Everything Must End: Reflecting on My Time at Atlantic Acting School

Our Performance Technique class at the end of Semester One

Where do I even begin? My experience at Atlantic has been an absolute whirlwind of chaotic energy that, now that it’s over, I feel oddly launched into someplace I’ve never been before.

I started Evening Conservatory at Atlantic in Sept 2019.

I had moved to NYC specifically to attend EC and to ~chase my dream~. I remember being so nervous on the first day. Since I was new to New York, I hadn’t made any friends here yet and I was worried that for some reason I wouldn’t make any friends at Atlantic either.

After meeting my peers, that fear was quickly overcome only to be replaced with the rigor that Atlantic demands and the self-doubt that comes along with hard work.

The first semester of conservatory for me was one where I was in the throes of imposter syndrome.

A small portion of our Atlantic EC class during Friendsgiving 2019

Everyone seemed already so talented, and I felt like I had to catch up on a lot. But this is where I’m thankful for Atlantic’s rigor. We were constantly in rehearsal, picking scenes, or reading plays, so I had someplace to focus my nervous energy and, come the winter break, I felt like I had a strong foothold in the technique. So, during winter break, I simply explored who I was and what I needed in order to do my best work.

My scene partner, Akiena, and I preparing for our scene in Intimate Apparel

For both Semesters One and Two, I took Voice, Movement, Script Analysis, Performance Technique, Moment Lab, and Speech. My teachers were amazing. They pushed us to grow, but in a compassionate (sometimes tough) way. Specifically, I remember being put on the spot in Karen’s class when we were just starting to learn how to apply aspects of the technique to scenes. I kept doing it wrong and Karen – really patiently – kept stopping me and adjusting me, over and over. When I was cherry-red in the face from embarrassment, she simply said, “Just trust me and do this. You got this.” So I trusted her. Instant change. I got it!

In the first semester, I was able to work on scenes from Rabbit Hole by David Lindsay-Abaire, Five Women Wearing the Same Dress by Alan Ball, Doubt by John Patrick Shanley, Intimate Apparel by Lynn Nottage, and The Long Road by Shelagh Stephenson. My favorite scenes to work on were from Intimate Apparel and The Long Road. Both of those scenes provided different challenges for me as an actress, and the plays themselves are both extremely meaningful and compelling.

The Atlantic EC fam showing up to support our peer, Adrienne, on the opening night of Unseen - a play written by and starring her.

Semester Two started off even more intensely than the first…until Covid hit.

It felt akin to pulling the emergency brake on the highway. My group and I were beginning to rehearse our scene from The Rose Tattoo when the quarantine went into effect. School closed for two weeks while the world figured out how to deal with the pandemic, and then we returned online.

We had to completely redirect. Now, we had to figure out how to connect to our scene partner through a screen, we had to learn about eye-lines and adapting to the camera, and we had to adjust to a new normal. We continued with Voice, Movement, Moment Lab, Speech, and Performance Technique, but our Script Analysis class became a Monologue class.

Me doing my Safiye Sultan private life for Performance Technique on Zoom, with an at-home set up and at-home costume.

It was hard. Many of us questioned the effectiveness of learning through this medium, but we were able to finish out the semester.

We didn’t restart the third and final semester until Sept 2020. During that – roughly four month – break, many of us were able to recuperate and adapt to the times. Additionally, in that time, some of us were able to do the “Host Will Let You In Soon” variety show on Youtube, which allowed us to keep up our acting chops.

For me, the break involved a lot of personal growth and introspection.

Re-examining my goals and what I wanted out of life allowed me to focus in on this craft that I want to do for the rest of my life. Because of this, launching into Semester Three was like stepping into a heightened program. I feel like most of my peers also had periods of growth during this time and our work showed this.

My character Crystal for our final production, I am a Positive Person by Danny Rocco (dir. Will Detlefsen). On Zoom, at-home set up.

This final semester, we refocused. We had the script analysis class with Karen, the production of I am a Positive Person with Will and Danny, Business with Michael Mastro, Casting with Todd Thaler, and Improv with Kevin Laibson. I learned invaluable lessons from all of these classes, and they were rigorous (shout out to Todd for making us prepare a new audition every single week! 

Ultimately, while I will miss the classes and knowledge, I’m going to miss my peers the most. Scarfing down food and squeezing in a bathroom break in between classes, calling each other and venting when the work seemed like too much, and all of the funny jokes and cat pictures of our group chat. I will miss it all.

However, I know it’s not “goodbye,” it’s “until next time.”

(And watch out acting world, my friends are going to take you by storm!)

Stay in touch.

xx Selma

Until next time Atlantic EC fam…