For the most part, I offer my Intensive to those with more experience. Those with less time on the boards are offered class with one of our other Intensive teachers. (Intensive teachers are selected not only for their fabulous teaching abilities, but also for their patience, intuition, compassion, experience and warmth. They all rock.) I do this primarily because my class is twice the size of the other Intensives, and moves faster; I need those in my class to be able to keep up. And I want those in the other Intensives to get the eyes of an experienced teacher on them as much as possible. However, there are a LOT of exceptions to the rule!
1. My Class
I have been known to put people who have never acted in their lives alongside experienced film, theatre and television actors in my Intensive. Why would I do such a thing?! So many reasons —
• the brand new actor’s perspective,
• his natural, deep understanding of text,
• her willingness to try anything,
• his charismatic presence,
• her experience in other areas of performance,
the list goes on. I can be loud, impatient and exacting. Sometimes athletes, for example, respond better to me than they do to other teachers because of those qualities – even if they’re beginning actors. So even though they won’t get as much attention, I put them in the environment that I think will be the most fruitful for them.
2. Our Other Teachers’ Intensives
While we all teach the identical Intensive, we keep the other teachers’ Intensives smaller in order to be able to provide the actors in those classes with a lot more individual time and attention. Nevertheless, I have been known to put major film, Broadway and TV stars in classes other than mine. Why on earth would I do that?! Again – so many reasons. Maybe
• the professional has become jaded and cynical and he needs to learn to love acting again,
• she needs to not have to compete,
• exposure to amateurs will reawaken his love for the craft,
• the expert has collected a bunch of bad habits that we need to carefully carve away,
• she’s depressed and needs to take things less seriously,
• his confidence is kaput,
• she has been unemployed for too long and needs a lot of personal attention,
• he needs to be allowed to fail for awhile,
• she needs to be the leader, the one in charge, the most experienced.
There are so many reasons not even mentioned here.
3. Everybody’s Different
While experience, talent, intelligence, marketing and personality all play a part in class placement, I can’t tell you how much or how little each of those traits matters in each and every case. You are all individuals. I’ve been teaching now for over twenty years; it’s all I do and I’m told I have a knack for putting pretty great classes together. People generally fall madly in love with their classmates and teachers and stay in touch forever. I recently received this in an email from an actor: “I have always thought of you as a Godsend as an acting coach and life preparer. But to have set me up with my best friends AND my husband?!?!” Now don’t get all excited. The marriage thing doesn’t happen all the time. But the friends thing happens a LOT.
4. You
You – and your improvement and ability to achieve your dreams — is everything to me. If I have not placed you in an Intensive with me, I’ve done it because I think you’ll get where you want to go faster by starting out in one of the other teacher’s classes. NOT because I hate you or think you’re talent-free. I DO think you have talent and I’m afraid I won’t be able to give you the attention you need in order to exploit that talent if I put you in my class.
And who cares about talent anyway? It doesn’t matter in this biz. Sure, quote me. If you’re not “talented,” I can teach you skill and craft and nobody’ll ever know the difference. What REALLY matters — in terms of class placement at least — is HOW YOU LEARN. That’s what I’m focused on determining during Triage.
We have to get you in shape so you can audition and book jobs. Does it really matter whose class you’re in if you achieve that goal? And if you’re dying to be in my class, you’ll do Intensive and Clinic with another teacher (I don’t teach ANY Clinics, so you can’t possibly take THAT personally), and then we’ll work together in Ongoing. It all works out in the end.
So, if you like what you learned in Triage and you want more of that, please try to find a way to trust that I’ve placed you in the class that I think will get you to the next level fastest.
