So you want to be a successful actress, or a successful actor? Good! I love that. Start by training, because training matters – truly, it does. You must study the craft.  However, there is another key, a very powerful key that literally unlocks the door to the kingdom of your dreams – literally! Allow me to explain what that key is.

About seventy years ago, American Theatre was transformed by a few artists (the Group Theatre) who had gotten wind of a man named Stanislavski. The innovative and bold Konstantin Stanislavski was using psychological tools – sense memory exercises – to authenticate real emotional life in the Russian Theatre. He was the first man of the theatre to venture into the world of Freud, and the world of cinema, television and theatre would be forever changed.

So, what is that “key” now…in today’s culture of artists? It’s this:  Every trained actor must realize that he/she is already amazing, magical, and the gift you have been searching for, probably for years, is literally within you right now. That’s right, within you right now! Where I have ventured is the same place the men I have admired – Konstantin Stanislavski, Joseph Campbell, Carl Jung, Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, Ramana Maharshi and many others, have gone. That place: within.

Brandi Nicole Wilson, James Wirt, Katie Webber and John Dapolito at In Rehearsal with the Cast of LET’S KILL GRANDMA THIS CHRISTMAS 11/19/2012. Photo Credit: Kevin Thomas Garcia, broadwayworld.com

My discovery is as simple as E=MC2, and as profound in its application. The key, it seems, has been right under our noses – or as I like to say – feet.

Let me explain. I’m sure you’ve seen the Wizard of Oz; it’s an incredible film, filled with symbolism. In it Dorothy wears the legendary Ruby Red slippers (Red Shoes) and unbeknownst to her she has everything she needs for her soul’s singular desire “to return home”. There it is right at her feet, yet she runs off looking for answers outside of herself. Does that remind you of anyone? It should! If you’re like me and Dorothy you’ve set off on the yellow brick road in search of answers outside of yourself. In essence, you’ve gone looking for “The Wizard of Oz”, perhaps many times, when all along you’ve had the answer with you. In our case the “Red Shoes” = your psyche-gold. What I call the “Acting-Niche”.

So, what if someone with 30 years of experience, 15 years of discovery, 12 years of data, and a proven track record told you: I know exactly how to get you to where you want to go, all we have to do is go within? What if that person said he discovered a simple non-intrusive methodology to illicit your success and career defining “Acting-Niche”? What if that person said he could help you realize the most profound piece of information of your entire lifetime – your life’s meditation? What if that person told you that the most celebrated actors in Hollywood –  Meryl Streep, Sean Penn, Matt Damon, Jodi Foster, Susan Sarandon, Julia Roberts, Amy Adams, Hilary Swank, Will Ferrell, Al Pacino, Sydney Poitier, Antonio Banderas, Madonna, Morgan Freeman, Paul Newman, Kevin Spacey, Tom Cruise, Kate Winslet and many others – are simply on their “Acting-Niche”? Well my friends, I am going to let you in on a little secret. It’s true.

The great, prolific, Joseph Campbell once said, “You are a living mediation”, and “Follow your bliss”. Now for anyone wondering, who am I and why am I here, Joseph has pointed the way to some degree. But you can’t help but wonder, what is my living mediation and how do I know my bliss? This is where I come in. I have capitalized on Joseph Campbell’s statements and developed a psychological profiling system that literally reveals this “living mediation”, this “bliss”. I call that bliss, “The Acting-Niche”, and it works 100% of the time!

I have spent the last 12 years working with hundreds of actors privately and in the classroom, with spellbinding results. These are professional working actors who have a rare piece of knowledge, a piece of knowledge even the great Joseph Campbell couldn’t offer. These actors know their living meditation which turns out to be their bliss, which in turn is their “Acting-Niche”.

Let me share this with you, as I have been sharing it for over 12 years. I believe you will find it both illuminating and a bit startling. I want you to imagine a young Philip Seymour Hoffman coming to me to discover his “Acting-Niche”. He’s been to a seminar and wants to schedule a private session with me. The session would start with series of easy none-invasive questions (this is not therapy). Then the conversation would progress over four to five hours until the acting-niche was revealed. Through the system of questions and guided conversation, I would be able to determine that Philip Seymour Hoffman’s charismatic “Acting-Niche” is Sexual Perversity & Addiction.

Let’s take a look at his amazing career.

• Happiness
• Boogie Nights
• Doubt
• Shopping & Fucking
• Flawless
• Capote
• Love Liza
• Punch-Drunk Love
• Magnolia
• 25th Hour 
• Cold Mountain
• Almost Famous
• Long Day’s Journey into Night
• Owning Mahowny
• Before the Devil Knows Your Dead

It’s sad that we lost such a great actor as Phil to addiction, but he left us with great insights. As you can see the power of this “Acting-Niche” profile is that the guessing game is officially over. The profiled actor is now able to articulate exactly who he/she is, and what he/she does. The profiled actor is able to choose charismatic material that perfectly suits him or her and is outstanding. Friends, this is an extraordinarily rare experience; very few people in the history of mankind have been able to know what their life and work is all about. To have a piece of information like this throughout ones career and lifetime is a jewel infinitely beyond comparison.

Come and see me, you already carry the gift (Red Shoes) with you. You are HOME.

– John Dapolito