What kind of acting class are you looking for?

Picture is of Dominique T., a student of AYA and ready for an agent. 

In choosing an acting class, you have to look at a few factors aside from cost. 

1. What is the student to teacher ratio?

2. What type of curriculum do they use?

3. How individualized is the instruction? 

4. Are your personal goals going to be met? 

5. Is the space conducive to the type of instruction we want?

6. What sets this class/school/academy apart?

7. Is there parent involvement?

What is the student to teacher ratio? Some classes do not cap their classes and some do.  People need to be clear what they are paying for. There are acting forums that offer an inexpensive blanket amount and tell you you can go to as many classes as you want during the week. Then
 there are those who have a regular school size classroom or 25-40 students for one class.  And then there are those who guarantee a low student to teacher ratio. The smaller that ratio, the increased opportunity for individualized work.  If you are interested in group activities, just having fun, or getting to understand acting, then a larger forum or class may be good.  Those classes tend to focus on exercises that help in skill building, and less on individual work assessed and feedback given for personal growth.

 Actors Youth Academy offers a 8:1 student/teacher ratio.  

What type of curriculum do they use? All work should be guided by a curriculum. Ask about what methods do they use? Does their curriculum focus on exercises and games or on method acting or both?  How much time is spend on each?  The more the exercises and games, the larger the class can be. 

Actors Youth Academy uses primarily the Michael Chekov method, but uses whatever method is best for each individual student.  The curriculum involves both exercises/games and individual method acting.  Our curriculum allows each student to feel like they are being individually coached. Hence our classes are small. 

 How individualized is the instruction? Every person is different.  There are remarkable differences in natural and learned skills,  personalities, their drive and passion, attitude, idiosyncrasies, and physical appearance, and then there is age and gender.  There are classes that teach everyone the same thing.  Which is valuable to some degree.  Then there are those that tailor more the instruction to the young actors in the room.  And then there are those in between. 

Actors Youth Academy offers individualized work.  Each student is given their assignments based on the above factors. So actors in the same class have different scenes, different monologues, and are coached differently depending on who they are and what works best for them. 

Are your personal goals going to be met?   So child actors and parents come in with different goals and expectations.  Some come in wanting acting to ensure self expression, some are wanting badly to find an agent and get ready for that, some are going out to auditions and wanting to get to that next skill level to make them more employable.  You will be able to know immediately what type of school/forum/academy it is once you get a tour.   Ask about personal goals. 

Actors Youth Academy has all of their students begin with a goal sheet.  The teacher will review it and based on will tailor the coaching and instruction for the actor. For the younger actors 5-8, their goal setting may look more like a project. 

What sets this class/school/academy apart?  Every academy is different and has its own mission and what it brings to the table.  Some have years of experience, some have glitz and glitter as their marketing angle, some have peer teaching, and it goes on and on.  Ask what sets you apart? 

Actors Youth Academy is unique in three ways;  1) We are a bilingual school of acting, 2) we have parent involvement (packages include parent workshops, parents are welcomed to stay, and there is monthly parent feedback at a minimum), and  3) Teaching youth to be fully self-expressed with integrity is our motto. We create lessons around making life and career decisions that are aligned with our inner sense of wholeness and connectedness to the world at large; meaning that individual actions, values, principles, goals, objectives, and outcomes are aligned with each other and are consistent with who the student really is.  It is important that youth are educated and prepared for a transition from the mundane to fame, from child actor to adult actor, from Coogan account to money in the pocket.

So when you compare schools, It is always good to compare apples with apples and not apples with oranges when it comes to instruction and price.  Good luck on your or your child’s career!

Thank you to Lena S. for inspiring this post.