# My Thoughts on Drama School:  William Esper Studio in NYC

**Channel:** BOOK That Commercial
**Source:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NAD8v4JM0SM
**Transcript page:** https://www.withtranscript.ai/video/NAD8v4JM0SM

## Chapters

- 0:00 — Why I Chose Acting Training
- 4:00 — Applying to William Esper Conservatory
- 8:00 — Year One and Year Two Experience
- 12:05 — Career Impact and Advice

## Transcript

**[0:00]:** welcome to bookbag commercial my name is Kim Akia so today is a story time I want to talk about my experience and

**[0:12]:** footy and a blanket and cozy on up and let's check so I attended William esper studio in New York City from let's see actually let's go back

**[0:31]:** as an actor I wanted to be trained I wanted to know the craft I wanted to know the technique I didn't want to go into auditions feeling like I don't know what to do how do I even break down the script I want to get to this character I didn't want to be lost I wanted really really strong validation and what my journey started in New York when I started a serious committee Journey towards an acting career lots of workshops at various places which is okay because you get to kind of like see you know what direction you want to go or maybe what technique what teacher what school kind of like aligns with or resonates with you so I did take a few classes throughout the city um and there were great classes for what they were but I found myself still like really lost as an actor like not knowing what to really

**[1:34]:** do with the text not knowing how to break it down not knowing okay this is the character but how do I embody that so that I become it and not acted like they were like a whole bunch of things but basically it all bogged down to I wanted a strong Foundation as an actor now in New York City the blessing is there are tons of schools tons of workshops tons of classes tons of universities colleges Conservatory programs and I guess I must have found William esper just by doing a basic Google search searching different schools different conservatories uh because at this point I had already went back to school about my Master's Degree so I was not looking forward to I was not really looking to get back into college or a master's degree program MFA program like I really wasn't looking for that route because I already had my master's degree but I did

**[2:30]:** want some serious training and I remember William esper had a summer intensive their summer intensive I believe it wasn't all summer I believe it was like a one month a one-month intensive so it's a one month intensive and basically you get to just like see just a surface level of what the entire program is about so you get kind of like introduced to you know what William esper has to offer an actor I took the Intensive the one-month intensive absolutely loved it from one of my friends uh Courtney she also took it as well she had a different teacher I absolutely loved it and when I came out of that one month incentive I said to myself this is the actor training that I need I need this because it was just structured it was a hard Foundation it was just real it just felt so real and um serious and just just like I

**[3:39]:** don't know I don't know how to explain it I guess like if you've ever been to like a class here a class there and then you go to some place where they give you like of full entree you know with or like a full three-course meal that's what it really felt like and I'm like I have to go to the school also there were a lot of successful alumni that had went to that school as well

**[4:00]:** and so I knew the track record of the school had a really great track record phenomenal teachers and at conservatories um they focus on active training so it's a two-year program and they have classes ranging from mask movement voice and speech Alexander technique cold reading script analysis uh dance um what else uh a whole bunch of different types of acting classes and so when you enroll in the two-year program uh year one is acting technique it's a full year of acting technique and then there's a certain there are certain supplemental classes that you can take year one and then year two you take acting technique level two and then there's another chunk of supplemental classes that you could potentially take if you wanted so after doing that summer intensive I was like oh my God oh my God I have to come in I have to do this to your phone this is what I

**[5:04]:** need this is this is what I've been looking well at the price I said um I didn't know I was gonna be up before it I didn't at the time I was working a full-time corporate job so I said to myself I hated the job the job was sucking every inch of my soul literally um she did the job but I said to myself okay I'm gonna stay at this job for two years so that this way I have this income to at least pay for my my Conservatory um I had to want to put in my Conservatory on credit cards and then just like paying it off at that time I wasn't really good with money management like I am now um because if I would have knew then would I know now I would have definitely budgeted better so that this way I wouldn't have ended up in credit card it um like

**[6:05]:** I did back then um but anyway at the end of the day it wasn't being paid okay so um after the summer intensive I just was like ah please find a way I'm just talking like this hat we have to do that to do this so that anyway something happened you know bad happened where like okay yeah here's a critical art or here's some cash or something I don't even remember how it happened um but it happened I put down my money um and I enrolled in the two-year program so for the first year I had my instructor was Terry Knickerbocker the Terry Knickerbocker he has his own studio now um but he was absolutely phenomenal um he is a phenomenal phenomenal teacher um and I'm so grateful and thankful to have had him um because he really taught me a lot and um year one you really learn about yourself it's really about pulling

**[6:59]:** the onions of yourself off off pull them off pull them off pull them off know where you are so that you can then become the character in year two um and so year one was probably the most transformative year of my life like my life changed my life absolutely changed um in year one because it's the type of program that they literally they strip you they strip you of you so that they can dig deep and you can you can just go within and really pull back everything your your anxieties your your Hang-Ups um your insecurities your ego like get rid of it get rid of it um and then that's when I started going to therapy because he recommended that all of his students be in therapy um and Year One I felt like I was losing my mind everybody felt like they were losing their mind because that's just part of the program

**[8:00]:** now let me look back and so um I enrolled in therapy and I was doing that consistently for the next two years while I was in this program which that was if I didn't do that I probably just be even crazier than I am now so year um one was phenomenal um yeah it's just six hours a week and then you also have to meet up with your partner outside of class to practice um these scenes and and the homework and the work so you're really putting in anywhere between 10 to 20 hours a week of acting outside of a full-time job or anything else that you have going on in your life so really the first year I really did not have a life most of us did not have a life because the program will like and you have to commit to it if you don't commit to it they will kick you

**[9:00]:** out like they will kick you out you have to commit to it if you're not doing the work the teachers will kick you out so it's like you're paying all this money um to be committed to be grounded to really put in and do the work so only the series actors actually survived after year one even after year two people fall off people fall off people just go by the wayside because it's a lot for a lot of people I'm not even monetary wise it's a lot mentally psychologically physically and emotionally these exercises that you're doing the type of acting work that you're doing you're really digging deep into yourself like you're like it's a mind explosion okay so you really have to be prepared um on an emotional physical psychological level I personally feel like I really wasn't prepared I feel like most people are not prepared if somebody tells you about the program

**[9:52]:** like okay yeah but you really don't know until you actually are in the program and you're like oh this is some heavy ish this is a real deal like yeah I'm gonna lose my mind I'm I'm going crazy okay so that was year one um what I loved about year one is our classes were anywhere between like 10 and 15 20 people and so you really got to build some really strong relationships with uh your acting classmates um I have some great friendships there throughout the program where each other's shoulders of cry on lean on um you know we will go out after class sometimes and you know just spend time with each other um not too much because we don't really have that much time but you know there were rare occasions when we did celebrate went out to celebrate but um for the most part year one was very transformative I learned so

**[10:52]:** much it was Meisner technique based which I love Miser technique I learned a lot about myself I learned a lot about other people um and yeah I feel like I learned a lot about myself more than anything I learned a lot about Atkin as well but really the self was was the main attraction in year one and then in year two I had uh David newer who was also phenomenal um and again year two we just did a little bit deeper more into character work more to scripts script analysis and things of that nature I'm just doing deeper character work in year two and I had new classmates this time I had a couple maybe like two classmates that were the same but I was in a different class I was in David's class um I didn't come back to Cherry's class after year two because the teachers have to choose you and he didn't

**[11:43]:** choose me there was like a handful of people that he didn't choose to come back to his class four years to so I got moved to David newer's class which was a phenomenal class to be in I really really like love David and um I said year two was just a deeper character work and um yeah it was transformative by the end of the two years I was happy to be done with the program happy to

**[12:05]:** get my life back happy to you know acting it really consumed me like it was like my life was acting for those two years because you know you're in class six hours a week but outside you're all you have to spend a lot of time doing the work with yourself and with your partner so it is a so huge commitment um I was really happy to give my life back but leaving that program I had such a really strong Foundation when it came to acting um unfortunately when I was in the program I was not able to really afford to do a lot of supplemental classes because like I said it's a very expensive program and it is a true investment but at the time I didn't have I didn't have any help it was just me and I was not able to afford really any supplemental classes I did take the math class which

**[12:52]:** was phenomenal but there was also like boys class and you know movement class dance class script analysis call reading on camera all this kind of stuff which I've since taken those types of classes in other places um but just at that time I could not afford it it was just like so expensive I was like how do these people afford all this I have no I don't know I still don't know a lot of people do but I guess people do some way somehow um but anyway so after uh year two we had a huge graduation party I love weight Master parties they have the best Christmas parties and graduation parties and I graduated um like I said I took the summer intensive in June or July of 2013 I enrolled in September of 2013 and I graduated in June of 2015 and then in July of 2015 I signed with my first manager and

**[13:46]:** my career has just really been non-stop since then so I literally you know have been successful since you know taking the two-year Conservatory program and I think that um it's not just because of that program that I've been successful as an actor I'm a very determined person I'm a very focused person I have great perseverance um and when I set my eye on a goal I go after that goal like it's no tomorrow so a lot of it is me but also having great teachers and a great Foundation to come off of to give me that boost of success to give me the knowledge that I need to give me the education that I need to be a successful actor to be at the top to be you know booking the room and be at the front of the casting director's list because I have embodied certain tools and techniques that are instilled in me

**[14:40]:** that I I'm a phenomenal actor like I'm grounded I'm present I can become the character I am in this world I could see this imaginary world like that program really helped me just just have a strong foundation and I'm so grateful so grateful that I was able to go through that program I'm happy that's over with him but um yeah yeah I definitely would recommend a conservatory program or an MFA program um whichever suits your lifestyle better you have to look at your lifestyle you've got to look at you know what's going on in your life do you have the time can you really commit because it is a huge commitment financially and time and energy wise um so yeah find a program a school um you know a system that works for you and your lifestyle some people can only afford to take workshops here and there that's better than nothing you're getting the

**[15:38]:** education you know find the workshops though that really give you the best value and really help you um you feel like you're you're you're before you want to really do your research that's really what I'm saying do your research on these workshops and classes if you're not able to go to the conservatory program or to get into a college or university do your research on these schools that have classes and workshops and from there I would say you know audit auditing is is something that I highly recommend every actor do because there's so many different types of classes and workshop schools out there that auditing really lets you see if this is the place where you need to be if this is the place that resonates with you if this is the place that is really going to give you value um if this is the place that is going to give you the education

**[16:28]:** that you need to elevate your acting career so that's what you want to really really look at okay so that's my story about um going to William esper acting Conservatory drama school in New York um and yeah when I look back on that top of my life it was a really really good time in my life and I'm really you know I was younger obviously I was like oh wow almost 10 years ago wow wow look back at that time my life and it was in New York City just like you know things were great life was good so anyway that's all for today that's all I can really remember yeah so but if you have any questions about going to a conservatory volunteers Ramen school um was this video helpful for you are you thinking about going to a drama school Conservatory or getting an MFA let me know your thoughts head over to

**[17:25]:** bookcommercial.com I have merchandise I have freebies and I'm a commercial audition coach so if you need help I'm here for you all right have a wonderful absolutely amazing day I'll see you next time bye foreign