About John
John Windsor-Cunningham trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, and with Sanford Meisner in New York, where he now lives, acts, and coaches actors. for Films, TV, Theatre and some drama school auditions. Also on Skype, and occasional classes in schools.
When coaching in person in NY, it is possible to video so you can watch some of your work. But Skype saves the time of travelling here, and the work is the same.
John has worked with every major theater company in the UK, and many in the USA.
Reviews Include
“The excellent John Windsor-Cunningham.”
Ben Brantley
New York Times
“The magnificent John Windsor-Cunningham.”
Louise Kennedy
Boston Globe
Terry Teachout
Wall Street Journal
Berkshire Times
“The best performance in the whole of New York for the whole of 2007.”
Backstage
“It would be difficult to get better casting than John at the Old Globe.”
San Diego Journal
New York and Skype acting coach John Windsor-Cunningham
Companies worked with
in the USA include
The Old Globe (CA)
Shakespeare & Co (MA)
Triadstage (NC)
Theatreworks (CO)
+ OFF-BROADWAY’s
AWARD WINNING –
Irish Repertory Theatre
Mint Theater Company
Peccadillo Company
The Keen Company
Companies worked with
in the UK include
The Royal Shakespeare Company –
with John Barton
Royal National Theatre –
Education Department
The Old Vic Theatre –
with Sir Anthony Quayle
Royal Exchange Manchester –
with Sir Tom Courtney
London’s West End –
with Sir Donald Sinden
The Greenwich Theatre –
with Harold Pinter
Haymarket Theatre Leicester –
with Gary Oldman
Accent teaching
John coaches British accents and clear speech.
There is NO charge for this, but he only gives this help to very experienced actors, other teachers, politicians, managers of charities, and ‘leaders’ in public life who have a serious need to improve their speech.
Lessons are given on Skype or in New York. Skype works well for this – perhaps because both sides are concentrated on the screens with no distractions!
Please include – with applications for this help – as many details as you are happy to briefly share, – using the Contact page, or an email direct to jwcactor@yahoo.com.
Thank you.
Audition coaching
Take charge of every audition and leave heads turning with a confident performance.
1
Shakespeare coaching.
Many Shakespeare acting lessons concentrate on the verse, but the verse only makes sense when the lines are understood.
Inexperienced actors will not enjoy lessons for Shakespeare acting without this understanding, and I do not know everything – ! – but I have had 50 years of experience and been in 3 or 4 productions of some of his plays, so my Shakespeare coaching is often just making suggestions.
2
Shakespeare auditions.
There are three videos on this website (and my YouTube channel) in which I give lessons for Shakespeare acting, and if you have already found a monologue which SUITS you, and already studied it, the next ‘acting lesson’ is to make sure you understand ALL of it.
Any lines in the middle of a monologue in which an actor sound bored will stand out! Shakespeare acting is complicated – Romeo is not only a lover – he also murdered Tybalt – and the ‘tragedy’ of Hamlet is also the tragedy of Ophelia.
3
Shakespeare lessons are about you.
There must be some experience in an actor’s real life which is SOMETHING like the lines being said, and the actor may have had had the same feeling of wanting to kill an insect as Macbeth or Lady Macbeth has when wanting to kill Duncan. Shakespeare coaching is the same as coaching for a modern play, it has to be fully understood.
Some people say that there is no ‘subtext’ behind Shakespeare, but I believe this is wrong, and it’s the reason for a thousand Shakespeare productions (and Shakespeare lessons) being boring. When Ophelia begs her father for advice she is already frightened that her life makes no sense, and when Macbeth reads the letter from his wife he is thinking about assassinating the king.
4
Coaching should never be rushed.
And sessions with me last just over an hour (so that we do not have to suddenly stop after 59 minutes). The cost – from April 2021 – is $55.
Acting lessons work well on Skype because we are both concentrated on our screens with no distractions. I work mainly with actors all over the USA and England.
