BACKGROUND & NYU AFFILIATION

 
Stonestreet Studios is a film acting school and conservatory, as well as a multi-service educational, entertainment, and Internet institution. We are a fully operative studio facility comprised of several enterprises, including the Stonestreet Screen Acting Workshop, an acting training program that is one of the affiliated advanced drama conservatories of the New York University Tisch School of the Arts (TSOA) Drama Department.

The Workshop only accepts students who have completed their training at one of the primary undergraduate drama conservatories of NYU-TSOA or who have had prior experience as actors, directors, writers, or producers. Students who have successfully completed Stonestreet I are eligible to return for Stonestreet II, students who have successfully completed Stonestreet II are eligible to return for Stonestreet III, and students who have successfully completed Stonestreet III are eligible to return for Stonestreet IV. Initial acceptance into the Workshop requires an applicant to undergo an interview process.

The Stonestreet Screen Acting Workshop was founded by Alyssa Rallo Bennett in 1990 for drama students to have a professional environment in which to continue and broaden their training, adapt their theater skills to embrace the art of film acting and directing, and experience the film and television mediums, from the audition phase through to production. The Workshop is conducted at Stonestreet’s state-of-the-art film and television studio in the Flatiron District of midtown Manhattan, where many industry representatives develop and produce films, pilots, television shows, and commercials.

Students train and work in the same environment as professional directors, casting directors, and agents, among other industry personnel. With access to full production and post-production facilities (including several editing systems and editors), students learn the unique demands of the camera, film and television scripts, and set work. Stonestreet students experience firsthand the challenges of the film medium by acting in production-level short movies, dramatic series, sitcoms, soaps, and commercials. Under the guidance of their teachers, who are all working professionals in the industry, they are able to deepen their understanding of process and performance and learn to contribute to, touch, and inspire an audience.

All production level work is edited material that can be used for actor reels and is often broadcast on Stonestreet’s movie website, www.StonestreetMovies.com. All types of material from all periods and cultures are invited and embraced cinematically. Stonestreet students learn to become professional auditioners and self-sufficient creative actors, who are both believable and interesting on screen. Additional classes prepare students for the business of the professional world, and our Showcase exposes students to industry professionals on a weekly basis.

At Stonestreet, we empower actors to make their own films, and we give them the tools and contacts to get started. Our current students and alums have made hundreds of short films in Stonestreet’s courses, part of our ongoing collaborative work with the NYU-TSOA Department of Film and Television (since 2009) and Department of Dramatic Writing (since 2002) in addition to the features and pilots we create with and for our conservatory actors. We produce:

>> FEATURES
>> TV PILOTS
>> SHORT FILMS
>> WEB SERIES
>> TRAILERS

The Stonestreet-Goldberg Festival of New Films has presented 5-10 new shorts annually since it’s inception. A large number of the shorts are presented in international film festivals.