PowerPlays Coaching, LLC

The Mission of PowerPlays Coaching, LLC is to provide the finest training to lawyers and business professionals in the areas of communication, performance and interpersonal skills.  We believe that these essential skills can be taught to anyone at any stage of their professional development.  Our approach utilizes an experiential method, including role-playing scenarios, interactive communication exercises, and individualized coaching to allow professionals to develop the skills they need to succeed – whether in the courtroom or the boardroom.

History:

PowerPlays Coaching began as a program of Interborough Repertory Theater (IRT), a NYC-based not-for-profit professional theater.  The program was created in 1992 when NITA program director and Hofstra University Professor of Law Andrew I. Schepard found that the law students playing the witnesses at NITA deposition programs were not up to the task.  Complaining to a colleague, Richard Neumann, that actors would be much better, he was delighted to discover that Professor Neumann knew exactly where to find a group of actors, as he then was on the Board of Directors of IRT.  A handful of IRT actors were selected to portray witnesses for that deposition session, to great acclaim.  Repeat engagements followed and word quickly spread to other organizations about the value added by the use of actors.

In 2005, Kate Haggerty, a long-time actor and performance coach was appointed Program Director for IRT’s “Lawyer Seminars”.  She created a name and identity for the program – PowerPlays – and sought to expand the program to new clients and new offerings.  A two-hour performance-skills course for litigators was approved by the New York State Continuing Legal Education Board in 2006.  In 2007, a new direction was decided upon for both IRT and PowerPlays, and the two companies agreed to amicably part ways.  PowerPlays Coaching, LLC was created as an independent company, and began operations on July 1, 2007.  We remain committed to upholding the exemplary work that has been evidenced in our first fifteen years.

Who We Are

Please use the link on the left to read the biographies of our founder, perfomance skills teachers and actors.