Carol Hickey Acting Studio: Austin, Texas

The Carol Hickey Acting Studio Conservatory Program

Conservatory Cost (11 month program) - $5500
Paid in Full Discount - $5000
11 Month Payment Plan - $500
12 Month Payment Plan - $460

The Voice and Movement Toolkit will introduce participants to the fundamentals of voice and movement for actors, providing individual tools fhat constitute building blocks for success. Classwork will be focused on an introduction to various techniques, methods, exercises, and explorations pertaining to vocal production and effective movement for stage and screen.

Foundations of Acting
This class lays out both logically and experientially our approach to the work. The student recalls acting as a child's game played by children's rules. Identifying the muscles needed to play the game and eliminating concerns of the ego allows students to rediscover the joy of playing pretend. This simple approach is then applied to scripted material using both monologues and scenes from plays.

Applied Voice and Movement
Students will apply the tools gained in The Voice and Movement toolkit to longer texts such as full scenes and longer-form pieces. This module will culminate in a final project in which each actor will create an original piece focused on voice and movement.

Scene Study with Carol Hickey
In this weekly workshop, Carol will challenge you to accept and allow yourself to be more accessible as a human being than you ever knew possible. She will help reveal where your priorities lie so that you can lend more of yourself to the work and the story. She will guide you to recover your child-like mentality and imagination so that the work becomes free and fun!

On Camera Acting with Kim Jackson Davis Students will workout using television and film audition sides. You will learn all aspects of the "audition" process (self-tapes, virtual callbacks, & chemistry reads). This is a great way to keep your audition skills sharp. We have had many of our students book directly from tape. As our industry moves more and more toward virtual castings, we must stay educated on the latest technology in order to stay competitive.

Homework and Improv with Sarah Marie Curry
Students will use the techniques of improvisation as an effective and efficient way to joyfully commit to the work of acting. Learn how to focus the use of your imagination, become more open and aware, increase focus and attention, and play pretend at the highest level. students will leave class with a better understanding of their own creative mind as well as how to relinquish the ego's concerns over product and presentation.

Monolgues with Sarah Marie Curry
This course applies the homework practice to monologue pieces which will be performed in the final showcase.

Storytelling Through Song with Richard Cerato
Combining elements of storytelling, standup, musical theatre performance, and dance, this two session workshop will be geared towards creating a unique solo performance piece. Participants will come to class prepared with a brief song of their choosing in any style. After a rigourous physical warm up based in Lecoq and Viewpoints Techniques, and a thorough vocal warm up based in the Linklater technique, we will explore and expand upon each individual piece, culminating in a final sharing during session 2.

Advanced Voice and Movement with Adam Roberts Throughout this module, students will gain familiarity with the four systems of the human voice from the perspectives of healthy vocal production, vocal range and register, body alignment, and breath. Our vocal work will be coupled with a variety of movement explorations focused on economy of motion, grounding, and centering. Through rigorous training in speech, voice, and a variety of movement techniques, students will gain additional tools to interpret text with authenticity.

Film Rehearsal with Russell Reed
Students will receive an education in how to work productively on camera. All students will collaborate in various crew positions to create a film of their scene work for our online showcase.

Film Fight with Mark Cabrera
This class provides weapons training and safety - how to check, load, draw, hold and fire a pistol, rifle, shotgun, and knife. Students will learn fight choreography and basic stunts and be filmed acting while demonstrating both stunt and weapon capability.

Conservatory Instructors

Carol Hickey | Scene Study | 1st year Showcase
Carol Hickey has studied with some of the most prestigious instructors in Acting at HB Studio in New York and 7 years in Los Angeles with Harry Mastrogeorge. She has a degree in Theatre from University of California, Santa Barbara. She earned her living working on commercials and television series (Gilmore Girls, Six Feet Under, Scrubs, ER, NYPD Blue, Judging Amy, Big Love, National Tide, AT&T, Kelloggs, Cisco and many more) in Los Angeles. She also has received awards for her work on stage, developing premiere works in Los Angeles and in New York with The Canyon Theatre Company, along with name actors such as Mark Ruffalo and Kathy Bates. She worked as an instructor through East L.A. Classic Theatre to inner city, underprivileged youth and has primarily served as a private audition coach here in Austin.

Harry Mastrogeorge | Master Class
Harry has been directing and teaching since 1956 and has numerous film, television and producing credits. Harry's students range from Robert Redford, Ray Liotta, Bryan Cranston, Djimon Hounsou to Brit Marling.

Kim Jackson Davis | On-Camera Acting

Kim Jackson Davis has worked as a professional actress, host, and dancer for over 25 years and is a member of the Screen Actors Guild. While living in Los Angeles, she had the opportunity to study with one of Hollywood's most sought-after acting coaches, John Kirby. Since moving back to Texas, she has trained under Carol Hickey for the past seven years. She also serves as the studio's Youth Program Director. Kim has a degree in Journalism and Theatre from the University of Texas at Tyler. Her most recent acting work includes Tyler Perry's "Zatima", Jessica Biel's hit series "Cruel Summer", and "Adam The First", a feature film playing opposite David Duchovny and Oakes Fegley.

Sarah Marie Curry | Homework and Improv

Sarah Marie Curry has been an actor and working artist for over a decade. On stage she has been called "hilarious," "fierce," "truly exceptional," and is a local Austin, Texas award winner for both Outstanding Lead Actress as well as Best Improv Troupe multiple times over. When not performing, she is a passionate coach, director and producer of improvisational theater and teaches advanced improvisation and acting curriculums across Texas. For show updates and more go to www.sarahmariecurry.com

Russell Reed | Film Rehearsal

With a burning passion for telling stories, Russell Reed is a devoted 24 year old filmmaker from Houston, TX, whose goal is to simply excel from each of his films. Looking to inspire and entertain, Russell's keen eye for imagery and heart for directing has earned recognition from respected industry folk. Russell's achievements have stretched far and wide. Russell has seen accomplishments in nation-wide film festival screenings, distributions via streaming platform and select theater screenings. His recent award-winning short film, Baby Nick, now lives on digital cable television network, REVOLT TV. Russell commits his life to studying his craft and relentlessly chasing his dreams of directing major motion pictures while he approaches his commencement this summer from Texas State University as a Business Marketing student.

Adam Roberts | Voice and Movement

Adam Roberts is an Austin-based vocal coach, conductor, and artistic director. He is co-founder of TILT Performance Group (tiltperformance.org) and Resolution Creative (resolutionaryworks.com), a faculty member at Carol Hickey Acting Studio and The Actor's School (theactorsschool.org), a contributing writer for Backstage (backstage.com), and Director of Music at St. Luke United UMC (stlukeaustin.com). His students have performed in principal roles on Broadway, Off-Broadway and in regional theatre, been nominated for the Tony Award, and appeared in film, national tours, and on network television. Learn more about Adam and his work at adamkroberts.com and on Instagram @adam_k_roberts.

Richard Cerato | Storytelling Through Song

Richard has acted in original casts on Broadway, Off-Broadway, and tours nationally in the US and nine countries internationally. A graduate of the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland (Masters in Directing), listed third in the world for performing arts education, Richard has created works for the Israel Festival in Jerusalem, Galleries Lafayette in Shanghai, and Shakespeare's Globe in London, where he completed a 2017 directing residency. He recently conceived, directed, and choregraphed The Alchemy Theatre's production of Frost Bites: A Holiday Cabaret.

Mark Cabrera | Film Fight

Mark Cabrera is originally from Houston, TX. He has been a film fight instructor for seven years for kids as well as adults. He has been an active MMA competitor for 10 years and truly believes that experience helped the transition into film due to knowing first-hand how to react and combat. Mark is a brown belt in Jiu Jitsu and an instructor in both muay Thai and boxing as well as weapons defense/stage combat (including firearms, knives, swords, bows, and staff weapons.) He is a weapons master and fight coordinator for feature films, shorts, and series such as "The Honey Trapper" and "Laura's Fate." Mark coordinates a range of fight styles including TKD, boxing, karate, Jui Jitsu, street brawl, and MMA.

Tuition and Policies