big city acting training,
small town attention
Founded in 2001, AWI is a unique acting studio where newcomers, established actors and directors learn and excel side by side. Our tight-knit alumni form a supportive, loyal network who collaborate throughout the world.
We’re thrilled to announce our expansion to the East Village in NYC in our new home at The Joyce Center for Creativity and Dance. See you there!
what we’re about
We are one-of-a-kind acting studio offering the excellence of big city acting training with the individual attention and mentorship you find in small-town communities.
We offer our students a comprehensive deep dive into acting training based on The Meisner Technique in combination with audition preparation, casting opportunities, and a community of supportive alumni.
Our graduates in the arts go on to become A-list actor’s, feature film directors, platnum selling musicians, and producers.
Our graduates outside of the arts find their experience at AWI positively impacts their communication skills and their confidence in every aspect of their lives.
(Sound too good to be true? Check out the video below!)
Want to learn more?
Here’s what our students say about their experience.
FROM the founder
At some point, when we were little kids, someone told us we were too old to play make-believe. That little kid went into a tiny room in our brains, shut the door, and quietly went to sleep. I love going up to that door and cracking it open. There is nothing like figuring out exactly how to tell each person “It’s OK. You can come out. It’s time to play make-believe again.” There’s nothing like it.
That’s why it was so incredibly painful when the pandemic shut down my beloved studio of twenty years. I just didn’t feel like it was right to try to teach something so personal, so interconnected, so based on the human experience through the screen of someone’s laptop.
So, I focused on other parts of my creativity, and found other ways to teach. I wrote a book which became a bestseller, gave talks all over the world, and met people like Drew Barrymore when I was on her show. For a hot minute, I wondered if I would return to acting at all.
Then, slowly, like an old friend, the desire to teach acting returned and I realized what I had known all along. I love my new work and have no intention of slowing down, but I simply cannot, and I do not, want to live without teaching acting.
I love camaraderie and lifelong friendships created in my class. I love seeing people break out of their comfort zones, discovering bravery and creativity they didn’t know was possible. I love cracking open my student’s potential. I love watching them step into the person they have always wanted to be, because they now have the confidence to know that they can try new things, do things that they never thought possible, and blow open that door to their imagination so wide that their lives are forever changed. Seeing that kind of growth in a person, that’s beyond magic. I don’t know if there is a word for that. It’s the stuff that makes life on this little rock juicy, exciting, and worth every up and down.
So that’s why I’m starting my studio again.
Because acting is magic and there’s nothing like teaching people to tap into that magic. Nothing.
“My classmates and I were not individuals competing to be the best, but were a family, a troupe. Without The Actor’s Workshop, I would never have had the skills, confidence and experience to sign with an A-list talent agent and become a working actor. I will always be grateful AWI’s training can never be rivaled.
”
AWI’s Amanda Setton at the Oscars
our alumi
At AWI you will become a part of a supportive group of people who are all rooting or each other. we’re about support, not competition.
our community
Our students have gone on to be successful actors, voice actors, directors, producers, academics, musicians and small business owners.
