I think in this country you begin with Strasberg, Bergdof, Hagen, Meisner and Michael Chekov. There have been others equally profound but perhaps not so influential because they did not write themselves. One who did was Sonia Moore but she didn't define herself, she defined her mentor, Stanislavsky.

Of all the above, the one who most resonates with me is Meisner. While I did not study with him, I studied with Peter Kass, who himself was part of the Group Theatre and Kass, Hagen, Moore, Meisner and Bergdof all knew each other and shared some deeply held overviews of the acting process.

But,in my opinion, only Meisner and Kass really took to heart the influence that working in front of the camera would eventually have on the actor and the process of building a performance that was real, spontaneous, simple and uncluttered, a performance without seams.

In a perfect world no-one would produce, write, direct or teach who had not spent some time with one of the above or at least be within the six degrees of separation allowable in a teaching family tree.

I've been taking scene study class at one of the several studios at Carter Thor. I couldn't believe the difference between what I've been learning here compared to the other acting studios I've gone to in the past.

How I've learned script analysis at Carter Thor has definitely changed the way I write my screenplays now. As the actor, while I look at my lines and read the plot that's on paper, I also need to see what's really beneath all of that. What's behind the words and the actions on these pages? I constantly have to keep asking myself "Why am I doing this?" and the answer is NOT what's written on those pages. The answer becomes more than that.

I always recommend actors and writers that I meet to go and audit a class if there is Carter Thor studio near them. I'd love to visit the LA studio in the near future too.