Five women singing into a standing microphone in a rehearsal room

FSU/Asolo Conservatory Curriculum

The FSU/Asolo Conservatory for Actor Training is an intensive three-year academic and performance program. Following completion of studies, graduate students will obtain their Master of Fine Arts degree from the Florida State University School of Theatre. The curriculum breakdown includes details about acting, voice, movement, text and rehearsal/performance requirements.

The First-Year Curriculum

The first year focuses on establishing a foundation in acting, voice, movement and text work. The training emphasizes a process-oriented technique, establishing the student in the organic school of acting that they may be able to utilize throughout their training.

During the year, students are not cast in productions to ensure full concentration on these fundamental processes. First-year students also begin their relationship with the Asolo Repertory Theatre by serving as understudies for the professional season.

  • A group of men and women sitting at school desks on stage and talking.

    Acting

    Nikolai Demidov School of Acting; fundamental principles and supplemental techniques; intensive work on actors’ organic process and creative instrument; improvisational exercises (Demidov etudes), character embodiment and scene/play study in Contemporary and Classical Realism.

  • Four men surrounding a microphone and singing.

    Voice

    Part I of the two-year progression of intensive training in Fitzmaurice Voicework and supplemental vocal production techniques; articulation.

  • Two men on stage engaging in a sword fight.

    Movement

    Movement Fundamentals I, including foundational training in Mary Overlie’s Six Viewpoints, Laban, Bartenieff and stage combat through the lens of Filipino martial arts.

  • A group of men and women in dressed in regalia and all dancing and singing in the same direction.

    Text Work

    Embodying the Text (Actor’s Practical Work on a Play): Training how to read a text from an actor’s standpoint by extracting a character from a play and embodying it, while experiencing a play as a whole — connecting text work with the organic process exercised in the acting studio.

  • Two women singing in front of a piano during rehearsal.

    Rehearsal and Performance

    Understudy roles with Asolo Rep.

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Second-Year Curriculum

The second year builds on the discoveries of the first, but the classroom focus shifts to Shakespeare. The curriculum begins with developing a deep personal connection to the text, then moves on to partnering skills, actor-audience relationship, rhetoric, structure of the verse, sonnet and first folio work.

Second-year students will learn stagecraft skills as they pertain to various stage configurations and, during the latter part of the year, will explore how these techniques may be applied to the performance of modern works.

Students in their second year perform roles in the four-play Cook Theatre season. Each production is chosen to provide the opportunity for students to explore the acting techniques covered in class in front of a live, appreciative audience. This performance series is presented in the 161-seat Jane B. Cook Theatre. Each play is chosen specifically for the casting possibilities in the second-year class.

  • A man and two women laying down with their heads all together

    Acting

    Shakespeare and the application of Classical techniques to modern material. Freeing the imagination via personal relationship to the text; partnering; dynamic status and stagecraft; actor-audience relationship; figures and rhetoric; the function of Theatre in the world.

  • A group of men and women standing together singing.

    Voice

    Part II of the two-year progression of intensive training in Fitzmaurice Voicework and supplemental vocal production techniques; articulation; International Phonetic Alphabet; regional and world dialects/accents.

  • Two women dressed in jester outfits talking to two men.

    Movement

    Dynamics of Composition (Alive in the Theatrical Space): Movement Fundamentals II, including advanced training in Mary Overlie’s Six Viewpoints, RASA, Clown and stage combat through the lens of historical European martial arts.

  • A man singing during rehearsal while his cast-mates look on.

    Rehearsal and Performance

    Students hold roles during the Cook Theatre season.

The Third Year

In their final year of the program, students have the opportunity to become members of the professional acting company of Asolo Rep. Students prepare for entering the profession by creating and rehearsing material for presentation in a virtual showcase published with Breakdown Services.

The showcase provides access to a curated audience of studio and network casting executives, casting directors and talent representatives across the country. Guest artists and industry professionals instruct the students in the business of acting as well as commercial techniques, film/television workshops and audition skills.

All students are eligible to join the Actor’s Equity Association upon completion of their three years at the FSU/Asolo Conservatory. From there, they embark on acting careers in theatre, feature films and television.

Additional Program Details