Testimonials
I worked with David Ross when I applied to grad schools. From picking out monologues to performing them, he helped me every step of the way. David's ability as a coach is stupendous. He takes who you are and brightens it, focuses it, and makes you the best you you can be, instead of an actor robot. I was accepted into every school I applied to after working with David, including Yale and NYU. He also made me sing songs at random around my house to prepare for callbacks. He's the best!
Specificity, clarity, depth and truth. These are the "Keys." Call David Ross, "The Locksmith."
What makes David so wonderful as a coach is he gets to know you individually as a performer and subsequently works on the entirety of your process, not just the material in front of you. Once he has got a good sense of what you specifically need as an actor he caters his sessions to make sure you come into your fullest potential. I left every session with David feeling like I had learnt so much and grew in confidence throughout our time working together. He creates a safe haven for you to explore creatively, and guides you sensitively to make brave choices and become more confident in yourself. David is not only practical but incredibly intuitive, and the work became not only fun but incredibly exciting.
David's commitment to truth and play is what makes him a rockstar coach. He finds fun and interesting ways to bring you forward in the work so that what shines in the material is you.
David supplied me with the motivation to push myself and trust myself that propelled me to acceptance at the Yale School of Drama. Try and leave a coaching session with David without a smile on your face. Cannot be done. He gives you the space to create and discover, while also sharpening focus to find the "you" in the role and every time I've worked with David, I have left with a confident stride, a greater understanding of the material and of myself as an artist and of course, that smile on my face, a David Ross guarantee.
David Ross inspires confidence. Whenever I work with David, I always feel like I'm going into the room not to "audition" but to take on the part itself. Every time I've worked with him he's made me feel prepared and confident enough to stay spontaneous in the room, and bring out what it is that I do best as a performer. He makes me feel like an artist and not just a number on a call sheet. Auditioning has become fun again.
"I just from the bottom of my heart want to thank you. I literally could not have done it without you and the guidance and wisdom you gave. You kept me sane during this process and taught me to value not just my art, but all the little things about me that make my art important. Your guidance has meant so much to me in this journey. I have to say I’ve literally never had a teacher truly see me as both an actor and a person. The fact that you did, and the fact that you pushed me further into seeing myself was life changing. I have changed so much in the time you’ve coached me. I honor you as one of my true teachers and it feels literally perfect that I’m going to be an alum of the same program as you. I’m so grateful for you and so grateful to be where I am today!!"
David is a fantastic acting coach! I've worked with him on numerous occasions, and David has a wonderful ability of bringing out your natural essence as a performer while pushing you to new and exciting acting choices. He's also very skilled at script analysis, and understanding the style of the piece and project.
I will be eternally grateful for my time coaching with David. Working with him, I truly felt I’d broken through in ways I didn't realize were in me. More than that, he helped me rediscover the curiosity and fun in this work. I cannot express how supported I felt by his constant grounding presence and advice. He was one of the first people I told about my acceptance, and I can honestly say that I would not have been accepted to my dream school—NYU Grad Acting—without him. Of course, David didn’t do the work for me, but he allowed me to fully trust that I alone am enough.
I live in Boston and for me to work with David I had to make biweekly trips to NYC for almost 6 months. I say this because working with David was worth it. By the time I had finished my coaching with David I had made it to end of day at every school I auditioned for and got an acceptance offer from Columbia University. As cliché as it may sound, working with David in my case was like working on myself. David has the ability to find what is holding YOU back and working from there. For me it was my lack of confidence and my fear of not being what these schools wanted as an actor. By the time I finished my sessions with David in January, I had 5 pieces that I loved and enjoyed performing. And that gave me more confidence than I needed when entering the audition rooms. If you want to have a successful audition season and grow as an artist I highly recommend David. I can’t speak enough about him.
David brings an amazing eye for precision and humor to his coaching. He always knows how to make something funnier, or more truthful. I go to David for help with auditions or monologues when I feel stuck, or when I think there might be an extra layer to be found in a moment--I always trust him to know what that moment is and how to make it better. He's incredibly encouraging and pushes me always to do my best work.
I can’t express enough how blessed I am to have David as my coach. He took the time to get to know me as a person then he dived into my artistic goals and aspirations. David creates an atmosphere of safety for you to explore, play, fail, and take ownership of your work while empowering you to stay truthful at all costs. The confidence, knowledge, and guidance I received from David are unmatched. Now I’m an NYU Grad Acting Student, I’m forever grateful!
I think I grew immensely during my time working with David because he is a true master of the craft and I walked away from just about every session with a new understanding of some facet of acting.
When working on graduate drama school audition pieces, David creates a working environment that fosters playful and truthful exploration of each piece that allows the monologues to truly come from the actor themself. Because of this, I felt more in myself, truthful, and confident than ever while auditioning, and ended up getting into Yale and NYU! He helps immensely with monologue selection, essay brainstorming/editing, and by conducting mock auditions/interviews the weeks before your audition day. He was an invaluable resource throughout the whole process, all the way through to final callback weekends and admissions decisions. He is also an incredible coach for self-tapes- his ability to direct and shape a scene is unparalleled, and he has always been able to squeeze me in for a quick turnaround due date. David, You're the best! Thank you a million for everything! I wouldn't be here without you!
"David, I wanted to let you know how much I appreciated all your help this audition season. Don’t know how I would have fared without your guidance. You restored a lot of my joy in acting. To the extent that my nerves would let me, I actually looked forward to performing my monologues for those fools! I feel proud to be attending your alma mater in the fall, and certain that whether or not the raw material was in me all along, I would not have received that offer if you hadn’t draw it out of me."
I started working with David as soon as I got a callback from Columbia University’s MFA program. In our first session David knew exactly what to say to me that shifted my entire mindset. David didn’t just help me find new ways to tackle my monologues, he helped me approach my audition in a way that gave me control of the room and ultimately got me an offer from Columbia. During a year where the university was accepting a very limited amount of students and my chances were very slim, David helped me secure one of those spots. This wouldn’t have happened without him.
"Dear David,
Let me start by prefacing that this will be a lengthy, sappy, handwritten letter hoping to sound eloquent and poetic. Everyone uses the words “Thank you” at the end of something, but that two word phrase doesn’t equate to the volume of gratitude I feel for your guidance throughout this whole process. In retrospect, six months doesn’t seem like a long time, but to me, along with all my moments of self doubt and self discovery you’ve witnessed, I feel like I’ve grown so much. It was messy and wonderful! As someone on the receiving end of your work, I see a teacher who not only cares about acting, but also about the depths of his students. You see who I am now and the potential of who I can become. I am a better actor, better artist and better person because of you. I Am. Just. Better. I hope you take in the implications of what I’m trying to convey because I’m sure I’m not the only one who feels this way. That is the beauty of your teaching. If by Lady Luck you became a huge star tomorrow and got big, I’d be so unbelievably happy for you. I’d say ‘thats my ****ing coach! David ****ing Ross! He trained me y’all!’ Unfortunately though, the selfish part of me would think ‘But wait, what about me? Don’t leave!’ Of course, I’d never say that directly to you out of fear that you might actually stay. Do. Not. Stay. All that being said, I am excited for the future. I am excited to be your student. Whether or not I get into grad school, I got an amazing teacher out of this. I could’ve written this in an email, but this way felt more “me.” I guess you have yourself to blame for that. Thank you, David."
Working with David is always a joy. He has a gift for sussing out the truth of every moment, and I always walk out of sessions with new clarity and insight about the material and about how to bring myself to whatever it is we’re working on. He empowers you to take ownership over every audition.
Ever since meeting David and gaining his guidance and wisdom in this industry, I have literally made nothing but tremendous progress. I went from going into an audition room scared out of my mind to realizing that I am a gift (which was really difficult for me to grasp as an artist). Maybe I’d never taken a step prior towards that change or I might have lost that confidence in myself along the way. With David's help it was absolutely possible to make it happen. While putting in the work with DR, I was able to get cast in a guest star role for my first television gig, first Off-Broadway contract, and more call-backs from auditions than I'd ever had. But most importantly, I genuinely feel I have grown as an artist. And that's the biggest takeaway for David as well. He sincerely cares about those he walks this journey with. He thrives off of hearing about the successes and growths of all those whom he was able to share his time with. My sessions with David were always about becoming the truest form of me, and in all of my work as an actor.
|
