When I first moved to Los Angeles, I started looking at acting coaches. I researched my fair share of, “Acting Schools in Los Angeles” and for one reason or another their websites, testimonials, videos, personalities, and promises of being the “Best Acting Schools in Los Angeles” didn’t feel right to me. I couldn’t trust them. I didn’t feel like they were right for me. Now, maybe I’m wrong, maybe I’m just being psychosomatic, a little too much faith in my gut, but I couldn’t commit to these “Hollywood Acting School.
Then, I met Arthur Mendoza.
I was told to call Arthur Mendoza, by a friend who had worked with him several years back. So I called, and it when to voicemail. Now, I don’t usually leave voicemails, it’s a generational problem, but something pulled at me to do it.
I left the voicemail, and after I didn’t think anything of it, I even thought he wouldn’t call back.
He called back.
We had about a five-minute conversation, and within those five minutes, I knew that Arthur Mendoza was going to be my acting coach.
There was no promise made, no smooshing, no B.S. It was just truth.
I met Arthur at his office for a private tutoring session. He wanted to see if we were a match if we could work together. He said I needed to try him out as much as he needed to try me out.
‘Fair enough,” I thought, “Sounds like a good idea.”
The day I first met Arthur, he told me who he was, where he came from, what he was doing now, and what he planned to do in the future. He only asked me two questions; the first was why do I want to act?
I tried to take a moment to think, but he wouldn’t let me, “Don’t look away, don’t think about it, just speak!” Why do you want to act?”
“Because I need to.” That was the simple truth that I was afraid off because it meant being unhappy with any other job and diving into a career that held no certainty.
Arthur seemed satisfied enough with the answer. He asked me to start the assignment he had given me.
Ten things I love about myself, ten things I hate about myself, and a letter of what I want: from myself, the world, and him.
He critiqued me, not criticized, critiqued. There’s a big difference between the two to him.
Arthur doesn’t coach people he doesn’t believe in. When I finished my first assignment, that’s what he told me, “Look if I don’t think you’ve got it I won’t waste my time and I won’t waste yours.” Then he asked me the second question. “I can teach you, but only if you trust that I can, can you trust me?”
I’ve been with Arthur Mendoza, Hollywood Acting Coach, for a year now. His wisdom comes from the genuine authenticity of knowing his craft.
Arthur can peel you apart because he sees through you and allows you to see through yourself.
The amount of growth that I’ve gone through under Arthur Mendoza is astronomically profound. I have stretch marks from the amount of knowledge that I have gleaned, and I’ve only just begun.
Arthur’s class is in three parts, Technique 1, Technique 2, and Scene Study. I know many actors who want to rush through Technique 1 and Technique 2 because it doesn’t feel like acting or doing much but it’s the wax on wax off routine and by the time you reach scene study you realize Arthur Mendoza is Mr. Miyagi and he’s taught you how to act.
Arthur doesn’t believe in fake it till you make it, he believes in hard work, honing your skills, planning and knowing what you are going to do, why you’re doing it.
You can try Meisner, you can try method, you can try all the other “Acting Schools in Los Angeles” out there, but if you want to learn how to act, you want to learn how to find the character? Then find Arthur Mendoza, friend, and colleague to Stella Adler, who learned from Stanislavski.
Arthur Mendoza’s Actor Circle Theatre is the true teachings of imagination. He will coach you to be more than just an actor; you learn to be a writer, a director, you learn how to become an artist well versed in all.
There is nothing more powerful than finding yourself, and Arthur Mendoza can help show you the way.
He lives and breathes Stella Adler; there is no Stella Adler without Arthur Mendoza, and there is no Arthur Mendoza without Stella Adler. The two are one and the same.
Arthur Mendoza has taught Jason Momoa, Mark Ruffalo, Benicio Del Toro, and Salma Hayek to list a few. You don’t have to be impressed, come to Actor Circle Theatre, the Best Acting School in Los Angeles, and see for yourself, every Wednesday from 7 pm – 10 pm at the Santa Monica Playhouse.
