Equity Foundation awards Atlantic School Scholarships to James Fraser and Holly Fraser

The Equity Foundation is pleased to announce that performers James Fraser, 20, and Holly Fraser, 19, have both been awarded scholarships at the prestigious Atlantic Acting School in New York City.

James has most recently worked on Australian feature film Water Diviner, directed by and starring Russell Crowe, and in the upcoming miniseries Devil’s Playground on Foxtel.   Holly, James’s sister, 19, most recently performed in Spur of the Moment at ATYP and Blood Wedding at STC. They will begin an intensive six-week scholarship at the Atlantic School on July 8.

“The competition was absolutely fierce. The judges were blown away by the calibre of entrants and decided that they simply couldn’t choose one winner. So they are offering two full scholarships and two scholarships at half tuition,” says Equity federal president, Simon Burke.

Adele Querol and Greg Pandelidis have been offered a place in the 2014 Summer Intensive program at half tuition.

“The Equity Foundation is thrilled to have such deserving winners of our inaugural scholarships. We look forward to expanding the program and providing many more professional development opportunities for our talented members.” says Burke.

The successful applicants were selected by a panel of industry experts including Steven Chinni, director of admissions at the Atlantic School.

Chinni says: “After viewing 130 applicants’ show reels, James moved me the most.  He has a huge range of work and he impressed me instantly.  I gave him a tough time during the interview to push him and he managed to conduct himself with grace under pressure”.

Melissa Bruder, a founding member of the Atlantic School in New York and the author of The Practical Handbook for the Actor was also among the judges.

“We are confident that Holly’s natural gift as an actor will benefit and ultimately thrive from the structure that the Practical Aesthetics technique has been proven to provide.” says Bruder.

Mary McCann, founding company member and executive director at Atlantic, says she was so impressed by the entrants that her school decided to offer some partial scholarships.

“Australia has such incredibly talented and dedicated young actors.  We are thrilled to establish a scholarship that allows these exciting students to train at the Atlantic and become a part of the community.  We look forward to watching their work and careers develop.” says McCann.

The Atlantic Acting School, founded in 1987 by playwright David Mamet and actor William H. Macy, operates as both a private conservatory and an undergraduate program in conjunction with the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University.  It has the only conservatory program in the world that offers in-depth training in Mamet and Macy’s unique and influential approach to acting: Practical Aesthetics, the Atlantic Technique.

To find out more about the Atlantic School visit http://www.atlanticactingschool.org/

For anyone interested in attending a Practical Aesthetics class in Sydney please visit http://www.paaustralia.com/class_schedule_g2.htm