertheless be "boring" or "uninteresting."
Within Stonestreet's film acting classes, a student's film
work is truly put to the test. Can you hold an audience,
can you rivet them to your performance on camera? Although
the opinion of the acting teacher is important, it is crucial
to remember that acting teachers have a tendency to look
only at the "elements" of the specific technique
they teach.
Screen
acting is not the same as stage acting. At Stonestreet,
a student will be exposed to the truth of this proposition.
Notwithstanding
the over thousand-year history of theater, and the great
body of plays that have been written, the nobility of theater
is in the play. What we mean by nobility is that it is the
play that lasts from generation to generation. An actor's
performance on stage is experienced by an audience, and
then vanishes. Not so with film. In film, it is the actor
and not the writer that remains intact, preserved for future
generations to enjoy, to be provoked, to be challenged.
Yes, some say that theater is an actor's medium...but here
at Stonestreet, we believe, in the end, film is the true
actor's medium. Art changes, tastes change, audiences mature
and evolve, and so a film actor, like many artists, who
is not discovered by one generation, can be discovered by
other generations. This is the nobility of film acting.
At Stonestreet, we encourage our students to study its craft
with the same work ethic that exists in the theater.
Because
of the eclectic student population at Stonestreet, and because
the instructors at Stonestreet are familiar with the various
schools of technique, we provide a forum and training ground
for students to be exposed to the spectrum of acting training
and techniques. Such exposure is crucial for the growth
of an actor. To remain ignorant of the great and vibrant
variety of perspectives because of an imposed dogma by one
school of acting limits the development and evolution of
an actor's craft as well as an actor's ability to work with
different actors and directors.
Screencraft
vs. Stagecraft
Most
actors receive their training in a theatrical environment,
utilizing classic stage plays as material. However, film
material is often far less dialogue intensive than a stage
play, not to mention that screenplays in general are not
literary or poetic like that of the many great plays. Some
view this difference as evidence that film is somehow less
of an artform than the theater. Others believe that stage
acting requires greater craft than film acting due to the
“lower” quality of film material. Stonestreet
believes that theater and film are so significantly different
as artforms, that the actor is presented with a whole new
set of problems when confronting film and film material.
Film is different than theater, both as an artform and on
the demands placed on the actor.
Is
screencraft nothing more than "acting for the camera?"
This is a misconception and a limited view of film acting.
An understanding of film acting encompasses much more than
merely "acting for the camera." "On camera"
acting classes often merely adjust actors down, or teach
actors to cheat toward the camera, or assist actors in dealing
with the technical intrusions into their work. However,
the motion picture is much more than a single shot. It involves
a myriad of film grammer (cuts, dissolves, POV shots, close
shots, long shots, flashbacks, etc.) that all impact on
an actor's performance. An actor needs to understand these
complexities. In addition, actors quickly discover that
the camera is "psychic" (a description coined
by Lillian Gish) in that it knows immediately when someone
passes through a nontruthful moment. An actor can "hide"
on stage, but he or she cannot do so on camera. In addition,
"truth" or "truthful acting" is not
enough for film. Film requires that the actor be more than
truthful: the actor must also be interesting! Techniques
an actor can use to be "interesting" without violating
the truth of character or social historical circumstances,
or the moment to moment interaction, is a large part of
the training at Stonestreet.
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