An Acting School in Auckland Built on One Method

What Kind of School This Is

The studio is the school Elena Stejko set up after returning to New Zealand. In 2012 she told the Dominion Post that she had arrived with the intention of setting up her own acting school, and had done so. It has been teaching actors in Auckland ever since.

It is a part time school. Students take one class a week for a seven week term, and there are five terms in a year. You can enrol for a single term or commit to the full year. The classes are open to actors, and also to writers and directors who want to understand the actor's work. Adults train in the evening or daytime classes, teenagers in a class of their own, and actors outside Auckland in a weekly online class.

How It Differs From a Full Time Drama School

People searching for an acting school are often weighing two quite different things, and it helps to be clear about which this is.

• Time. A full time drama school is a course of study that takes over your week for a year or more. Here the commitment is three hours a week, or two for the daytime and online classes.
• Entry. Full time schools select an intake once a year. Here you start in whichever term suits you, at the level that matches your experience.
• Purpose. A full time course leads to a qualification. A part time studio is for building and keeping up your craft alongside work, study or an acting career that is already under way.
• Method. A full time course usually surveys several approaches. This studio goes deep into one.

The two are not rivals. Elena is regularly invited to teach and direct at the Unitec performing arts school, Toi Whakaari, The Actors' Program and South Seas Film and Television School.

The Training Pathway

You take one class a week according to your level, and the levels connect.

1. Beginners

   The Monday beginners class introduces the fundamental elements of the technique and the process of creating a character.

2. Intermediate

   The Tuesday evening class takes the same tools into more demanding scene work.

3. Advanced

   The Wednesday evening class is for trained and working actors. Both levels are described under intermediate and advanced acting classes.

4. Screen specialisms

   The self tape class trains the audition side of screen work, and the short film class puts actors on a working set.

Beside the pathway sit the Tuesday daytime class, open to any level, the Thursday class for 12 to 16 year olds and the Friday online class.

What a Term Delivers

The school is practical about results. Each term ends with a recording session with a casting director, and every actor receives a copy of their scene: footage to show an agent or to cut into a reel. In the short film class, the term produces an original short film shot during class. The teaching itself is designed to deepen your understanding of the script and the casting brief, give you confidence in your own choices, and expand your tool box and rehearsal methods.

The Method

Michael Chekhov was a student of Stanislavski at the Moscow Art Theatre who developed his own approach, one that works through the body and the imagination. The Michael Chekhov Association, which exists to preserve and teach the technique, describes it as a psycho-physical technique that uses movement and imagination to foster transformation. The studio teaches this one method rather than a mixture, because the tools build on each other from term to term. Each of them is explained on our page about the Michael Chekhov technique.

Who Teaches

The school is led by Elena Stejko, an actor and director who trained in Kyiv, played the lead in the feature film Russian Snark and won the Chapman Tripp Award for Actress of the Year in 2012. Her teaching of the Michael Chekhov technique in Aotearoa is the subject of an interview chapter in the Routledge book Acting in Aotearoa. Read more on the About Elena Stejko page.

The short film class brings in working filmmakers. Actors currently work alongside filmmaker Alex Farley, and in 2025 the studio announced a short film term with writer and director Stephen Sinclair.

Fees, Terms and Enrolment

Evening classes are $695 per term, the daytime class $495, the online class $465 and the teen class $375, all including GST. Equity New Zealand members receive a 10% discount. Term 5 2026 starts on 19 October 2026. The year's dates and the weekly timetable are on the term dates and fees page.