Welcome to The Young Actor’s Studio.   What you are going to experience with these acting classes are unlike anything you’ve ever experienced.  Acting is a life journey into discovering and rediscovering your own inner uniqueness and how to allow that to come to life onstage or on camera.   I don’t believe in teaching you to act in a certain way, but, rather, feel you will do well when you simply allow yourself to shine through.   I will help you make every role you act your own.

I want you to take in the feeling of being onstage, and the fact that something special can happen at any time. The act of being onstage with spotlights on us can make us feel nervous, excited, and scared. This is a heightened state of being. This very state is awesome for an actor. Allow yourself to take in where you are and who is around you. We are in a circle because we are working together in class as a group or a cast of actors. Acting is a group of people coming together to tell a story. 

For any creative work to thrive, you need the support of all the players and all the technicians. The same is true in an acting class. You need to feel safe to be yourself and be vulnerable in your scenes.   We are that place. 

-A Young Actor Prepares by Jeff Alan-Lee

“Do It Right” becomes “As You Are” for kids and teen acting.

When beginning actors come to me for the first time, they often expect to be told what to do and how to do it.   They try extremely hard to “do it right.”   But what exactly does it mean to “do it right” for an actor?  Kids and teens constantly fall victim to a very goal oriented world of doing what they think is acceptable for an acting part even if that means denying their own self.     They try to fit the mold of what is being cast at the time.   Well-meaning parents try to find the “quick fix” acting studios that teach diction, voice and staging but may leave out the longer valuable inner training of Stanislavski.  

The inner training teaches kids to be who they are.   It teaches them to be comfortable with their emotions and to use their own qualities and traits to act a role.    Actually “Doing it right,” for an actor means allowing your self to come through.   So when young actors come to our acting school trying to please, I tell them to simply relax and focus on not trying but allowing.  “As you are” is interesting and unique and that is what you present to the world.   The second children and teen actors realize they are ok, is very moment that creativity begins to outpour.   Confidence goes up and reality starts to occur.

Here’s a secret for kids auditioning in Los Angeles, go in the room and don’t try to please them.   Go in and be proud that you are who you are.   Show them you.  No other actor in the world can be you.  

I wish you every success