Category Archives: teaching

Wednesday: Tweens class.  It is also one of the times that we do introductory presentations to the school so Wednesdays can be pretty crazy, but it’s a manageable crazy.  I start off class with a quick warm-up game then the kids practice their introductions(we call them “slates”) and then I run them through a series of sample commercials.  They take a short break and then the kids practice being in front of strangers by doing their commercials in front of the folks at the presentation.  I welcome the people and introduce the kids.  That’s today’s picture.

After the the presentation I do a “postmortem” with them and then we work monologues for the next 45 minutes.  The organization is very clinical and carefully laid out to to establish a pattern for the kids to follow.  It requires them to sit a lot and pay attention to their fellow young actors, a task that they can all use a little practice on.  It’s the first step into the world of the adult actor.  Each student is allowed to progress at their own rate so some of them are still “walking/talking props” and some are starting to become little Haley Joel Osments, totally depends on the kid.

I’m really proud of our current crop!  We’ve got multiple working kids and the rest will be in just a matter of time.

See you tomorrow!

This is me and my friend Danny Martinez.  Danny and I teach the three to six year olds on Tuesday nights. 

Here’s the thing about three to six year olds and acting – there isn’t much to it.  They don’t need to be Meryl Streep, there isn’t wild emoting happening.  They need to be able to sit and behave well when they are waiting to shoot, they need to be able to follow directions, and, when necessary, when they speak it needs to be clear.  They are living props.

Here’s the snag in that oh so simple plan: they’re three to six years old.

Part of the balancing act that I try to instill on the parents of my kids is that they need to be kids first.  I suggest that they let us be super strict during the two class hours and then let home be a safe place where the rules are different and they don’t have to worry about performing.  Having grown up as a working child actor I was VERY fortunate that my parents were a constant support and didn’t over push me.  I understood that when I was on an audition or on set that I was on a job, but then when I got home I was just home and wouldn’t be shoved back into rehearsal. 

A nice bonus is that we actually have some pretty talented kids who are impressive at their age.  When they learn how to read look out Hollywood!

The toughest part of the class is keeping them from climbing the walls – hence the two of us in the room.  Danny’s a really good guy.  Those of you who grew up in the L.A. area may remember his voice from KIIS, Star 98.7, K-EARTH 101, and just about every other radio station in the market.  He has turned his attentions to screen writing, and he’s good at it.  He used to act as well and raised four boys in the business so he’s really good with this age group.  The kids like my energy, he knows how to get good performances and the two of us with a roll of duct tape keep them kind of behaved.

That’s it for tonight, I’m exhausted and tomorrow I have casting gig so I’m going to get some sleep.

See you tomorrow!

I read your comments.  Sometimes I respond, but I always read the comments.  This week’s blogs are in reference to a comment I got from my friend Skinny Arbuckle who wanted to know more about the classes I teach, so this week I’m going to tell you about them.  It is both something new, keeping in line with “Do New Things January,” and it makes it easy to pick a photograph every day.

Hehehe.

Monday: My Monday night class is for older teens and adults.  It is a beginner class for adults and slightly more advanced learning for the teens.  This last 10 week session has been a bit light on regular attendance, hence the three students in the picture.

We start getting into the benefit of making strong, specific choices in this class and one of my favorite things to see is that “Ah ha!” moment when a student feels the difference between a true emotional motivation behind a line and “I’ll be sad on this line and mean on this line…”  This is also one of just a couple classes where I make big use of scene work that isn’t directly related to auditioning.

At the school I teach at we teachers have been given a very specific job: prepare the students to audition for agents.  Every week we have pretty great agents who come down to do one-on-one auditions of the kids.  Most of our students get picked up, which is great!  We are given 10 weeks to get the kids ready for these auditions.  In most cases students are in larger programs so in one class we’ll focus on the stuff for the agent audition (how to do commercials and a 1-2 minute monologue) and in the other classes we’ll focus on the more esoteric elements of the acting craft.  In the adult classes it is typical to be able to do both because adult minds can handle more and really grow under the multiple stimulus.  To do this I use mostly real audition material from Showfax and LACasting, but occasionally, like in the Monday class, I’ll use dedicated teaching scenes from our library of scene books.  The scenes aren’t overly complex and they allow for different interpretations giving the young actor a chance to make a wide array of choices and see how they feel with the same material.  That’s the exercise they were preparing for in the picture.

I’m really proud of these three.  They’ve gone from just having a general interest in acting to really embracing the “work” of it.

So that’s a Monday – just wait ’til Tuesday!

See you tomorrow!

Today was a day.

Saturday’s are a big teaching day for me.  In addition to the classes we have agents seeing kids for possible representation and we have the big presentation for potential students.

Saturdays are a mad house.

I really enjoy the teaching aspect.  The kids are great, when they want to behave, and sometimes they can really surprise you with how good the work is – even the 6 year olds. But every once in a while, no matter how hard we all try, the day just seems to be a little off.  Today was one of those days and having it be one of those days on top of the fact that it was a crazy Saturday was completely draining.

Thankfully, after a few hours, chocolate cake, and a shockingly good cup of coffee I am feeling much better. 

Today’s picture is the aftermath of today: laying down with the dog.

See you tomorrow!