actor master classes

auditions. vocal techniques. meeting agents....

Training and coaching for the professional musical theatre actor. Designed to give you what you need over a short period of time with these Actor Master Class Intensives. Taught by a Broadway-seasoned staff, these classes are powerful, affordable and flexible. Each class gives you the concrete skills and results to help you move forward with your career goals. Sign up to be on the waiting list for whichever courses are right for you, and we’ll contact you as soon as there’s an opening.

BUILD YOUR AUDITION BOOK

This 6 session class fills in all the holes in your audition material. Never be frustrated that your audition songbook is outdated or that you can’t audition for a certain project because you don’t have the correct song. This is your chance to build 4-6 new songs each cut to 16 bar, 32 bar and a 2 minute ‘full’ cut. Each song will be in your key and you’ll have a great rehearsal track of each cut to rehearse with before auditions. In addition, learn to connect powerfully with each song so it really comes alive and shows your vocal and emotional range when you perform!

$350 for six classes

GETTING AN AGENT OR MANAGER

This 3 session Master Class prepares and tailors your audition material to best suit your type and strengths. We’ll start together for two sessions preparing your interview, streamlining your marketing materials, your personal presentation and your audition material. Then in the third week, you’ll get to meet, work with and audition for some top agents/managers in LA.

Learn More and Cost

You’ll get a chance to have honest discussions with as many as four agents, audition for them, and get great inside info about how they see you, what their agency is looking for and where they see your best casting possibilities. Your takeaway from this class: how agencies REALLY work and where to find the best fit for you.

3 sessions for $375.00

BUILD AND PERFORM YOUR ORIGINAL CABARET ACT

You’re funny, right? Charismatic? Unique? It’s time to put together your own cabaret act, and find YOUR audience! Broadway’s Joshua Finkel and popular vocal coach Jake Anthony will lead you through your own journey, discovering what’s the most theatrical, entertaining and moving about YOU…and help you fashion patter, jokes, songs and specialty material which makes you shine.

Learn More and Cost

Plus create and own your Cabaret Songbook that ANY pianist can play, giving you maximum flexibility in where you can perform your act. Also, learn to build and keep your audience by getting a great system on how to update your act and keep giving your audience new material every time you perform. Includes a Final Video of your Cabaret Set! One of Joshua’s most popular courses, this class comes in two flavors: a 4-session pack in which you concentrate on a powerful 10-minute showcase; or a 10-session pack in which you can build an entire SET.

$350 for the 4-pack.

$500 for the 10-pack.

RECORDING YOUR VOCAL DEMO

A wonderful 4 session class where you learn all about the recording industry and how to work and record in a recording studio. You’ll leave the class with a great 3 song demo featuring your best and most marketable sounds beautifully mixed in a recording studio.

Learn More and Cost

You’ll also have a bonus 4th sampler track featuring the highlights from your three songs that you can use to market your versatility and skill to agents and session contractors. Post your demos on your website, YouTube, give them to an agent, or even create a beautiful gift of your talent for someone special.

4 Sessions and Demo for $600.00

AUDITION WORKOUT

Bring in whatever you want for personalized one-on-one coaching. Perfect for the singing actor who has an important round of auditions coming up…you can book as few as four sessions, or more if you need. Working on a scene, song, or monologue? Want some last-minute tips on how to deliver a great audition from just the SIDES? Going in for a TV competition show like “The Voice”?

Learn More and Cost

In just four sessions, acquire the confidence you need to nail your audition. Limited to no more than ten participants at a time, so you know you’re going to get the personal attention you expect.

4 Sessions for $275.00

ACTING ON CAMERA AND COLD READING INTENSIVE

A 1 day intensive Master Class focusing on Camera and Cold Reading Technique. Learn to find and use your best angle and how to use other angles to help create versatile characters. Learn insiders’ tricks-of-the-trade about the on camera interview, slating and how to let your personality really come forward when auditioning. Also learn fantastic cold reading technique to use when given copy but not a lot of prep time.

1 session for $150.00

GETTING HIRED ON CRUISE SHIPS

An amazing 3 session Master Class where you get to meet and work with cruise ship Casting and Resident Directors, including Rachel Tyler from Princess Cruises. Learn about the various cruise lines and positions and where YOU fit in. Find out what each different cruise line is looking for and how to best market yourself and your audition material to be considered as either a Headliner, an On Board Principal Vocalist, or as a featured member of the On Board Ensemble of Singers and Dancers.

Learn More and Cost

Work on your audition songs to tailor them to the cruise ship casting table. Learn an actual audition routine used in the auditions for cruise lines, without the pressure of needing to book the gig! Get concrete and honest insight on how the shows are cast, and where you fit in. Then meet, interview and audition for a panel of Cruise Ship Casting Professionals. Build a personal relationship with them and begin your journey in this lucrative and sustaining medium!

3 sessions for $375.00

Joshua Finkel

Los Angeles based acting coach and acting teacher, Joshua Finkel offers actors / singers / public speakers of all ages and levels solid acting techniques, audition tips, monologue preparation, song preparation and cold reading techniques in the fields of Film, Television, Theater, Musical Theater, Shakespeare, Commercials and Voice Overs. Joshua also helps actors prepare upcoming roles, build their own Cabaret Act, or public speaking presentation and prepare for callbacks.

Broadway and other credits

Joshua Finkel has directed everything from Industrial Video and Plays, to Musical Theater and Cabaret. This year alone, Joshua has produced and directed 2 different Cabaret Showcases with his students, directed Broadway/Hollywood Veteran Performer Tony Monaco aka Tom Morton in his one man show THE ROAD TO DAMASCUS, Roslyn Cohn in her provocative one woman show “diffiCult to leave”, “Can’t Get Enough”: 3 new short musicals about Addiction at the Lonny Chapman Theater, and this Fall, Joshua looks forward to reteaming with Panic! Productions in Thousand Oaks and directing THE FANTASTICKS in September 2014.

His 2013 unique production of A FUNNY THING HAPPENED ON THE WAY TO THE FORUM for Panic! Productions has received rave reviews for its ingenious concept and clever staging. His 2012 production of A RING IN BROOKLYN at the Noho Arts garnered 4 Scenie awards.

In 2011 Joshua directed the original musical TSARINA at the Grove Theater in Upland. In 2010 he assisted Richard Jay Alexander as the Dance Captain for LES MISERABLES at the Hollywood Bowl. In addition his 2010 version of INTO THE WOODS received a great deal of acclaim.

In 2004 production of the Los Angeles Premiere of THE SPITFIRE GRILL at the Actors Co-op Theater in Hollywood received the LA TIMES CRITIC’S PICK. One of his other ongoing shows, HOLLYWOOD REVISITED is scheduled to play many top corporate and private events, including cruises to Tokyo, New Zealand and Monte Carlo as well as symphony and convention dates around the country.

Joshua directed the San Francisco premiere of SONGS FOR A NEW WORLD at San Francisco’s prestigious Plush Room in 2002 and in addition, Joshua heads up the musical theater emphasis at California Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks and created the audition prep and audtion portfolio at AMDA LA in Hollywood.

Joshua teaches everything from Musical Theatre to Cold Reading to Shakespeare. Joshua’s own personal Los Angeles coaching studio, the Creative Combustion Acting Studio, tailors classes, private and phone coachings for actors and public speakers of all ages and levels. Joshua has clients on Broadway, Off Broadway, Television/Film, Regional Theaters and in the top college training programs around the country.

Among his several acting credits, Joshua starred on Broadway opposite Chita Rivera and Vanessa Williams as Molina the Window Dresser in the Original Cast of KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN; Joshua also carries an MFA in Classical Theatre from the University of Delaware and is a member of the Musical Theater Guild. Having directed the New Works Festival for NMI in 2003 and produced the incredibly successful evening of celebrity songwriters at the Colony Theater “AND THEN I WROTE…” in 2004, Joshua is thrilled be continuing to develop new musicals for the musical theatre community of the west coast and beyond. For more information: www.joshuafinkel.com

Jake works as a composer, vocal coach, and Music Director in the L.A. area. After receiving an MM in Vocal Performance and Opera Coaching at the University of North Texas, Jake turned towards musical theatre, serving as Music Director for You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown, Cabaret, Kiss Me Kate, and Side by Side by Sondheim for Dallas area theatres, and Once Upon a Mattress and The Importance of Being Earnest for UNT Theatre. Jake’s L.A. theater work includes Snoopy! at the McCadden Place Theater, as well as the West Coast premieres of Splendora and Songs from an Unmade Bed at Celebration Theatre. As a composer, Jake recently co-wrote the 15-minute “mini”-musical “Oh God, We’re Gonna Die!” with Jeff Marx (co-author of Avenue Q), and has just completed his first full-length show, Now and Then a Hero, with book and lyrics by Larry Johnson. Jake is thrilled to be part of the ANMT team, and their constant commitment to the development of new works.

“Joshua Finkel is nothing short of amazing. He helped me get a callback for the TV show Glades, and coached me for my final callback for producers, where I’m now one of 3 girls! His comments are always spot on, and he works with you so specifically and always makes you feel comfortable with him and never judged. He coached me for my final callback when I booked “Next To Normal” at A ctors Playhouse last year. I am a teacher, Broadway actress, and educator myself, so I’m very picky about who I trust when I enlist for help. Joshua Finkel is the best coach out there. If you need help with a song, monologue, TV or film audition, he does it all! I have never had better results with ANY teacher or coach that I’ve worked with in all my years in the business, and I will continue to coach with him for the rest of my career. RUN don’t walk to work with Joshua. Your career will be the better for it.”
–JODIE LANGEL (Broadway Actress and Coach. Creator of MAKING IT ON BROADWAY book and master class intensives)

“The callback for the MTV movie could not have gone better. They LOVED the little add in’s we came up with in our coaching. Thanks so much for all your help; I’ll absolutely work with you for my next audition. All the stuff we came up with for both the initial audition AND the callback landed beautifully in the room. I just love working with you; you really bring out so much in the scene that’s really helpful when auditioning.”
–RENEE DORIAN (Los Angeles Actress)

“It worked! Thanks to your amazing coaching and last minute video submission, Telsey’s office called me in to fly to NYC for the lead role of MOLLY in the National Tour of GHOST the MUSICAL! I cannot thank you enough!” —MARLO DiCRASTO (Los Angeles and New York based Actress)

More testimonials

“I just wanted to let you know how my audition went at Chapman University yesterday. They told me that I was very personable and they loved my enthusiasm. They said they would love to work with me and THEN gave me a $12000/year scholarship and an outstanding acting award! Thank you so much for all you did for me. I KNOW your coaching (especially with the Shakespeare) and how to ‘be in the room’ was key in his doing so well. –ADAM SEPULVEDA (Los Angeles High School Actor) “I wanted to thank you again for the generosity of your time on Thursday. It was such a great coaching that I am still telling my friends and clients what a awesome lesson it was! In fact it was through our work together that I booked my first Equity LEAD!” –AUSTEN REY (Los Angeles Actor, The title role in THE KING AND I) “I must say much of the success of the performance was due to your coaching. You gave me a way to clarify the material and give it variety that I didn’t have before. Thank you so much. It was a pleasure working with you and I look forward to doing it again in the future.” ELDON QUICK (Classical Actor, One Man Show of Homer’s The Illiad) “Thank you so much for the excellent coaching sessions you did with me in preparation for my Oregon Shakespeare Festival audition. Your creativity, intelligence and passion for acting infused our session with an energy that made me more excited about acting than I’ve been for a while. I was relieved to feel so confident after our sessions. This really paid off in the audition itself, which I felt was a great success.” –KRISTEN OSMAN (Los Angeles Classical Actress) “My interview with Antonio Banderas went great! I was surprisingly very calm just at the moment I was to do the interview. I was very proud of myself. Thank you for sharing your insights and for helping me improve!” –JESSICA AMATO (Hostess of Hablemos de Cine, Galavision) “I want to thank you for our lesson. I really had fun! I watched the tape and what a difference from the beginning of the hour to the end. I feel very lucky and honored to be learning from you! You are a great teacher and performer. I really respect your devotion to the craft of being a performer. Thank YOU!” –BLANEY AIKMAN (Television and Theater actress, Los Angeles) “Hey Joshua, just an FYI. The monologues you helped me with. I have booked three jobs with both of them!! Thanks! –ROBERT HEDGLIN, (New York Actor) “I wanted to thank you a million times for the amazing work we did in preparation for my audition. You helped me to form a very real character that makes real and specific choices. The casting director absolutely loved the choices that I made with fleshing out this real and believable woman. The results are in the words: “We’d like to call you back to our final callbacks.” –TAMI DAHBURA, (San Francisco Actress, In the Heights National Tour) “I do hope you know how much I enjoy your workshops and your teaching style. I always learn so much just from watching you.” –JENNIFER CANTORA, (San Francisco Film Actress) “This is EXACTLY what I’ve been needing. Thank you so much , Joshua!” –DALE TRACY, (Star of Phantom of the Opera) “Thank you so much for your help on this audition, your support and follow-through! I was in an audition rut, and I can say without a doubt, that I just gave the best audition of my life. I am looking forward to working with you again. It was a great experience.” –DOUGLAS GABRIELLE (Los Angeles Actor) “Thank you again for your brilliance in the workshop and in my coaching. I could work with you oh say…3 hours a day everyday that I would be the world’s greatest actor! Thank you for your attention to every detail, your limitless well of ideas and not letting me get away with any dirty little habits. I get so much out of your coachings!! Also the class was very helpful-especially directly after working with you. You really have had such a profound influence on me and the way I approach a song…a scene…everything. So I thank you for inspiring me to work and to ask the right questions. I feel as though I am finally starting to arrive at a few answers. I can’t wait till my next coaching.” –DANI MARCUS (Star of Beach Blanket Babylon) “I learned so much from our meeting. Thanks again!” –KEN BLAIR SHEPARD (European Pop Star)