Today we’d like to introduce you to Adria Tennor
Hi Adria, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
Yes! Although neither of my parents are performers, both my grandfathers were musicians and performers. My father’s father was a song plugger for Irving Berlin, which meant that before there were record players, he would go up and down the East coast and play the sheet music that was for sale in the windows of the music stores. He changed his German surname from Tannebaum to Tennor.
My grandfather died when I was very young, but my grandmother carried on his legacy. She babysat for my sister and me once a week. The three of us would watch Lawrence Welk, then try to emulate the performers by dressing up in my grandmother’s stash of flowy chiffon nightgowns and curly blonde wigs. She also taught us songs from George M. Cohen musicals. Then we’d sing them and lip sync to my Shawn Cassidy albums and show tunes from the musical Annie.
My parents truly hoped I would grow out of my wish to be a performer, but to their chagrin, I was accepted on a scholarship to New York University, where I earned my BFA in stage directing and acting through their Playwrights Horizons Theater School before beginning my career as an actress. My first professional job as an actor was playing a twelve-year old boy looking at porn in Tompkins Square park with an amnesiac in Hal Hartley’s Amateur, which premiered in the Directors’ Fortnight at Cannes. I work regularly in television and film and am most known for my recurring roles on Mad Men and Mad Dogs as well as in the Academy Award winning film, The Artist. I also star opposite the late, great Danny Aiello in his final, feature, One Moment, a heartbreaking comedy about a single mother trying to harness her already hectic life while her aging father slips into dementia.
Dissatisfied with the amount of work available to women in entertainment, I began writing my own material, performing stand up early in my career, then spinning it into a rave-reviewed one-woman show, StripSearch, about finding love and happiness with the help of a 12-foot pole. Another monologue I wrote and performed, Pie in the Sky, was published in the anthology about lust gone wrong – Worst Laid Plans: When Bad Sex Happens to Good People alongside works by Whitney Cummings, Mary Lynn Rajskub, Allison Brie and Laraine Newman. I made my producing debut on horror spoof, Smothered, shot on location in Baton Rouge. My directorial debut, a self-penned childhood drama, Cracked, stars Marguerite Moreau and garnered awards and laurels around the country. My second film, Pie, starring fellow Mad Men alum Jessica Paré, was a favorite on the festival circuit in 2018, also garnering awards and laurels internationally.
In 2021, I started teaching acting at the request of a long-time friend and fellow actor, Sarah Gaboury, who has an online acting school called Real Actors Lab. She had won a temporary onset coaching job on the last several seasons of This Is Us, and she needed someone to cover her classes and private clients while she was on set, I loved it.
In 2022, I began my own online school – Adria Tennor Coaching – in which I implement acting techniques to teach actors AND non-actors who want to improve their public speaking, presenting, and pitching techniques. I love teaching so much, and it’s such a nice compliment to my acting career. I also love how I can reach students all over the world with my virtual classes. Some of my students Zoom in from Northern California, New York City, Great Britain, France, Mexico, the Netherlands, and Switzerland to name a few.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
The road has definitely not been smooth! Acting is a very difficult career. Dealing with the ups and downs of success and then large lulls between auditions and jobs is incredibly difficult to reconcile at times. Covid and then the strikes have also been devastating to the industry, and that affects my coaching business as well. If actors aren’t getting audition requests, then they aren’t seeking out coaching on the auditions they aren’t getting either.
I also had a really hard time dealing with nervousness throughout my career. I had debilitating bouts of anxiety that would derail my ability to perform in my auditions. The worst part of it was that when I got really nervous, my nervous system would just completely shutdown, and it appeared to those on the outside – casting, directors, producers that were judging my work – that I hadn’t prepared and – worst of all – just didn’t care about the role I was there to read or their project. I think I’ve finally healed this for myself, but the possibility of this anxiety cropping back up is always looming in the back of my mind. This is something I’m passionate about helping my clients through. All the work I’ve done to get past this really benefits them because I believe I’ve cracked the code and come up with very clear strategies on how to cope with nerves and anxiety, especially with respect to auditioning, performing, public speaking, and presenting.
Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Adria Tennor Coaching focuses on helping actors, execs, and entrepreneurs achieve dream careers by up-levelling their confidence, finding their authentic voices, and forging genuine connections with their chosen audience. I teach both group classes for actors and non-actors, as well as provide 1:1 specialized coaching for clients from all areas of business and all ages.
I have been a successful, working actor for over 30 years in the NY, LA, and Southeast markets, and am still in the trenches auditioning and working on sets all over the world. I’ve also made my own award-winning films, and owned and operated 4 successful, award-winning restaurants. So, I not only understand the business of acting first hand and what it’s like right now to be an auditioning, working actors, but I also have a clear perspective on what it’s like to own and operate a business and be an entrepreneur. I have an extensive resume as both an actor and a business woman, so I think (and I hope!) that gives me some credibility. My clients trust me because I have a track record, not only as a teacher, but actually implementing and practicing what I preach, and getting winning results from those practices.
I also really invest in the transformation of my students, and not just in their careers, but in their lives. The practices I’m teaching are not just professional. They are life changing. I don’t mean that to sound dramatic. What I mean is, the things I’m teaching get to the real root of the problem(s). We isolate the limiting beliefs standing between my clients and their goals, then put a plan in place to shift those limits and build a fresh, inspired mindset. I’m able to do this because I’ve done it for myself.
Communication is incredibly important to me. I think it’s the key to solving everything, and I wish it was something we spent more time developing in our early years. Sure, we learn to read and write, but we don’t spend enough time connecting to our hearts – which I believe are our divine compasses – and then learning to bravely express ourselves from that authentic, honest, true place. So that’s my goal, to create a safe place for people to really connect to themselves and then from there connect to their chosen audience in a beautiful, moving way.
In addition to my paid coaching sessions and classes, I provide a lot of free content on my social media platforms and longer form lessons on YouTube. So, if any of this piques your interest, and you want to learn more, please find me on those channels. I’m also very on top of my emails and DMs, so don’t be shy about reaching out, asking questions, and learning more.
What was your favorite childhood memory?
Well, I’ve already shared how my Grandmother would dress my sister and me up in chiffon nighties and curly blonde wigs and direct us in Lawrence Welk inspired variety shows! That same Grandmother took me and my sister to see Annie at the Fisher Theater in Detroit when I was six. It was amazing. When I saw those little girls dancing and singing their hearts out, I was hooked! I wanted my mother to take me to the next round of auditions even though my singing sounded like a cat in heat stepping on a lego….
Another favorite childhood memory was when I was in high school, I got to direct a play by Larry Shue called “The Foreigner,” which I really love. It’s extremely funny. The cast was a handful of classmates I truly admired and adored. Our production was really good. In fact, a drama teacher from a neighboring high school attended the play. I was very honored he went out of his way to attend. As I’ve said, my parents were not super keen on my pursuing acting and directing because it’s so hard to achieve success. At intermission, my dad came up to me, his eyes glistening with tears, and asked me how I made the play come out so well, and how I’d gotten the young actors to achieve such a funny, touching story. That was a pretty great moment, one I won’t ever forget.
Pricing:
- Group classes $199/month
- 1:1 Coaching $150/hour (packages also available)
- VIP Day $997
Contact Info:
- Website: https://adriatennor.com
- Instagram: @adriatennorcoaching
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/adriatennorcoaching
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@adriagt
Image Credits
Lisa Franchot Photography
