Save The Actor's Workshop Studio!

We really hope you enjoyed our video. We think it captures why we have toiled happily for years building our acting studio. It’s a studio we believe isn’t just a place to build great actors, but also a place to build a supportive, creative, inclusive community.

For the past 15 years, The Actor's Workshop of Ithaca (AWI), a theatre training studio specializing in the Sanford Meisner Technique, has been a home away from home for so many people. Today, this home away from home is in trouble and we need your help.

What many people don’t know is that although we perform our student showcases in Risley Theatre, Eliza VanCort, AWI’s founder, has chosen to hold classes in a small studio behind her home.  She built this studio over ten years ago in an ongoing commitment to keep tuition low. Over the years her house has shifted, and during hard rains, our beloved studio has begun to flood…  regularly.  We fear if this continues the studio will no longer be usable, and AWI will cease to be.

The thought of losing our beloved studio is simply heartbreaking for us.

We can’t let this happen.

After talking to various contractors and engineers, the most cost effective bid we received was from Cayuga Landscape, right here in Ithaca. David Fernandez, it’s owner, knows what our studio has meant to so many in our community. He has generously offered us a discounted price, and we can’t thank him enough. 
Despite this discount, we simply can’t afford to make the changes necessary to save our studio. There is also some urgency; David has given us a bid that depends on his company doing the work this summer.

So we’re asking you, our dear friends, family, and our community at large, to help. Please help us to ensure AWI can continue to provide laughter, fun, creativity, family and friendship to so many people.

If everyone who loves the theatre, or knows someone who was moved by their AWI experience gives even a little, we’ve got this thing covered!
No donation is too small or, of course, too large!

Thank you so very much!

Eliza VanCort and Katie Spallone
Co-Directors, The Actor’s Workshop of Ithaca