Meet Timothy Craig and Andrey Vasilyev of Stanislavsky Studio LA in North Hollywood

Today we’d like to introduce you to Timothy Craig and Andrey Vasilyev.

Timothy Craig studied acting and script analysis personally with Stella Adler at her New York City conservatory through the NYU Undergraduate Drama Program in New York City for three years and headed her conservatory voice and speech program for an additional six years. His professional acting credits include roles in regional and summer stock theater, Off- and Off-Off-Broadway, industrials and many national, network commercials.

It was also during this time that he studied acting and directing for two years with Evgeny Lanskoy, a master teacher and recent émigré from the Soviet Union, and learned the revolutionary, model-based updating of the Stanislavski System of Acting by Pyotr Ershov.

He left New York City to attend USC’s Graduate School of Cinema in Los Angeles and formed Cairn Productions, a successful partnership for producing and directing independent films, videos, commercials, industrials, and music videos. Former and current students include Sarah Ramos (Parenthood); Judd Nelson (Suddenly Susan), Melanie Griffith (Working Girl), Chris McDonald (Boardwalk Empire), Gary Gulman (Comedy Central), Olga Segura (Goats), Adriano Giannini (Ocean’s 12). Mr. Craig is a member of SAG-AFTRA, AEA, and the Dramatists Guild of America.

In the past few years, he has returned to his Stella Adler roots, teaching On Camera Acting and Production for Actors at the Stella Adler Academy of Acting in Hollywood. He is also a master teacher of Mid-Atlantic Standard English for speech production and accent reduction with professional students in Hollywood and all over the world through Skype.

The publication of Mr. Craig’s DVD series “Stanislavsky: React and Act” (First Light Video Publishing), describing powerful, new acting strategies developed in the Soviet Union, led to his meeting GITIS-trained Russian teacher and actor Andrey Vasilyev, and together, they opened Stanislavsky Studio LA. Today, they team-teach the most cutting-edge Stanislavsky acting techniques in Hollywood.

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Time is a luxury in today’s marketplace. Andrey and I see the money and time pressures beginning actors are under today.

Both of us have benefited from five-year, full-time acting training programs, steeped in process and technique, followed by theater performance that we realize very few of our students will ever be able to experience for their own training.

We have adapted our teaching to these challenges and will continue inspiring and reminding actors of their legacy and tradition as artists.

So, as you know, we’re impressed with Stanislavsky Studio LA – tell our readers more, for example what you’re most proud of as a company and what sets you apart from others.
With Tim’s training directly from Stella Adler in her NYC conservatory, his speech and voice training, and his MFA in film production from USC and Andrey’s MFA Stanislavsky training from GITIS in Moscow and his teaching at Cal State Long Beach, we are the best-equipped acting studio in Hollywood to provide the most up-to-date understanding of the history, process, and applied Stanislavsky technique of acting for both film and theater.

We team teach all of our classes which means we provide two windows into the same material and process: Andrey works from the inside out; Tim works from the outside in.

Tim is the only teacher in the U.S. who teaches material from Stanislavsky’s third acting technique formulation: “The Method of Physical Action” as transcribed by Pyotr Ershov. Through this, actors learn basic Acting Models that give them vocabulary and ground them with an understanding of human Weight, Attention, Reaction and rhythm.

Andrey’s teaching gives attention to physical freedom, relaxation, improvisation and acting as game.

Andrey’s YouTube video blog, www.youtube.com/usalarussia, with over 23000 followers, allows us access to YouTube Space’s Los Angeles facilities where we often shoot our students in scenes and webisodes on professional sound stages using the latest equipment, including green screen practice.

Our Actors Lab focuses on specialized scenes and acting projects that give our actors real-life industry experience while keeping an eye on technique.

Each actor works in every class.

So, what’s next? Any big plans?
In addition to Stanislavsky Studio LA’s emphasis on acting technique for both stage and film/tv in Hollywood, we have branched out into group and private coaching by Skype.

Our targeted, step-by-step lessons and scene study make us easily adaptable to seminar and feedback formats and to international students and classes.

Pricing:

• OUR BASIC 4-WEEK ACTING CLASS: “FOUNDATIONS” Two teachers per class. Tuition is $150/$125 for returning students.
• OUR ADVANCED 6-WEEK ACTING CLASS: “ADVANCED LAB” Two teachers per class. Tuition is $300/$200 for any following 6-week sessions.
• MID-ATLANTIC STANDARD ENGLISH: Expressive English communication for actors and accent reduction. Tuition is $50 per class/discount for monthly classes.

Contact Info:

• Address: The Sherry Theater
  11052 Magnolia Blvd.
  North Hollywood, CA 91601
• Website: www.stanislavskystudio.com
• Phone: 310.597.2783
• Email: [email protected]
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/stanislavskistudio/
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/stanislavski-studio-la-north-hollywood

Image Credit:
Andrey Vasilyev
Brandon Trammer

Getting in touch: VoyageLA is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.