<p>Mommy5,</p>
<p>As soozievt stated above, my DS is in his second year at Atlantic. A bit of background, between his junior and senior year in HS, he attended Tisch’s Summer HS acting program, which at that time was in the Lee Strasberg studio. Several of his summer program classmates were subsequently accepted into Tisch, and are now in all of the various primary studios in their second year. DW and I have been fortunate to meet many of these students - his friends from Atlantic, Stella Adler, Playwrights, and the NSB (both Acting and MT) - and it’s been fun to hear them compare and contrast the studios first hand. I have to say that these theater students are very supportive of each other, it’s been a real pleasure to see them grow as young adults and artists as they continue to develop their craft. Knowing what he knows, DS is very happy that he was placed in Atlantic when he was accepted into Tisch.</p>
<p>Okay, some info about Atlantic. For one thing, the studio is on Ninth Avenue, between 15th and 16th Street (across the avenue from Chelsea Market). Students learn quickly to manage their time, as it can take 20 to 30 minutes to get to studio from their various freshman dorms. The history of the studio is documented elsewhere; cofounders William H. Macy and David Mamet developed their acting approach called “Practical Aesthetics” in the early 80’s. Wikipedia’s description can be found at [Practical</a> Aesthetics - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Practical_Aesthetics]Practical”>Practical aesthetics - Wikipedia), and gives perhaps the best description (in layman’s terms 
) of that acting technique. NJTheaterMOM is right; I don’t think this acting approach is taught elsewhere, but many of the fundamentals there (Stanislavsky, Sanford Meisner, etc) are used in many different acting disciplines. The Atlantic Acting School’s NYU Studio web page can be found at <a href=“http://www.atlanticactingschool.org/page.aspx?id=12016771[/url]”>http://www.atlanticactingschool.org/page.aspx?id=12016771</a>.</p>
<p>DS is thriving there. He recently as been asked to be part of the third year’s ensemble (even though he is only a second year student); DW and I will be going to see him perform at Atlantic Stage 2 in December. After the primary studio requirements are done after the second year, third year Tisch students in Atlantic form an ensemble company, and put on plays at the studio; students get first hand knowledge of the business side of putting on a production. Frankly, I don’t know if this is done at other studios, but it seems to be a nice opportunity for the students to have. Further, Atlantic is an independent studio as well as a Tisch studio; thus, there are students at Atlantic who are not NYU students. The groups don’t intermingle for classes. However, there are veteran stage, screen, and TV actors who continue to come to Atlantic, and offer master classes and discussions with the Tisch Atlantic students. </p>
<p>If you have specific questions, let me know, and I’ll answer them here in a public forum. Best of luck as you go down the college application/audition/selection process!</p>