acting & music theater

Acting

The sequence of Acting classes at Metropolitan School of the Arts trains students to be well-rounded, generous, and compelling actors. Our process is rigorous but fun, and focuses on building strong ensemble skills, as well as a students’ awareness of their own unique artistic voice! Our youngest actors use theatre games, improv, and short scenes to learn stage directions, story structure, and how to communicate with an audience. Levels 2 and 3 combine our improv and technique exercises with a traditional scene study, learning Stanislavsky and Practical Aesthetic methods for analyzing a script. Students begin in TYA (Theatre for Young audiences) material, but will move into Greek, Shakespeare, and 19-21st century realism throughout the levels. Advanced students move into more avant-garde material including pantomime, clown, Suzuki, Viewpoints, and end their training by producing a short 1-act. Advanced students ages 12 and up also have the opportunity to audition for our resident Improv troupe: metroImprov! All acting students share their skills at our year-end Acting Recital. If you’re  interested in working as an ensemble to tell stories and exploring the limits of your imagination, then this is the place for you!

Music Theater

Our classes are full of energy and  teach each aspect of Music Theater–singing, dancing and acting. Students begin each class with a vocal warm-up with a musical accompanist and are introduced to the basic mouth and body positioning necessary for good vocal production as well as principles of proper breath support.  Students put dancing skills to work as they dance to their vocal repertoire and build characters and storylines that support their performance.  Music ranges from showtunes to current songs from the radio.   Students learn audition and performance skills and pre-professional tips that will give them a better understanding of what it takes to be a triple threat.