@frontrowmama Sure. The teachers that I always recommend to new graduates coming to LA are Lesly Kahn, John Rosenfeld, Billy O’Leary, and Stan Kirsch. They’re all part of the same teaching lineage and are kinda specialists at getting college trained newbies acclimated to what we really need to be able to do in the market. That’s why they’re often called finishing teachers. John, Billy, and Stan used to work for Lesly before they branched out to start their own studios with slightly different takes on things. I know that John has had college students study with him over breaks and I’m pretty sure that Billy would allow it. I don’t know as much about Stan and Lesly might be a little too tough for somebody still in school although she has a branch studio Santa Monica where one of her senior assistants is the main teacher, so there’s always that. However, I would honestly recommend that you maybe save any of them until the summer after third year because they’re more effective the more solid one’s foundation already is.
For after first and second year, I’d recommend a good on-camera class which is something I think college programs should begin first year and don’t. A great one for that would be Annie Grindlay since the intensive classes are twice-a-week although she will probably pass a younger student on to her assistant, Carla, who I’ve heard is excellent in her own right. Some other good ones to look into are Margie Haber Studio, Tess Kirsch, Saxon Trainor, Christinna Chauncey, and Robert D’Avonzo although I imagine that Robert has a mile-long waiting list after all the props that Jenna Fischer gave him in her new book.
Now some schools might frown on doing this or even forbid it and I’m not gonna say to do it anyway and just not tell them. haha However, something no school should have a problem with is improv. UCB has the hot hand with that right now and The Groundlings and Second City are great as well. I’m not as familiar with how the schedules at the latter two work, but at UCB, you could do one level per summer and then when you graduate, there would be one left to go before you would be eligible to join a team and that is always a good tribe to be a part of starting out - besides the beneficial effects it can have on one’s acting in general.