Our Goals

What is acting? We believe acting is a "state of mind." An assumed and practiced mental attitude where you pretend, make believe, that you possess another persons life situations; another person's problems, successes and failures, hopes and dreams, happiness and tragedies. A "state of mind" where you allow your thoughts, your body and your feelings to act out imaginary and scripted realities, in such a manner that an audience will suspended its disbelief and empathize with you and the given situations.

The degree (lesser or greater) to which you can achieve this "acting state of mind," will set you, the performer, aside as being not so good, just good, very good, or even a brilliant actor or actress.

Children make believe, they do it readily every day, and without any formal training. If you tell a child they are King Henry or Anne Boleyn, they say "Yes, okay, what do I do?" They will begin to play out whoever they are told to be with little doubt and usually with great concentration and individual belief.

If it is only making believe then why is acting so hard to do? Why do we need to go to schools run by experts for many years to do this acting thing right?

Well first of all, who said it was hard to do? Secondly, being brilliant and great at any one thing is hard to achieve even for those of us who are brilliant.

Acting itself, the basic premise, making believe you are someone else is actually easy to do. Like we said, it is a child's game.

It is when adult rules are applied to the creating of this child's play that the work of acting begins to get difficult. It is when we have to do the acting every night at a certain hour in front of an audience full of discerning and critical theater goers, or when they are paying you eighty-thousand dollars a day to "just be yourself," that this rather simple task suddenly takes on death-defying and nerve-racking consequences.

How does Acting on The Web fit into this truth? This learning of the acting craft?

Well for many years now you could either go to a small local theater group, or perform in your high school or college plays and learn how to act. Many teachers over the last fifty years, such as Lee Strassberg, Sanford Meisner and Harry Mastergeorge, and oh so many others, have clarified the fact that great acting is a craft that can and must be learned, and practiced, like any other fine performing art. They proved and made valid the fact that you can codify this "actors state of mind," this approach to making believe, in such a manner as to put it down in books and even pass it on to other acting instructors to continue the process. Lee Strassberg is dead but The Strassberg Institute goes on. Actors had to go to the locations of these many acting gurus and their acting schools to study with them, to learn the basics of acting techniques that would help them achieve this "acting state of mind."

Acting On The Web.com is just taking this well established formula, this acting class coaching tradition, one step further, and with our 21st Century Internet technology bringing the well used and thought out process of "the acting class" directly to you, bringing the expert to your location, to your office and to your home. Allowing the student actor to perform, have a record of the work he or she does, and continually review their acting work and the teachers comments on it.

Frank Cavestani the founder of AOW has often told the story of helping an acting student who was off on a distant location shooting a film, in "acting hell" and scared to death. He tells how he talked to the troubled actor by phone and after twenty minutes, talked the young actor out of panic and back into the role. "If you can bring an actor to the right state of mind for acting over a long distant phone line you can certainly do it over the Internet. You can certainly do it by seeing their acting work on a TV screen, with the ability to stop the performance and play it back many times over."

The new streaming media technology from Microsoft and others will allow an acting teacher to view your acting work, via a two-way video and audio Internet system. Even with our current method using inexpensive recorded video tapes -- there is no reason a student can not be critiqued and taught how to act. It works. Particularly, since in the students acting future they will be performing and using what they learned over the very same mediums of television and film when they become professionals.

What novice actors need to grow and learn in the acting craft is "time behind the wheel." In other words you have to act as often as you can, and preferably do this acting for someone who has the experience to help you. A beginning actor has the liberty to do all kinds of roles. Do roles you would never possibly be cast in, and even more important he or she should have the wisdom to have fun acting and learning to make believe. What could be more secure, fun and safe then your own living room.

We absolutely believe that there is no reason you have to leave the comfort and protection of your home, your dorm, or leave your jobs, or leave your husband or wife or family to learn to act. "Acting On The Web, don't leave home at all," initially said to us as a joke by one of our investors, has quickly become our motto and as we look the future teaching is the definitely one of the next big movements to come to the Internet for all subjects of study. There is no doubt about this fact. Why not acting?

And why not Acting On the Web? It is certainly less expensive then other forms of one on one acting classes you can experience today. Plus you control when you are ready to be viewed and how often. You can stop for awhile and not lose your place in an exclusive class. Their is no waiting list or auditions.

Do have any idea how much acting class cost these days? The Lee Strassberg Institute is over a thousand dollars a month, plus you must pay rent to live in New York or Los Angeles and that certainly is not cheap. Most reputable acting teachers charge from four hundred dollars a month for four or five classes. So it could cost thousands of dollars a month to just achieve and learn the basic foundations of good acting principals. Just to learn this "acting state of mind."

Acting on the Web is offering you this same knowledge just for a few dollars a year. How can we afford to do this we can't and the price of a one time fee of $14.95 for joining and $35.00 for the acting evaluation will soon change. But we are building here and establishing a new way of study; at home study for acting. Join us.

You who tell us in your e-mail's that you "must act or die," that "you have always wanted to be actors all your young lives," or ask, "How do you learn to act today, now?" AOW is the way to begin. We have the knowledge you need to learn about acting and are asking for. But you must do something to get it. The path to enlightenment begins with the first step.

For awhile we offered our acting class for free. Many of you took up that opportunity but many of you didn't. One person wrote us saying she didn't trust it because it was free. Well that time has come and gone and in a few years we will be much more expensive too. That's the way the world works. The knowledge and fun is here for you now, today, to get this acting knowledge and and keep it forever. Remember that. Once you learn it you will never lose it. Trust us when we tell you what we are offering you to learn is the same knowledge that most if not all of the actors you have seen over the years and admire their acting, like for instance Harrison Ford, or Samuel Jackson and Meryl Streep possess in there minds; they and any great actor who knows their craft.

You must have the right basics of acting principals or you will be like ship without a rudder wondering in the vast ocean of directors and acting teachers. If you don't have firm basics, when you get your first job, everybody will tell you how to act and I do mean everybody. From the lowliest PA to the producers wife, and you will be in ACTING HELL!

AOW can give you these basics mental skills. AOW can give you an "acting state of mind," that is yours to keep. And yes we can do this wonderful fete by watching you act on video tapes or over the Internet. You can truly learn how to act with this new revolutionary method. When you know how and what to focus your mind on, when you learn how to do your "acting homework," acting stays fun, and fear is just becomes part of the job. Imagine that. But it's true professional actors are not scare to act they love to act. If you really want to act, really want an acting career, or just want to experiment to see if you can do it and love it, believe us when we tell you what we are offering to teach you over our Acting Class Page is what you need to know. There is no doubt in our hearts and minds about that true fact.

Click on our Acting Page. Print out the monologue that suits you, learn the lines, have fun acting, follow your instincts. Do the work on your own! Yes, do it the way you alone understand the monologue. THIS IS IMPORTANT! Don't take advice, directions or criticisms from friends, relatives or other acting buddies. That could be very harmful, especially for an embryonic acting student and harmful to your craft. It could set you back years! Trust us on this important fact!

Unless you allow yourself to make mistakes, use your own instincts, your own human ear, you will never get good. Don't try to act just try to make sense of the story and the words. Ready? Good. Perform and record it before a video tape camera and send it into us for a critique and evaluation.

We guarantee you will learn and grow from this process. If you don't learn and grow from our critique and evaluation we will give your money back. A full refund! Guaranteed!

Join now and follow all the instructions on taping. (There are millions of video cameras sold every year in this country. If you don't own one, someone you know does.)

Good luck and "Break A Leg."

Any Questions - Contact AOW

Please call us at 323-665-0969 or send us an email at director@actingontheweb.com.

Video Review

As a member, you can submit videos that can be reviewed professionally.