ERIK (current student) is now in his second year at PTW. He performed for 14 months in "The King and I" on Broadway and is currently recording a CD for Scholastic Productions.

"I really like PTW because the teachers are really encouraging and they help you try your best. The first day I learned a lot. Mr. Kravitz took me to my first class which was song interpretation. It's probably one of my favorite classes. You find the meaning of the song. What you do is you take a song and first you sing it, and then you try to tell the story. After that we do staging, and then add the song back again. Then we have our little production.

The classes were really fun. They teach you things, but yet they're really exciting. You get to know people in the hallways, and everybody's really nice."

ANGELA (Erik's mother)

"Erik came off "The King and I" on Broadway, and he said that one of the things he wanted was to get an agent. The other thing was to get him some acting lessons. And he wanted to sing. Rather than putting him in a show, we wanted him to be trained. That's what he wanted. I was flipping through The Item, PTW hit my eye, and I thought, "Let me just give them a call." I spoke with Howard and he was just really really positive. I just like the way he handled the whole situation. Certainly Erik was comfortable. And he was not pushing any of the classes.

I trust Howard, and I just feel like he's going to treat my kid like he treats his own children. I feel like he's really a father and a grandfather at heart, an artist I think - I think someone who will treat the kids as his own. That's what I'm looking for. I think the ulterior motive is not to make the kid a star. It's really to train him and give him good validation. And that to me is the most important thing. It's a good place for him to feel comfortable."