Intensive Acting is right-- but it's so much more!

The IES Summer Intensive Acting program in Dublin was jam packed with a variety of cultural experiences and a strong academic program.

After my first class, which was directly through IES, we enrolled in the Gaiety School of Acting with students who had directly enrolled, not through IES, and I got a comparison and realized how good we had by going through IES. We got well planned, affordable, educational, and fun field trips (the one to Northern Ireland is a must! Learned so much about Ireland's history including the Troubles and St. Patrick, and visited the Bushmill Whiskey factory and Game of Throne's Winterfell) that were easy to sign up and conveniently added to our bill, not paid upfront. We got great housing in beautiful neighborhoods despite Dublin's housing crisis, while the GSA direct-enrolled students had to stay in an unfortunately low quality hostel, 6 to a room, for the entire 4 weeks. I will say, the distance of our housing from the IES center and the GSA was inconvenient, and we had some maintenance issues that took longer than I'd like to get fixed, but our RA was a great resource. We had Conor, who's actually a jobbing actor, so a great role model-- watch out for him in the Jameson factory tour video!

The classes themselves were very educational, and I really enjoyed experiencing and working with so much Irish theatre. While technique and methods weren't overly emphasized, the intense rehearsals and constant viewing of theater outside of class was a great experience. I was able to get credit for an acting class through my university!