Press Release: CBS "GHOSTS" Star Asher Grodman Visits with Acting Students at Livingston’s Newark Academy

Grodman engaged both Newark Academy Upper and Middle School students in activities, shared advice and answered questions during several acting classes throughout the day in the school’s Lautenberg “Black Box” Theater.

“I remember being here and really trying to find my way,” Grodman says. “To come back now, having found some of that way, is really exciting and is kind of a full circle moment.”

Director of Theater Arts Rachel Shapiro Cooper, who organized Grodman’s visit, was eager to provide her students with the opportunity to hear from a professional actor who took acting classes in the exact Black Box theater her students are now learning in. 

“This term we have benefitted from many alumni theater students such as Asher coming back to NA and sharing their gifts with the student actors in our program,” Rachel says. “We are so grateful and I am thrilled that the lens continues to widen for our students. That is really what this work is all about — using the arts to enlarge the world in which our students live.”

NA junior Delilah Loncar was delighted by the opportunity to hear first-hand experiences from a professional actor in her acting class. “I left with a greater understanding as to what it takes to pursue one’s individual passion,” she says. “It was clear that Mr. Grodman lit up when talking about anything from the process of getting an audition to educational acting theories, making him a great example for all us students as to what dedication to a calling truly looks like.”

Grodman jokes that he made every mistake an actor can ever make before finally finding his way — the main reason why he is now so passionate about helping to cultivate and teach young actors.

“One of the most thrilling things is to be able to teach and help other people not make the mistakes that I did,” he says. “To be able to come back and hang out with students who are doing what I was doing when I was in high school is particularly exciting.”