National Theatre Conservatory
Encyclopedia
The National Theatre Conservatory is a three-year graduate acting school that operates in the 10-theatre Denver Performing Arts Complex
. Its 24 students perform alongside the Tony Award-winning Denver Center Theatre Company in a 10-play season. With a 3:1 student/teacher ratio and guest instructors including Edward Albee
, Sir Peter Hall and Bill Pullman, students earn a Master of Fine Arts degree in Acting and an Actor's Equity membership.
Its mission is to provide gifted students from across the nation the opportunity to develop their talents and skills within the challenging environment of a performing arts center and to prepare them for active careers in the American theatre and in the film and television industries. The National Theatre Conservatory's MFA training program is designed to bring all students closer to the realization of their potential while steadily developing insights, attitudes, standards and disciplines that will nourish them for the rest of their creative lives.
Consistently ranked as one of the top ten schools of its kind in the United States, the National Theatre Conservatory admits 8 students per year from nearly 600 applicants. After three years, graduates emerge not only with the skills required for a professional career, but also with the vision, heart and ethical standards needed for full artistic expression. Because the NTC believes in each student's ability and potential, a full three-year tuition scholarship and a weekly stipend is offered.
The Actor Training Program prepares students for full careers in the performing arts, arming them with an understanding of the business of theatre including house management, fundraising, marketing, event planning and press relations. Performances by students in studio productions are scheduled to enable the artists, artisans and staff of the Denver Center for the Performing Arts
to attend. During the latter half of the second year, students spend a portion of their time apprenticed to the Denver Center Theatre Company.
Entrance into the third and final year begins a full-time apprenticeship with the Theatre Company where students may participate more fully in rehearsals and performances of the company. After completion of the apprenticeship, students are featured in their own fully produced mainstage productions. Known as the NTC Rep, these two plays are performed alternately throughout a three-week period in The Conservatory Theatre. Following the NTC Rep, the students graduate and travel to New York for a Showcase performance in front of agents and casting directors.
Recent graduates are working throughout the country such as January LaVoy
, [John Behlman], Sarah Wayne Callies
, [Julia Pace Mitchell]http://www.juliapacemitchell.com/, [Kate Hurster], Steven Cole Hughes and many others.
Guest Instructors often round out the curriculum and provide the students with additional insight into their future careers. These visiting artists have included John Barton
, Israel Hicks
, Hal Holbrook
, [Jamie Horton], Terrence McNally
, Jeanne Paulsen, Marion Ross
, Patrick Stewart
and Anthony Zerbe
among many others.
Denver Performing Arts Complex
The Denver Performing Arts Complex located in Denver, Colorado, is the second largest performing arts center in the world after New York City's Lincoln Center. The DPAC is a four-block, site containing ten performance spaces with over 10,000 seats connected by an tall glass roof...
. Its 24 students perform alongside the Tony Award-winning Denver Center Theatre Company in a 10-play season. With a 3:1 student/teacher ratio and guest instructors including Edward Albee
Edward Albee
Edward Franklin Albee III is an American playwright who is best known for The Zoo Story , The Sandbox , Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? , and a rewrite of the screenplay for the unsuccessful musical version of Capote's Breakfast at Tiffany's . His works are considered well-crafted, often...
, Sir Peter Hall and Bill Pullman, students earn a Master of Fine Arts degree in Acting and an Actor's Equity membership.
Its mission is to provide gifted students from across the nation the opportunity to develop their talents and skills within the challenging environment of a performing arts center and to prepare them for active careers in the American theatre and in the film and television industries. The National Theatre Conservatory's MFA training program is designed to bring all students closer to the realization of their potential while steadily developing insights, attitudes, standards and disciplines that will nourish them for the rest of their creative lives.
Consistently ranked as one of the top ten schools of its kind in the United States, the National Theatre Conservatory admits 8 students per year from nearly 600 applicants. After three years, graduates emerge not only with the skills required for a professional career, but also with the vision, heart and ethical standards needed for full artistic expression. Because the NTC believes in each student's ability and potential, a full three-year tuition scholarship and a weekly stipend is offered.
The Actor Training Program prepares students for full careers in the performing arts, arming them with an understanding of the business of theatre including house management, fundraising, marketing, event planning and press relations. Performances by students in studio productions are scheduled to enable the artists, artisans and staff of the Denver Center for the Performing Arts
Denver Center for the Performing Arts
The Denver Center for the Performing Arts ' is an organization in Denver, Colorado which provides a showcase for live theatre, a nurturing ground for new plays, a preferred stop on the Broadway touring circuit, a graduate-level training school for actors, acting classes for the community and rental...
to attend. During the latter half of the second year, students spend a portion of their time apprenticed to the Denver Center Theatre Company.
Entrance into the third and final year begins a full-time apprenticeship with the Theatre Company where students may participate more fully in rehearsals and performances of the company. After completion of the apprenticeship, students are featured in their own fully produced mainstage productions. Known as the NTC Rep, these two plays are performed alternately throughout a three-week period in The Conservatory Theatre. Following the NTC Rep, the students graduate and travel to New York for a Showcase performance in front of agents and casting directors.
Recent graduates are working throughout the country such as January LaVoy
January LaVoy
January LaVoy is an American actress, most recognized as Noelle Ortiz on the ABC daytime drama One Life to Live. LaVoy will make her Broadway debut in the Broadway premiere of the play Enron at The Broadhurst Theatre on April 27, 2010.-Credits:LaVoy played the character Risa in the 2007 Lucille...
, [John Behlman], Sarah Wayne Callies
Sarah Wayne Callies
Sarah Wayne Callies is an American actress who is best known for her role as Sara Tancredi in the American television series Prison Break. She now plays Lori Grimes in The Walking Dead.- Early life :...
, [Julia Pace Mitchell]http://www.juliapacemitchell.com/, [Kate Hurster], Steven Cole Hughes and many others.
Guest Instructors often round out the curriculum and provide the students with additional insight into their future careers. These visiting artists have included John Barton
John Barton (director)
John Bernard Adie Barton CBE is a theatrical director. He is the son of Sir Harold Montagu and Lady Joyce Barton. He married Anne Righter, a university lecturer, in 1968....
, Israel Hicks
Israel Hicks
Israel Theo Hicks was an American theatre director who produced works at regional theaters around the country and Off Broadway, and was best known for his stagings of the entire series of plays by August Wilson about the African American experience in the U.S...
, Hal Holbrook
Hal Holbrook
Harold Rowe "Hal" Holbrook, Jr. is an American actor. His television roles include Abraham Lincoln in the 1976 TV series Lincoln, Hays Stowe on The Bold Ones: The Senator and Capt. Lloyd Bucher on Pueblo. He is also known for his role in the 2007 film Into the Wild, for which he was nominated for...
, [Jamie Horton], Terrence McNally
Terrence McNally
Terrence McNally is an American playwright who has received four Tony Awards, an Emmy, two Guggenheim Fellowships, a Rockefeller Grant, the Lucille Lortel Award, the Hull-Warriner Award, and a citation from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He has been a member of the Council of the...
, Jeanne Paulsen, Marion Ross
Marion Ross
Marion Ross is an American actress best known for her role as Marion Cunningham on the television series Happy Days from 1974 to 1984.-Early life:...
, Patrick Stewart
Patrick Stewart
Sir Patrick Hewes Stewart, OBE is an English film, television and stage actor, who has had a distinguished career in theatre and television for around half a century...
and Anthony Zerbe
Anthony Zerbe
Anthony Jared Zerbe is an American stage, film and Emmy-winning television actor. Notable film roles include the post-apocalyptic cult leader Matthias in The Omega Man, a 1971 film adaptation of Richard Matheson's 1954 novel, I Am Legend; Milton Krest in the 1989 James Bond film Licence to Kill;...
among many others.