Peter's Blog

"Without wonder and insight, acting is just a trade. With it, it becomes creation." - Bette Davis In 27 years of being a professional acting coach, I have found that given enough time and proper effort, anyone can become a good actor. What is required, however, is a love of the craft, serious commitment, willingness to work, and action. No agent, manager, family member, friend, lover, or contact can do it for you. You must be consistent-and persistent-with your endeavors. You are the only one who can make it happen.

My goal is to challenge you to always work from the heart of your creative self, and to be truthful and "in the moment" every moment that you're in front of the camera. I teach by exploring what is, and is not, working in the scene and in you. I offer positive encouragement, and feedback expressed without judgment of right or wrong, good or bad, but in search of what works best.

What works best is to come from a place of honesty within yourself and with your partner. Be open to unexpected emotion and be willing to draw upon imagination so that you can place yourself as fully and completely in the reality of the scene as possible.

Imagination is a powerful tool for any artist, one that connects us with the creative genius of our humanity and expands our horizons. When imagination is joined with truthful self-expression, then spontaneous, unpredictable, fascinating moment-to-moment work will occur. Actors must be willing to transcend perceived or self-imposed limits and to go beyond the familiar for the purpose of courageously diving into that scary, exhilarating, trailblazing place we call the "unknown".

I help you to get there by utilizing scripted material carefully chosen for you, material designed to increase your emotional range and to ground you in on-camera acting skills. My work with actors is based on techniques developed by Sanford Meisner and Charles Conrad. My classes are purposely kept small so that every student is allowed to work fully in every class.

Sanford Meisner believed that imagination was an actor's strongest motivating force. What kind of actor do you imagine yourself to be? Will you crawl cautiously and carefully through life, resigned to frustration and dreams of what could have been? Or will you persist in your quest, and move forward on inspired intuition? Acting, like life, is best lived when you cultivate and place your trust in; intuition, inspiration, vision, attitude, and preparation-and then take action.

Imagine that…