Testimonials

“Juliet’s way of working with actors has changed the way I approach acting. Her teaching encourages freedom, spontaneity, truthful behaviour and authentic performances. Juliet does the thing that challenges us all, she pushes you outside of your comfort zone. Although I’ve found it scary, that’s where I’ve learned the most. She gets you out of your head and in to your body. It’s less about any technical work and more about what happens for the performer organically. Her classes allow you to grow in a way where you learn to trust in yourself as a performer and trust that everything you need for a role is within you. If you want to improve as an actor, go to Juliets classes!”

“This is the first year we have brought Juliet to work with our aspiring young opera singers. Our 2020 Studio Artist cohort uniformly expressed how incredibly valuable Juliet’s contribution to their development was.

I witnessed first-hand a dramatic growth in the area of authentic connection in performance, as well as confidence and freedom of expression. Juliet has a fresh approach and a very acute sense of what each performer needs in the moment.

Her gift to encourage spontaneity and create a space for play helps the singers discover truer aspects of themselves as performers that were previously hidden away behind habits of pretence and control. One singer commented how being fully aware of breathing and learning to listen to the subconscious and how the body wants to move, subsequently allows for a special connectivity with ourselves and our audience.”

“I found Juliet’s class hugely beneficial. She has trained in a country where constant practice of ones craft and ongoing training is seen as a necessity not a luxury, and she wants to bring that ethos to the New Zealand acting industry. Her class helped me break down a lot of walls, and shake off bad habits to find the truth and honesty of the character. To get out of the way of myself and simply connect. It was during my training with Juliet that I auditioned for Shortland Street and was offered a core cast role playing nurse Emma Franklin.

I can say without a doubt that had it not been for Juliet’s classes I wouldn’t have felt as prepared, confident and at ease for that audition. I thank Juliet for her tutorship and encourage any actor wanting to further their development and be prepared in a competitive industry to attend her classes. ”

“Juliet you have an abundance of knowledge and experience. I have watched you teach. I have the greatest respect for you. Your love of the craft of acting, your patience and understanding of your students was impressive. I watched you skillfully guide your students to draw out their talent. I can only compliment you on being an excellent teacher. I have enjoyed watching you work with your class.”

“The Equity foundation are thrilled at the overwhelmingly positive feedback received from NZ actors after 2 commissioned workshops run by Voice and Acting coach Juliet Furness as part of their professional development series.”

“Juliet has helped me to prepare the delivery style and technique, the energy and embodiment of the keynote I am delivering to the top 200 world leaders of Alcatel-lucent Nokia, in Paris.

But more than that she is expanding my ability as a Thought leader to move far beyond simply stimulating the audience through transferring knowledge and information, to really moving them and ensuring the keynote becomes a visceral and memorable experience.

This is being achieved as a direct result of not only her skill set, experience and know how, but her ability to really get what I’m trying to do and identify what is required to bring it to life through, presence, timing, pause, embodiment, voice and breathing.”

“Juliet is a truly great teacher. The genius of her techniques is that they are equally relevant and useful in approaching work in both film and theatre. The differences in technique seem to become invisible.

In Juliet’s focus on monologues and scene work, she helps actors make breakthroughs by suggesting specific changes in mood, rhythm, and phrasing. I found it exhilarating, thrilling and it helped overcome my deep fear of letting go and submitting to the text.

Having attended group sessions with her, I look forward to regular one on one sessions when I am particularly challenged by roles/characters that I am playing.”

“As an agent, I am always on the lookout for professional development opportunities for my actors. For some reason in New Zealand, quality acting coaches are very hard to come by. There’s the odd exception, but it’s definitely the exception and I have struggled to find a suitable solution. That is until I sat in on one of Juliet Furness’ classes toward the end of last year. Juliet was working with inexperienced actors but her ability to understand their blocks/challenges and help them navigate through these was refreshing and inspiring.

Based on this, I asked Juliet if she could run a short course for our clients. clients. Given that I’d sat in on only one of her classes, I wanted to see how our (more experienced) actors responded to her style before committing to a longer course. To put it bluntly, Juliet has been a revelation. The classes are dynamic, flexible and responsive. Juliet has a seemingly inexhaustible box of tools in her coaching bag and she has made a significant influence in each of our actor’s practice. I can’t recommend her as an acting coach more highly...”

“I live in New York City. It’s an amazing place to train as an actor because you have access to all kinds of classes and information and types of training.

In her recent swing through New York, Juliet Furness brought a unique fusion of experience and expertise that really had a strong effect on me. She had an easy way of opening my emotional doors and I felt I became more receptive—more vulnerable—to the other actors and to my environment. I felt an emotional flow, and I found myself going to places I hadn’t planned on visiting. The whole experience was a little overwhelming—and very powerful.

I highly recommend her instruction for any actor, no matter where they are in their development.”

“My acting has improved dramatically with Juliet, though having had done some good performances in the past before her it often felt like luck/fluke whether I “get it or not”. And many times end up doing “forced” performances more than the good. With Juliet, she has managed to help me get to a point now where I can pick up a new script and feel comfortable delivering the piece with truth and authenticity. And also to explore and be spontaneous in my performance. In the past I have always felt “this is how the piece should go: I want to be angry here, be sad here, and be happy here”. Very 2-dimensional and too dictated. Now I feel comfortable in being in the moment and letting my impulses guide me and trusting that my impulse will always be right, and that even if I do something “wrong” I can correct and guide myself back into the authenticity of the piece. As a result, my performances are slightly different and flavourful each time and always plugged into truth/not seeming “acted”. This is a huge milestone for me and as a result, I had been given an official offer at RWCMD for my masters in musical theatre, the school is rated #1 by The Guardian for drama schools in U.K. And only offer 12 places each year. I wouldn’t have achieved this without Juliet’s help. Thank you Juliet, still much work to do and learn, but the miles I have travelled in my acting I am super stoked for!”

“At first I found it terrifying to be doing a scene and not know how things were going to turn out. As a typically insecure actor, I tend towards a safety blanket of planned performance. But instead of contriving a stale performance from pre-conceived ideas, Juliet teaches a technique that is about generating a state of play in the moment. You throw out the blanket and activate your own flawed, interesting human qualities to fuel behaviour in each word and breath of the scene. Very quickly I felt this new way of working to be creating more truthful performance, and the feedback from my classmates has echoed this. I feel like I’ve stumbled upon some sort of acting secret that not only works, but feels really right. As a teacher, Juliet demands a high level of professionalism and always knows how to bring the very best out of you. I’ve seen her take stale scenes from students and transform them with just a few words, bringing wonderful life back into the performances. She has a great sense of humour and working with Juliet has been exhilarating, challenging, fun and incredibly rewarding for me. I’d highly recommend her class for any actors or directors serious about their craft.”

“Having been in Juliet’s class for 3 terms, I still can’t believe something so good was meant to happen to me. Her work, initially seeming strangely different to the acting techniques I had studied at drama school, almost immediately started to ‘free’ me in a new and intuitive way, a way I always somehow knew must be possible in my art, but which I until meeting Juliet never was able to intentionally access. My experience working with Juliet is best described as ‘I stepped into the new world’, alive ...And, not surprisingly, this ‘state of being’ transformed and keeps transforming not only my art, but also my career, and my life. How it feels on the inside? The water is clearer, the sun is warmer, and you should taste the coffee.”

“As someone who comes from a background of being behind the camera, I’ve had a phenomenal time in Juliet’s acting class. I’ve never received any formal training, so going into it I was a bit nervous. I immediately saw a massive change in the quality of my performances. Not only did my acting improve, but through this class I have really changed the way I approach acting as a whole. Not overthinking everything, and just letting myself be in the moment and feel has been a refreshing and mind-opening experience. Through this class I’ve made countless friends and have many opportunities to take what I’ve learned and put it to use, in theatre performances, short films, and showcases. I recommend this class to anyone who wants to further their ability to bring truth to acting, while having an enormous amount of fun doing so.”

“I have taken Juliet’s class for 3 terms in a row. She is absolutely amazing. I have learned so much about myself as a person and how to uniquely use that in my artistic expression. one of my favourite phrases by Juliet is “there is only one of you, and we want you” I have seen how my performance improved both through my own assessment as well as through the eyes of other students and people on my social media. not to mention Juliet’s constant encouragement and feedback. I would recommend Juliet’s class to anyone as a wonderful opportunity for personal and career development.”