The quality of training at Circle in the Square is very poor. The good reputation it has has long expired… All the great teachers have either passed away or retired a long time ago. Most of the remaining teachers have been out of the game for far too long to keep up. The main teachers, students agree, create a toxic environment of bullying and trash talking students and teachers in class. It’s really not conducive to artistic growth. With a few exceptions, the teachers don’t really teach a whole lot of anything useful or applicable, and after 2 years, most students have either stayed the same (most often) or digressed (we’ve seen it.). Also, it’s obviously a hard business no matter what, but recent Circle graduates from the last decade or longer haven’t really found any level of success in the industry. People get gigs here and there, but all of the alumni they tout are from 15+ years ago.
The “main” faculty (acting technique/scene study/song “interpretation”) have been there for so long their methods of both teaching and their actual technique is incredibly outdated and based around toxic “Method-style” romanticisation of hurting yourself for your craft.
Many BFA acting programs in America have a philosophy of ‘breaking down’ the student in order to rebuild them in their image. It’s not really stated, but it is well known in practice. My oldest was broken down literally by this method and ended up withdrawing from acting entirely.
Anyway, the list goes on and on. A quick Google research will bring many more results.