Sharing EVERYTHING you know about acting

There comes a time in your career/life when you realize that the most important thing is to have the opportunity to be able to “give back” to your peers and to future generations/artists, in the same way that you were lucky to receive.

In all my years of acting onstage (since 1983) and professionally onscreen (1987) I have come to realize the main difference in the quality of training we had then, and what currently striving (and struggling) actors have now, is the fundamental lack of a “mentorship program”, or just having plain, good old great mentors/teachers/directors who would take vast amounts of time and effort in order that their students/actors aside and teach then something to learn from.





I can honestly say, I was truly blessed to have had the best teachers in all performance aspects. Perhaps it was a time wherein we were just plain lucky that these “mentors” who gave so much of themselves. (Mentors meaning: my aunt, the late Zeneida “Bibot” Amador, Douglas Nierras, Mary Hammond, etc.) Nowadays, it is indeed very rare that a director will even give you the time of day to motivate you for a scene.





Although, actors/students now are lucky in some other ways: as there is an over-all easier exchange in knowledge and creative ideas the internet has provided, as well as a “platform” to showcase talent: as we can see with the phenomenal success of sites like youtube, wherein anyone can broadcast “performances” (and it’s instant viral fame), but still there is the lack in creative area of “mentorship”. A one-to-one, real time relationship between teacher and student.





This is why I have decided to co-teach a Master’s class in Acting for Repertory Philippines this summer. It’s open to all professional actors or those with stage, tv or film experience. I am willing to teach everything I know, (and have been taught,) in the time allowed by going through Actors exercises, monologues, songs, audition pieces and help the actor reach his/her next level of performance. Fine-tuning a performance is indeed an art, and something that an artist never really quite stops doing, as creativity in itself, needs to keep growing and being nurtured.





My co-teacher Bill Atwood has had over 30 years of teaching, and was himself a student of Uta Hagen in New York, and also taught at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, and Tisch School for the Arts.

Classes will start on April 5, 2011 for 6 weeks, (except for Holy Week) up until May 21, 2011. Sessions will be held every Tuesday and Thursday 2-6pm at Somerset Olympia Towers, 7912 Makati Avenue, Mezzanine Level, across from Swiss Inn, Makati City. For inquiries, please call Repertory Philippines 571-6926, 571 4941 and look for Ayam.