VADA Studios (Vancouver Academy of Dramatic Arts) is celebrating twenty-four years in business as one of Canada’s premiere acting schools for Film and Television.
We recently had a conversation with its founder, Simon Longmore about his journey and experience.
HNMAG: Where did you grow up?
Simon Longmore: North Van.
HNMAG: Were your parents from the States?
Simon Longmore: No, England. I was actually born in England and we moved here when I was young.
HNMAG: When did you get interested in acting?
Simon Longmore: When I was eight years old, I really wanted to try acting but my school wasn’t offering it and there was nothing in my area for that. It wasn’t until I got into high school until I was finally able to study drama. I really thrived and finished all the courses my high school offered by grade ten. After high school, I went to a professional theatre school. I was enrolled at the FTS (Film and Theatre School), a conservatory with Anthony Holland after he left Studio 58. He studied at the Bristol Old Vic theatre school, that Lawrence Olivier founded.
HNMAG: Did you start working as an actor right after that?
Simon Longmore: No, the opposite happened. It was nineteen-ninety. There were only two television shows being shot here, Wise Guy and 21 Jump Street.
HNMAG: And Beachcombers
Simon Longmore: Yeah, Beachcombers. I never really counted that.
HNMAG: I guess the Canadian one doesn’t count.
Simon Longmore: The most that anyone could really hope for was to become an extra because at that time. Productions were flying up actors to do one line. We really didn’t have an indigenous industry to serve their needs. I couldn’t find an agent. I was burdened with a lot of student loan debt, so I actually got a trade. I became a Millwright. I worked in a mine for five years as I apprenticed. When I got my ticket, I had paid off my debt. Then I moved back to the city, took acting classes again and did plays at night while working during the day. I also would act in short films and do live theater. By that time the industry had changed. There were a lot more shows that came up from LA. This was around 1995-96.
HNMAG: Did you get an agent then?
Simon Longmore: Sort of. I met with an eccentric character by the name of Freddy Dollarary. There were so many red flags that went off but you are so desperate as an actor, so hungry, so keen to do whatever it took, that you look past it. He had a company called Success Talent Management. His business plan was for actors to pay for an ad with their headshot photo in Reel West Digest that listed his name and phone number underneath. He just hoped that someone would see that and request you for an audition. He didn’t have any connections with agents or the ability to submit to roles from the breakdown. The breakdown is how agents post available roles and registered talent agents can submit their clients that match those parts. With the explosion of the industry, there was also an explosion of talent agents. My first real agent was Lissa Lloyd from Lloyd Talent. I got real auditions and I booked my 1st pro gig. I played a Mexican in a beer commercial. Then things took off. All those years of doing plays, short films and classes, paid off because when I got the opportunity, I was ready. I had enough experience to know what to do. That gave me the skills I needed to mature as a performer and book right away when I finally found Lissa.
HNMAG: When you started to book roles, is that when you began teaching?
Simon Longmore: I was with another studio. I started taking on-camera classes and then they asked me to start teaching. My first classes were new student introductions. I did that for years.
HNMAG: When that school closed, is that when you started VADA?
Simon Longmore: Yeah, in August of 1999, I opened VADA. Now it’s our twenty-forth anniversary. Our first studio was at 319 W. Pender next door to the Pender Auditorium which caught fire. We had to move due to the smoke damage. For the next few years, we were in Hamilton and then in Gastown at 21 Water Street for a few years.
HNMAG: How did you start the business?
Simon Longmore: I started it with a cell phone in my car. My first class had five students in it and I would rent a room in other studios such as the William Davis Centre. It slowly started to grow.
HNMAG: When did you start to hire other instructors?
Simon Longmore: That would have been around 2000. Marc Bauer had the studio at 319 W. Pender and I took over the lease of that studio. At that time I brought on extra instructors come on to work with me. We had a full-time program and six part-time classes in the evenings.
HNMAG: VADA Studios is currently at 900 Helmcken (corner Hornby). When did you move there?
Simon Longmore: It’s been over ten or eleven years now?
HNMAG: Are most of the students from Vancouver?
Simon Longmore: Especially for our full-time program, we have students from all over the world. It’s very, very common to have international students coming to Vancouver just to study at VADA.
HNMAG: How many students are in the full-time program and how many are part-time?
Simon Longmore: We can have up to a hundred and twenty people a week in the part-time classes and then our full-time program we’ll get into the high thirties, so two classes of eighteen. We offered a six-month program for decades and now we have a one-year program.
HNMAG: Is there a quality that a student has that will lead to more success in becoming a professional actor?
Simon Longmore: You have to be passionate about it. For actors that have been performing consistently for over twenty years, you go through some great highs and lows but you still do it because of that passion. Passion is the most important attribute.
HNMAG: How are things now with less work available due to the SAG (Screen Actors Guild) and WGA (Writers Guild of America) strikes?
Simon Longmore: Summer is slower in general for acting classes. There will be an upswing with non-union work, especially with commercials. The last time we had a writers strike we saw a surge in Reality TV. That may happen again.
HNMAG: What will the next twenty-four years look like for VADA?
Simon Longmore: The next step is opening a studio in Los Angeles. That’s what I’ll be working on for the next year. We’ll find a space and open the doors. I feel it will be easier than when I just started in my car with a call phone. I have all that experience and a solid reputation with genuine celebrity graduates. We learned all about other aspects of the business such as marketing, sales, administration that I didn’t start with. There probably aren’t any other acting schools in Canada that have a sister school in LA.
HNMAG: For someone who is looking into acting schools, why should they consider VADA?
Simon Longmore: We have an industry-driven curriculum. It’s not about being a tree or feeling the colour orange. That kind of old classical Stanislavsky technique is trimmed down. You don’t have to be a tree for six months but you do have to be still. You need to stand still, be on your mark, look the other actor in the eye and connect. You have to act emotionally, real and say the lines. We teach what is a necessity for today’s industry. It’s taught by professional actors who work on set, have agents and are actively pursuing their careers as well. Those people are the ones who are teaching the next generation. It’s not like old style theatre schools that have these hacks that can’t even get an agent. One part of our programming that sets us apart is the LA Field trip. We do a trip to Hollywood where you meet industry professionals, no other school offers that.
HNMAG: What happens on the Hollywood trip?
Simon Longmore: It’s four days of workshops with professionals that work in the industry. Producers, directors, writers, TV stars like Debra Wilson from MAD TV, Judy Norton, Crystal Lowe…etc. They also meet a local casting director and an immigration lawyer. The first six months of the program is about building your pro-package. That’s your resume, your demo reel, your cover letter, your headshot, and all the training that’s needed to get up to that point. This is about getting started and getting an agent. The second half of the year is about refinement. We make a movie. You get an IMDB (Internet Movie Data Base) credit. They are encouraged to audition, do student films and short films. They inevitably do bookwork. They are encouraged to get agents. We do a digital show case to send out their pro-package to agencies. This is a great way to get your packages out to industry. and people get picked up! We remove as many obstacles as possible for the actors. We want you to get started and start auditioning. We have an eighty-three percent agency placement.
HNMAG: That is the kind of experience you won’t find at other acting schools.
Simon Longmore: There is no school in Canada that takes you to Hollywood to meet industry professionals.
Vancouver Academy of Dramatic Arts Studio is a unique and valuable training institution for actors that want to work in Film and Television. It’s all about hands-on experience and realistic and incremental goals that leads to success in one of the most competitive fields in the world. Simon Longmore is a Multi Award-winning filmmaker, writer, actor. As well as an instructor with over seventy-five professional credits. If you think that being an actor might be a nice job, maybe VADA is not for you. If you have a burning desire to perform on camera and you are driven by that desire to make every role the very best it can be, then you should check them out.