https://fellowshipoftheminds.com/2016/04/04/new-breed-of-crisis-actors-fake-political-protesters/
Located in Denver, Colorado, a business that calls itself VisionBox Crisis Actors provides professionals (“trained players and actors”) who impersonate real-life people in simulations of mass casualty events, such as government drills, shootings and bombings, to help “schools and first responders create realistic drills, full-scale exercises, high-fidelity simulations, and interactive 3D films.” As an Oct. 31, 2012 feature story on the Crisis Actors website which I found on January 1, 2013, once boasted:
A new group of actors is now available nationwide for active shooter drills and mall shooting full-scale exercises, announced Visionbox, Denver’s leading professional actors studio.
Visionbox Crisis Actors are trained in criminal and victim behavior, and bring intense realism to simulated mass casualty incidents in public places.
The actors’ stage acting experience, ranging from Shakespeare to contemporary American theater, enables them to “stay in character” throughout an exercise, and improvise scenes of extreme stress while strictly following official exercise scenarios. […]
Visionbox Crisis Actors can also play the role of citizens calling 911 or mall management, or posting comments on social media websites.
For more, see my post “Professional crisis actors simulate mass casualty events“.