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ABOUT PETER

Peter Blackburn is a highly regarded acting coach, theatre maker, and film director.

Earning a Master’s in Directing from the Victorian College of the Arts (VCA), one of Australia’s premier drama schools, he went on to establish himself as a prolific director in Melbourne’s vibrant theatre scene.

He later earned the coveted Mike Walsh Fellowship for Directing through the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA—alma mater of Cate Blanchett and director, Baz Luhrmann), where he also taught, and used the award to further his craft in the UCLA filmmaking program.

With additional degrees in Literature, Film, and Education, Peter’s work is deeply informed by cinematic influences — so much so, he jokes he could write a thesis on all the film influences that have shaped his teaching.

As an acting teacher, Peter has served on the faculty of world-class Australian acting institutions NIDA, VCA, 16th Street Actors Studio, and The National Drama School. He also had the great joy of collaborating on the play Holding the Man with his mentor, acclaimed acting coach Larry Moss.

ABOUT TOM

Tom Szymanski is a versatile Los Angeles-based actor, acting coach, and filmmaker dedicated to truthful, transformational acting that serves as a loving mirror for the audience and his fellow artists.

Since 2021, Tom has worked as a private acting coach and is excited to join Peter Blackburn Studio. His coaching is rooted in the transformational acting method developed by Yat Malmgren — incorporating Stanislavsky's analysis, Carl Jung's psychological archetypes, and Rudolf Von Laban's movement language — and draws on years of intensive study with his mentor, Peter Blackburn.

A former company member of The Actor's Gang (TAG), Tom worked with Tim Robbins across six productions and co-produced two award-winning short plays with TAG alumni: "The Mating Ritual of Snails" (Best Play, 2022 Brisk Festival) and "My Little AI" (Best Actor, 2023 Brisk Festival).

As a member of the comedy collective Mama Outta Bullets, Tom co-created the short films "Ruffalo" and "Guy's Weekend" and the series "Tom Doesn't Care," now expanded into a feature in post-production.

His training spans transformational acting with Victor Villar-Hauser, Present Moment with Anthony Meindl, and Viewpoints/Commedia dell'arte at The Actor's Gang; improv at iO Chicago, UCB, and with master teacher, Jeff Michalski; and voice and movement work with Erika Ackerman, Caitlin York Rigney, and Terry Berland/Nick Omana.

Tom is excited to bring his multifaceted experience and unique perspective to a growing community of artists at Peter Blackburn Studio. He is currently producing "Three Eulogies for Tyson Miller" for the 2026 Hollywood Fringe with fellow studio members.

Studio Mission Statement

At Peter Blackburn Studio, we begin from the belief that theatre is not a solitary pursuit but a shared act of discovery. Every rehearsal room is a temporary community, and every production is a collaboration where meaning is created between artists and audience. Drama thrives on plurality: no single voice, method, or interpretation is sufficient on its own. The actor’s task is to enter this shared space openly, willing to shape and be shaped, to listen as fiercely as they speak, and to embrace the contradictions and surprises that make theatre alive.

We also believe that limitation is not a weakness but a vital function of art. The stage is always bound — by time, by space, by bodies, by language. Rather than resisting those boundaries, we use them to generate intensity. A script ends, a performance closes, an actor cannot be everything at once. These constraints focus the work, allowing drama to burn brightly in the moment and then pass, leaving traces in memory. To rehearse is to practice this paradox: to prepare with discipline and yet meet the event as if it were new each night.

For us, theatre is a way of knowing. Through text, movement, and ensemble work, we uncover not universal answers but shared recognitions. The actor is not tasked with proving a thesis or delivering a dogma; they are asked to embody, to test, to reveal. Each performance is an experiment in truth-telling under imaginative pressure. What matters is not whether the work confirms what we already know, but whether it enlarges our capacity for empathy, attention, and courage in relation to others.

The measure of our work, then, is generosity. We judge a rehearsal, a play, a workshop not by its perfection but by what it gives: to its artists, to its audience, and to the broader community it momentarily convenes. Theatre, at its best, does not stand as a monument but circulates as a gift — fragile, fleeting, plural, and necessary.

This is the ethos that guides the studio: to approach each project as a shared act of craft, curiosity, and care.