Well, it’s been too long since I wrote my last Acting Room post, and I’m sorry friends!
The reason? I’ve been too busy ACTING!

As many of you know, I write this blog since I’ve taught acting for years in LA, and produced and directed several films. I also was an actress all through my 20s in LA. What many of you may NOT know is that I’m now 45, and have spent the last 20 years helping others to act, but not acting so much myself. I was in many commercials all through my late 20s, but haven’t been in a proper big play/theatrical production, since grad school.

The reason? Well, the LA theatrical/play scene is pretty much limited to stars performing at the Mark Taper Forum, or smaller 99 seat theatres that often are precast, And there is very good news. You can …

Hi Acting Room Family! I’ve been getting so many private emails about this question lately that I felt it was time to write a new post. Here is an example of a recent email I received from Michael, whom I will address hereafter as Mike:

So I’m a 26 year old living and working in D.C. with a really great day job. My first love is improv comedy,I keep thinking about the three big cities I would love to train in.but I’ve been getting more and more into acting. I’ve read a lot of your posts, and find your wisdom extremely enlightening.

My question for you is this. As I’m getting older…I keep thinking about the three big cities I would love to train in. Chicago because of the improv (yet with still a great theatre scene and training grounds)…New York, because it’s New York. And then of course LA…because that’s …

This is a recent email I received from an actor we will call John.

I’m a recent graduate of the (name withheld for anonymity) MFA program. And honestly, I feel I was cheated out of a great actor training experience. My teachers tried to kick me out of the program because I “wasn’t demonstrating abilities to be a professional actor,” but I fought my way back in the program. I didn’t want to lose my chance to get an Equity card and showcase to NYC agents. But going into a few months after graduation, I have no viable, healthy nor any existing relationship with my peers from that program. It’s like they all forgot about me and those three years in the MFA program have never happened. I guess my question is, how do I move past this? How can I maintain my confidence in being …

I get many emotional reactions to my post “The Seven Reasons Why Professional Acting Training Programs Simply Aren’t Worth It.” In fact, that one post alone gets about a thousand hits a month, and brings lots of traffic to this blog. That blows my mind. I never meant to be so controversial.

Heck, I have an MFA in Acting and there were many things I absolutely LOVED about my two year USC program. But after I got out of the program, I learned that I’d spent about $75,000 to go there, and I could have spent that much money putting a down payment on a house in LA, or even funded my own indie film. I could have taken ten years of private classes (on my own time and schedule) with the most famous acting coaches in the world! I’ve also received many angry comments …

I recently got an email from an actress named Candace. She has allowed me to post part of her email here, so that I can reply to her publicly. I always enjoy doing this since so many people who come to this site have the same questions. I’m taking acting, and thinking of moving to Los Angeles to really go for it. Am I making the right choice?They usually all boil down to: “Help, I want to be a professional actor, what do I do?” - or - “I’m taking acting, and thinking of moving to Los Angeles to really go for it. Am I making the right choice?” While many of the posts on this site try and answer these questions, I found that Candace had some other concerns, mainly, trying to act while being a mom and a wife, and wanting the best for …

Okay, enough complaining about bigger training programs. The question you may be asking now is, “So if you don’t think I should go to a bigger program, then what should I do? I don’t want to waste my time or money! And I just don’t know if I should go to college. Shouldn’t I just start acting, and move to LA now?”

Well, getting a classic four-year college degree, from an excellent academic university is never wasting your time! In fact, when I think about it, I never ever cast an actor based on whether or not they had a degree from any kind of professional acting training program. Isn’t that sad? I also noticed that, back when I was acting professionally, no one ever cared one bit that I had both a BA degree, …