Intensive training as an actor can be the most challenging, most engaging, most significant educational experience of a lifetime. Acting is the only art that takes as its material the whole person, both the outward life of the self in interaction with society and the inward world of feeling, thinking, sensing, imagining and remembering. In the course of immersion in training, the acting student experiences significant shifts of self-perception, values and attitudes. These experiential tremors can give birth to real learning and discovery only if a state of not knowing can be borne long enough to allow a new pattern of insight to emerge as if by surprise. This is the inner dynamic of training as much as it is the requirement for the creation of a work of art. To create the context in which these “ah-ha” experiences can be elicited is central to the mission of The New Actors Workshop. We recognize that meaningful professional training is not simply a matter of indoctrination in the lore of the theater and the practice of skills, but a complex transformational process that is intimately dependent on the nature of the relationships between teacher and student, between student and student, and between student and the institution as a whole.

Our creative experiential goal: to increase your capacity to surprise yourself. Just as it is in learning, the crowning experience of a well-structured, well-rehearsed performance is a moment of spontaneous surprise that opens up a new and unique possibility. The foundation for this experience requires complete relaxation, meticulous preparation, focus, an active imagination, and an open, curious attitude, free of self-criticism.

George Morrison

Click here to read an interview with Mr. Morrison