Adler Ambassadors are dedicated volunteers in the Stella Adler Outreach Division. Serving as an Adler Ambassador gives students and alumni a unique perspective on their craft and on the artists’ role in society. There are two ways that Adler Ambassadors serve:
1. ALL THE WORLD’S a STAGE
Full-time students and recent alumni volunteer to go to satellite locations in the boroughs and co-teach in ongoing actor-training and play-writing programs. Ambassadors lead warm-ups and also serve as members of the ensemble, participate in class and perform with those they are serving.
2. ARTISTS in ASSEMBLY
Students in professional training programs rehearse full-length plays at the studio in Manhattan and then travel the Bronx to perform for middle schools students. These schools are severely under-served. When the idea was proposed to one principal, she replied in surprise and shock, “You want to bring theater to the Bronx? Nobody does that!” The studio piloted this idea by bringing two Greek comedies to one middle school in December 2013 and is planning an expansion.
FROM THE AMBASSADORS
Working as an Adler Outreach Ambassador has taught me that theater has powers that go so much deeper than sheer entertainment. Watching an introverted person who is not an actor by trade smile during our warmup or shed their socially-imposed inhibitions for just a moment is even more fulfilling than the most thunderous applause.
Serena, Conservatory Class of 2015
The Stella Adler Outreach Division has been a great opportunity to get out of my comfort zone and to immerse myself in the lives of those who have a very different reality than mine. Most importantly it has been the opportunity to give others the chance of art, to share my passion in the hope that it would open a creative space in the lives of our students that maybe wasn’t there before.
Bella, Evening Conservatory Class of 2014
I am learning through Adler and my friends at Phoenix (House) that art shouldn’t strive for “good”, “bad”, “right”, or “wrong”. The work I have witnessed and taken part in at Pheonix has been incomparable to anything I’ve experienced before. My friends at Phoenix and peers at Outreach have dynamic souls bursting with organic energy. There is no “good”,”bad”, “right”, or “wrong” to what may happen when reading a piece or sharing personal anecdote.
Elias, NYU Class of 2017
I think you often you hear from the Phoenix House residents that the outreach has “saved” them, and my experience has been that outreach saved me. It reminds me of the power of theater at its most simple and best; take it away from “the business,” and put it in a room with a bunch of willing people and you find it truly is powerful and purely human to share stories, opinions, experiences in this way.
Calaine, NYU Class of 2011
The work in the Stella Adler Outreach Program is the most important practical application of my Actor Warrior skills that I do all week. As an ambassador not only of Stella Adler Studio, but also of our time-honored craft, it is my privilege to inspire students who may not have been to acting with us. Every week I can utilize my most important assets as an actor: my humility and my humanity.
Eileen, NYU Class of 2015
I have never dreamed of becoming a drama or theatre teacher but thanks to the Outreach Division I have been introduced to students in the Bronx who are opening my eyes every week. Being a foreign student and helping to teach an amazing art made my year because I started dreaming of becoming a teacher. Students are like a present – you never know what comes next.
Ziba, Evening Conservatory Class of 2015
Working with the inner-city youth in the Bronx (in an experience that will stay with me). I’ve got kids and I know how important it is to have a figure that you can rely on to teach you core values. Those kids try so hard and you can see how they change every time we come… When they see you in the class and they call out your name in the hallway and their faces light up, it makes your day. Scratch that, it makes your week. I look forward to doing more of that work in the future, as I said it’s an honor to pay it forward.
William, Adler Ambassador
FEATURED STORY
I must admit, I was a little nervous when I first found out we were doing the tour at all. It’s quite easy to be afraid of things that you have never experienced. I’d never even been to the Bronx! The idea of going to this school was frightening, even.
But after Friday, I can tell you that I feel a lesser gap between myself and any other human being. Just because the children at this school had a different upbringing than I did does not mean that we cannot relate to each other in some way, or that the children are any less interested in the theatre.
After the show, a little girl came up to me and said “My name is Julie, also.” She was just so excited that her and I shared something, that she felt the need to come up and tell me personally. I then asked her, “do you like to act, also?” and she said, “yes.” That she loved it.
What I took away from this experience is that it is much easier to separate yourself from those you do not feel have any common ground with you. But I am going to keep remembering that human beings are all the same, and it’s important to bridge the gap rather than widen it.
Thank you for this opportunity.
Julie, NYU Class of 2014
