NEWS: We'll soon publish a book about how to get into acting!

The book will be a step-by-step guide about how to get an agent, where to get experience, how to make a resume and demo reel, how to behave on set, how to interpret a call sheet . . . and lots more! Enter your email below to get notified when the book becomes available.

Enter your email below to get notified when this step-by-step guide to professional acting becomes available.

    What We Offer

    Virtual and in-person sessions for actors to work on scenes with partners. It’s a safe environment for actors to practice their craft.

    We’ve compiled have a database of scripts (from movies and TV shows) that are perfect not only for TAP sessions but auditions as well.

    Articles to answer questions and give tips related to improving your acting skills and becoming an actor professionally. 

    The TAP Store is back! Check out our masks, T-shirts, hoodies, tank tops, mugs, and other TAP and acting-themed merchandise.

    Listen to Ivan discussing essential ideas from classic acting books, chapter by chapter. He reads these books so you don’t have to.

    A Brief Intro From the Founder of TAP

    Ivan Wanis Ruiz

    I started The Actor’s Place (TAP) from a place of selfishness. After several years of taking acting classes I wasn’t getting the same benefits. I was auditioning and booking, but I needed a place where I could keep myself sharp. Spending hundreds of dollars in four-hour sessions where I sat and did nothing for most of the time just wasn’t worth it anymore. I needed a place where I could just act, where I could grab a scene, work on it, and perform for a few hours without too much sitting. That’s how TAP was born. A gym for actors. A place where we just act. It’s awesome. 

    Now that TAP has grown, we’ve added more. Now, we’re an all-purpose resource for actors.

    Don’t know where to get an affordable headshot? We can give advice. Need scripts to audition with? We have those too. Want to practice your acting without paying hundreds of dollars? Check out our meetups. Simply put, we’ve managed to create an all-around supportive environment for actors. Literally, The Actor’s Place. 

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      Frequently Asked Questions

      About our virtual acting gym

      We have both virtual sessions and in-person sessions. The virtual sessions are 2 hours long, have up to about 15 participants, and are done virtually through Zoom. The in-person sessions are 3 hours long, have up to about 19 participants, and take place in Toronto. The sessions vary but, generally, here is what a session might look like: 

      • WARM UP: We begin a bit of improv to warm up.
      • SCENE PRACTICE: We then get assigned partners and scenes, and we practice with our partners (separately from the rest of the group—when virtual this is done using Zoom breakout rooms).
      • PERFORMANCES: Everyone gets back together and we see each other’s performances. During a performance, we only see the two performers on screen (when virtual, the others have muted their mics and have turned off their videos but can still observe). After each performance, the facilitator makes comments (feedback and ideas for what to try differently next time). Other audience members may also give praise/feedback.
      • SCENE PRACTICE AGAIN: We practice those same scenes again with those same partners, keeping in mind the comments we received. 
      • PERFORMANCES AGAIN: We perform again and get feedback again. It’s interesting to see how different these performances are compared to the ones given not too long before. 

      The session facilitators may vary, but they are always professional actors. You can learn more about our facilitators on the Our Team page. One of the advantages of The Actor’s Place compared to other acting gyms is that, as we hear, our sessions are very well facilitated. 

      At TAP, we don’t necessarily teach acting—we practice it. Therefore, while experience is not required, it is highly recommended. That being said, in our meetups you can expect to find anyone from 40-year veteran actors to actors who have just started.

      If you have no acting experience, you are still welcome to join our community on Facebook. There, you can ask questions, and our friendly members can help give you advice to get started. 

      There are 3 payment options:

      • 1 session for $25
      • 5 sessions for $60 (soon to increase)
      • 10 sessions for $120 (soon to increase)

      You’ll be prompted to pay when you register – click here for the scheduling platform

      1. Register to one of our upcoming sessions using our scheduling tool (click here). 
      2. When you register, you’ll be prompted to pay for the session (see question above).
      3. When the session time comes, if it’s an in-person session then go to the address given in the event details; if it’s a virtual session, see the email you received after registering for the event and click the green button (“Join class here”) to be taken to the Zoom link for the session. Make sure you join on a desktop computer rather than on mobile (so that, if needed, you can view your script and scene partner at the same time). If it’s your first time using Zoom, you may be asked to install Zoom first. To get familiar with this step, check out this video (the part 0:57-2:15).

      Prepaid sessions. If you get a $60 TAP card, that means you’ve prepaid for 5 sessions. If you get a $120 TAP card, that means you’ve prepaid for 10 sessions. 

      Why is it called a card? Because, back when we did sessions in person, we had actual stamp cards to keep track of how many sessions people had used up already. Now that we’re also virtual, we don’t have actual cards, but we still call this concept of prepaying for TAP sessions by the same name: “getting a TAP card”. (Similar to how people still say “roll the window down” even though the mechanism in modern cars has changed from rolling to pressing a button.)

      About the podcast

      Various classic acting books. We discuss the books chapter by chapter and talk about the concepts in them with fellow actors. The podcast is meant to be a substitute for actually reading the books.

      You can listen to the podcast on The Lazy Actor website (http://thelazyactor.com/) using your podcast player of choice.

      Alternatively, you can watch the podcast on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCaLMaxMeeI8DIVzhHbkHpLg/videos

      About our community

      Although we are based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, we have members from all over the world, because we now also have many virtual sessions. At TAP, you can meet anyone from 40-year veteran actors to actors who are just starting out. We’re a friendly and supportive bunch. 

      In our Facebook group, we have over 1000 members. In our Meetup group, we have over 2500.

      We might not all be active all the time, but it’s easy to find help when we need it. For example, someone might make a post in our Facebook group asking if anyone’s available to read for a self-tape that day, and we can be pretty confident that someone will offer to help.

      Reach out to us on Facebook and Instagram!

      Other

      Yes, we occasionally run Voice Acting Place sessions with veteran voice actor Dan Willmott. Find out more about Dan Willmott and voice acting classes at https://www.voicespot.ca/

      You can use the Contact Us form, email us at theactorsplace416@gmail.com, or reach out to us on Facebook or Instagram