<p>Some drama moms I know were talking about an acting technique called “Practical Aesthetics.” I’m a musician, not an actor, so all this terminology is fairly new to me. As I understand it from an online search, it is derived from Stanislavsky and Meisner, but is more intellectual than emotional. Do I have that right? Would this be a component of the training at such Meisner-oriented programs as Rutgers?</p>
<p>I thought I heard that term thrown around at the tours of those 2 year alphabet soup “conservatories” in NYC when they were doing an exercise in Meisner. But I thought they said it was a more advanced technique that the kids in acting training would get in the second year.</p>
<p>[Practical</a> Aesthetics - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Practical_Aesthetics]Practical”>Practical aesthetics - Wikipedia)</p>
<p><a href=“http://drama.tisch.nyu.edu/object/dr_studios_atlantic.html[/url]”>http://drama.tisch.nyu.edu/object/dr_studios_atlantic.html</a></p>
<p>Practical aesthetics is the technique taught at the Atlantic studio at Tisch.</p>
<p>I am under the impression that some knowledge of practical aesthetics is presented as part of the “toolbox” of approaches that students are provided with at many of the conservatories.</p>
<p>But I could be wrong!</p>
<p>But what does that really mean when a college website markets its program by saying the “toolbox” approach. How many approaches and techniques can be taught effectively in a semester with one professor, or are these students introduced to many of the methods in freshman year as an overview? Would these programs that present the techniques as an overview be in essence inferior?</p>
<p>BU, CMU, and even Juilliard are teaching the toolbox approach. I wouldn’t say they were inferior, because I don’t think they simply give an overview of the different techniques. The hope is to let the student delve into these techniques and pull out the pieces that work for them - basically making their own technique. I think that is wonderful!</p>
<p>I believe they are teaching the “toolbox” over three or 4 years, not just freshman year.</p>
<p>My son just graduated from BU, and my impression was that the basic training happened in the first two years, with the second two years devoted to refinement of technique and learning more specialized skills like accents and dialects, etc.</p>