Diploma/Certificate Program in Performing Arts and Acting

This intensive program will help you to develop all of the talents and abilities that you will need to start your career acting.

Over the 12-month program you will study every step of acting technique, voice training, movement, film and television acting, improvisation, scene study, script analysis, monologue techniques, and more. At the end of the program you’ll receive your diploma for Performing Arts and Acting and will have built the basic elements for a show reel.

Throughout the  program (four 11-week terms) you will have opportunities to appear in IAFT student films.  Most importantly, our acting program will give you the background, experience and confidence to get out there and make an impact in the acting arena.

PROGRAM DESCRIPTION:

Building on the foundational Certificate Program in Performing Arts—Acting, the Diploma Program in Performing Arts—Acting places a special emphasis on individual work and audition pieces. Diploma students will be encouraged to take on more variety and complexity in your performance work. The program offers an all-inclusive, practical approach to acting, movement, and voice. Each term, students are assigned material from both the film world and the stage to rehearse and present to a live audience. Additionally, acting students will be eligible to perform in student films produced in the IAFT Filmmaking Program, creating a dynamic synergy between the two programs. A central element of the actor training at IAFT is a series of performance projects from the outset of the program through to the finish. The Diploma Program in Performing Arts—Acting is comprised of four 10-week terms. Students attend class for a minimum of four days a week with an additional 8½ on-campus lab/rehearsal hours assigned each week. The Diploma Program in Performing Arts—Acting at IAFT is unique because students pursue their training while exploring the best-practice principles of film and stage performance, giving students an opportunity to work out frequently in both mediums. The maximum students-to-teacher ratio in a classroom or lab session is 12:1.

PROGRAM OBJECTIVES:

The program carries concepts and procedures forward from the Certificate Program in Performing Arts—Acting, involving workshop-style classes such as what you’d find in New York or London. This approach provides a variety of theoretical perspectives, plus daily practice of functional actor techniques (Stanislavsky, Meisner, the Practical Aesthetics of Mamet & Macy). The methodologies reviewed are just a part of a dynamic approach in pursuit of reliable rehearsal skills for the stage and the camera, blocking and staging technique, and continued, frequent performance opportunities. The program seeks to find out what works best for you, and then prepare you for work in film, television, theater, or any of the wide variety of commercial and specialized niches in the media industry (presenter, narrator, industrial film, etc.).

Students will learn to:

• Analyze film and stage material—pursuing story and character interpretations to feed the actor’s imagination as much as possible so as to make the best acting choices.
• Engage weekly in structured presentations, practicing in collaboration with directors, other actors, and writers—all designed to lead you toward an approach to the role best suited to the story.
• Investigate and utilize improvisation and technique exercises toward building spontaneity, specificity, and the ability to work with—and off—the other actors.
• Improvising solo and with one or more actors, in non-scripted scenarios, exploring an open, relaxed, and spontaneous approach to all performance work.
• Discuss and examine the architecture of auditions and casting calls in various markets: also, prepare and try out audition material under mock audition scenarios—additionally, you will have numerous opportunities to audition for actual projects.
• Observe the signature techniques of acting for film, experimenting with speech, language, gesture, pacing, physical blocking, objectives and levels—all this to get a clear and specific sense of your relationship to the camera, developing a distinct grasp of the difference between film and stage—and what the two disciplines share.
• Understand and appreciate the role of crewmembers responsible for production, camera, lighting, sound, costumes, makeup, props, and set design.
• Develop a sense of professional etiquette to facilitate a consistently successful, harmonious approach to working with fellow actors, crew, directors, and producers.
• Students participate in live presentations each term and have the opportunity to perform in IAFT student film projects produced in the IAFT Filmmaking Program.
• The Diploma Program in Performing Arts—Acting is comprised of four 11-week terms. Students attend class four times a week with an additional average 8½-hour on-campus lab/rehearsal period each week.