Here's how you are picked for the school: A "scout" spots your daughter orson at a mall and approaches you and tells you what a beautiful child you haveand they'd look so great on film, etc etc. The do NOT tell you that they are anagent or work for an agent because that is illegal. They call themselves TalentExecutives and invite you and your child to attend an "audition" forthe school. At the audition, they have a red rope line. Your child's picture is scrutinized, your child is "interviewed" andthen filmed. A few days later you are called and told that your child passedthe audition and you are invited back to the school. That's when the hard sellhappens. "John" was our salesman. He had the 3 day Hollywood beardgrowth and talked about all of the successful young actors that had graduatedfrom the school. He was a very good salesman. Although "John" impliedthat agents were invited to class, we later learned that this supposedly happensthe second six months, not the first. "John" also showed us picturesof a party the kids have, although we later learned that the party doesn'thappen until after 2 years. They want you to sign up for the full 2years but we chose to sign up for 6 months and I'm embarrassed to say, spent$2,000 for that. My daughter went to class every Sunday for 6 months. Weweren't allowed to see the class. The staff rarely spoke to us, although theguy from the front desk would come in the back room outside of the studios fromtime to time to tell jokes. Around halfway through our session, Gary held an "informational"meeting about the business of acting. He was extremely defensive and loudlyberated a parent who asked if the progress report was really an assessment ofthe child's acting ability. He later walked around and told parents that thatparent was drunk and had apologized. The materials handed out were a bunch ofbadly Xeroxed lists of agents and other garbage. My daughter was veryambivalent about going to class although she did like her teacher Darcy. Icould hear the kids laughing in class so I think Darcy was a good and engagingteacher. Although we were promised that the class size was never more than 12, it got up to 18 sometimes. Gary NEVER went in my daughter's class. The staff encouraged parents to leaveduring class and go to the mall. Darcy was very nice but said nothing about mydaughter's progress. At the end, we got a progress report that was 3-4 lineslong, much less than a school report card. It was a joke. It recommended that my daughter attend thenext 6 month session (for which we would be charged $1,000)."John"called us a few times and that was it. Here is how they scam you. Several timesduring the 6 month session, the parents were invited to write an online reviewand enter a raffle to get a $100 gift certificate from Houstons and I am quitesure they only got good reviews. So, all the good reviews you see are FAKE!!! So what's the shame? That they invest somuch of their time in combating negative reviews instead of improving theirservice. They use questionable tactics to recruit kids. That I believe thatthey submit fake reviews and their whole business is based on what's basicallya con by pretending that they can make your child a star, or getting your childa chance to (what I think most parents want) make some money for college. I'msure that this review will be quickly attacked, and I will be labeled as one ofthose phantom people who is out to get Gary. My opinion is: it's a pretendHollywood business and there are a lot of legitimate acting schools (LikeActor's Gang) where your kids can have fun and learn to act.
Don't waste your money like we did.
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