Conservatory Program

There’s a reason why the conservatory approach is the gold standard at top studios, colleges and universities. Time and again it has proven to be the clearest path to equip actors with the foundation they need to do their best work and to successfully launch their careers.

At TK Studio, Our conservatory students graduate with deep experience in Meisner technique, Linklater voice training, and both Williamson and Laban movement techniques. As a student, you’ll embark on a rich journey of craft, self-discovery, and connection—both with your peers, your instructors, the material, and most importantly, yourself.

All classes take place in our modern studio spaces at Industry City, a dynamic creative campus in Brooklyn. Here, you’ll find a perfect environment for focus and growth, away from the rush of Manhattan but still within reach of everything the city has to offer.

At Terry Knickerbocker Studio, we teach the Meisner technique as part of our passionate pursuit of the deep power of our art, with excellence as our guiding principle. We have created a haven that values personal and professional quality, meaningful relationships, and respect for one another.

While practicing the Meisner technique, you will develop skills and discover opportunities you never knew existed. Success won’t come in every moment; you will make mistakes far more often than you will achieve perfection.

Our studio culture prioritizes learning, process, and steady progress over shallow results, with the goal of producing high-quality work consistently. We nurture a thriving community of individuals who hold these values sacred and become ambassadors of this philosophy. We invite our students into a brave space to explore the full range of human emotions and experiences.

In the first two semesters of the program, actors explore their true selves through various imaginary circumstances created by students and scripted scenes. You’ll delve into diverse stories, such as being an only child, having six months to live, winning the lottery, making a terrible mistake, and so on. We also focus on building skills in improvisation, emotional preparation, and crafting intimate, imaginary relationships with other actors. At the end of the first two semesters, each student should have access to the full range of their emotional life, and be able to live out any imaginary circumstance that could happen to them.

Building on the first year’s foundation, Semesters Three and Four focus on character work, using the aspects of your personality discovered earlier to portray different people. Each character represents a unique version of you, honoring the story’s circumstances. As Robert Duvall (who studied with Meisner) said, “Character acting is you, bent.” You will learn to connect with characters and understand their reactions while infusing your unique perspective and imagination into your work. If the first year is about refining your emotional palette, the second year is about painting portraits of people and putting those techniques into practice.