Livingston children looking to get into acting have plenty of nearby options, such as classes at the Paper Mill Playhouse and even in New York City, just a bus ride away.
Now, there's another one to add to the list.
Emily Bauer's Acting With Emily, a vibrant, professional-grade film and television training studio in nearby Maplewood.
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If Bauer's voice is familiar to you, that's because you hear her daily as an MTV announcer and veteran of over 100 national TV commercials and countless stage productions. If you (or your kids) watch the Cartoon Network, The WB, ABC, Disney, or PBS, you cannot help but hear her voice.
Bauer has been honored with the Publisher's Weekly Award for "Best Audiobook" for her work on Life as We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer. In 2008, she won another award from Audiophile Magazine, and in 2009, Emily received the ALA's Notable Recording award for her narration of The Possibilities of Sainthood, a collaboration with Timothy Ditlow, who is responsible for the Harry Potter audiobooks.
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Pretty impressive, huh? But there's nothing to it for this mother of two and cum laude graduate of New York University where she majored in theatre and business.
A New Jersey native, and still-active performer, Bauer now pours all of her experience into the art of teaching children—and their anxious parents—about how to get the kids into show business.
Bauer herself is hardwired to perform: At age 8, she had her first professional show at the Paper Mill Playhouse—where she still teaches. But Bauer has always been close to the Maplewood community regardless of her touring demands. Frustrated with the lack of professional-level film and television acting classes available locally, Acting With Emily was born.
"I started to look around our area, and saw that there was an abundance of musical theatre-type schools. There was so much 'razzle dazzle'—a lot of acting factories, so many places offering 75 classes a day, but not a lot of substance. What if your twelve year old boy doesn't want to be a musical theatre performer? Why should he be pressured into taking a tap dancing class? I wanted to give students and parents a place where they could come for great training and offer it at a great price," she said.
Her students have appeared on Nickelodeon and Comedy Central, as well as in national commercials. But, most importantly, Bauer's students "have fun, develop self-confidence, and learn to respect themselves and their fellow students in a safe, creative environment."
Emily has recruited four other accomplished instructors to teach a total of 25 classes per week. This fall, curriculum includes Improvisation, Acting for the Camera, Stage to Screen, On Camera Scene Study, Voice Over Technique and Acting for Commercials.
Her signature course is "Breaking Into Show Business," a 10-hour weekend intensive that covers training, making connections and the all-important parent info session. Bauer is very committed to parent education; the folks are regularly included in sessions with invited agents and managers. "I'm big into parent education," she explained. "I want to answer lots of questions and give people the real view of what's out there."
Bauer did her time in New York, and is still an active film and TV performer. Still, she reports, running Acting with Emily "is the only dream job I ever had."
