The Beverly Hills Playhouse Acting School strives to train each actor in real-person-real-place, behavior-oriented, moment-to-moment acting work in the tradition of the great American actors. It is a training ground for serious artists who aspire to long-term careers.

Actors rehearse acting scenes outside class until they feel they have a finished product to bring into the class, and only then will a critique be delivered. Playing a cop? You’d better look like a cop, you better interview some cops. Playing a hooker? You’d better go walking along Santa Monica Blvd. and find one who you think is right for this part – nail the costume, the walk. Playing an addict? You’d better do the research about how that substance affects people, specifically. So, if you want a casual approach to scene study, where you run some lines until you have a scene memorized and kind of throw it up there and see what happens, the BHP is not for you.

Most acting classes at the BHP meet twice a week, for about four hours per class. Acting classes are taught on three different levels – Orientation, Intermediate, and Advanced – based on the experience of the applicant. Orientation would include anyone from beginners to college-level arts training, and Intermediate and Advanced are for actors and directors with more professional experience, with an eye as well to union memberships and representation being in place.