The Actors Theatre Workshop is a vital NYC cultural institution that provides award-winning programming grounded in theatre principles, creativity, and innovative educational techniques. We are proud to bring people together in a safe, creative space, allowing them to engage with each other and honor their shared experience by participating in ATW’s unique educational curricula. Throughout our history we have had a far and wide reach with global programs in the United States and Israel, serving adults and children by bringing creative and community-training opportunities to a diverse range of organizations and corporations.
To help people of all ages and all walks of life achieve their potential through a creative process that is infused with opening one’s imagination, educational rigor, and developing artistic principles and skills.
The Actors Theatre Workshop is an award-winning non-profit theatre, community center, and educational institution that teaches innovative educational techniques and theatre principles to adults and children; produces classical and contemporary plays that maintain the highest artistic standards; and develops new dramatic works that examine the social issues of the day. We seek to create harmony and understanding among difference so we can come together as a community to forge ahead and create a new vision for the future.
Since 1990, ATW has flourished as an artistic leader in the field, producing award-winning educational programs and productions that develop individual potential, create tangible change, and liberate the talents and abilities in people from all walks of life—from homeless children to the incarcerated to the highly educationally and economically privileged, while operating an organization of artistic merit that has proven itself worthy of public, private and civic support.
Thurman E. Scott, ATW’s Artistic Director, Executive Producer, and Founder, is a widely acknowledged expert of artistic project development. As a director/producer, he creates new products for stage, television, and film, from concept to final production. Mr. Scott had the privilege to train in Europe and America with the major teachers of drama of the twentieth century, among them: Stella Adler, Lee Strasberg, Harold Clurman, and Sanford Meisner. By the time Mr. Scott founded The Actors Theatre Workshop in 1990, he was an established leader in American theatre, carrying on the artistic traditions of his mentors with a wide reputation of respect for his cutting-edge directorial work, award-winning acting, and innovative, successful community-based training and educational programs. At ATW he has evolved artistic disciplines that provide tools to access and develop individual potential and advance the tradition of theatre through new discoveries.
Mr. Scott’s techniques prove every day that creativity is the great equalizer and unifier among human beings.
For more information please e-mail us at outreach@actorstheatreworkshop.org.
The Actors Theatre Workshop was founded over three decades ago by master theatre artist Thurman E. Scott in a studio on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. In 1990, with an outpouring of public and private support, we opened our doors to a theatre complex and performance space in Chelsea. Since then, we have flourished, expanding programming and serving thousands of children and adults.
Thurman E. Scott tested what he learned on his journey of life and the study of drama to improve upon what he had been taught and add a deeper understanding in order to confront the past, illuminate the present, and utilize new discoveries and methods as we go into the future. He has created new writing and drama techniques that we use in our theatrical productions and community programs. As his mentor Stella Adler said, “Thurman E. Scott is a creative revolutionary. His demand for truth in artistic expression and in the theatre he creates is relentless. Thurman’s vision is big. Very big. He has never ever compromised himself, his talent, his beliefs, or his willingness to meet and surpass all creative challenges. His work advances acting technique for the next generation.”
ATW serves as a catalyst for people of all ages to develop in three ways: artistically, personally, and as contributing community members. We produce educational programming to advance individual potential, create tangible change, and liberate the talents and abilities in people from all walks of life. We also provide training in original theatre techniques, where people gain tools to help themselves and use what they’ve learned to help others. We do this in a number of ways: by producing classical and contemporary plays that maintain the highest artistic standards; by developing new dramatic works that examine current events and social issues; by training the next generation of theatre artists in our original creative-process technique; by providing award-winning drama and education programs for housing-insecure youth; and by encouraging our participants to put what they learn into practice in their own lives and in the world.
From homeless children, to US veterans, to the incarcerated, to theatre artists and the highly educationally and economically privileged, to students and volunteers, ATW supports a diverse range of individuals and communities, having served close to ten thousand people. Our signature programs are designed to help participants achieve their potential through drama and education.
We have made an impact on the lives of thousands of children and adults, in New York City and around the world, as evidenced by testimonials and the stories of transformational life experiences told to us by our returning ATW graduates.
ATW has a profound impact in the communities we serve. We demonstrate this through our work with children, providing them with essential tools to improve their reading and writing, as well as the leadership and civic engagement skills they put into practice on behalf of their families and the broader community. For our adult students, we provide hands-on workshops designed to reveal their creative potential, develop an expanded view of themselves, and gain a connection to the people and things in their everyday lives, inspiring them to become change agents in their community.
For our volunteers, we provide valuable training where individuals hone their professional expertise and talents and join in a group creative process to make a lasting difference. Lastly, corporations and their employees who have gone through our training programs report success in building empathy, confidence, synergy in their teamwork, and long-lasting skills for their career development.
Indicators of our success are measured through the children’s improved academic performance, mentor reports, testimonials about life achievements, and returning participants.
We always say that in the creative process, it’s important that individual students feel a sense of safety, autonomy, and that they are able to feel and voice whatever it is they need to express without their space being invaded. This is something we must be aware of and speak about because every interaction represents individuals being open and feeling many complex things.
It’s important to understand that the process of human growth—of changing old, accepted, comfortable norms—creates feelings of uncomfortableness. As we develop creatively we periodically experience moments of not knowing, of fear and downright discomfort. This is a temporary feeling which comes up because change and growth are taking place. There is a philosophy in today’s society of upholding what is considered “correct” behavior, maintaining “comfort zones” and using the word “appropriate” to fend off moments of potential discomfort. Know that the temporary feelings of discomfort you experience on your journey of creative development are a normal part of the process of expansion and lead to greater spiritual, emotional, and social development.
We believe in process–going through all the steps you must take–as we explore how to go about doing any particular thing. We use our acting technique to effectively take actions that recognize the creative essence in every human being, accept and give voice to our difference, and address conflicts and issues that exist in society today. We give people an opportunity to develop and contribute to the universal consciousness that connects us all.
The Actors Theatre Workshop is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, tax exempt organization. EIN: 13-3593882 © 2023-2024 The Actors Theatre Workshop. All rights reserved.
