**Note: If your audition is loud or disruptive, please book in our Windermere Studio.**
Acting Classes and Coaching
OUR MISSION
OUR BEGINNINGS AT BOOK FROM TAPE
Book From Tape is a professional acting studio based in Orlando, FL. Founded by Jordan Woods-Robinson in 2014, the studio got its name from the film industry's growing trend of booking actors onto film and television shows directly from their taped auditions. Jordan built Book From Tape with his wife, Julie, to serve actors ages 6-96 by focusing on teaching impulse and translating physical and theatrical training for the on-camera actor.
Originally, Book From Tape operated exclusively out of Jordan and Julie’s upstairs guest room, which was adapted into a studio. Originally offering audition taping only, Book From Tape then followed the community’s requests to offer private coaching and group classes. This then turned into multiple locations offering taping and training, until the full-service Book From Tape Acting Studios was opened in March of 2020.
One of the reasons why Book From Tape was able to find success in the community was from working with actors in their self-tapes and defining key tools that were lacking in their training, primarily the ability to get out of one’s head and to live in one’s body… a skill that is prevalent in theatrical training but not as practiced in Film and TV training.
Early on, the team at Book From Tape also discovered that there was a need for professional training for young actors. In the Film and TV industry, young actors are expected to perform and navigate their careers alongside professional adult actors and so Book From Tape holds young actors to the high standards to which they will be held on set.
With each of our actors, Book From Tape serves to bridge that gap from the emerging artist to a professional career by adjusting to and challenging the individual. We do not work off of a predefined structure or by the works of any one specific theatre philosopher but, rather, as a group of working actors, we offer various tools that we, ourselves, carry in our toolboxes. We empower our actors to trust their instincts and to adjust to each project as though it were a living creature.
OUR MISSION
We are working actors, working for working actors. We are entrenched in the industry and actively pursuing our own careers as actors while coaching, teaching, and leading by example from a place of our own active pursuit.
Our mission is to empower actors with the tools they need in order to book directly from their audition tapes. We believe that this includes offering full-body training, encouraging actors to take bold leaps within a safe environment, leading by example, and providing cutting-edge tools and resources, all while pursuing our own independent acting careers so that we may consistently provide insights into the current industry standards.
OUR CORE VALUES AT BOOK FROM TAPE
Whether we are in a taping session, classroom space, workshop, or day-to-day at the studio, we want to uphold an environment at Book From Tape Acting Studios which supports the core values of:
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INCLUSIVITY
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EXPLORATION
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EXCELLENCE
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REFLECTION
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EMPOWERMENT
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COURAGE
It is essential to our organization that our staff and coaches lead by example as working professionals and to live these values in our day-to-day lives at the studio.
INCLUSIVITY
We want to engage with students exactly where they are. We want to honor and value each student's lived experience and how that applies, reflects, and affects the work. This means that we take the time to choose to get to know our students, and honor their unique demographics in order to better serve their needs as an actor. We aim to build a curriculum that encounters the full actor and honors their race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, cultural socio-economic status, and physical and mental ability. This also means we establish consent,and open communication in regards to assessing each student’s comfort level with material, while continuing to push students’ comfort zones in harmony with their personal boundaries.
EXPLORATION
We at Book From Tape always approach the work by leading with a physical exploration of content. Rather than leading with a lecture, we lead with ‘doing.’ We approach each new tool with that exploration and curiosity in the hopes of testing limits and defining understanding through experience. It’s integral to an actor’s mastery and understanding of material that we allow students to fully explore exercises and then reflect back and re-connect their experience to practical application. This also means that each instructor should plan and organize content that is directly connected to a necessary skill or tool that can be applied on set or on stage. Each task and exercise is grounded in this practical experiential world. We find answers on our feet, not in discussion.
EXCELLENCE
Regardless of the age or experience level of each student, we approach the work with the goal to work at the highest professionalism and excellence. We strive to uphold students to the standards expected of them on set or on stage and seek to challenge them to rise to the occasion. Our students are our fellow collaborators and explorers, rather than our subordinates. We aim to create a space where we can hold students fully accountable to performing at high standards. We seek to invite students to level up their acting skill set and career through honest constructive feedback and genuine positive reinforcement. We are here to help actors jump tiers to the highest level of the industry -- and seek to create an atmosphere of performance that is competitive and geared for career professionals, not hobbyists.
REFLECTION
We aim for our work to be of service to our greater Central Florida acting community and beyond. That means that we seek to continue to fill the needs and gaps that may be posed to us in our region and hope to continually adjust our curriculum to meet and reflect those unique needs. We also continue to grow and further develop our programming by self-assessing our coursework, providing opportunities for parent and student feedback, and company-wide reflection on how each offering is working and/or could be improved. We also encourage each staff member to continue being a reflective teaching artist in order to further develop their strategy and skill as an instructor. We encourage our instructors to bring with them a willingness and flexibility to adjust the plan and to go off the path in order to better respond to the needs ‘in the room’ and to honor what the collective group is hungry for at the moment. We extend this invitation into studio spaces as we encourage students to reflect daily on the session at hand, in hopes that they continue this process as a reflective artist and learn to take the time to assess and reassess what works for them in each step of their careers and acting processes.
EMPOWERMENT
Our goal here is never to be the guru, responsible for holding all the answers. Rather, we wish to allow students to unlock their own intuitive instincts and impulses. As instructors, we lead with the goal of helping students to learn to trust themselves and follow their gut. It means we encourage dialogue during feedback. And we hope that even when offering advice on the craft or career that, at the end of the day, we empower actors to make the choice that is best for them.
COURAGE
We believe that risking big leads to big rewards. That means if you have an idea, we want to encourage that idea to be explored. We want to cultivate a dynamic that allows students to speak up, speak out, and offer countering opinions. We want to honor and foster risk taking. And we seek to model that in our willingness to try new things, adjust to new obstacles, and try new approaches. It also means that we expect honesty. We lead by example and teach our actors that bravery is necessary in order to speak up about challenges, call out unconscious harms, or improve processes that aren't working.