What the Students Say: Voice Training
What the Students Say: Movement training
What the Students Say: Acting Training
Seiichi Ishii. Actor, Tokyo, Japan
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What monologues are you working on? I miss everyone and hope to come back to see you. Here, out of 250 applicants, only 75 of us survived the audition process for the theater group: thank you!
Eva. Musician, Holland
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I am writing to tell you how grateful I am to have been in ATP [Actors’ Training Project]. I feel, know that as a teacher you have been very important to me and have shared your knowledge to help me find my way. Without your guidance I wouldn't be where I am now.
Armin Paisa-Nejad. Actor, New York
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How is everyone? What are you working on? When I was in California, the only place I felt I could breathe was the Actors' Training Project. New York, now, is my kind of place, and I'm settled in at HB Studio. I've already met a few people from ATP [Actors’ Training Project] here: Alicia, Leah, Frieda—she's grown a lot!
Alicia Hoge. Actress and Theatre Owner, New York and Los Angeles
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Your role in my life has been an amazing thing--you have been a great inspiration to me. The greatest, actually. The entire rest of my life in the theater will be very much influenced by what I have learned from you...[]...I liked your student, Armin. We both agreed that you had had a profound influence on our lives.
Kevin Morrison. Film Director, Screenwriter, Actor, Bay Area
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Something that I haven't said that should be said -- I have been happy with my ATP [Actors’ Training Project] class-time as my most important acting-oriented preparation for the shoot. It would be hard for me to overstate how much time I spend walking around, sitting down, or lying about during the day thinking about things we've said or done in class and bringing them into focus with regard to myself and/or my cast. In rehearsals, I often find myself parroting you to the letter, and most often your "voice" works both for myself and the cast. Thank you for being such an inspiration and more -- you're a practical example for how to work and conduct business in a professional and productive manner.
Emily Chase. Actress, Singer, Dancer, Los Angeles
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Not quaking, sputtering, but thinking in terms of continuum. After all, I’m working in acting and singing I enjoy them, I've accomplished certain things and discovered new areas to work in, and life is exciting and worth getting out of bed for. How fortunate I am to have found you--i.e. A teacher who encourages this more reasonable approach to life and artistic endeavors!
Heather Abendroth. Actress, Los Angeles and Bay Area
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I am very grateful for all the training I got from you because I feel I can take care of myself if the director isn't clear...I'm going through all my notes from class and taking apart the play the way we did those scenes. I feel there are endless amounts of insight and information you gave us!
[Name withheld]. Actress, Arts Administrator, San Francisco
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Lissa was my first acting teacher and though I’ve had many teachers since, I always return to what I learned from her. My class notebook is my acting touchstone!
Paul Heller. Drama teacher, Conference speaker, Solano County Arts consultant
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I had taught drama and speech for twenty years when I came to Lissa Renaud and the Actors' Training Project...[]...It is not just her Ph.D. work, nor her years of research and teaching which make Lissa the finest drama teacher I ever had, but her intuitive understanding in how to communicate structures of knowledge to a wide variety of students...As it turned out, the class changed my teaching, changed me professionally overall--as did Lissa’s expectation that we become introspective and examine how we act on stage and perforce, in the world...Renaud's acting methods have been for me and, in turn, for hundreds of my students, the conduit to change positively the way we literally "act" in life.
Frieda de Lackner. Actress, Kaiser Educational Theatre Troupe, Oakland
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Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you for everything you have done for me. You have opened up this amazing world to me, which is more exciting than anything else I know. I will never be the same because of you. My life is so much richer and happier. I tell everyone I know you are the most fantastic and amazing teacher I've ever had...
Christopher Rubin. Fitness instructor, Staff Supervisor
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With one lesson at the Actors' Training Project, Lissa taught me more about the craft of acting than one entire semester of college drama did.
Michael Armstrong. Director/Program Co-ordinate, Kaiser Educational Theatre
Programs
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ATP [Actors’ Training Project] has been instrumental in, and applicable to, all of my artistic and professional pursuits. I learned to read a text for its logic. I was exposed to different styles, both natural and classical. I now have a range of styles and techniques from which to choose. ATP also gives the actor a supportive atmosphere in which to explore, make mistakes and ultimately, to improve...

My favorite class was the PLAY READING one! We paired a classical and a modern play each week. When we read them together like that, the insights and revelations were astounding. It gave me a greater appreciation for my art and solidified the techniques I'd been learning at ATP.
Miriam Clark. Singer, Actress, San Francisco
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Before training with Lissa's ATP [Actors’ Training Project], my work was haphazard. I had plenty of tricks in my bag, but no tools to make them work together in a meaningful way. In my time with ATP, I discovered the thread that runs through every meaningful performance: the breath ties all together--thought, sounds, movements.
Kathie Schmid. Actress, Northern California
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The Actors’ Training Project is the Bay Area's best acting training! I left other acting classes feeling confused; what a relief to find Lissa and her methodical work. She helped me to discover the elusive components of natural performance. I use these skills in all my acting work, whether portraying patients for resident doctors in hospitals and medical videos, or creating a classical character in the theatre.
Margaret de Coursey. Actress, Pianist, Bay Area
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Lissa’s breadth and depth of knowledge of the acting craft is unfathomable. It will take a lifetime of training with this exceptional master teacher to mine her comprehensive store of theatrical wisdom...[]...Lissa has a sixth sense, a unique ability gently to guide her students into their own appropriate specializations within the theatre. I think this gift comes from Lissa’s profound interest in, and holistic approach to, understanding each student's needs and strengths. When her students are ready to "take the creative plunge" and audition after their studies with her, what direction they will go in is decided in a collaborative and well-informed fashion.
Nadia Mahdi. Soprano, Co-Founder Teatro Bacchino, Berkeley
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The Actors' Training Project has given my work a professional quality that it simply did not have after years of study elsewhere. The skills that I developed, with Lissa Tyler Renaud and my classmates, have become the tools that I continue to use in all of my stage work, be it opera, concert or spoken theatre.
Angela O’Connor. Acting Student, Oakland
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I was lucky this semester, I had really good teachers in school but none compare with you. "They" say that teaching is a thankless profession. Not so: THANK YOU! Thank you for the generosity you bring to your work. You have created a very special, inspiring place for us to learn and work. Thank you for helping me "create" myself.