"Two years ago, I started studying with Michael. It was an amazing event; I still remember the first day of the first workshop... Since then, I've taken many seminars and it has been a continual discovery. I have learned things about myself; I've gotten to learn my own instument; I've acquired a sense of awareness. Like musicians have to spend hours and hours everyday at practice, so actors have to fine tune their work becuase they are musicians AND instruments. I've learned to extend myself. Not to just be what I am but also what I can become. I understand that the imagination has a great power that every human being possesses. Inspiration or Desperation? Does the frustration take you, or do you take it? You can not be defeated if you have learned from your failures. I am always for INSPIRATION!"
--Francesco De Vito, actor (Italy) playing Peter in Mel Gibson's "The Passion of Christ", 2004.

"Michael Margotta is not only one of the finest and most versatile actors I have ever worked with; he uniquely understands the work, is able to convey it to others and, as a teacher has the gift of knowing how to reach into the actor and pull out the fundamental truths allowing them to fly."
--Director, Henry Jaglom, Festival at Cannes, Last Summer in the Hamptons, Can She Bake A Cherry Pie?

A letter from a student:

Dear Michael,
I’m writing this letter to thank you. It could sound a little strange to you but to me is not. I’m working on myself to re-create the sense of creativity and trust in what is supposed to be my primary job. Sense that I lost a few years ago, since I decided to become an actor. I lost what Michael calls the INSPIRATION! But I’m not desperate! Not yet. This is what I’m concentrating on now but there is still a lot of work to do. I’m writing to you because what I need is what I see every time I meet you, the inspiration, o more simply the love that you put in what you believe in. I don’t want to be melodramatic, I hate it, but it’s not easy to write it, however. What I want to say is that in the last seminar I had a lot of frustrating blocks concerning the fear to face my self in the work, at home and on stage. Something happened, and at the end of the week I was light, super light, like a Philip Morris that I don’t smoke any more! Sigh..
And I walked out on my legs. I know I know it’s quite a teenager letter and I guess you didn’t expect it from a 35 years old men (almost, as U know)
But this is it! U helped me, acting as a mirror, facing my own energy!
Love
MB