The New Actors Workshop
# The New Actors Workshop

The New Actors Workshop was a two-year acting conservatory in New York City founded by Master Teachers Mike Nichols, George Morrison and Paul Sills in 1988. The school offered a unique, dual-track curriculum combining Stanislavski-based technique with Viola Spolin Theater Games. The workshop stopped accepting students in 2010.

## The founders

Sills, Morrison, and Nichols enjoyed a long association dating back to the 1950s at the University of Chicago. Their experience convinced them that there was a unique value for the actor in the double challenge of performance improvisation and Stanislavski-based training, and they founded The Workshop specifically to offer this powerful experience to a new generation of actors.

## Performances

There were different types of performances throughout the year in which students participated.

### Friday Night Improv

Students of the workshop played Spolin theatre games for an audience. These shows were free and open to the public.

### Scene Nights

At the end of their first year, students performed for family and friends in a New Actors Workshop Scene Night.

### Story Theatre

At the end of their second year, students went into a rehearsal period with a guest director. This production was most often a Story Theater show, a genre invented by Paul Sills in the 1960s. Guest directors included Paul Sills, Gene Hackman, Diane Paulus, Shira Piven, David Turner, Lester Thomas Shane, K Tanzer, Carol Sills

## Notable alumni

* Diane Paulus, director Hair (musical)
* Ricki Noel Lander, actress
* Kim D'Armond, actress
