 Today, let's talk about training in the Bay Area, so acting classes, different studios, and even universities. Some of them I have personal experience, some of them I've just heard great things about. Of course, please do more research than just watching my videos. I am sharing this information with you as if you were my friend asking me, hey, I'm thinking about getting into acting, what should I do first? Of course, it's training. That's what you should do first. And research about your acting market. I'm just going to tell you the ones that I can actually speak on. But one of them is the Beverly Hills Playhouse. And it did start in Beverly Hills, but they opened up a location here in the early 2000s. And I have had a lot of friends tell me about this location and I actually audited it. I really wanted to take that class, but at the time it just didn't make sense with my budget. I had just quit my day job. But I definitely met a lot of actors who went to this, or still go to this studio. And I met them on set. So it turns out that the instructors that were there when I audited that class a few years ago actually created their own studio now. So it's called the CA Studio and they provide classes in LA and online PST. If you want to learn more about them, it's a scene study class. You can check out their website. They have a ton of information. And you can audit the CA Studio so you can just go to their website and apply to audit one of their courses and you can see for yourself. The Meissner Technique Studio here in San Francisco is also one that I recently heard about and the main director instructor there was a student of Sanford Meissner's. My name is Jim Jarrett and I am the founder director of the Meissner Technique Studio. I spent four years with Sandy, two in his professional private class, and then two more working privately with Sandy, both as an actor and a teacher in training. This studio is in Fort Mason and you can actually learn a lot about the studio before even auditing it because they have a YouTube channel. They have a video. They have a ton of information on their website. There's a tab that says free teachings so you can get some free resources even if you're not able to take this course right now. And I also saw that they have a film festival that they do. You can go to their YouTube channel and there's a ton of videos with Jim Jarrett talking about the technique. So you can get to know Jim Jarrett through YouTube and see if he teaches the way you want to be taught because there's a lot of different kinds of acting teachers. Some can be very intense. Some can be very, come from a very kind, gentle place. Some of them are just, they don't really care to give you feedback. There's a lot of different kinds of teachers or instructors. So you should check out their YouTube channel and see that. But you can also audit the class. And like a lot of studios, they require an interview just to see if you would be a good fit, see if you are coming into this class for the right reasons and making sure that you're going to be a good addition to be cultured the environment of the studio. ACT also offers classes. So I actually took their studio ACT course on clowning a few years ago and they gear those studio ACT classes towards people that might have day jobs. So usually these classes are in the evenings or weekends and they're pretty affordable. We have some master classes that are around a hundred dollars and then the longer weekly classes are three to four hundred just depending on each course. And you guys can see it on their website. Some of them are still being offered in Zoom and some of them in person at their gear location. And they have courses for all levels and they have a young conservatory. They have private coaching, studio ACT, their MFA program. So they definitely have something for everybody. And even if you're looking to continue your studies and acting, you could audition for them in the winter to join their MFA program. There are of course a bunch of workshops that you can take and private coaching, but the only private coaching I have ever done has been with Timothy Holes, which he does all of his work right now online. If you want to go to a university and pursue a MFA and focus in acting, acting in dance, filmmaking, anything like that, there are a ton of universities in the Bay Area. Most of them have a theater program. So you would learn to act in a theater environment you would get to perform. There are also a ton of theaters and I have a video coming up talking about all of the different theaters that I have heard of, went to, performed in, and there are a lot of theaters. I'll talk more about that in another time. But back to the universities. So a lot of these universities are connected to theaters because they are very physically near those those theaters. Like UC Berkeley, if you were to go to UC Berkeley, there's a bunch of theaters downtown, like the Berkeley Playhouse, Aurora, Shotgun Players, of course performing at UC Berkeley itself. But UC schools can be very expensive. If you're in state, which means that you live here, you're a resident of California, then you would be paying $14,000 a year just for your tuition. And if you're coming from a different country and or a different state and you are paying out of state tuition, you would be paying $44,000. UC Santa Cruz, UC Berkeley. And speaking of UC Santa Cruz, I do have a friend, Carlos, who went there and he told me that he really loved training there because of the multicultural theater that they have there called Rainbow Theater. And they were really able to express themselves, helped nurture him as an artist of color and taught him about theater outside of the classical theater lens. So he really liked going there. And then after that, I performed with him. He's also completed the Sanford Meissner first year in Burbank that I've also talked about before. He's actually the person that I heard about that program from. So he's somebody who I know went to UC Santa Cruz because I didn't. I went to Cal State East Bay, so I didn't go to a UC school, but I went to California State School. And I really enjoyed that it was a smaller school because I got a lot of opportunities to perform. But I have a full video on Cal State East Bay and my experience there. You guys can check it out right here. But there's also San Francisco State. There's also San Jose State, who also focus on theater for the most part. Some of these universities will have a communications department where you can be on camera or a film class. But for the most part, in my experience, I have heard of a lot of people doing theater when they are studying to be actors in the Bay Area. If you go to a Cal State as an in-state student, you would be paying around $1,500 a year for your tuition. And if you're coming from out of state, you would be paying closer to $6,700. And then, of course, community colleges that are much more affordable. And in the Bay Area, there are quite a bit of community colleges. And I went to a performance at a Loni years and years ago. So I know they had a theater program. Laney College, Diablo Valley College is also known for doing theater. So you don't only have to go to a university, like an actual university versus a community college. And in all of these, they often have open casting calls where they accept actors outside of the university to come and perform. Because sometimes they need non-students to be acting in these because of different ages that they need for different characters or they just want their students to be able to perform with other actors that are coming from the community. Everything I talked about today is going to be linked in the description. This is my experience. This is what I have done, what I have heard of. So let me know if you know of any other great acting classes either in San Francisco or LA. And thank you so much for watching. And at the end of every video, I feature another channel. And this is today's feature. If you would like to be featured on my next video, make sure that you're subscribed, like this video and leave me a comment. Tell me that you would like to be featured and tell me a little bit something about your channel.