Advanced Training Intensive (ATI)
Freehold is reimagining our intensive training program for emerging artists ready to commit to the next level artistically and professionally.
The Program is set up in a Conservatory Model, which means:
- Focused, rigorous, immersive training in a comprehensive structure
- Collaborating with other serious artists who share your commitment to craft and desire to work
- Refining skills necessary to work across platforms – and understand the business of those platforms
- The integration and application of skills
Applications are open now and must be submitted by May 11, 2026.
Auditions will be held on May 30th, and include an initial audition, as well as a callback audition later that SAME DAY. See the application link for complete details. If you have questions, or need further information contact us at advanced@freeholdtheatre.org.
ATI Structure and Curriculum
One Year – 3 Terms
Term 1 (Fall) – September 7 – December 19
Term 2 (Winter) – January 16 – May 2
Practicum – May 14 – July 10
(2) 15 Week Terms and
(1) Practicum/Capstone Term
Approximately 22-24 hours per week
Which may expand when working on projects
The Curriculum is focused on:
- Developing a dependable inner and outer process, applicable across an array of mediums
- Developing skills necessary to meet the technical demands of heightened text and extraordinary contemporary material
- Including components of working with verse, including heightened text and acting
- Bringing characters to life specifically and truthfully, in front of a camera or on a microphone
- In the Practicum, the option of Film/Video Production (Write, Shoot & Edit). Freehold is proud to announce we are partnering with the Northwest Film Forum for this portion of the program
- It includes auditioning for all platforms, and a focus on the Business of the Business
- Developed to allow students to continue regular employment while attending classes
ATI Model Program
Terms
I (Fall) September 7 – December 19 (with a pre-meet in August)
II (Winter) January 16 – May 2
Practicum between May 14 – July 10
Hours of Class
Monday 5:00pm – 10:00pm
Tuesday 5:00pm – 10:00pm
Friday 9:00am – 7:00pm (Fall); 9:00am – 8:30pm (Spring)
Saturday 9:00am – 5:00pm
*There may be added hours during tech for the Solo Fest and the Heightened Text Recital
Fall Courses: September 7 – December 19
15 weeks, starting with a pre-meet with Robin in August
5 hours/week Clown 10 weeks, Business/Audition prep 4 weeks
6 hours/week Solo/Acting: Extraordinary Circumstances
3 hours/week Combat
4 hours/week Voice and Speech/Singing
4 hours/week Aikido/Dance for Actors
1 hour tutorial
Total 22-23 hours per week
Winter Courses: January 16 – May 2
First week is Solo Fest
5 hours/week Verse/Heightened text and acting; recital
5 hours/week Acting: camera/subtext, self-tape
3 hours/week Audition (weeks 2-15)
3 hours/week Combat
3 hours/week Voice/Dialects/Voice Over
3 hours/week Fundamentals of Film-making (writing, shooting, editing)
2 hours/week Movement/Devising
Total 24 hours per week
Practicum: May 14 – July 10
Weekly schedule set by the project you pursue
Film
Stage play tour
Possible Voice Acting
ATI Faculty
Geof Alm
Geof Alm is a certified fight director and teacher for the Society of American Fight Directors. He has worked at Seattle Repertory Theatre, Intiman Theatre, Seattle Children’s Theatre, A Contemporary Theatre, Seattle Opera, Seattle Shakespeare Company, The Group Theatre, Arizona Theatre Company, The Huntington Theatre Company, and Missoula Children’s Theatre.
Alm teaches all over the Northwest, in Boston, Montana, and Louisiana, and in the University of Washington’s Professional Actor Training Program.
Stefan Enriquez
Stefan Enriquez has been an actor and teacher in Seattle for the last 13 years. He studied at Western Washington University and the Pasqualini-Smith Studio.
He has performed on numerous stages including the Seattle Repertory Theatre, A Contemporary Theatre, the Seattle Children’s Theatre, and the Empty Space Theatre where he appeared in the West Coast Premiere of Someone Who’ll Watch Over Me. He has taught acting as an artist-in-residence for the Seattle Rep and the Seattle Children’s Theatre.
He can be seen in several feature films, local and national commercials, corporate videos, print, and television–most recently on the series The Fugitive and Citizen Baines.
HATLO
HATLO is a queer artist living and making work as a guest on the land of the Duwamish Tribe, colonized as the city of Seattle. A versatile collaborator, Hatlo mixes a variety of generative roles (directing, dramaturgy, writing, performing etc) to support the development of new performance experiments. Hatlo has worked with over a dozen celebrated Northwest performing artists and companies to create world premieres across multiple disciplines. Frequent collaborators include Timothy White-Eagle, Markeith Wiley, Rosa Vissers (as PE|Mo), Dani Tirrell, Fox Whitney and Shontina Vernon. Hatlo has been nominated for a Gregory New Play Award for their original play STUCK and for a Stranger Genius award as part of the creative team for Thatswhatshesaid. Hatlo was the 2019 Seattle Town Hall Artist-in-Residence, where they facilitated the SOW Queer residency + showcase with 50 local artists. Hatlo, Timothy White Eagle and Paul Budraitis collaborate as The Violet Triangle. Their recent work The Indigo Room premiered at La Mama Experimental Theater Club in NYC in November 2021 and will return there as part of The Public Theater’s Under The Radar Festival in January 2023.
Mik Kuhlman
Mik Kuhlman based in Seattle and NYC, works across many genres, cultures and forms with numerous international artistic collaborations in Europe, Asia and the Middle East. Here in Seattle she’s been a company member of both Seattle Mime Theatre and UMO Ensemble. She holds an MFA in Acting from CalArts with continued education at Ecole Jacques Lecoq (LEM) and Ecole Philippe Gaulier (clown). (mikkuhlman.com)
Education: MFA in Acting CalArts
Iveliz Martel
Iveliz Martel (she/her) is a Chilean actor who graduated from the MFA in Acting program at the UW School of Drama. You may have seen her work at Seattle Children’s Theatre, Seattle Shakespeare Company, Yun Theatre, eSe Teatro, Strawberry Jam at 12th Ave Arts, and Distillery New Works Festival at Macha Theatre Works. She has also performed at Base Art Space with her solo show Buda Errante for 12 Min Max, and at 18th & Union, where she presented the solo clown show Tutti Frutti Soap Opera, co-created with Bradley Wrenn. Iveliz also holds an MS in Science Journalism and has developed a career as a radio reporter in her country. As a teacher, she has taught Introduction to Radio Journalism at the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile, Devising and Collaboration at Cornish College of the Arts, and Acting Tools for Public Speaking with an ESL focus at Yun Theatre. IG: @Ivelizacting
Meg McLynn
Meg McLynn is an actor and singer who has traveled to all 50 states and performed in many of them. New York and regional credits include Classic Stage Company, HERE Arts Center, The Ohio, The Mint, Theatre for a New City, Huntington Theatre Company, Idaho Shakespeare Festival, Saltbox Theatre Workshop and others. Locally, Meg has performed with Wooden O, Book-It Rep, Seattle Symphony, ArtsWest, Seattle Opera, On the Boards, Washington Ensemble Theatre, Theatre22, STAGEright, Centerstage, New City Theatre, Tacoma Actor’s Guild, Consolidated Works, Theater Schmeater, Theatre Off Jackson and Seattle Public Theatre. As a concert soloist, she performs the songbooks of Patsy Cline, Judy Garland, and Carly Simon with Purple Phoenix Productions, and she has been an Anthem Singer for the Seattle Seahawks.
As a teaching artist, Meg spent seasons working with Open Door, Idaho Shakespeare, and Living Voices, with whom she served as New York Associate Director. She has assisted with voice training at Columbia Business School and World Leaders Forum. Meg teaches Voice and Speech at Cornish College of the Arts, and she serves as a vocal coach with Jack Straw Studios and Seattle World School. Meg studied voice for 7 years under Kristin Linklater, receiving her BFA from Emerson College and her MFA from Columbia University, where she also studied with Andrei Serban, Anne Bogart and SITI Company.
Education:
MFA, Columbia University; BFA, Emerson College
Robin Lynn Smith
Robin Lynn Smith is a Founding Partner and Artistic Director for Freehold Studio/Theatre Lab in Seattle. She has worked for the past thirty-five years acting, directing and teaching in Chicago, Boston, Seattle, and New York where she directed Curse of the Starving Class Off-Broadway at the Promenade Theatre. She has directed in Regional Theatres and is presently directing Freehold’s Engaged Theatre Program which tours Shakespeare productions to prisons, projects, and tent cities, for which she has directed Othello, Julius Caesar, King Lear, Cymbeline, A Winter’s Tale, The Tempest, and The Merchant of Venice. At Freehold she directed the award-winning production of Chekhov’s The Seagull, Three Sisters, An Altered Life, and Veronika Falling. She was an Artist in Residence at the Seattle Repertory Theatre with Dan Sullivan, and directed several productions including Marvin’s Room, Frankie and Jonnie in the Claire de Lune, City of Gold, and the developmental workshop of Elizabeth Heffon’s New Patagonia. She has also directed in Seattle at ACT, On The Boards, The Empty Space, New City Theatre, Seattle Children’s Theatre, and Intiman where she was an Affiliate Artist with Bartlett Sher. She has an MFA from NYU TSOA, and she is currently on the faculty of Cornish College of the Arts. She is featured in ACTING TEACHERS OF AMERICA, and she is a member of SDC and a finalist for SDCF’s inaugural Zelda Fichandler Award. She is the 2008 recipient of the The Gregory A. Falls Sustained Achievement Award.
Education:
MFA, Tisch School of the Arts at New York University
Credits:
Curse of the Starving Class, Julius Caesar, The Seagull, City of Gold
Amy Thone
Ms. Thone has been a working actor in Seattle since 1993. She has spent most of her 30 years in the NW working on the plays of William Shakespeare—as an actor (Cleopatra, Prospero, Lady Macbeth, Cassius, Shylock, Beatrice, Titus, King John, Helena, Adriana, Emilia, Goneril, Paulina, the Chorus, plus many more), a dramaturge, and a teacher (University of Washington, Cornish College, Freehold Studio). Amy is the super proud mother of two beautiful daughters, one of whom is now a cosmonaut!!
Annette Toutonghi
Annette Toutonghi has been an active member of the theatre community in the Northwest for many years. Some of the theatres she’s worked with locally include ACT Theatre, The Seattle Repertory Theatre, On the Boards, Portland Institute for Contemporary Art, Theatre Off Jackson, The Empty Space Theatre, the 14/48 Theatre Festival, Seattle Children’s Theatre, The Seattle Group Theatre, and Intiman Theatre.
Favorite performances include The Rich Grandeur of Boxing with Megan Murphy and Company at the Centre National de la Danse in Paris, The Women at ACT Theatre and You Can’t Take It With You at The Seattle Repertory Theatre. Annette works in voice over and film as well. Credits include Freddi in the acclaimed Freddi Fish series, Sly Cooper and Lane 1974 among others.
AND others…
Tuition
$12,500 for the entire program, including over 700 hours of classroom and performance hours. If accepted into the program, and agreed to, we request a non-refundable 1st payment of $1,490 due August 1st to secure your spot in the program, followed by 3 further installments of $3,670 each. Registration includes a legally binding agreement acknowledging students are responsible for and can commit to the entire payment schedule.
Scholarships: We hope to provide a few scholarships that will support Freehold’s commitment to radical accessibility for training and practice.
