We invite the best and brightest young theatre artists to experience one of the highest quality acting conservatories with Terry Knickerbocker Studio’s NextGen High School programming, located at our studio in Brooklyn, NYC.
Find and cultivate your own unique voice and truth, and discover who you really are as a young actor and artist.
NextGen: High School Summer Intensive is now accepting applications for Summer 2025
July 14-26
These workshops will expand upon the Clown work in our Summer High School Program—making your acting work more PLAYFUL, fun, creative, imaginative, spontaneous, and free. We’ll utilize improvisation, and give you new tools to develop a character. This work will bring you out of your shell like never before!
Open to those new to acting and to those with experience!
About our Summer High School Intensive
As a member of the next generation of theatre artists, our two-week intensive invites you to hone your acting skills, cultivate your unique voice, and prepare for your future. Experience intensive college conservatory-style training to know if it’s right for you, and learn about the BFA application process, and selecting and performing audition monologues, positioning yourself as a stronger candidate for these highly competitive programs.
Elevate your craft and set the stage for a future filled with artistic success!
- Experience intense conservatory-style training
- Discover whether you want to pursue this kind of training in college
- Prepare for your college acting auditions
- Be a better actor for your high school and future productions
- Gain confidence for the rest of your life
Upon completion of our summer acting classes, you will join an inspiring and respected community of successful actors, and you, too, can proudly call yourself a confident alum of TKS.
Who is the summer acting program for?
This is an acting program for teens who are rising Sophomores, Juniors and Seniors. Our summer acting intensive is for those who are serious about training as an actor, finding their voice, and creating original work. If you are looking for something more impactful than your typical theatre summer camp, Terry Knickerbocker Studio’s High School Summer Intensive may be for you. While we encourage both students with more experience and those students who are newer to acting to attend, we will take you seriously as an actor and expect you to hold yourself to the same standards.
You’ll find and cultivate your own unique voice and truth, and discover who you really are as a young actor and artist.
This is an acting program for teens who are rising Sophomores, Juniors and Seniors. Our summer acting intensive is for those who are serious about training as an actor, finding their voice, and creating original work. If you are looking for something more impactful than your typical theatre summer camp, Terry Knickerbocker Studio’s High School Summer Intensive may be for you. While we encourage both students with more experience and those students who are newer to acting to attend, we will take you seriously as an actor and expect you to hold yourself to the same standards.
You’ll find and cultivate your own unique voice and truth, and discover who you really are as a young actor and artist.
The TKS Difference
We know there are many NYC acting camps available for high school-aged actors, so here’s how we stand out:
- Sanford Meisner’s popular and effective approach to actor training is at the heart of our teaching and philosophy, and a diverse group of some of the most exciting teachers working in the profession will bring you an array of supporting classes that will complement your Meisner work—Voice and Singing, Movement, Clown, and Creating Your Own Work (devising).
- Each of our instructors are working toward a shared goal of training, seeing, and hearing each individual student as an artist who is learning to create their own original work in community with a like-minded ensemble of unique, daring artists of the future.
- Our multiple workshops which serve to prepare you for college BFA applications and auditions, led by experts in these fields.
- Our Master Class Series where students will have the opportunity to connect with and learn from leading current artists in theater/film/television, such as Jurnee Smollett, Diana Oh, Stevie Walker-Webb, Jonathan McCrory, and Jharrel Jerome.
- Our commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion, and belonging.
Intensive Summer Acting Program for Young Actors
July 14-26
Feel to reach out to us for more information using the How Can We Help form at the bottom of this page.
Sample Schedule
Tuition: 1500 +$75 administrative fee
(Payment plans available. Please email justin@terryknickerbockerstudio.com to receive the financial aid request form)
Please note: as this is not a sleepaway camp, housing is not included; that said, if you’re coming from further away, we do have a connection to educational housing nearby and are happy to work with you if needed.
While meals are not included, our location in Industry City allows students access to a variety of delicious and exciting food options, and we are always eager to make recommendations.
Our High School Program Faculty
Highly trained, talented, empathetic, collaborative, and diverse—we’re honored to introduce our incredible faculty, who embody these characteristics and so much more.
High School Summer Program Classes
Introduction to Meisner Technique
In this Introduction to Meisner Technique class, you will learn the foundational aspects of the Meisner training – living truthfully under imaginary circumstances, listening and responding honestly in the moment, repetition, the independent activity, the knock at the door, objectives, relationships, and shared circumstances. Through the Meisner training, you will develop a deeper connection to your personal truths through improvisational exercises and partner work. By the end of class, you will be more connected to your your unique voice and point of view using Meisner’s emphasis on imaginative crafting and specificity.
Clown
Clown work is based in the pursuit of the clown in all of us: you as the “little one” who used to play with abandon and wasn’t yet socialized, the actor with a desire to uncover the beautiful, the violent, the passionate, the mysterious, and the funny with an intense curiosity. Through an introduction to Clown work, utilizing solo, partner, and group exercises, you will remember what it was like to play, will rethink your relationship with failure, and will fight your fears and identify and combat your inhibitions as actors and artists. Through Clown-based improvisational character and scene creation, you will produce original work to be shared out at the end of the program.
Introduction to Movement
In this Introduction to Meisner Technique class, you will learn the foundational aspects of the Meisner training – living truthfully under imaginary circumstances, listening and responding honestly in the moment, repetition, the independent activity, the knock at the door, objectives, relationships, and shared circumstances. Through the Meisner training, you will develop a deeper connection to your personal truths through improvisational exercises and partner work. By the end of class, you will be more connected to your your unique voice and point of view using Meisner’s emphasis on imaginative crafting and specificity.
Creating Your Own Work
In this class, students will embark on a journey of creative expression. By exploring the depths of their identities and aspirations, both individually and collectively, participants will lay the groundwork for creating original, interdisciplinary theater. Drawing inspiration from diverse sources and visual, musical, and textual elements, students will immerse themselves in the creative process, weaving together meaningful narratives and building theater pieces that reflect their unique perspectives and experiences.
Exploring Voice For Performance
This class will introduce you to the fundamental skills of spoken voice for performance, including tension/release, breath, resonance, and articulation. We will draw on a range of voice practitioners to build a toolbox for voice in any performance context, including Kristin Linklater, Patsy Rodenburg, Frankie Armstrong, and Jo Estill. You will learn an embodied approach to connect breath, body, sound, and thought and apply these skills to poetic text. We will explore the possibilities of the voice both solo and in the group for a fun and expansive look at the spoken voice.
Mastering College Audition Monologues
This two session master class will break down the complex and competitive world of college auditions—focusing mainly on a method for finding the often elusive ‘quality monologue’. Whether a theater degree is in your future or not, this workshop will serve anyone that has ever had to do a monologue for an audition.
In the first session, with an emphasis on ‘working, smarter, not harder’, learn to select a quality material that is age-appropriate, has a clear, active objective and showcases what you do well.
In the second session, students will receive feedback helping to build upon the impulse they followed when selecting their piece. Students will walk away with a 60 to 90 second monologue that will serve them well in college auditions or any other audition where a monologue is needed.
Singing for the Actor and more
This class is for actors who love to sing or even just love music and want to learn more about vocal technique and how to create characters through song. Whether you have taken voice lessons, been in any musical theatre productions or love to sing at home, this class is for you! The purpose of this course is twofold: To explore vocal technique basics including relaxation, breath support, placement, articulation and alignment and to learn storytelling through the vulnerable act of singing-which will include learning how to breakdown a song like a script, connect to emotions through the body and to allow connection to free the voice; Everyone will get to sing individually and start the journey towards building confidence with their vocal technique and exploring storytelling through song.
High School Summer Program Classes
Introduction to Meisner Technique
with Celestine Rae
In this Introduction to Meisner Technique class, you will learn the foundational aspects of the Meisner training – living truthfully under imaginary circumstances, listening and responding honestly in the moment, repetition, the independent activity, the knock at the door, objectives, relationships, and shared circumstances. Through the Meisner training, you will develop a deeper connection to your personal truths through improvisational exercises and partner work. By the end of class, you will be more connected to your your unique voice and point of view using Meisner’s emphasis on imaginative crafting and specificity.
Clown
with Justin Cimino
Clown work is based in the pursuit of the clown in all of us: you as the “little one” who used to play with abandon and wasn’t yet socialized, the actor with a desire to uncover the beautiful, the violent, the passionate, the mysterious, and the funny with an intense curiosity. Through an introduction to Clown work, utilizing solo, partner, and group exercises, you will remember what it was like to play, will rethink your relationship with failure, and will fight your fears and identify and combat your inhibitions as actors and artists. Through Clown-based improvisational character and scene creation, you will produce original work to be shared out at the end of the program.
Introduction to Movement
with Mackian Bauman
In this Introduction to Meisner Technique class, you will learn the foundational aspects of the Meisner training – living truthfully under imaginary circumstances, listening and responding honestly in the moment, repetition, the independent activity, the knock at the door, objectives, relationships, and shared circumstances. Through the Meisner training, you will develop a deeper connection to your personal truths through improvisational exercises and partner work. By the end of class, you will be more connected to your your unique voice and point of view using Meisner’s emphasis on imaginative crafting and specificity.
Creating Your Own Work
with Andrea Murillo
In this class, students will embark on a journey of creative expression. By exploring the depths of their identities and aspirations, both individually and collectively, participants will lay the groundwork for creating original, interdisciplinary theater. Drawing inspiration from diverse sources and visual, musical, and textual elements, students will immerse themselves in the creative process, weaving together meaningful narratives and building theater pieces that reflect their unique perspectives and experiences.
Exploring Voice For Performance
with Becca Barrett
This class will introduce you to the fundamental skills of spoken voice for performance, including tension/release, breath, resonance, and articulation. We will draw on a range of voice practitioners to build a toolbox for voice in any performance context, including Kristin Linklater, Patsy Rodenburg, Frankie Armstrong, and Jo Estill. You will learn an embodied approach to connect breath, body, sound, and thought and apply these skills to poetic text. We will explore the possibilities of the voice both solo and in the group for a fun and expansive look at the spoken voice.
Mastering College Audition Monologues
with Steven J. West
This two session master class will break down the complex and competitive world of college auditions—focusing mainly on a method for finding the often elusive ‘quality monologue’. Whether a theater degree is in your future or not, this workshop will serve anyone that has ever had to do a monologue for an audition.
In the first session, with an emphasis on ‘working, smarter, not harder’, learn to select a quality material that is age-appropriate, has a clear, active objective and showcases what you do well.
In the second session, students will receive feedback helping to build upon the impulse they followed when selecting their piece. Students will walk away with a 60 to 90 second monologue that will serve them well in college auditions or any other audition where a monologue is needed.
Singing for the Actor
with Sakile Camara
This class is for actors who love to sing or even just love music and want to learn more about vocal technique and how to create characters through song. Whether you have taken voice lessons, been in any musical theatre productions or love to sing at home, this class is for you! The purpose of this course is twofold: To explore vocal technique basics including relaxation, breath support, placement, articulation and alignment and to learn storytelling through the vulnerable act of singing-which will include learning how to breakdown a song like a script, connect to emotions through the body and to allow connection to free the voice; Everyone will get to sing individually and start the journey towards building confidence with their vocal technique and exploring storytelling through song.
Ready to Apply?
Our application is short and straightforward. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact justin@terryknickerbockerstudio.com
We can’t wait to meet you!
