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About

Sanford Meisner teaching a group of students, including a young Robert Duvall.
 Sanford Meisner teaching a group of students, including a young Robert Duvall. 

The Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre is a full-time acting conservatory located in the heart of New York City. Our approach focuses on the artistic growth of the actor through technical training in acting, movement, speech, and voice. The Neighborhood Playhouse offers the serious acting student what few other acting schools can provide – a rich tradition of excellence in actor training coupled with the practical skills for building a career.

The Neighborhood Playhouse remains the only conservatory where the faculty was trained to teach acting by Sanford Meisner himself. Given the passion and skill of our instructors, it’s no surprise The Cambridge Guide to Theatre (Cambridge University Press) described The Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre as the most respected acting school in the country and first among all professional training programs.

The Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre is a non-profit, tax-exempt school of training for actors, accredited by the National Association of Schools of Theatre (NAST).

The bronze plaque containing excerpts from the Proclamation presented to The Neighborhood Playhouse by the New York City Council, which hangs permanently on the façade of the building.

Bronze plaque honoring the Neighborhood Playhouse by the New York City Council. The plaque reads: The New York City Council honored The Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre and Sanford Meisner with a proclamation on the 18th day of October in the year Twenty Eighteen. In recognition of The Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre's ninety years of outstanding work and the profound contributions of Sanford Meisner to The Neighborhood Playhouse. In nineteen thirty five Mr. Meisner, one of the founding members of The Group Theatre, joined the faculty of The Neighborhood Playhouse, where he developed and refined what is now known as the Meisner Technique, globally recognized and among the foremost of modern acting techniques. The Neighborhood Playhouse, a seminal part of New York City theatre established in nineteen twenty eight, serves the New York City community at large and especially the theatre community in Manhattan, serving as a cultural resource while continuing the work of Mr. Meisner.