History
Award-winning actor and director Beth Harper founded Portland Actors Conservatory in a former dental office in Northeast. Her classes in acting technique, scene study, and text anaylysis grew into offerings in voice, movement, Shakespeare, and theatre management. Harper founded and produced the Oregon One Act Festival for several years through Portland Actors Conservatory. Following a move to Southwest's historic Firehouse Theatre in 1991, the Two-year Conservatory format was adopted in 1994. Over its history, Portland Actors Conservatory has graduated over 120 students from its two-year training program, mentored over 7,000 students in the Studio Program and served over 750 young actors in summer acting camps.
Specialties
Celebrating its 25th anniversary, Portland Actors Conservatory is the premiere school for professional actor training in the Pacific Northwest and Oregon's only independent professional acting training school accredited by the National Association of Schools of Theatre. We offer a full time, Two Year Conservatory Program as well as ongoing Studio Classes in acting technique, voice, movement, film acting and many other areas. The Summer on Stage youth theater program provides acting camps for kids aged 8 to 18, . Portland Actors Conservatory annually produces a three show season featuring its second year students, in addition to two student showcases.