Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre

Coordinates: 40°45′24″N 73°57′55″W / 40.75667°N 73.96528°W / 40.75667; -73.96528

The Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre is a full-time professional conservatory for actors located at 340 East 54th Street in New York City, and is known as the home of the Meisner technique.

History

Neighborhood Playhouse had originally been founded as an off-Broadway theatre by philanthropists Alice Lewisohn and Irene Lewisohn in 1915, but closed in 1927. The following year, it re-opened as the Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre with the addition of Rita Wallach Morgenthau. Sanford Meisner joined the faculty in 1935 from the Group Theatre. Meisner used his study of Russian theatre and acting innovator, Konstantin Stanislavski's System to develop his own technique, as an alternative to Lee Strasberg's Method acting.

The Executive Director Emeritus of the Playhouse, Harold G. Baldridge, a graduate of the school himself, had been head of the school for 32 years. Pamela Moller Kareman serves as the current Executive Director, also a graduate of The Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre.