Acting Classes for Business

First Take Overview

First Take Acting School, founded in 1996, has built an international reputation as a premier acting school.   It has an unprecedented success rate because of its unique approach that teaches actors how to thrive personally, in addition to traditional acting and industry skills.

The First Take Method focusses on the actor as a whole and teaches them how to be successful, how to connect with themselves, how to connect with others and move them and others and how to overcome obstacles.  This unique approach to teaching acting has resulted in an unprecedented number of First Take students becoming working actors.

To be a great actor or a great business leader these First Take Method Fundamentals are equally relevant.

What our clients say about us

“The First Take approach is really unique and instead of teaching my team how to “sell” or “solve problems”, it instead taught them how to connect with the customers they were serving on a human level. […] I definitely recommend doing one of their programs and infusing your teams with this way of thinking about sales and service.” (Read full testimonial)

-Carissa Reiniger
Founder & CEO, Silver Lining


The First Take Acting Classes for Business combine all of these key lessons along with unique and fun drills from traditional acting classes – creating a powerful business program – unlike any other out there!

Your business leaders who attend will become more empowered, more confident in their own skin, discover their own uniqueness and power and learn how to network and building lasting relationships.

Class Topics

Take one or all our classes and learn the same fundamentals we teach our actors – applied to the 5 topics that matter most to your business.

  • Using Acting Skills to Manage People Better

    • If you are an actor, you often end up working with very challenging people and strong personalities! As we teach our actors, it is about stepping into other people’s shoes and learning how to value people who are really difficult.  And ultimately understanding that people are driven by fear and so our response needs to be compassionate as opposed to dramatic!  In this class, we will train your business leaders to be more empathetic and more solution oriented – instead of waiting for others to change.  The result is that conversations and projects do not get stuck, relationships are healthier and productivity increases.
  • Using Acting Skills to Sell Better

    • In Hollywood success as an actor is very dependent on building a network and developing genuine, long lasting relationships. As we teach our acting students – this is not about “sales”.  You must be skilled at painting a vision and then able to quickly break down walls and resistance so that you can take the person you are connecting with to someplace you want them to be.  In this class we teach this skill and change average business leaders into incredible business leaders.
  • Using Acting Skills to Present Better

    • In Hollywood, the pressure to perform is extreme (literally!). Actors are constantly trying to fit a certain mold and be a certain “type”.  We teach our actors that success only comes once you are comfortable in your own skin and magic only happens the moment an actor begins to live in the moment and experience the beauty of his or her own spontaneity.  This class involves a lot of work in groups doing role plays so that people can learn from each other and see that when someone is not owning who they are it doesn’t work and it isn’t compelling.   The result is that people show up as their unique selves when presenting and instantly become more winning, interesting and engaging.
  • Using Acting Skills to Deliver Incredible Customer Service

    • Actors are asked to not just relate to all types of people – but to actually become them and portray them. Often times playing a role that feels completely different to who they are can be a challenging job for actors.   Good actors are able to disregard bias and opinion and dive deep into understanding where others are coming from, what problems they may be experiencing and to actually care about and feel that perspective.   This is not different then customer service where your team needs to be able to do all the same things for the person they are working with.   In this class we will teach your team how to disarm your customers with understanding and understand that most people care more about feeling heard than they do about having their problem solved.

  • Using Acting Skills to Build a Connected Team

    • We think that being an actor means the focus is all about them. But actually, when you are doing a scene – the “other” person is the most important.   If you watch closely, it is often the person listening that steals the scene.    Good actors learn that they are their best when they are making the other person in the room seem the most important.   This class uses role plays and improv games in a very interactive and fun way to help teams understand how to support each other.   The result is that everyone will leave thinking of the other and feeling more connected.

How You Work With Us

Whether you want a really unique way to develop your team in an hour, a day or over an extended period of investment we put together customized classes for your team.   Classes include an introduction to core concepts taught in our actual Acting Classes, drills and exercises we use with our actors and, in some instances, real actors are brought in to facilitate role plays and interactive learning with your team!    In each Class, we will draw together the fun and intrigue of Hollywood, the lessons we teach actors to be successful in one of the hardest industries around and the relevance of these things to the realities your team faces as they do their day to day jobs.

Contact

Marta Madriz |  info@firsttake.org   | 925-222-5644