I was so disappointed by how remedial this class was. Like most working actors in LA, because I'm…read morenot in the top 1% of the industry I have to work long, hard hours at my day job to make ends meet. As such, I want a class that has good bang for my buck, wows me and frankly blows me away. For example, the first time I went to Lesly Kahn & Co or The Groundlings, I had that exact experience...It took me all of 5 minutes to realize how much more I had to learn and where I needed to get to in order to be competitive in my industry.
I've worked HARD on my craft and I book several prime time TV shows per year. Co-star, guest star, recurring... I'm always in class, hungry, humble and honing my craft or looking to challenge myself. That being said, I felt like this school is a complete waste of time for anyone who's ever taken a basic acting 101 class. Keep in mind, I attended the class for "working actors"....I can't even begin to imagine how remedial the beginners class for "non-working actors" is.
I knew this was a bad and costly decision as soon as I saw the very outdated class materials and older copy. I was appalled to see a page of "feelings faces" with faces describing attitudes from A-Z like: Angry, Arrogant, Happy, Lovestruck, Sad etc (basically, the kind of chart non-verbal children use to express themselves). I digress, our class started with a cheesy, pre-taped video intro that made me feel like I was doing an online orientation for jury duty. The first 2 classes were like pulling teeth...we had to take turns reading instructions/rules, also a very bad sign (basically killing time to prolong and stretch out the material so that you take the NEXT level).
In addition to being snail-paced the actual MEAT of the acting instruction was ridiculously basic in terms of applicable knowledge. Something incoherent to the effect of truth = attitude...attitude = truth blah blah. Huh? How is that applicable to text analysis?? what about operative words? antitheticals? builds? It didn't resonate with me at all and I really kept trying to keep an open mind and just go with the flow.
We had NO time to practice our copy week to week. Our class met once a week, so one would think...ok, we'll get our homework copy in advance so that we can practice all week in prep for the next class and try to apply some of the famous Kalmenson method we were learning. NOPE. We got our copy 5 minutes before we had to perform it for our classmates. So we had NO TIME to sit with the copy, think about it, or try to re-read instructions from our Ebinder and apply it to the copy so that there was some kind of eureka moment where we could say...oh gee, I guess that technique can help after all.
It took soooo long (I think it was 5 classes in) before we started getting re-direction on copy. My feeling is that a good acting class you start doing re-direction on Day 1. Instead of waiting till the next to the last class and promise: "more to come in the NEXT LEVEL!!" Yeah, I did not buy into that "join our next round of classes!" spiel. K&K wants you to really INVEST and take all their classes, which honestly I would have NO problem doing if I felt like I actually learned something or had measurable results.
More than anything, I wanted to take a good Animation Class, an area where I have booked acting jobs on studio sets before....but instead I had to start with the Level 1 class where I felt unchallenged and uninspired, then take Level 2 and THEN I could take the animation class. Level 1 was abysmal, so there was no point in continuing with level 2. Oh and our last class we were told we would get a "special guest speaker"...which made me think we were getting a VO Casting Director or VO Agent or somebody.. but NOPE...Our guest speaker was just another K&K teacher. Huge letdown, but at this point I couldn't help but laugh given how bad the class was.
I reamed my manager out for suggesting this class. I was literally going to fire my rep, but we talked it out and he was very apologetic. He made some phone calls, confirmed everything I reported with others in the VO industry and took K&K off their recommended class list. What we were told by another CD was that while K&K may have been good at one time, they really have not kept up with the times and they also cast very infrequently.
Before my class ended, I called their office to express my concerns... so this review should not be a surprise and is not coming out of left field. In short, this was just a big waste of time and nowhere near worth $700.