Sam’s approach

My teaching style is grounded. I don’t focus on “accessing the truth,” because I don’t believe actors need to pull from personal trauma or past experiences to be believable.

Instead, I work with students to develop awareness of their own emotional attunement, to understand who they are as a person, how they respond, and how they operate in the moment as a human being.

As well as my own approach and technique, I also draw from other techniques, Meisner, Laban, Chekhov, Stanislavski and Uta Hagen so that students can build a versatile toolkit.

But technique alone isn’t enough; it’s how you use it, with self-awareness and presence, that creates depth in a performance and that’s where I come in.

My goal is to help actors bring themselves fully to a role, grounded in their own choices, without needing to use substitution or trigger real-life experiences.

That has the danger of becoming over indulgent.

I emphasise connection and responsiveness: investing in your scene partner, responding to what you see and hear, and building an exchange that feels alive and layered. I focus on strengths first, guiding students to trust their instincts and explore their own emotional intelligence, rather than forcing choices that don’t come naturally.

In essence, I teach actors to understand themselves and bring that awareness into every scene, digging deep to find their own facets.