John Robert Powers

I go home and read the packet and it is asking for $2,900 for Commercial Print/modeling, commercial and monologue training, plus an additional $600 for a photo shoot. We go back the next day and, after he says, "Ok mom, if you're willing to put in the work with her, we would love to have her." They immediately require the money to be paid! If you cannot pay in full, an additional $300 or more would be added to your total for a payment plan.

Fast forward to THE TRAINING. They logged in late to the very first meeting after telling us to be online 10 minutes ahead of time or look unprofessional. In the meeting, there was an overview of the process and they gave us the office contact information. They sent an email with some commercial choices for review and one needed to be memorized by the first class. Class #1 the instructor arrived 30 minutes late, with no apology. The children recite their commercials one by one as she gives very generic feedback to each of them, then they repeat the process one more time and the class is over! This is what happened on each of the three virtual sessions for each category.

HEAR ME, you train your own child or they train themselves depending on the age and JRP provides a virtual instructor and a few other children as an audience. The female instructor wasn't even child friendly! We had a man one time and he was excellent. Surprisingly, the link to his review never worked for us to provide feedback and we were never sent a corrected link as promised. We also were never asked to review after that.

THE IN-PERSON REHEARSAL We had one in-person training. When the first two hour session was over and parents came in for feedback, I noticed the instructor, whom we had online for multiple sessions, called everyone up except my daughter. She asked did she miss anyone and I said, my child. She then walks through the model sequence with her. She had not rehearsed or acknowledged my daughter the entire TWO HOURS they were there. I was livid!

THE PHOTO SHOOT I paid $600 for a photo shoot! I had asked how it was set up and was told that we each got two hours to shoot and three wardrobe changes. When we arrived, the photographer was 2.5 hours behind AND other people were still shooting during your "session." My daughter cannot be asked to sit still for two hours, so her natural hair was ruined by the time the first picture was taken. There was no room for them to change other than the hotel bathroom. My two hour session turned into four and it wasn't even private! Oh and if you don't purchase their expensive Headshots and Comp Cards, you are charged $20 per image to edit AND those are the ONLY images that were sent as high digital images. I have not been able to upload any of the other images for use because the quality is too low!

THE SHOWCASE. They baited every family with the culminating event, a showcase where your child would be able to showcase their talents in front of agencieS! We were asked to bring 10 Headshots originally, which I thought was a low number, but I figured that was only because everyone would not be interested in your child. The week of the showcase, we were told to only bring 5 Headshots. We arrive at this "showcase" and only 3 agencies were there!!!! The fourth agency was JRP, so it does not count! All of that work for only 3 agencies to be present!!! UNBELIEVABLE!!!

Then, the JRP rep asked for my daughter for my daughter to stay after, only to present an opportunity to do a similar process in California, which would cost $6,500 for the both of us!!! I was livid! She was not friend either and told us to "lose her personal number" after we reached back out to tell her if we were going to participate or not. It was very disorganized! Agents did not even have the headshots and comp cards during the showcase. We went up and took them after. There has been no follow-up, even from the one agent who said she would call my baby and certainly none from JRP! This experience was a NIGHTMARE. I hope this post cautions other families who consider spending their hard earned money on this.

The initial audition went great (I even had the chance to meet and talk with the CEO of the Chicago and NYC headquarters, Colleen!!!) and I was told that I would get a phone call between 6p-11p that night. When I got a phone call, they would tell me if they were interested in me coming back the next day for a callback or not. Well, around 10:30 that night I received a call from the woman I auditioned with and she told me she was thrilled to be able to tell me that they were interested in me. I went back in the next day for the callback and that went great as well--they wanted to enroll me in their acting class! So what did I do? Exactly what you're doing right now--looking up reviews. The reviews I saw a year ago were less than flattering and I was concerned that I may have just convinced my parents to invest in a scam rather than my future as an actress.

The following weekend I showed up to the first rehearsal (again, an hour away from home) at a different hotel than the hotel I auditioned at. After 5 months of rehearsals with a very talented coach (Chuck) I was ready for the February 2019 showcase in Chicago. I felt completely prepared (and completely terrified) for my performance in front of the 3 agents and 1 IPOP representative. I was really bummed that none of the agents wanted much to do with me once they found out that I was 21 (most of them were looking for 16 and younger (I look really young)).

However, the IPOP representative, Cheryl, was VERY pleased with my performance. She handed out flyers to quite a few people and told them that they would receive a call on whether or not she was interested in bringing them to IPOP (International Presentation of Performers) in Los Angeles in July. I was one of about 10 people she told to have a seat and she'd be around to talk to momentarily. So, I sat down thinking "well, this is either REALLY GOOD or REALLY BAD," hoping for the first option. After everyone else had cleared out she told those of us that remained in our seats that she scored us a 9/10 on our performances while also stating that she doesn't give ANYONE a 10 because EVERYONE has room for improvement. She told us that we didn't need to wait by the phone in anticipation-- SHE WANTED TO BRING US TO LA IN JULY!

The next morning we reported to the JRP office in Chicago where she gave us all of the information we needed and gave us time to ask any questions that we had. I convinced my parents to, once again, make an investment in my future as an actress and began the preparation for my trip to LA. In a way, July came SO quickly, while also feeling like it was a million years away. Along the way, Cheryl was so incredible about answering all of my questions and making sure that I was fully prepared to rock IPOP.

One early morning in July 2019 my mother and I flew across the country to Los Angeles for a competition that would truly change my life, though I didn't know it at the time. At IPOP there were groups from ALL OVER THE WORLD that included groups of EXCEPTIONAL singers, dancers, actors, and models (some, participating in all four categories). I had the chance to compete in a Soap Opera competition (yeah, I'm pretty dramatic). Out of all the girls that participated that were 18 years of age or older, two girls from JRP were runner ups and I was declared the WINNER. Me. A girl from a small town in Michigan. The winner of an acting competition open to girls 18+ from all over the world. I'm still in shock months later.

The next day, I performed a hallmark commercial and a dramatic monologue in front of many talent agents, managers, and casting directors. Our final day in LA we were able to meet with all of the agents and managers that gave us callbacks and out of all of the groups that attended IPOP, JRP was the only group where EVERY SINGLE PERSON RECEIVED AT LEAST ONE CALLBACK. Personally, I received close to a dozen callbacks.

Upon returning back home to Michigan, I was diligent about emailing back and forth with the agents and managers that were interested in signing me. Within a week I had scheduled and NAILED an interview with Manikin Talent and Modeling Agency based in Jacksonville, Florida and within 48 hours of the interview I had signed official paperwork stating that I was a represented talent by their agency. Every week I receive many emails from them with different jobs that I qualify for and with my crazy work schedule I was finally able to submit myself to my first casting yesterday (November 4, 2019). It's not much, but it's a start and I'm certainly further toward my dream than I was at this time last year. And now I am able to make conscious and SMART decisions about my acting career like moving to Atlanta in 2020 to build my acting resume before moving to LA in 2021 to really get things going!

There is a price when it comes to JRP's classes and the trip that I took to LA (personally my family has paid approximately $7000), but I fully believe that if acting, modeling, singing, or dancing is something that you are interested in, you should give it a try. If I would have believed some of the nasty things that I read about JRP I wouldn't have made it this far and I would still be stuck at a job that isn't my passion with no end in sight. I believe that a lot of the people who write these terrible reviews about JRP are people that didn't put in all of the effort to make it worth the money that they were paying and inevitably didn't get all of the opportunities that I worked my ** off for. You'll never know unless you try...