John began teaching professional actors in 2003 at The Professional Actors Lab. In 2014 we started The Dirt in the old coffin factory lofts near the corner of King + Bathurst in downtown Toronto. Cynthia handled the administrative duties with John being the primary acting instructor.

In 2017 we moved to our current location in Toronto’s Greek Village, near Danforth + Pape Avenues, and our awesome team has been growing since then.

During the pandemic we moved our classes online and our Dirt community grew to include students from different parts of Canada as well as internationally. We now continue to offer acting + movement classes at our Toronto studio for both professional actors (adults + teenagers) and those who are discovering acting for the first time.

In 2022 we created an annual Residency Programme, in 2023 we started a Speaker Series to highlight the diverse voices in our Dirt community, and in 2024 we proudly celebrated our 10 year anniversary!

Thank you for visiting our website – we hope to see you in class soon!

John + Cynthia