Our mission is to cultivate, support and inspire leaders in the field of actor training.

“Art is the heart’s explosion on the world. Music. Dance. Poetry. Art on cars, on walls, on our skins. There is probably no more powerful force for change in this uncertain and crisis-ridden world than young people and their art. It is the consciousness of the world breaking away from the strangle grip of an archaic social order.”

~Luis J. Rodriguez

Amy Herzberg

University of Arkansas, National Co-Chair

I hear of teachers – some at the very top of the profession – who want to get out of teaching. It breaks my heart. Whether it’s in the face of the logistic or bureaucratic hurdles in the institutions, or because they’ve lost faith in the system of passing along our art form, or because the profession has seemingly become so mired in mediocrity, they’re leaving and they’re taking their passion and their knowledge with them.

Why? Is it, at least in part, because there’s nowhere to turn? No support system? It’s true that, when you look around, there really is no structural support for us acting teachers beyond a thin network of friends – often merely commiserators – facing similarly insurmountable odds.

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Hugh O’Gorman

California State University, Long Beach, National Co-Chair

What we do as acting teachers matters. It matters not only to us and to our students, but also, perhaps more importantly, to the integrity and artistic fabric of our society as a whole. Standards in our profession matter. The pursuit of truth and excellence in the work matters. Detailed craftsmanship matters. Collegial support matters. Yet the priorities of the world in which we work don’t always support our ethos. We are met quite often by dissonance and discordance, not to mention downright resistance to the work we do.

This organization aims to be a beacon of integrity that shines across the ocean of actor training, one whose light pierces the vast darkness of commercialism providing respite for those tired of navigating the tempestuous and empty waters of the quick fix and instant reward.

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Michele Shay

New York University

Our work can address how we as acting teachers can better deal with and serve the growing diverse population of acting students. This can be a place to come to build awareness, share information and experiences. This can be a place to confront assumptions and speak to the challenges being faced by both teachers and students alike in the pursuit of artistic excellence.

Theater by its nature is a transformative art intended at its best to release us from the boundaries of 9-5 reality. I suggest that we still suffer from a certain degree of cognitive blindness as a field, about the very water we live in. The exciting thing is the desire for it to be different is emerging. That is the world we are encouraged to prepare our student to live in. It is coming. They are the future of the American Theater.

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Peter Jay Fernandez

The New School

As we consider the future theatre artists that we are training and how we can best serve them and ourselves in the process, I am increasingly led back to the mirror. I think it goes without saying that the world in which we live and it’s “nature” is changing even as I write these words. The ecosystem, war, famine, disease, technological advancement, political and financial alliances, and the emergence of third world countries present an ever shifting view from the mirror that we as artists hold up, so to speak.

In regard to the classroom, one of the by products of this changing landscape is an increasingly diverse student body. And this is a good thing. However, when I turn the mirror around to view the classroom from the student side,the view (in my opinion) is all too frequently lacking.

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J. Michael Miller

Founder, The Actors Center

I have this recurring fantasy that one day every school of any kind will require its students to engage in a period of study in Empathy. Leading the core of that study should be an acting teacher, a very wise acting teacher, who treasures the light of specific truths as an expression of human nature.

Actors’ explorations are designed to reach across ethnic and racial divides and enlighten our little part of the world. As the future of the National Alliance of Acting Teachers evolves, I hope we can support teachers to share these ideals with the world, and lead our field to a more prominent place in our nation’s culture.

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Kenneth Noel Mitchell

Professor and Director of Musical Theatre, University of Southern California

Gerald Glackin

New York, NY
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Who we are.

Over the last two and a half decades, together with our sister organization The Actors Center, we have served as a leading advocate for the creative and professional health of acting teachers. Our Teacher Development Program has been the primary vehicle in this important and sustaining effort, supporting the professional growth of well over 240 teachers since the program’s inception 21 years ago, under the guidance of luminaries Lloyd Richards, Earle Gister, Slava Dolgachev, Ron Van Lieu, J. Michael Miller, and others.

The National Alliance of Acting Teachers was launched in 2014 as an independent offshoot from The Actors Center. Expanding our programming to now include an annual congress, a professional society, regional events and workshops, and the forthcoming launch of Parodos—a publication devoted to teaching acting—our work is born from a collective desire to maintain excellence in our craft, while providing a creative home and ongoing dialogue for those in the field of actor training.

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Journal Issue No. 2

with articles by David Bridel, Amy Herzberg, John Freeman, and Jane Baldwin.

Read the full issue at parodos.actingteachers.org

The four pillars of our work.

Advocacy

Lead a global conversation on areas of celebration and concern across the field of actor training.

Inclusion

Create and foster a diverse and equitable community of performing artists.

Innovation

Embrace new solutions to an ever-changing landscape of arts training.

Collective Knowledge

Provide resources and opportunities for teachers in the field to reach their fullest potential.

Where we teach.

Our membership currently spans 30 states and more than 80 actor training programs. Our members teach in a wide array of actor training programs—ranging from some of the country’s leading conservatory programs to small liberal arts schools—including MFA, BFA, BA programs, public and private universities, community colleges, private acting studios, and high schools.

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