MENTORING
Life
- Jasper’s experience in screen testing techniques goes back to 1985 when he worked with Hollywood casting director Tony Shepherd and learnt from him the universal skills of auditioning. Since then, he has himself professionally auditioned for hundreds of roles, his resume and IMDB entry summing up his exceptional results.
- Attending WAAPA in the late 1980s afforded Jasper the opportunity to be mentored by some of the best teachers in the world: Aarne Neeme, master of text analysis; international acting teacher supremo, Lisle Jones; world renown master of movement exemplar, Annie Stainer; globe trotting theatre director, Chris Edmund; voice and speech expert, Robin Payne; British Olympic fencing champion, Marvin Dinsdale; one of American Fight Directors founding members, Dr James Finney; circus master, Reg Bolton; and internationally acclaimed audition techniques guru, Dean Carey.
- After graduation Jasper began teaching and directing and, over the ensuing decades, has come to a place in his craft where he not only talks the talk, but also proverbially walks it. Sharron Meissner, founding principal of Meissner Management, Jasper’s representative, says:
- “Time with Jasper slows down; you are never rushed. His focus is entirely on those he mentors because he serves his clients with his extraordinary life and career experience. His appetite and enthusiasm to see his wards succeed is insatiable. Jasper, like a magician, suspends disbelief.”
- A veteran film director adds:
- “Jasper is a dedicated actor who endlessly questions, listens and researches. He’s the best kind of actor.
Lessons
- Now, in the age of international ‘Self-Tests’, Jasper has become the go-to person for filming solicited auditions for Hollywood, Vancouver, London, Aucland and Sydney. Jasper does not merely film the scenes, but instead offers an environment and level of skill that allows actors to best be themselves within the given circumstances of the audition scene. Also, he is possibly the best behind-the-camera reader you could ever work with.
- Recently, a first-time student wrote to Jasper:
- “I was amazed at what happened to me today during our session, Jasper. I actually felt like a working actor when we did those scenes. I’d only known you for an hour and yet you helped me access myself in the work in a way I had never known. An incredible experience.”
- And many others:
- “I loved working with Jasper: he offers a unique service of something that a lot of others are trying to do, where he soars. I felt as if I was in my own home.”
- “One of the many things that drew me to work with Jasper was that I knew he would be totally honest with me. He works through every fine detail of the text and myself to get to the final performance – one of my best ever!”
- “Jasper’s passion for the craft is second to none. His knowledge, his depth of experience, coupled with his effervescent personality, fuse together to create an extremely comforting and inspiring workspace for the actor to play within. Jasper has an innate knack for seeking out human truth within an actor’s work.”
- "A brilliant teacher and human!"
- “This man breathes energy: his palate of inspiration is an incredible variety of philosophy, science, art, history and life. To work with Jasper is to feel this energy and to be enchanted by it, to be intrigued and enthralled enough to delve deeper into the scene and indeed into Self. He will open your eyes up to so much more than is on the page, and what you think your body can do, and what you think your mind is capable of. He is a tour de force. He will shock you; he will shake you up a little, and he will leave you buzzing. Literally.”
- Aside from self-tests, Jasper also coaches actors before they go onset. He doesn’t direct them, instead preparing them for any and everything that may eventuate before and after “action” has been called. So, from the actor who portrayed Elvis Presley with Jasper’s mentoring, Austin Butler:
- “Jasper is a master of the moment, and I couldn’t have fulfilled my role as Elvis without the intimate and thorough work we did together. I had a body coach and I had a vocal coach. Jasper was my mind-set coach and helped make my transformation into Elvis Presley a reality…”