The National Alliance of Acting Teachers announces its 2017 Teacher Development Program to take place June 5-16 at the USC School of Dramatic Arts in Los Angeles, California.

Now entering its 20th year, the Teacher Development Program provides a rare opportunity for both established acting teachers and professional actors interested in teaching to return to the classroom under the guidance of true masters of the field. In the two-week intensive, participants study again as acting students, but with an eye toward the craft of teaching.

Leading this year’s faculty are Ron Van Lieu (Yale School of Drama), Slava Dolgachev (Distinguished Artists of Russia, formerly Moscow Art Theatre), and Sharon Marie Carnicke (USC School of Dramatic Arts).

“The Teacher Development Program is a transformative experience for all who pass through it, driven itself by beautifully crafted moments of teaching from theatre Sherpas who love their art down to the marrow in their bones,” says Hugh O’Gorman, co-chair of the National Alliance of Acting Teachers. “It is our deep honor to welcome Ron Van Lieu back as a faculty member coinciding with his final year teaching at Yale. Alongside Slava’s mesmerizing analytical mind and Sharon’s fresh voice as she joins us for the first time, these three teachers are the embodiment of integrity and craftsmanship. Their joy and passion for the art of teaching acting are a truly inspiring and revitalizing force.”

Since its inception, the Teacher Development Program has graduated more than 200 alumni, many of whom teach at premier institutions across the country. Faculty and guest artists over the years have included an extraordinary group of master teachers including its four founding faculty: Earle Gister, Michael Kahn, Lloyd Richards, Ron Van Lieu; who have been joined in the ensuing years by Maria Aitken, Christopher Bayes, Per Brahe, Robert Cohen, Slava Dolgachev, Olympia Dukakis, Bill Esper, Richard Feldman, Joanna Merlin, Jane Nichols, Peter Jay Fernandez, and Fay Simpson, among others.

Originally administered by The Actors Center and its founder J. Michael Miller, this year marks the first time the program is produced by the National Alliance of Acting Teachers—a new and independent sister organization of The Actors Center—dedicated to clarifying and nurturing the highest ethical and artistic standards in the education and training of actors and acting teachers.

This year’s Teacher Development Program is also presented in collaboration with the USC School of Dramatic Arts, who will host the program at its campus in Los Angeles.

“I am delighted that the USC School of Dramatic Arts will collaborate with the National Alliance of Acting Teachers on their Teacher Development Program in 2017,” says the school’s dean, David Bridel. “It is a privilege to host the program and to integrate the Alliance’s mission with our own commitment to exploring and creating the future of the dramatic arts. This program is vital to the health and vitality of our nationwide community of performance educators, who work so tirelessly to enhance the unique craft of actor-training in the 21st century.”

The goal of the program is to re-enforce the tenets of the craft that teachers impart to their students. While the program is offered as a seminar for the benefit of established teachers or established actors who are starting to teach, it is conducted essentially as an acting class. Everyone works on their feet every day and questions are answered in “the doing.” Issues of teaching methodology are examined first through experiencing them, then through specific hours set aside to discuss their particular merits.

Tuition for the program is $4,000. For full consideration, applicants should apply by April 21, 2017. Some scholarships are available. Discounts are also made available to existing members of the National Alliance of Acting Teachers.

Complete program details are available at www.actingteachers.org/tdp