Over 30 Years of Teaching Acting: What Integrity Has Taught Me

Thirty years ago, I opened the doors to my acting school with a vision: to create a safe, rigorous, and creatively empowering space where actors could grow. I’ve built my work around integrity, care, and honest-to-goodness craftsmanship. What I didn’t anticipate—at least not to the degree it unfolded—was how much of the industry around actor training would be steeped in manipulation, appropriation, and performative legitimacy. When I was growing up in NYC, the only way we knew about good, legitimate acting schools was word of mouth. When I opened The Company Acting Studio, with the exception of the free listings in The Creative Loafing (remember that paper?) that's pretty much how any word got around that I existed. Word of mouth. It always worked for me, I could be pretty sure that if you were calling about classes and programs you knew someone who had a positive experience at the studio.

Over the past three decades, I’ve watched lots of acting schools and teachers open up and call Atlanta home. Among the many great ones I also saw the launch of acting schools and pop-up programs declaring themselves “top tier” or “industry approved,” while behaving in ways that betray the very principles required to guide artists. I’ve seen cold-calling strategies worthy of telemarketers, marketing built on fabrications, and worst of all—people stealing curriculum, names, and reputations to build their empires on other people’s work.

By the way, this isn't about competition. Healthy competition creates better environments for artists. But this? This has been sabotage dressed up as education.

Curriculum Theft: Not Once, But Twice

There are few things as jarring as seeing your own curriculum—your words, your exercises, your frameworks—copied and presented elsewhere with someone else’s name on it. I’ve had this happen to me not once, but twice. In both instances, people who were also making a living as acting educators and were given access to my teaching materials went on to present my work as their own. They copied everything ideas, structures, terminology, and lesson flows. It was such a weird feeling. You kind of don't even think it's actually happening to you until you go on their website and read word for word the description of your very own program on someone elses site.

It’s hard to describe the sense of violation that comes with that kind of theft. It’s not just about intellectual property—it’s about the care and consideration that goes into building something for actors, and the deep betrayal that comes when someone takes it to use as a marketing ploy without living it or earning it. Those same two acting schools even took the actual names of my programs and then launched nearly identical offerings under those titles. And if that wasn’t enough, one of them would strategically schedule theirs just days or a week before mine started. It always seemed like a lot of effort going into stealing when it would be easier to actually create something for yourself. Well, I guess you'd have to be an actual qualified educator to do that, and that just tells you a little bit about who was doing it...

Another fun run was more recent... there was a short lived campaign by one school working hard to cast doubt on my program through veiled messaging and misleading ads, basically taking the foundations of our program, the methods we use and teach, the grounding in theatre to indicate actors should never choose to train in those techniques, hoping to confuse actors and siphon attention away. It’s not just underhanded—it’s harmful. To the actors. To the community. To the culture of trust we should be building in this industry. It's also silly and obvious by the way... I hope most actors saw through it. Again... I come from a strong foundation in acting education that says there isn't ONE WAY, ONE METHOD, that it's NOT WRONG if it works for YOU. I encourage my students to train with other good teachers, take classes they will benefit from, hear from other voices and learn new skills and techniques and ways of looking at the craft so that THEY CAN DECIDE what works for them. I'll caution my students against bad practices, not against training.

False Promises and Price Tags

And of course... back to the ultimate horror.... I've watched, time and again, as actors—often young, hopeful, and eager—dropped thousands of dollars to attend events based on the empty promise that they might get representation or face time with a “top casting director.” These events are often marketed like golden tickets, full of pressure and urgency, and yet yield little more than momentary exposure and long-term disillusionment.

When schools or coaches feed off desperation instead of nourishing the craft, that’s exactly the kind of bait-and-switch that gets normalized.

The Bigger Picture

After all these years, here’s what I know for sure:

You don’t need to lie to build something meaningful.

You don’t need to steal someone else’s vision to have your own.

You don’t need to throw shade to stand in your light.

The artists I’ve had the honor to work with know that real growth is not flashy or fast. It’s layered. It takes time. And it requires a teacher who isn’t trying to be a celebrity, but rather a partner in their process.

To those who feel disillusioned or burned: I see you. To those who are building their path with care and authenticity: I stand with you. And to those who are operating without integrity: the truth always wins.

Here’s to the next chapter of acting education—one rooted in courage, clarity, and craft.