Warner Loughlin Studios

Since July of 2007, I have been the regular Thursday night scene study teacher at Warner Loughlin Studios in West Hollywood. Among the hundreds of little acting studios in Los Angeles, Warner Loughlin stands out as being absolutely in it for the right reasons.

The best way to describe this studio is through via negativa -- that is, what students do not get.

New acting hopefuls arrive in Los Angeles every day and many are sucked into acting programs that are interested in two things: (A) their money, all of it, and (B) dismantling them psychologically so that they'll never leave the school. They are forced, in many of these places, to study "Method" acting, which starts with an insane amount of over sharing with strangers and ends with a perpetual low-grade emotional breakdown. They dutifully excavate the emotional grist from everything bad that every happened to them, while being berated constantly by manipulative teachers, only to be left no better than they started, a dilated emotional basket case. What happens in many of these schools ranges from charlatanism to downright cruelty.

At Warner Loughlin, students do not get treated this way. They are treated like working professionals learning a craft wherein the most sophisticated tool is their imagination (not their grandmother's funeral). This is a studio that focusses on creating a vivid emotional life from whole cloth so that it is non-invasive, and actors can conduct normal healthy lives outside of their careers.

Warner Loughlin does not advertise and remains intentionally small and boutique, thereby relying on word-of-mouth and professional recommendations. The student body is game, able and hungry for growth.

In my classes I endeavor to create whole artists. Actors who don't just want to be famous, but want to participate in the world through acting.

I live for my Thursday night classes.

For more information, visit their website by clicking here.