Los Angeles, Calif., Jan 21, 2011 / 01:01 am
On March 28, a team of acting coaches and other entertainment industry professionals will partner with spiritual guides and leadership coaches, to begin a new kind of Hollywood venture – one that will form both onscreen and offscreen character.
On that day, following a Grand Opening event on March 25, Holy Wood Acting Studio says it will open its doors to actors aspiring "to play great roles in movies and in life." The studio's base of operations, Culver City in West Los Angeles County, bills itself as "the Heart of Screenland," and is the home of Sony Pictures Studios today.
In their effort to take back Hollywood, the founders of Holy Wood Acting Studio are starting by taking back the city's name – which derives originally from the "holy wood" of the cross on which Jesus was crucified.
The cross many actors bear, according to Holy Wood CEO Carlos Espinosa, is a sense of emptiness that persists –or gets worse– even amid success and recognition. Behind some of the world's most recognized faces, he sees a kind of despair that reminds him of Christ's question in the Gospels: "What does it profit a man to gain the whole world, but lose his soul?"