Where Actors & Directors TRAIN for
the Screen in the 21st Century*

Stonestreet Studios is a film & screen acting school as well as a producing organization located in the Flatiron District of midtown Manhattan in New York City. The Stonestreet Screen Acting Workshop ("SSAW"), an integral part of our organization, is an advanced drama conservatory of New York University's Tisch School of the Arts Drama Department. Our mission is to TRAIN actors in the art of screen and film acting - something markedly different than stage acting - by transcending previously learned techniques within an environment of a working production company that draws on the SSAW student body and the professional community to create filmed entertainment in all it's genres

 

Established in 1991
This is Stonestreet's 19th Year
Teaching the Craft of Film and Screen Acting!

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*STAGE training does not prepare you as an actor for the SCREEN. Screen Acting requires dedicated and specific training, training ACTORS and DIRECTORS receive at Stonestreet.



48 West 21st Street, 8th Floor
New York, New York 10010
800.701.9110 voicemail/fax
212.229.0020 studio office
admin@stonestreet.pro
© 1991-2009 Stonestreet Studios Inc.


 

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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