Theater to Uplift! Summer Tour

This one-of-a-kind summer touring production and training program offers students a combination of performance skills and community experiences that are central to the Stella Adler Studio’s vision for actor training.

Inspired by the Studio’s NYU Tisch Year 4 curriculum, Theater to Uplift! will bring students through rehearsals and performances of an 80- to 90-minute cut of a Shakespeare play that will be performed at the Stella Adler Studio and then sent out on tour across New York City to non-conventional performance venues. These may include public schools, community centers, outdoor parks, elder care facilities, drug and alcohol recovery centers, and Rikers Island Correctional Facility.

Actors will learn to apply their technique to a rigorous rehearsal process of a Shakespeare play, with 17 hours a week of rehearsal supplemented by input from world-class faculty. The four-week run of performances will also include weekly 3-hour masterclasses on varying topics. Actors will learn how to adapt their performance to a black box theater and varying non-conventional spaces to perform for the public. The bare-bones nature of the production will sharpen each actor’s focus on technique, character, and storytelling. Finally, actors will engage with the audience in a Q&A conversation, representing themselves, the production, the Stella Adler Studio, and the theater itself not merely as entertainment but also as a vital branch of the education and edification of humanity.

Theater to Uplift! is perfect for actors with previous training who wish to gain experience in classical performance and believe that theater has, at its heart, an educational mission.