What are the opinions of the John Robert Powers schools in California?

Answer 1

Opinions and Comments from contributors associated with JRP CALIFORNIA BRANCHES:

• One out of every 1000 child actors actually makes it in Hollywood- even for small roles, so the negative feedback you read may be a mix of the bad practices of the school mixed with the disappointment of reality- not all pupils make it!

• ACTUALLY, JRP is a HUGE scam. I am a casting director in L.A. CA and have cast over 1500 projects. And i am continuously shocked at the amount of people, especially children, that move to Hollywood and have been taken advantage of by this ruthless company. NOBODY needs to spend thousands of dollars for acting classes. And the whole reason that you get these "auditions" is that they actually PAY casting directors thousands of dollars to "fake audition" you. It is the biggest scam in the biz.
• I am also a casting director in L.A. and have spoken at many JRP events in the past, know multiple JRP employees and am very familiar with their company, it's classes and it's business practices. And I have to say, I am embarrassed that I was ever associated with JRP
• And, don't take my word for it, do the research yourself, there is Horror story after horror story

• metroactive.com/papers/metro/12.09.99/powers-9949.html
• www.easybackgroundcheck.com/jrpowers/johnrobertpowers.html
• www.ripoffreport.com/reports/0/211/ripoff0211227.htm

• My Story: We were told by JRP that we had to invest $5990 to get our 4 year old daughter into the industry. We were told she would take classes for 2 years at 10 weeks per class getting her prepared. Our daughter has been in the same class for 26 weeks now and her teacher told us she is a babysitting service because JRP expects her to teach an impossible variety of age ranges.

  We were also led to believe our daughter was one of the few selected to attend I.M.T.A., but under duress, we had to leave a $1000.00 deposit. She attended the first class and was told the teacher was a runway instructor and didn't know how to teach young talent. The second class we made another payment of $1100.00 and we were then given a monologue copied out of a book to teach our little girl. We were told that the money would be refunded if we were not getting the services promised. I sent a certified letter notifying JRP that we were not getting any service whatsoever and would not be attending the I.M.T.A. in January.

  A week later, Janet Khargie emails me and said Craig will not give us a refund, but would put the money in a future convention sometime in 2006. I emailed Janet stating that was unacceptable and will not use my money to go toward a future convention we knew nothing about.

  JRP will no longer respond to us. I have spoken to so many other parents who have been scammed the same way, but we don't know where to turn. I have filed a complaint with the Department of Professional Regulations but would like to seek legal council at this point.

  JRP is an absolute joke and their empty promises can send a person to the poor house on completely false dreams. After speaking with several other agents out there, JRP certainly does not have a good reputation and agents will actually hesitate before signing any of their kids.