About John Sudol                                          

About the Emotion Training Center                  

​Studio Philosophy     

Although I’ve been teaching acting for over 30 years, there’s much more to my story. During that time, I’ve worked successfully as an actor as well as a director. I was the Artistic Director of the 65th Street Theater, Co-Founder of Performing Actor’s Studio. 

During my Seattle days, in addition to running a theater while teaching, I also had a casting company with Fern Orenstein (now VP of Casting for CBS).  We cast numerous commercials, theatrical,  V/O and print while co-leading several talent searches in the Northwest for ABC. 

When I returned to LA, I continued casting, acting and teaching. In lieu of opening my own casting company, I opted to worked as a session director for some of the busiest casting directors in town, such as Lisa Fields, Danielle Eskinazi, Ava Shevitt, Sheila Manning, Laray Mayfield to name a few.  It was the years I spent in casting that inspired my work in The Language of the Face.  It was then that I realized the hardest thing for the majority of actors to do was to come up with a real, recognizable reaction on demand.   

For over the past 14 years, I’ve dedicated my life to studying and understanding the science we now have on emotions and how it applies to artistic expression. I’ve done this by studying the work of  leading researchers in the field of emotions. This study, I believe, has given me great insight to not only how we express emotion, but the various reasons as to why some people may fail to to do so. 

Developing the Language of the Face and the classes that go along with it has been my quest and passion.  I have also kept busy, publishing several articles in trade papers as well as my blog on various topics including The Language of the Face, as well as the craft of acting, and self-esteem for actors...  

What I pride myself most for in my teaching process is that I give my students more than just tips and tricks, but the very real, applicable tools they need to increase their level of skill. This gives them the confidence to achieve their goals, which translates into having a successful acting career. 

The Center for the Language of the Face is the only studio of its kind.  Understanding how we create and reveal emotion has become my quest for the past 10 years; teaching what I have learned to others, my passion. There is no other acting studio where you can study the experience of an emotion and discover what they look and feel like on your  face and in your body as you can at my center.  

The Language of the Face, emotional expressiveness for actors is  the foundation to all I teach. Whether it’s the Total Commercial Program, Theatrical Audition Class or getting a headshot that works for you, we are always incorporating some degree of emotional reveal.  That emotional reveal is what’s read on your face and interpreted by others.  

At the Center, you learn a step by step process to how we not only create emotions on various levels, but how to manage, blend and mask them.  The tools you will receive at the Center will give you the skills that you need to interpret  anything that comes at you and turn it into a real, recognizable emotional state or reaction on demand.  

“If you understand what is being asked of you, you can create it.”

My philosophy has always been to take in thewhole actor in order to -

Educate, Inspire and Empower...

My holistic approach is not just for actors, but anyone who has a passion to go beyond what they think is possible. Each one of those 3 words has a specific meaning for me:

To Educate: To me this is not about just sharing information, but keeping the information current and as applicable as possible. Theory is fun at dinner parties but doesn’t help us in the real world of acting. My many meetings with Casting Directors and Agents ensure the work at the studio is the most current.

To Inspire: To inspire someone I must be aware of that individual's beliefs about what they are capable of accomplishing. Together we work on expanding the ones that are limiting and dispel the ones that do not serve.  When this is accomplished a new world with new possibilities opens up.  Each actor is unique. They hear and take in information differently. So, to inspire someone to be better than what they thought they can be, I must understand each actor on an individual level.   


To Empower: To me empowering is about raising an actor’s level of skill.  An actor’s level of skill has two sides to it. The first is understanding how to break down and interpret material in such a way as to make whatever is asked of them work. This is about making choices. The other side is executing the choices you make. The more the actor is able to fuse these two sides together, the greater the level of skill.  Skill promotes confidence. Confidence and trust in yourself and your ability is empowering.