“…HB Studio owns its three West Village properties, all bought in the 1950s and ’60s. It, too, has undergone some belt tightening. Founded by the actor Herbert Berghof, who was joined later by Ms. Hagen, the school and theater collective established a reputation for quality acting classes (its alumni list includes Robert De Niro and Jessica Lange) at famously low rates.
“When Herbert Berghof died in ’90, I think it was still $5 a class,” said Edith Meeks, HB’s current artistic and executive director. But even by 2004, when Ms. Hagen died, HB had only marginally increased tuition. Modest, incremental fee hikes were just not “enough to catch us up to the real expense of running a nonprofit and managing three buildings in the 21st century,” said Ms. Meeks.
So in 2013, for the first time in its history, HB streamlined its curriculum and significantly raised its bargain-basement prices as part of a “one-time adjustment-to-market,” said Ms. Meeks, who confirmed that enrollment is stable but nowhere near the numbers it had in the 1960s. “We were super affordable, and now we are affordable.”…read full article