Acting Class Culture
Acting class should be a safe space for students to explore and dig to find emotional depths in a healthy environment.
Acting is a personal and intimate artform.
Unfortunately, an unhealthy culture has been fostered within many acting classes. Sexual, financial, and psychological abuse has not only become the norm, but expected. It is commonplace for teachers to yell, scream, and degrade their students. Actors are sometimes coerced into doing scenes of a highly sexual nature, even when they feel unsafe doing so. Teachers have encouraged sexual relationships with students, kept tabs on their students’ personal lives, and taken advantage of students financially.
We believe this cult-like atmosphere needs to stop.
It is imperative that both teachers and students realize how destructive these practices are. Our mission is to break the cycle of abuse and create one of safety and care.
We have created a code of conduct for acting teachers to agree to and endorse, as well as guidelines to help teachers ensure that they are running their classes ethically.
You can see both in the tab above. Actors can also find guidelines to help them distinguish ethical practices from unethical practices, no matter how subtle they are, and decide for themselves whether or not a class is right for them.