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Left: Emerson College's new campus Right: American Academy of Dramatic Arts on La Brea Ave. Dawn in Born Yesterday on Broadway. Gretchen Mol currently stars as Gillian on HBO's Emmy Award-winning show Boardwalk Empire. Perhaps best known for her starring roles in the film e Notorious Bettie Page and ABC's Life on Mars, the 1992 AMDA graduate has appeared on film opposite Matt Damon (Rounders), Leonardo DiCaprio (Woody Allen's Celebrity), and Christian Bale and Russell Crowe (3:10 to Yuma). While these larger schools came to Hollywood within the last looking their best? Los Feliz based Joe Blasco Makeup School is in its fourth decade of teaching. During the 1960s, founder Joe Blasco left the Max Factor Cosmetics company, became a sought-after make-up artist for such actors as Bette Midler, Carol Burnett and Olivia Newton-John and opened his school in 1976 and following in Max Factor's footsteps, now sells his own line of theatrical cosmetics. Napoleon Perdis Makeup Academy concentrates on fashion and reality makeup at its Hol- lywood Boulevard location while Campus Hollywood's Elegance decade, two schools were founded by industry legends Stella Adler and Lee Strasberg. Actors who trained at their Hollywood-based (what?) read like a who's who. Even Hollywood's state-run com- munity college trained such notables as Oscar-winning Clint East- wood and Morgan Freeman at its eatre Academy at Los Angeles City College. It also trains costume designers and stage technicians. It calls itself "the best kept secret in Southern California" due to its quality instruction and moderate tuition fees. Where would actors be without makeup artists to help them O International provides instruction in prosthetic and special affect makeup techniques for film and television. n a humorous note, Hollywood is chock full of schools of the training program at the Improv Olympic Training Center West, the Acme Comedy eatre and Bang Improv Studio. Chicago's famed Upright Citizens Brigade has set up shop on Franklin Avenue and also from the Windy City, 2nd City Reper- tory Company can be found on Hollywood Blvd. ere's no scarcity Continues page 60 and Cheryl Hines of HBO's Curb Your Enthusiasm. Long form improvisation and sketch writing ate the hallmarks eager to develop the budding comedian's funny bone. e nonprofit Groundlings School of Improvisation founded in 1979 with barely 20 students now boasts over 300 par- ticipants in its day and evening comedy classes. e Groundlings' alumni roster includes Will Ferrell, Lisa Kudrow LEFT: American Musical and Dramatic Academy now occupies one of Hollywood's historic office buildings. ABOVE & BELOW: Classes in progress at Ameri- can Academy of Dramatic Arts FALL 2012 / DISCOVER HOLLYWOOD 19