Named among the best drama programs in the world by The Hollywood Reporter for two years running, ranked by U.S. News and World Report and even garnering mention in The New York Times, the Florida State University/Asolo Conservatory for Actor Training is an unassuming powerhouse right in our backyard. Located outside of the major talent hubs of Chicago and New York, and nowhere near the showbiz epicenter of the West Coast, the FSU/Asolo Conservatory carved a space for itself among the storied and prestigious with a three-fold plan of attack: an increasingly distinct and advantageous partnership, an incredibly rigorous program for committed students and an earnest belief in the importance of the craft.

“We’re a two-headed beast.”

Such is the characterization from Greg Leaming, director of the FSU/Asolo Conservatory, who credits a great deal of the Conservatory’s success to the singular nature of the partnership between FSU and Asolo Repertory Theatre, one of the last remaining collaborations of its kind.

“When students graduate from a program on a university campus, they’re essentially left to their own devices,” says Leaming. “They spend the next 5 to 10 years trying to develop professional relationships and get professional credits to expand their resumes. That happens as part of the training here.” The advantage of the partnership runs both ways. For the Asolo Rep, having the Conservatory close means a crop of trained and dedicated actors on hand for productions. For students of the Conservatory, working closely with Asolo Rep means top-notch facilities and first-hand experience. Training to be an actor is one thing, finding work after is quite another. Students graduating from the Conservatory have a considerable leg up, according to Leaming. Part of the advantage is obvious; Asolo Rep, known for quality productions, has the reputation to attract big talent in their guest artists. The opportunity to work with and build a relationship with established members of the business helps any imminent graduate and Conservatory students are in prime position to take advantage. But this could be said for any program esteemed enough to draw in notable guests, so what makes the Conservatory special?

To answer that question, one first must understand what the Asolo Repertory Theatre gains from the partnership. What is the motivation for a professional acting company to welcome students into their world when graduates have to fight for space? The cynical would say it’s money, the cultured would say great art. In order for a professional actor to take the stage at any professional production across the country, they must be a member of the actor’s union, Actors Equity Association, and contractually be paid a minimum sum determined by the scale of the theater, which Leaming says can be quite handsome. This isn’t extortion, this is ensuring hard-working artists aren’t fighting to undercut each other in a business known for desperation.

One outcome of such stringent regulations, however, is that theaters are often limited in the scope of their productions. Filling out a 30-person cast is no small matter when each role is costly to fill. The Asolo Rep, through an “ancient” rule of Equity’s, is able to sidestep this impediment and draw from the third-year Conservatory students to fill casts, free of charge, enabling the Rep to stage bigger productions than rivals of comparable size. For example, the Asolo Rep recently ran The Grapes of Wrath, a 28-person cast, and used 12 students from the Conservatory, (in other words, the entire third-year class).

This exception applies strictly to repertory theatres, which typically have three to five different plays in production at one time, setting the stage for rehearsal in the day and putting up a whole new set for productions in the evening, and makes the FSU/Asolo partnership, as we know it, possible.

“Next year we’re doing a number of big productions,” says Leaming. “Productions that just wouldn’t be possible for any other theater to afford.” For the theater this means bigger productions. For the community it means great art. For the students this has a two-fold advantage. Upon graduation, Conservatory students will not only be full members of the Asolo Rep’s acting company but also will have garnered the 50 credits necessary for admission into the actor’s union.

“That's a really big deal when you move to New York,” says Conservatory graduate Elisabeth Preston. “There are a million non-Equity actors, but for the level of work I was looking for and to really to have a career in acting, requires an Equity card.”

 

“It’s intense. Very intense.”

If you want to be a student at the Conservatory, you resign yourself to three arduous years holed up in the classrooms and stages at the Asolo. You live, eat and breathe acting. “The schedule seems impossible,” says Brent Bateman, a Conservatory graduate who has gone on to appear in HBO’s Boardwalk Empire and has two projects slated for release later this year. “The program forces you to be completely consumed with the craft in one form or another.”

Each January, Leaming and staff hit the road, traveling to New York, Chicago and San Francisco, where they will audition anywhere between 1,200 and 1,500 actors. Of these, they will select only 12, roughly 1 percent, to join the Conservatory. They’re looking for skill, they’re looking for dramatic imagination, but above all, they’re looking for commitment.

“Everyone who goes to grad school knows it will be tough,” says Preston. “But you're never prepared for the relentless grind.”

For the first year, Conservatory students do not perform, only train. It’s a year of “back to basics,” and they will spend every day in the classroom from 9am until 5:30pm learning the foundation of their craft. In addition to obvious aspects of acting, they will learn vocal control, body control and textual analysis. Any time not spent in classes is expected to be used working tech support for the second-year productions and prepping as understudies for Asolo's main stage. This means attending long rehearsals and memorizing complicated blocking and line delivery for performances they will likely never have a chance to give. But it’s about experience, and by the end of the first year, students have half of the credits necessary for membership into the union.

Second-year students continue classes, but also take part in a four-play season. The productions range from classical to contemporary (this year features both Mamet and Shakespeare) and are performed solely by second-year students. When the season ends, the students ship out to London for a six-week session of advanced training and immersion in the London theater scene.

By the third year, Conservatory students are finally full members of the Asolo Rep Acting Company. The first two months are dedicated to learning 50-minute Shakespearian adaptations designed to be staged in any setting, and the students take these productions on the road. Traveling the state, stopping in high schools and community centers, the students perform for up to 14,000 people before they finish. They return just in time for the Rep season, where they work on two to four productions for the main stage before finishing with their final class (a showcase with Leaming), putting together a collection of scenes which will be their résumé of sorts and performing them for casting directors.

“Our students are really turning their backs on their family and friends and they lock themselves away here for three years,” says Leaming. “You’re isolated, but in the best sense; you can only focus on your work.”

Future of the American Culture

The final piece of the puzzle, the thing that makes this all possible, is the fervent belief by Leaming, and passed to his students, that the work they do is of the utmost importance. “Any artist moves culture forward. That’s what an artist does,” says Leaming. “As much as I’d like to suggest that a mathematician or insurance salesman does, they don’t.”

For students of the Conservatory and those behind its operation, the art of acting is less of a profession and more of a calling. It’s a philosophical and civic duty, a mantle chosen and burden borne that drives them into the crucible Leaming calls home. Three years is no small amount of time, especially for a 20-something ready to make his or her mark on the world, and the students need to believe that their efforts are part of something greater than themselves. They don’t act just for themselves; they act for the stage and the community that gathers around it.

“We are training the future of American culture. The students who graduate from here are responsible, when they enter the profession, to be the voice of American culture,” says Leaming. “The arts speak to the community and in doing so help the country identify itself. The arts are a mirror for the community to say, ‘That’s what I believe.’”

“Stories and actors create communities and cultures,” says Bateman. “They challenge oppression, shape societies and relay histories. We provide light to those who suffer. We show people how to live and how not to live. I think it's an extremely noble and important profession.” The secret to the success behind the FSU/Asolo Conservatory for Actor Training is not a magic spell or any amount of soul-selling, but looks suspiciously like a combination of dedication, hard work and an opportunity of the type one can find only in Sarasota.