BHP New York: The Beverly Hills Playhouse Acting School

The Beverly Hills Playhouse expanded its universe to the Big Apple in September of 2008. BHP New York acting school mirrors the Los Angeles acting classes in both the operation and method of teaching. Students studying at the BHP in Los Angeles who get a job in New York would be able to sign up for the New York acting class and his/her training and school environment will be consistent. The same will be true for students studying in New York and traveling to LA. The NYC Acting School takes place at the 45th Street Theatre on Monday nights and classes are taught by Cotter Smith.

COTTER SMITH (IMDB - WIKI - REEL - SITE) began his acting career in New York in 1978, studying with Stella Adler and at the Actors Studio. He first worked in Los Angeles in 1982 at the Mark Taper Forum, which lead to his being cast to star as Robert Kennedy in the mini-series BLOOD FEUD. That was the project that began his career in television and film and introduced him to The Beverly Hills Playhouse and Milton Katselas, with whom he studied for over 20 years. Cotter was privileged enough to not only study with Milton over such a long period of his career, but also to be directed by him in two of Milton’s most acclaimed productions - as Mercutio in ROMEO AND JULIET and Trigorin in THE SEA GULL.

Cotter’s many New York theater credits include the recent Broadway production of the new American play NEXT FALL, which received a Tony Award nomination for Best New Play. Other New York theatre work includes the Broadway premiere of Wendy Wasserstein's AN AMERICAN DAUGHTER with Hal Holbrook, and Lanford Wilson’s BURN THIS as the first replacement for John Malkovich. Off Broadway shows include Paula Vogel's Pulitzer Prize winning HOW I LEARNED TO DRIVE with Molly Ringwald; Charles Fuller's Pulitzer Prize winning A SOLDIER'S PLAY with Denzel Washington and Samuel Jackson; Athol Fugard's THE BLOOD KNOT with Danny Glover; the premiere of Craig Lucas's THE DYING GAUL, as well as many others. He spent ten years in New York as a member of the Circle Repertory Company, working exclusively on the premiere productions of new American plays, and is currently a member of the Vineyard Theatre Company in New York. He also starred with Judd Hirsch in the National Tour of the Tony Award winning play ART.

He has a long standing commitment to the development of new American plays, as a member of the Playwrights Lab at Robert Redford's Sundance Institute for five years and through his continuing relationship with the New York Stage and Film Company. He is also a founding member of the Matrix Theatre Company in Los Angeles, where he has appeared in Anton Chekhov's THE SEA GULL, Harold Pinter's THE HOMECOMING, Samuel Beckett's ENDGAME, Caryl Churchill's MAD FOREST, Allan Bennett's HABEUS CORPUS and George M. Cohan's THE TAVERN. Other Los Angeles performances include ROMEO AND JULIET, LOVE LETTERS and RAFT OF THE MEDUSA, as well as the West Coast premieres of A SOLDIER'S PLAY and HOW I LEARNED TO DRIVE at the Mark Taper Forum.

He has been nominated four times by the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle and received their Outstanding Lead Performance Award for THE TAVERN. He has also received four DramaLogue Awards, two Ovation nominations and was nominated as Best Supporting Actor by the MethodFest Independent Film Festival for his work in the recent film LUNATICS, LOVERS AND POETS.

Television and film work ranges from his debut 25 years ago as Robert Kennedy in the mini-series BLOOD FEUD, to his role as the President of the United States in the 20th Century Fox film, X2: X-MEN UNITED.  He was recently seen in Barry Levinson’s HBO film YOU DON’T KNOW JACK, as a prosecutor trying to convict Dr. Kevorkian, portrayed by Al Pacino.

Over the years he has appeared in over fifty television shows, from his regular roles on the ABC series EQUAL JUSTICE and NIGHT STALKER to his recurring roles on JUDGING AMY, TRU CALLING, ORLEANS and COURTHOUSE. His numerous guest star appearances span from the early days of HILL STREET BLUES and ST. ELSEWHERE to the more recent BROTHERS AND SISTERS and WHITE COLLAR.

Cotter periodically performs his critically acclaimed one-man show, COACH, written by renowned sports announcer Dick Enberg as a tribute to his longtime friend and colleague, the funny and philosophical Marquette University basketball coach, Al McGuire.  Cotter created the role in the premiere production at Marquette University in Milwaukee in 2005, and he and Mr. Enberg have since taken the show to the Alliance Theatre in Atlanta during the Final Four Championship, the Green House Theatre in Chicago, Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas, New York’s Hofstra University, the North Coast Repertory Company and the Museum of Contemporary Art in San Diego, the Portland Stage Company in Maine, and most recently to college campuses in North Carolina, Indiana and Kansas.

Milton Katselas was the one who first told him he should be a teacher, and he has been teaching and coaching privately for many years since then, but he is thrilled to now be able to pass on some of the gifts he received from Milton to a class within the organization Milton so lovingly created. 

The Beverly Hills Playhouse Acting School's Acting Classes NYC are held at 354 West 45th Street, New York City, NY 10036 : (646) 200-5790