Trying to describe my thoughts of taking classes at “The Acting Studio” seemed easy at first.  You write down a few sentences saying things like, “This class is awesome”, “you MUST take this class” and that’s it.  But, my time at “The Acting Studio” is more than just that.  It is more than coming in to class, and filming a scene.  It is an experience.

I was always interested in acting and wanting to take acting classes and found “The Acting Studio” online through a web search.  But there was one problem.  I was and at times am still VERY SHY and was very hesitant to take the classes in fear of embarrassing myself in front of the other students.  I contacted Darcy inquiring about the classes and he encouraged me to come and take the class.  So, two years later in Feb ’10, I built up the courage and decided to take the class.  I never looked back.  The only regret about my decision was that, I should have taken Darcy’s invitation two years earlier.

One thing I never anticipated about Darcy’s classes was not only how much I would learn about acting, through Darcy’s teachings, but from my fellow classmates.  Students of various levels of experience attend the class.  The experience level ranges from people who are in honours programs in University to people who have never taken an acting class in their lives.  Regardless of their experience, watching them perform their scenes, watching them go through the learning, and watching them improve and get better not only from week to week, but from take to take, is nothing short of inspiring for me and motivates me to step up my performance.  Watching my classmates perform, learning from their performances, and watching them improve along the way is truly a privilege.  I’m very happy to say that even classmates who have the least experience in acting, were able to teach and show me things about acting, which in turn, helped me improve on my performances.

The class, above all, is a very FUN place to go and learn about acting.  It is a place where you can go to play, be revealing, learn about acting, learn about yourself and find a new level of self-confidence you thought you never had.  To give perspective, I started out as someone who took two years to build up the courage to go to the class and fast forward a few months later, I am acting out scenes where I am crying in front of people.  In the end, you leave Darcy’s class feeling inspired and with a sense of happiness that you did great work and worked with great people in class.

To say, “The Acting Studio is a place to learn acting for film and screen” is not truly an accurate description. It is also a place of discovery and re-discovery.  Not only about acting, but yourself.

Glenn Odero