DRAM 2020

Michael Miranda is a great acting teacher. He has a lot of experience. HE WORKED WITH JOHNNY DEPP! Seriously, this is a great class if you are interested in beginning acting training. This is not an easy A. You can get an A if you work hard at it.

I don't recommend you take this course with Michael Miranda. He refuses to provide direction for students as to possible ways to approach a scene, and is a very strict teacher which you can probably tell by the sub-3.0 GPA for an acting class. I took it to help with my public speaking skills and to have a chill, fun class where I could step out of my comfort zone, but this class was the opposite of fun. Everyone I talked to hated it, and it felt like no matter how much effort you put into the class, you'd get the same grade. This class was one of my lowest grades ever at UVA, and the semester I took it, I put more work into this class than all my other classes combined.

Michael is probably the harshest grader among the MFA students that taught the course this semester, at least that's what I've heard around the theater. If you're looking for the easy elective I can't recommend Michael to be your first choice. That being said, if you put in the work and really understand his teaching when he talks about objectives and intentions you shouldn't get below a B in the course. Michael takes a very long time to grade things because he is so busy all of the time with his own productions that he is in, but if you go up to him he can give you an idea of what your score was on a performance. He is probably one of the hardest working MFA students and he really really knows his acting. If you're doing this class to become a better actor and not for the grade then I can definitely recommend him because he takes acting very seriously and really wants to help you when you need it. If you do take his class you need to meet with him at least one to two times before every scene that you do because he will give you feedback that will be critical to do well on the scenes. If you follow his advice you should honestly do fine, but he does take everything very seriously.