My partnership with Erica Arvold began in 2007. A mutual friend, Charlie Hutchinson, brought us together by advising Erica to look me up when she arrived in Charlottesville, Virginia. She was moving to C’ville, home to the University of Virginia where I was director of the acting programs. Erica was coming from a distinguished career as a Los Angeles casting director so I knew I needed to get her in front of my student actors as a guest artist. As soon as we met, it became very clear that we were of like mind in so many areas of film performance and training.
I introduced Erica to our college actors in a studio we called B006. Over several semesters one day meetings became week-long workshops in film acting. I would serve as Erica’s “camera person” as she watched and then reviewed scene work. One session she turned to me and said, “So what do you think, Richard?” And our team-teaching partnership began. We discovered that we could productively critique an actor’s work by tag-teaming ideas. Erica came from the perspective of a casting director who had top tier professional experience about the acting process having seen in the pressurized situation of major auditions every level of training and talent from the neophyte to the star. I would add to the mix my knowledge as an actor coach. Over the years this blend of the professional and the academic approaches has proven to be an illuminating, and at times inspiring, combination for actors.
Erica moved into an office on the Charlottesville downtown mall and we developed a range of offerings for local performers including roundtable discussions, workshops on the business aspects of a screen acting career as well specific 3-4 hour craft workshops. One sunny day we decided to take our break by sitting at a table on the mall sipping cups of tea. We were chatting about our favorite topic – training actors. Our wonderful colleague, Amy Quick, overheard us and said, “You know, we should film these chats of yours. They are really informative.” And so we did. We taped over 100 3-5 minute video blogs on film acting.
Here’s a sample: https-::www.youtube.com:embed:aAHNSXCVgj4
As the years passed we took our workshops on the road. Many first rate acting studios invited us to share our ideas.. We taught in Atlanta, Washington DC, Richmond, New York City, Asheville and Wilmington NC among others. As we traveled to and from these adventures, we would spend hours in Erica’s car discussing why and how we could refine our teaching. These detailed exchanges plus some happy chats around my dining room table with our amazing colleague, Christian Trew, evolved into our core teaching principles. We shaped these essentials into our Ten-Step checklist:
When the Covid pandemic struck Erica knew she had to find a way to continue the work of what had then become the Arvold Warner Studio. Most of our efforts were now in established training venues in Atlanta. In-person classes were impossible so Erica and her staff devoted hundreds of collaborative hours to create an online AWS studio that included a membership.
In 2021 we invited seven highly skilled and experienced screen artists to form our first teacher training lab ensemble. My co-leaders were the inventive and caring team of Evan Bergman and Ellie Clark. We realized that there was a vital need for thorough and in-depth conversion among passionate teachers of acting to share ideas and learn from each other. All seven of these thoughtful, dedicated artists joined the AWS teaching team.
At this writing Erica has been my good friend and colleague for over 15 years. She is a generous, insightful, sensitive artist. She is a positive, playful influence in my life and in the lives of the many, many actors she has guided. She gets me. Knows how to inspire me and challenge me to make my ideas on actors and acting more articulate and original.
