Groundwork Studios is an acting and theatre training studio built around a simple idea: young artists deserve serious training in a space where they also feel safe enough to take risks, make mistakes, and figure out who they are.

Founded by director, choreographer, performer, and acting coach Jessica Rae Foulds, Groundwork was created to give young performers a place to dig deeper than learning lines, perfecting choreography, or preparing the “right” audition material. The work here is about building the foundation underneath all of that: strong technique, curiosity, confidence, emotional honesty, creative independence, and trust in your own instincts.

Jess has been working with young performers since 2009, teaching students from preschool through young adulthood. After years of performing, directing, choreographing, coaching, and working in arts education, she created Groundwork as a home for the kind of training she believes young artists deserve: challenging without being intimidating, ambitious without being perfectionistic, and deeply invested in the individual artist.

A graduate of Shenandoah Conservatory’s BFA Musical Theatre program, Jess has worked across nearly every corner of the theatre world. As a performer, her credits include Maureen Johnson in Rent, Whatsername in Green Day’s American Idiot, Wednesday Addams in The Addams Family, and productions of City of Angels, Sweet Charity, Proof, 4000 Miles, and Gidion’s Knot. Her background spans contemporary musical theatre, classical material, intimate dramatic work, dance, vocal performance, and film and television training.

From 2021-2026, Jess served as Vice President on the board of a local 501(c)(3) arts education nonprofit and currently serves on the Board of Directors at the Wilton Playshop. Her directing and choreography credits include The Wizard of Oz, Legally Blonde JR., Carrie: The Musical, Mamma Mia!, Hairspray, God of Carnage, Picnic, Into the Woods, Jekyll & Hyde, Matilda JR., and more.

That experience became part of the DNA of Groundwork. Training here is rooted in the belief that excellent work and emotional safety belong in the same room. Students are expected to work hard, come prepared, ask questions, make bold choices, and stretch beyond what feels easy. They are also given permission to experiment, change their minds, mess up gloriously, and discover what they are capable of without feeling that perfection is the price of belonging.

Groundwork’s acting training is strongly influenced by the Meisner Technique, emotional recall work, movement, and truthful human connection. Rather than teaching actors to manufacture an emotion or deliver a predetermined “performance,” Jess encourages students to listen, respond, investigate, and build characters from the inside out. Her additional training in intimacy coaching informs Groundwork’s commitment to consent-based, age-appropriate, and emotionally responsible rehearsal practices.

Groundwork is especially interested in the weird stuff, the complicated stuff, and the work that asks actors to think. We love unconventional characters, messy relationships, difficult questions, unexpected choices, and stories that give young artists something real to wrestle with. Theatre can challenge assumptions, make difficult experiences feel less isolating, and give performers permission to tell the truth in ways everyday life does not always allow.

Whether a student comes to Groundwork for college audition coaching, an acting intensive, private training, a production, or to crack open one stubborn monologue that just will not cooperate, the goal is bigger than getting the “right” result.

We are building skilled, curious, compassionate artists who know how to do the work, trust their instincts, respect the people in the room, and understand that their individuality is one of the most valuable tools they bring with them.

That is the groundwork.