Meet Aidan Bristow | Actor & Acting Teacher

We had the good fortune of connecting with Aidan Bristow and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Aidan, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
Prior to opening my own studio (with my partner, Guy Nardulli) I had a lot of experience volunteer tutoring elementary school students. During that time I gained a new appreciation for how important it was to understand how different generations consume information. This directly affects how people learn in an academic setting. My tutoring experience became very useful as I went on to coach actors privately and in a class setting.

I’ve been lucky to study under people who directly learned from Stella Adler and Sandy Meisner. Although their methods were useful for me, it’s clear to me that a younger generation needs to learn the craft in a different manner. I was an adult before the existence of smartphones. Most of my academic life utilized pen, paper, and chalkboard. Gen Z and younger millennials have had a much different academic experience than I did. They’re more visual and consume Information more visually. It’s no one‘s fault, it’s just reality.

In my coaching I would experiment with different methods to try and find a more effective way to teach generations younger than myself. It was through this experimentation that I created the technique that became the catalyst for 1st Take Acting Studios.

What should our readers know about your business?
First take acting Studios uses a different methodology than any studio I’ve ever heard of or taken a class from. We believe that the idea of writing out your backstory or meditating on your backstory is as antiquated as sitting in a classroom and trying to learn from an instructor who solely uses chalk and a blackboard. of course this still happens in school systems every single day, but that doesn’t mean it’s effective. At our Studio we believe that GenZ and Millennials are more visual in how they experience the world around them. So we created a technique which allows artists to fully explore characters through a lived experience that helps them embody their characters. We focus on imagination solely. But we bring that imagination to life.

I personally like to type up my backstory, I love meditating on my characters before we meet them in the script. But most people in their late teens and 20s need a more tangible process to fully embody another human being. In our technique we identify key moments in a character’s past that has contributed to their value systems. Then we improvise scenes to make those moments come alive. We do multiple takes of each improvised scene until they become fully three-dimensional and have an emotional value. We find that this process allows actors to have a more visceral connection with the experiences that has shaped their characters identity.

For example, You no longer have to write out what arguments led to your character getting a divorce before the start of the play. In our class we will map out those arguments, assign roles with other actors in your class, and you will fully live out various arguments that led to your character getting divorced.

By living your backstory in this way, we have seen actors have deeper emotional connections with the dialogue in the scenes that they get assigned. If a pivotal moment is referenced in your script we explore that moment by talking about it, fleshing it out and then living it on the stage until it gestates into an authentic emotional value.

Our studio has been open and profitable for over a year now. We’re extremely proud of how many repeat students we have who got a taste of how we work and then realized that no other Studio is doing what we’re doing. There are a lot of smart, acting teachers in the Los Angeles area, but frankly, a lot of them teach because they love the sound of their own voice. What’s different about our brand is that we constantly challenge our students to come up with deeper and richer character choices, and then put them on the stage to actualize those choices. We don’t waste time sitting on our soapbox. We urge you to do the thinking, feeling, and living.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
I love going to the Geffen Theater. Me and my partner have season tickets. We have a ritual of eating at Violet LA down the street before going to see a play. The whole Westwood area is very urban but without the blatant wealth disparity and filth of downtown LA. We often take cooking classes at Violet LA too. It’s a great way to get your hands dirty, learn some new cooking skills, and eat some delicious food (that you’ve made) prior to a great show

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
David Giella for being my first acting coach and for instilling in me the confidence needed to survive and prosper in this carney lifestyle. More than just being a better actor, David has taught me how to be a better and more accountable human.

Website: https://1sttakeactingstudios.wixsite.com/first-take-acting-st

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/1sttakeactingstudios?igsh=OGQ5ZDc2ODk2ZA%3D%3D&utm_source=qr