Tuesday

How to ACT in an Acting Class

How to ACT in an Acting Class

Most actors, both new and working, take acting classes periodically to improve their abilities.

They learn new techniques, perform monologues they've prepared, pair with a partner, break down their scenes and often make beautiful and smart choices during their performance.




They do this because they are actors, it isn't just what they do, it's who they are. They've chosen this as their career. When you choose this as your career, every time to perform or 'become', whether it's in a class or a paid gig, you are professional at all times because YOU ARE WORKING.



That being said, I sit in on about 3 acting classes a week and a few days ago I sat in on one with new teachers and a host of new actors I had never seen before. I was like a kid in a candy store!...Only to find out that I wasn't in an 'Advanced Acting Class' at all, but instead had traveled back in time to 1995 and was back in my Drama 101 class, stuck in a room filled with grown men and women behaving like children with an advanced case of A.D.D.



So 'actors', let's have a refresher course on how you should behave in an acting class:




BE QUIET! If the instructor is not talking directly to
you about your performance, SHUT UP. I'm not an actor, but if I was and I was paying $40 - $100 a week and had to hear you cracking jokes every five minutes for three hours, we would have a problem. So shut up and listen, you may learn something!




PREPARE AND STUDY: Breakdown your scene/monologue line by line. Know your character's backstory, their objective in the scene and what ultimately happens to your character in the end.




BE PROFESSIONAL: Steer clear of other actors that want to joke and chat with you during class. Don't listen to their meaningless chatter, in fact, don't even look in their direction! Stay focused, be quiet and learn!!!!

Remember, your acting class is not just a place you go to practice acting, it's the place you go to become a Professional Actor.




2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Good post, definitely more people need to focus in class and ATTEND class. I dont understand how you can pay money for a class and not show up? Might as well burn your money and your gas.

AP

Lil' Wayne said...

I cant really say anything I was the worst kid in class in school always gettin kicked out..lol..but class wouldnt be class without the clowns.....something to dwell on