I used to facilitate a drop in for actors once a week, I have as of March 27, 2007 turned it over to Drew Taylor and Diana Squires.  It has been running successfully since September 2003.  My mantra for the space was "it's not a class, it's a drop in".  My mandate for the space was to give actors a place where they can come and explore their talents and network with other actors in our local community and play together in a non class environment.  The drop in has become a sacred space for many local actors who attend regularly.  It has become a space to experiment and try different things with different actors in a safe container.

Actors are encouraged to bring scenes to try that is against their type, or bring a monologue or write a scene for themselves or someone else.  The latter has become so successful that there is a vat full of original material from drop in actors that get read on a regular basis.  My intention for the space was to create a forum for actors to meet other actors and industry professionals and work together to create projects outside the drop in.  This too has been very successful, in that several short films and to date one feature film has been made with primarily drop in actors, and all this came out of being seen performing at the drop in space.

There is also a director's night once a month, where local up and coming independent film directors can bring in a scene and work with our actors to hone their directing skills.  There have even been some specialty workshops with high profile directors also working with our actors.  Some of the directors we have worked with include Larry Kent, Carl Bessai and Nathaniel Geary.

Overall my vision for the drop in space was that it be a meeting place for actors and industry professionals to get to know each other and work together in a supportive community, and I have accomplished that.  There is also a drop in website, which evolved out of the weekly updates that I send out to my entire list of active drop in actors.  The website contains all the local information about events and resources pertinent to our drop in group and to the acting community at large.  You can go to http://dropin.henryjmah.com to view it.  I used to update it on a weekly basis, but not so much anymore. To find out more about the drop in space (where and when) you can e-mail Josh Clark at actorsdropin@gmail.com for more information.