In the Spotlight: SMART Senior Attends New York Acting Conservatory

(Fall 2019) – It was David Zavala’s longest time being away from his home in San Francisco – five weeks nearly 3,000 miles away, in New York City. The SMART Scholar spent most of his summer at the Stella Adler Studio of Acting: Teen Summer Conservatory. Beginning in July, David was immersed in an intensive acting program alongside 40 other students from across the world.

David is a senior at Ruth Asawa San Francisco School of the Arts (SOTA), where a portion of his current studies are dedicated to theatre arts. With his sights on collegiate drama studies, David applied and was accepted to the Stella Adler Studio earlier this spring. The Studio is an affiliate program of New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, serving as one of several acting studios Tisch students attend during their undergraduate studies. David and his peers in the Teen Summer Conservatory participated in the same curriculum as NYU’s undergraduate students – a curriculum centered in the belief that young actors can be trained with similar discipline as adults.

“This was a test for me,” David says, as he reflects on his time in the program. “I was initially kind of nervous about New York, but almost immediately, I felt like I fit in.” Undeterred and enlightened by his time across the country, David came out even more passionate about his future. “I completely loved it, and it just made me more sure that this what I want to do.”

The Stella Adler curriculum is a rigorous one: students participate in full days, five days a week, taking courses in voice and speech, movement, improvisation, scene study, Shakespeare, and acting technique. “One of the biggest challenges was just keeping up the energy for acting for five straight weeks!” David mentions. The students received training from professionals in the field and instructors, participating in “master classes” once a week where they would dive into a focal theme within the acting arts, such as acting for film, TV, and physical theatre.

Students also participated in peer critiques, analyzing and discussing each other’s performances. “Those classes really boosted my confidence. I was hoping I’d just improve my acting. I didn’t expect to walk away feeling more confident in my body and in myself,” he adds.

Back in San Francisco, David has begun the college application process, with his sights on NYU Tisch and DePaul University in Chicago. As a drama major hopeful, he will not only apply, but also audition for acting programs affiliated with each college. “I feel prepared for those auditions now. The program and New York both taught me to just really be in the moment. And that’s probably the biggest thing I took away from the experience.”

As he prepares for the next new chapter in college, David is excited and energized to play a lead in his high school’s upcoming performance of Dracula, attending four rehearsals a week, with “lots to memorize.” You can catch SMART’s very own budding performer in the spotlight next month.