Unfortunately, like any industry, it is not all sunshine and roses. In fact, along your acting journey there is a chance that you’re going to meet some toxic personalities who don’t exactly have your best interests at heart. The problem, of course, with these kinds of people, is that they don’t just come out and say: “Hey! I’m a crazy, bad person and I’m going to take advantage of you!”

Most of these undesirable personalities come to you wearing the costume of charisma and friendliness. This can make it extremely difficult to discern who’s a bad apple. Does this mean that anyone who is kind to you and wears a big, toothy grin is out to swindle you? Of course not! I have met some incredible people who have changed my life for the better through this industry, and I have met some who have had less than honourable intentions. I have—along with other actors that I know—been scammed, taken advantage of and been swindled. Unlucky for me, but lucky for you: because now you can learn from my mistakes.

In this article, I’ll outline some hints, tips and tricks to look out for so that you can stay safe and well on this amazing journey we call acting. So take those rose coloured glasses off for a moment while we hunt down some of those red flags.

Agents

Ahh, I can still hear them now. I was young, dumb, and totally okay with this stranger who I just met telling me that they’re gonna make me a star. This was many years ago now, but essentially how one of my first meetings with an agent went. And of course I took them up on their offer and signed a super dodgy contract! Nowadays, the industry is far more regulated; still, with new agencies popping up everyday and most of them here just to make a quick dollarydoo (a legitimate currency in Australia), it can be hard to figure out who has your back and who just wants your money.

#1 Watch out if they try and make you pay a sign up fee!

This is straight up illegal. No “ifs” or “buts” about it. You will, however, need to pay for whatever casting websites that you have to use. It is always reasonable to double check if the website that you are signing up for is legit also. Most will cost you around $200AUD a year. So keep that in mind. Other than that, there are no other costs an agent should be charging you (except their 10-20% commission).

#2 If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

Be careful of any agent, or anyone really, making outlandish promises. If they are certain that they can make you a star, famous, or guarantee you work, then that’s a massive red flag. A good agent doesn’t make promises except for maybe trying their hardest to get your foot in the door for auditions. And while a good agent can take you far, no one person can make you successful.

#3 Try and avoid lock-in contracts.

A good agent doesn’t try and lock you down. There are exceptions to this, but if you’re new to the game most agents that you will be looking for aren’t going to be WME: they’re going to be most probably local agencies. If one of the big ones offers you a year-long, lock-in contract, that is a good deal! If some random local agency you’ve never heard of before offers you a year long lock-in contract, that’s different. You don’t want to be signing up to an agent who you later discover is no good, only to be stuck with them for a year. Not ideal.

#4 They try to restrict your freedom.

This point isn’t as talked about, because I believe it might not always be as obvious as the others. A classic scam is when an “agent” will sign you up and then make you pay for specific services. For example, I was with an “agent” who forced me to pay for headshots from a specific person (ended up being their cousin (shocking)) and insisted I pay for classes that they ran. If we didn’t? We would “mysteriously” not get put forward for work. Other dodgy agents may put clauses in your contract that allows them to micromanage your career and restrict your work. Always remember to read any contract before signing. A good agent will give you recommendations in regards to where to get headshots and good acting lessons, not force you to do them. If they really didn’t believe in your acting abilities, they wouldn’t have signed you.

#5 If you can, ask others for a reference.

Funnily enough, most reputable agencies will do the same about you when you’re looking to join. A simple reference check can go a long way and save you much hassle and money in the long term. Before you sign up to any agency, ask around and do your research. Look up who they represent; if you know some of their talent, reach out and ask them about their experience. If you’re not comfortable with that, join up with some local acting Facebook pages and ask on there. If someone has had a legitimate bad experience with an agent, it won’t be too hard to find if you ask around, and visa versa.

If you’re on the hunt for a reputable agent, check out ‘How to Contact Acting Agents’

Casting Directors

They’re the people who everyone wants to impress and win over. They have the responsibility of who gets the job and who doesn’t. But with great power must also come great responsibility. A good casting agent will never abuse that power. Ever. Here are some tips to use and reflags to look out for:

#1 False Promises

Similar to agents, a good casting director will never give you any outlandish promises. In fact doing any such thing would be unprofessional. This is what casting directors are looking for. If ANY casting director, or any one in the industry ever requests something from you that would make you uncomfortable, then you have the right to say no.

#2 A Paid Audition

This is ALWAYS a scam. I remember not too long ago where there was a “casting director” was pretending to be an employee for a well known streaming service, and was making the participants pay to audition for the “next big thing.” Of course there was no next big thing, or anything really. Just a person who could be best described as a word beginning with A and ending with hole, trying to make a quick dollar.

#3 They are a Mystery

This principle ,once again, is quite similar to the red flags in regards to agents (are you seeing the pattern yet?). If, say, for example, a “casting agent” sends you a message on your Instagram and asks you to come to their “super professional warehouse” where they want you to audition for a mystery project … it’s safe to say they are probably not legit. Especially if they have no website, and their Insta has 10 followers. It sounds obvious, but you’d be surprised. It’s not that actors are necessarily gullible, but more that these scammers have over time gotten better at preying on starry-eyed folks with big dreams in mind.

• Sydney Casting Directors
• Brisbane Casting Directors
• LA Casting Directors
• London Casting Directors
• Melbourne Casting Directors
• Toronto Casting Directors

On-set Safety

So far, everything has been, for the most part, common sense. Using everyday wisdom when it comes to sussing out bad agents and fake casting directors will help you avoid a catastrophe almost every time. Now I want to give you some insight into something that is, I believe, not talked about as often as it should in the acting world: safety and consent on set.

Story time:

Many years ago when my best friend and I were but young, naive actors, we got to be a part in a snazzy student film. Now, if you’re just starting out, student films are great. Usually they’re using the university’s cameras so the quality of your footage is crisp, it’s a good way to network and make friends, and get a feel for what it is like to be on a set. However, like most things there is always a downside to be wary of. Student films are, by definition, made by amateurs. Which is fine of course. You have to be an amateur before you become a pro, but naturally that comes with a whole bag of problems which can be boiled down to blatant unprofessionalism. This can be dangerous, as it was in my friends cas’e.

My friend (we’ll call her “Daniella”) was the main character, so there was a lot riding on her shoulders. During the climatic scene she had to crawl through “glass” so naturally they started off with sugar glass, which is a soft, fake substance. Very ideal, and very safe. However the director (we’ll call him Mr. Poo Head), didn’t like the look of the fake glass on camera and decided to break real glass on set for Daniella to crawl through. Obviously, Daniella protested. This was highly unsafe, and asking her to put herself through an unnecessary and dangerous task is nothing short of abuse. But Mr. Poo Head decided that he was going to get his way, so he argued, pleaded and guilted Daniella to do the stunt to the point where she reluctantly gave in. Luckily she managed, somehow, to not cut or injure herself.

Unfortunately, this not an isolated incident. Ask any actor. They have either seen, heard or experienced something like this or some version of this type of cohesion. Some may argue that Daniella could have just left instead of crawling through the glass. Which, yes, is technically true. But it’s a closed-minded argument that ignores the actual problem at hand. No-one should be forcing anyone on set (or anywhere) to do something that makes them feel unsafe or uncomfortable. Social expectations and peer pressure play a heavy role, and people like Mr. Poo Head know this and will use it to enact and justify predatory behaviour.

So, I am here to tell you, my fellow actor: that you can say no. No is a complete sentence, and you are in fact allowed to leave any set that makes you feel unsafe, or uncomfortable, or threatened. At the end of the day it’s just not worth it. You don’t owe anyone anything. Communicate your boundaries and give yourself permission to walk away if your health or wellbeing is in danger.

Here are some tips and things to look out for:

#1 Always try to let people know where you are.

You’re not always going be shooting at a studio or populated location. Sometimes, you’re going to be shooting in the middle of nowhere or out of town. A majority of the time this will be fine, but it’s best to always let people know where you are. When you’re first starting out, especially, you’re not going to know most of, or even all of the people you are filming with. So if the first time meeting everyone is on set in the middle of nowhere, it’s best to alert people where you are going. I know it sounds pedantic but the old “better safe than sorry” is still sound advice.

#2 Bring someone along with you.

You don’t have attend auditions, set, and shoots alone. It is more than okay to bring a friend. Having someone know where you are, and having someone with you to give a second opinion and keep you grounded, is a great strategy for staying safe. It can be wise that you bring along an actor friend who has more experience than you and therefore can give you great advice on the day. But having anyone there that cares about you can be a great help to your safety and well being.

#3 Put your boundaries in writing.

Have a meeting before filming in regards to your hard limits. This is especially important if there are any intimate, romance, or nude scenes in the project. If a director springs on you that today you have to do a kiss scene (for example), and there has been no prior agreement beforehand, turn the idea down. Remember that you don’t owe them anything; it is not your responsibility to keep track of these things. Any good director will be happy to discuss your boundaries and limits with you and adhere to them through out shooting. If any director has a problem with either of these things, it is a huge red flag and I would recommend declining the project.

#4 The ultimate rule: follow your gut.

If it feels off, if you’re not vibing with the person, production or circumstance, just politely decline. The times when I’ve gone wrong in life—both personally and professionally—is when I have ignored my gut instinct. It can be hard, too. Sometimes everything seems fine, and at face value there isn’t anything to worry about. Still, listen to your gut. Usually your intuition is your subconscious identifying a red flag and trying to warn you. And hey, it won’t always be correct. But often it’s best to prepare for the worst and be pleasantly surprised, than the other way round.

That’s a Wrap

I dearly hope, my fellow actors, that you never end up in any of these situations and you have a long, happy, safe acting career. Unfortunately not everyone you meet is going to have your best interests at heart. So stay safe out there! You might not always feel it, but it is you that has the power in these situations. You have the power to set your boundaries, be firm and say no.

And please don’t let these stories and warnings deflect you from actually getting out there and acting. A majority of the people you meet will be interesting, creative and kind individuals. Instances like these are, overall, quite rare, and in this current climate things have gotten better. (It can keep getting better too by keeping dialogues and discussions like this going.) So make sure you always check in with your fellow actors and artists and make sure you have each other’s backs. Don’t let anyone deter you from chasing this crazy dream and doing good work.

Stay safe, and as always, stay hungry.

The post How to Stay Safe as an Actor appeared first on StageMilk.

As an actor, it’s important to learn how to cut down a monologue or scene. You might want to make the perfect script work for an audition, or perhaps shave crucial seconds off a potential showreel piece. When making cuts, always ensure the intention of the scene is still apparent, the character’s voice is clear and that you’ve not lost the ‘spirit’ of the writing.

Sounds easy enough, right? It’s not like their your darlings that you’re killing… But actors come to me with questions on cutting down scripts all the time; there’s always a genuine fear that you might cut the ‘wrong’ bit or it will lose what they loved about it in the first place. So this article will give you a few pointers, and even take you through a couple of examples.

Why Cut Down a Monologue or Scene?

In short? Length. The length of a monologue or scene is always going to be an enemy of the actor, especially in an audition context. They battle the schedule, or short attention span of potential agents and collaborators, or the casting agent with another 139 people to look at (who all, scarily, look and sound exactly like you.)

Beyond the purely logical aspects, a longer scene often robs the material of its punch when not contextualised by the larger story. What might feel like a breathless, engaging monologue within a three hour film might suddenly drag without the action around it.

And this is especially important within the context of your showreel (or demo reel.) Showreel scenes need to get to the point, showcase you (not your scene partner) and end someplace quick and coherent. Just like acting for a self-tape, showreel scenes are sort of like their very own genre.

What to Cut:

Cutting material down from a monologue or scene is always a subjective process. There is no right or wrong way to do it, but there are some considerations you can take into account to make the process easier. We’ll talk over a few key basics below:

• Repetition. Do characters have a few quippy backs-and-forths before the scene gets going? There might be a repeated catchphrase, or somebody says something over and over to their scene partner for dramatic or comic effect. Banter is always fun … but do you need it?
• Padding. Can you identify any unnecessary lines/exchanges in between bigger moments? These are some of the most expendable parts of a scene, and you’ll find them peppered throughout even the best-written material.
• Long speeches. Examine chunks of text in the scene. Do they add to the story? Or do they rob the scene of its urgency? You might be able to get away with one speech that features you, but this needs to be earned by the larger drama of the scene’s context. Can you get away with cutting some of the speech and not all of it?
• Backstory! We will assume you’ve gone through your script analysis process, and you have a clear idea of your character’s journey, objective and the given circumstances of the larger story. But if you’re making cuts, consider material that references other scenes. Remember that your audience isn’t the expert on this scene you are. Try without and see if it still works.
• A weak beginning/ending. Do your characters ask each other how their morning was before they start to discuss a planned robbery? Does one character flare up at the other and then spend a minute comforting post-climax? Don’t settle for weak or meandering beginnings and exits. They might feel natural … but that’s not the ball game right now. Start the scene where it gets good, and get out after the good bit!
• Action. Consider making cuts to physical actions characters perform. Toasting drinks, lighting cigarettes, standing up and sitting down. All of these actions can waste valuable time

Final note:

Above all, keep the scene ‘present’. It needs to speak to its own here and now, and not set something else up or pay off in a later reveal—something that we’re never going to see. Let it stand on its own, and focus on the individual wants and objectives of the characters. That is where the drama of the moment comes from.

Case Study: “Wendy & Sam”

Let’s look at a scene for some examples of the above cutting suggestions. We’ll upload the original, untouched version, so you can have a go at making your own cuts:

Note that if you followed every direction in the above script, there’d probably only be a few lines left! So do exercise some restraint. And, as soon as you can, read through the scene with a fellow actor and for an audience unaware of the original material. You may even find yourself putting bits back in.

When can I Add to a Monologue or Scene?

Ooft. This is a tricky one. Unless it’s an audition side you’ve been sent—in which case the answer is “Add as much as you don’t want to get the job!”—there isn’t technically anything wrong with adding a word here or there. But I’d strongly recommend against it. ’cause where does it end?

There are plenty of reasons you might add something to a scene: to speak to the wider context, to a character quirk the audience might find entertaining. It might have something to do with an earlier scene that gives this monologue dramatic irony. Or maybe you think the character comes off in a bad light in this particular moment and you want to take something from later in the story when they become more sympathetic.

However, none of this is what the writer intended. At no point, in all their years of working on this story, did they ever think your addition needed to be there. If it did, they’d have written it already. This is why additions are bad news. Cutting a script might feel like you’re disrespecting the writer, but at least you’re not diluting their words with your own.

Making Changes

Making changes to a script isn’t quite as blasphemous as adding things. That said, it’s still important to be careful and to do so with good reason. Changing the pronouns of a character to suit you, and perhaps a name or two in the same vein, isn’t much of a problem. In fact, many of the scenes on StageMilk’s very own practice scripts for actors and practice monologues for actors are gender neutral to circumvent this need entirely.

However, changing a character’s job description, or the way they they communicate in the scene, can modify things greatly. Script analysis tells us that every word on the page, every punctuation mark, is worth interrogation. So chances are, if you’re changing things, you’re as good as weakening the script—even with the best intentions.

Ultimately, the situation dictates. If a few small modifications are going to help you better connect with the material, go for it. But the best piece of advice is to avoid adding to the material: make what’s already there work. As an actor, it’s sort of your entire job.

Can I Write my own Monologue or Scene?

Hells yeah you can! If all else fails with your editing efforts—if you’re making more cuts than Sweeney Todd and adding more lines than the original author—writing something original is always an option. We talk about writing for yourself a lot on StageMilk, as we think having a writer’s perspective as an actor is an invaluable skill set. So we’ll leave a few good resources below for you to peruse if you’re thinking of sitting at a typewriter and bleeding:

• How to Write a Vehicle for Yourself
• How to Write a Cabaret
• How to Write a Monologue
• How to Write a Short Film
• How to Write your First Screenplay
• And How to Tell your Friend their Script is Terrible (if you’re feeling brave.)

Conclusion

Let me leave you with this thought: it’s not strictly ‘cutting’ that you’re doing to a script. It’s editing. Any writer will tell you that editing—while tough at the best of times—is no less part of the creative process. Quite often, it’s the time when the piece finally comes together and becomes its best version. So when you go to cut down a monologue or scene, remember to respect the text: respect its ‘spirit’ and meaning. If you do that, you’re sure to keep the good stuff every time.

Good luck!

The post How to Cut Down a Monologue or Scene appeared first on StageMilk.

I joke, of course… but there is a small patch of truth, isn’t there?

You have chosen a path less travelled, and a path even fewer stay on long enough to see success. I get it, though: while it’s a fraught journey, you feel the artistic gods call to you. Or maybe you think getting paid to play is your idea of a dream career. For whatever reason, you are compelled to act and you have a desire to turn your passion into a career.

Many people dream of ‘making it’ as an actor, but the reality is that only a handful will. This is the stark reality of the industry. However, I do believe that all actors have the potential to make it. Success is not something you are born into, but something you obtain through overcoming challenges and taking risks, as well as defining what success means for you— and only for you. In this article, our goal is to break down what it takes to make it as an actor… as well as what that actually means.

I’ll tell you this much for free: this is not a “how to make it,” guide. We already have plenty of those, in the guise of big-picture questions such as “How to become an actor?“, “What do you need to become an actor?” and “How to have a lasting acting career?” In this article, we’re going internal, not external.

So grab a notebook and pen, a nice warm tea and put on your best thinking face. We’re going to ask ourselves some very deep and important things.

What is “making it” as an actor?

“All I would tell people is to hold on to what was individual about themselves, not to allow their ambition for success cause them to try to imitate the success of others. You’ve got to find it on your own terms.” – Harrison Ford

Sixteen year old me used to think that when you made it, some fat-cat-business-type in a pin-stripped suit would pull up to my house in a stretch limo, wind his window down and say to me in a thick, old time-y, New York Accent “Ya made it kid. You’re a star. You got the stuff to make it in this city. Hop in! I’m gonna take ya to the top!” 

I had quite the imagination… BUT I’d warrant more than a few of you have a similar image in your heads of what ‘making it’ might look like. It could be some big event or job (your entry into the MCU, perhaps), a level of fame and recognition you attain or some monetary milestone. Such ideas are what society and media peddle to would-be actors, which creates unrealistic pressure when they set career goals.

At the end of the day, the only way to ‘make it’ is to redefine what success is and what it means to you specifically. Make your version of ‘making it’ personal. Give yourself a deeper meaning, and ask yourself the most important question of all:

Why do I want to be an actor?

“He who has a why to live, can bear almost any how.” – Friedrich Nietzsche 

Why is it that you desire the perilous road before you? Why do you do what you do? And, given the ups and downs of this existence, should you become an actor, even if you want to? Such questions are vital to ask, because on the road to obtaining success (whatever that may mean for you) you will face failures, setbacks, self-doubt, and other moments of discouragement.

If your purpose (or why) is brittle or hollow—such as glitz, glamour, and fame—then it has the potential to break against whatever life decides to throw at you. The stronger your purpose, the stronger your resolve is. Therefore, it does not matter so much that you experience failures and all the like, because you have something to fight for. It’s a bit like a character and their objective in a scene. Without a strong objective, or with a vague one, you’re likely to flail about and bore your audience.

The artist’s life can be rewarding beyond anything you could ever imagine. But it is a struggle at times, and having a good reason to keep on going when times are tough will stop you quitting before you get to experience your version of ‘making it.’ 

A “Why” Activity

Before we continue, let’s stop and think about some more of these “why” questions. I’ve prompted a few down below, but dig deep and think of some others that may apply to you. I would recommend writing down what it is you want to achieve, and why it is you do what you do. Be realistic and honest with yourself, but also kind and encouraging. 

Also remember that it is okay for your why’s and purpose to change and evolve over time: this is only natural as you grow as an actor, an artist and a human being.

• Why did I start acting in the first place?
• Has that “why” changed? 
• Why have I chosen acting as a career? (Give at least 3 reasons)
• What does “making it” look like for me?
• What steps will I need to take to get there?
• Who am I trying to impact with my career?
• What drives me to act?
• How does acting contribute to my overall purpose in my life?
• What do I want my purse in life to be?
• How can I use acting to serve others?

And just to help you along, here are a couple we’ve answered elsewhere on this site.

• Should I become an actor?
• Is acting right for me?
• How do I find purpose as an actor?

It is a lot to think about, I know. You don’t have to have all of the answers today, and they will change the more you think about them. Just keep checking in with yourself, openly and honestly.

Honour The Struggle

“My career is a journey for me, and any journey is incomplete without the struggle.” – Yami Gautam 

If you have ever mentioned that you want to be an actor to anyone, at all, ever, they will tell you how hard it is followed by some unsolicited, unhelpful advice. You know what I mean. It’s that moment when you’re at a family gathering and your weird aunt who has no clue how the industry works tells you that “It’s not what you do, it’s who you know,” and “Make sure you have a back up plan because it’s a hard industry to break in to!”

And of course they mean well; I would wager that they’re just trying to look out for you. But it’s still a pain to listen to, especially early in your career when you have less self confidence and experience telling such people to politely back off. So what do you do? Listen to them.

The truth of it is, breaking in is hard. Choosing the career path of an actor is probably one of the hardest things you can do. The sooner you accept that, the sooner you can work out how you are going to do it. Honour the struggle. Accept that it’s going to be hard, and push on anyway. Do not have disdain for it, because if you start to hate how hard something is to achieve, you will grow to resent it.

There’s a quote that comes to mind from Brendon Burchard: “Struggle will either destroy us, or develop us, and the hardest of human truths is, that ultimately it is our choice.” When you start to fall in love with the challenge, and respect the hard work it is going to take to make it, that’s when you will start to see a clearer path forward. Getting rejected is hard. Having periods of nothing is hard. But you have to persevere. It’s the only way. If your aunt annoys you because she’s making too much sense … she might just have a point you should hear.

A “Challenges” Activity

What are you currently struggling with in regards to your acting goals? Write down each hurdle, challenge, doubt or whatever else you might be struggling with. Then, next to each one of those things, write down a way you can rise to/overcome/prepare for it. Having some foresight can help you out when the struggle actually happens.  

What are you willing to sacrifice?

“You have to fight to reach your dream. You have to sacrifice and work hard for it” – Lionel Messi

We all know that good things require certain sacrifices. I’m not talking about slaughtering a goat on top of a pentagram (although you do you), more certain aspects of your life that will inevitably get knocked down your list of priorities. Working on something like an acting career means sacrificing free time in order to do that, or maybe time with friends and family.

Not long ago, I had an audition at nine o’clock in the morning (very early for some.) The night before, I’d been invited to a friend’s birthday party with an extremely generous bar tab. I still went along, but instead of taking advantage of free booze, I decided to not drink and came home at a reasonable hour. In the morning, I felt great—not tired or hungover—and gave it my all at the audition. Now it sounds obvious, but you’d be surprised (or maybe not) at the amount of stories I have heard in regards to actors being hungover at an audition. Choosing to be fresh at an audition rather than tired or hungover doesn’t sound like a huge sacrifice, and that’s because it isn’t. It’s one of the little ones you might have to so you can be your best. 

These little sacrifices aren’t always obvious, but they are crucial … and they do build up. Giving up a shift at your day job to attend an audition costs a little money; if you’re giving up a day a week to rehearse for an indie theatre show, you’re suddenly looking at a significant financial commitment. So the little sacrifices become larger, and start to affect things like stability and comfort of lifestyle. Not to mention the uncertainty that comes with it all. As you navigate your career, look for balance so that you aren’t miserable, stressed and lonely.

Fortune favours the bold, and the bold take calculated risks. After all, that’s what sacrifice is: calculated risks. 

A “Sacrifices” Activity

Create a list of things in life that you might need to sacrifice on this journey to making it: free time, money, stability, family/friends time, relocating away from your home for work. Then make another list of what you are actually willing to sacrifice so that you can make it. Don’t shoot for the stars, think of small things: drinking coffee at home so that you can save money for a class. Less time playing video games and more time reading plays. Then compare the lists and look for a balance you can strike.

Your Craft Is Your Key

“Study, find all the good teachers and study with them, get involved in acting to act, not to be famous or for the money.” – Philip Seymour Hoffman

An interesting and insightful thought popped into my head not a few months ago: I was analysing a script for no other purpose than to practice the art of analysis. It was a tough nut to crack; after a while, I was getting flustered and I thought to myself, “Why am I even doing this?!” Then, out of no where, a little voice in the back of my mind replied, “Because your career depends on it.”

Getting to the level that you need to get to, in order for you to be working regularly, is tough. People often try to get to the top of a career that they may not even be ready for. If Big Hollywood came out of no where right now and offered you a lead role in a blockbuster film, would be you be ready for the task? Would your skills and craft be up to the task? The people at the top got there because they had something to give. The desire to become great takes them over. You have to become a little obsessed. Acting isn’t just a career choice, it is a lifestyle choice.

I was recently told that the chances of becoming a regular, working actor, was about the same as making it into the NBA. If that’s the case, then you need to do what those basketball players do. Work hard on your skills and craft, the same way an athlete would. This doesn’t stop at just acting, but all the skills that encompass that. An NBA player doesn’t just work on their jump shot, dribbling and passing. They also work on their fitness, endurance, nutrition, strength, health and mind set. Actors should work on adjacent skills like vocal control, physical movement, improvisation skills, communication, the ability to work with others and, like an athlete, your health and mindset. Each skill feeds into each other, just as a rising tide lifts all boats.

A “Skills” Activity

You’ve probably got some great skills, my fellow actor, but can you pinpoint them? Can you accurately say what it is that you are good at, and the level to which you can perform that skill? Write down your current skills and rate them on a scale of 1 -5 (1 being nothing, 5 being Christian-Bale-level good). Then write down the acting skills you think you might need to develop (accents, voice work, a specific technique) below are some articles that can get you started.  Create a personalised curriculum that you can break down into manageable, bite sized chunks everyday or week. 

Mindset

“Whether you think you can, or think you can’t, either way you are right.” – Henry Ford

Everything you ever do, every big decision you make or change you enact upon your own existence, starts with your mindset. How you look at life usually depicts the quality of your own. Sure: bad things happen, but you can’t control that. You can only control yourself.

So how does this relate to acting and making it? Well the good news is: you’ve already started to change your mindset after reading everything I’ve written before this sentence. I asked you to change your perspective of what success looks like. I got you to ask “why?” I even made nice little activities to help you along. Basically, I tricked you into thinking and reflecting. Because you have to change your mindset. In order to make it, you have to believe that you can make it. 

If you think you are going to fail and quit, you probably will. I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone who has had the mindset of quitting and giving up who went on to succeed despite this attitude. In general. In any field. Moments of doubt are natural, that’s just being human. But in order to have what it takes to make it, you have to believe—to know—that you have what it takes to make it. 

Your mindset isn’t just “positive thinking” and “belief,” either. It’s how you look at, not just yourself, but the world around. When you walk outside of your house every morning, do you see the world as a beautiful place full of opportunity and potential? Or do you see it as a horrible world with nothing but trouble and darkness? The truth probably lies in the middle, but you get my point. Now think about acting. How do you view auditions? Networking events? The people you work with? How about events in your life? My life changed when I decided that things in life aren’t happening to me, but for me. And this kind of attitude affects those around you: when people see you as a positive figure in the industry (rather than somebody full of cynicism and bitterness), they’ll be more likely to bring you in for jobs. Because that person sounds a lot more interesting to work with.

A “Mindset” Activity

Think about your current mindset, beliefs, and perceived limits that you have in regards to acting. Are these beliefs about acting—yourself as an actor—your own beliefs, or the echoes of what people have told you over the years? Now write down what kind of mindset you think you will need to adopt to “make it” and what mindset you want to have. Can you start shaking it up today? Can you start believing a new way of thinking so that you can break through whatever barriers you feel are in front of you? Lastly, write down your views on different aspects of acting. What is your current mindset on craft, challenges, auditions, directors, writers, other actors, yourself; now adjustments could you make to these mindsets? 

Final Thoughts

I know all of this sounds near-insurmountable, but making it demands that you have to work hard. After all, hard work and effort is what separates the dreamers from the doers. Have peace of mind, though, that half of the satisfaction lies in the effort you give to all aspects of life, especially acting.

So the question is: do you have what it takes to make it? I hope the answer is “Yes.” Or even a “Heck yes!” But if it isn’t, then that is okay too. It is totally, 100% valid for acting to be something you want to do for fun or as a hobby, or a creative outlet. That is more than okay, and don’t let anybody else convince you otherwise.

For those who do want to, “make it,” I hope you get there. We’re all in this together, after all! Work at your goals everyday, be the best that you can be, and never give up. Live well and stay hungry. And go for it!

The post What Does it Take to Make It as an Actor? appeared first on StageMilk.

Learning how to expand your range as an actor will open you up to new and exciting opportunities in your career. It will give you the confidence to pursue unexpected, unlikely and varied roles, and help shape the perception others have of what kinds of parts you can realistically play. In this article, we will examine some ways you can expand your acting range; however, all of these strategies rely on you first challenging your own pre-conceived notions of what your limits are as an artist and as a human being. 

A quick disclaimer…

Before we jump in, let’s quickly set some boundaries around range: the kinds of things that should be obvious enough but are worth mentioning to be clear so we can move on to the good stuff. First of all, there are limits as to what you can and can’t portray: think age, race, gender and identity. Nobody wants to see a white Othello, a twenty-something King Lear or a cis-gendered person portraying a trans character.

These things have been done in the past, sure. But we’re (finally) coming into an age where this kind of casting is being phased out in favour of actors with lived experiences playing parts written for them (or at least speaking respectfully to their experiences.) This issue is an article unto itself, so let’s settle it for now with a simple rule: wanting to expand your range should never be about taking the place of another. Don’t be bitter, don’t mourn a job lost, look for the next one. We guarantee it’ll be better suited to you.

Okay, disclaimer disclaimed. Let’s dive in!

What is an Actor’s Range?

In short, an actor’s range is the spectrum of roles they can believably portray. Some actors have an incredibly diverse range—flitting from character to character like chameleons, and popping up in the unlikeliest films spanning various genres.

The late great Robin Williams is a great example of an actor with incredible range: his dramatic turn in Good Will Hunting is a world away from the comedy Mrs. Doubtfire, not to mention the horror of One Hour Photo. Tilda Swinton also springs to mind (her IMDB page is a wild ride), as does Jamie Foxx and another fallen legend, Philip Seymour Hoffman.

Compare these kinds of actors to somebody like Robert DeNiro. He’s a master of the method madness, a true giant of the acting profession! And yet, you can be pretty much certain of what he’s going to do in any given role. He gets typecast in roles that speak to what we know and understand Robert DeNiro to be. And there is nothing wrong with that. Some actors simply stay in their lane and (hopefully) corner the market.

How to Expand Your Range as an Actor

How do you expand your range? Start by thinking about what your range is now. How are you seen in the industry? What kinds of roles do you get sent for and book over and over?

Next, think about the kinds of roles you’d like to play. What would be an unexpected part you think you’d do really well? Let’s say you’re a quiet, kind-faced individual who books a lot of roles as a supportive best friend. How’d you feel about playing a romantic lead, or a bully, or a serial killer?

One of the things people often do is confuse ‘range’ with ‘actor type’. We’ve spoken about typecasting a lot, here, on StageMilk. While the two concepts are similar, it’s fair to argue that they’re different. There’s often not much you can do about being typecast, as it’s inherently tied to your identity. With range, there’s more wiggle room: more opportunities to grow and challenge perceptions.

So how do you expand your range? Start by thinking about what your range is now. And will yourself to look for roles beyond that.

Take an Acting Class

Taking an acting class can be hugely beneficial in expanding your range. Whether you’re an up-and-comer with no training, or a three-year-drama-school veteran with a host of commercials under your belt, an acting class is a fine reminder that you can play the greats, the classics, the big roles that demand more than a self-tape of you pretending to buy frozen yoghurt. Acting classes are nurturing spaces that help you rediscover the ‘artist’ part of being an actor.

The other advantage of acting classes are the peers you’ll have the opportunity to work with. Walk into that studio and run a challenging scene in front of them: see if they can tell it’s not what you usually take on. In a safe, educational environment, there’ll be no judgement that you’ve tried something new. Only support, and from a group of people who can view your experiment with totally fresh eyes. An acting class is the perfect place to experiment and take some risks!

Work With an Acting Coach

For a more focused approach, try doing some sessions with an acting coach. In these sessions, the focus is one-hundred-percent on you and what you wish to improve. So speak to the coach about your range and how they might suggest you expand. Actually, the better question with an acting coach is where to expand your range. They should be able to guide you as to what you can conceivably play, and where to focus your efforts moving forward.

A great place to work with an acting coach is right here, at StageMilk! We run a Scene Club that offers up a wealth of monologues and scenes for you to attempt each month, which are then viewed and critiqued by a professional, industry veteran acting coach.

Focus on a Genre or Style

This one is simple enough: if you’d like to book more science fiction roles, practice more science fiction scripts! Get comfy with a particular genre or style. Often, your acting range is diminished by a lack of knowledge about the particular field in which you’re hoping to expand. So will yourself to become an expert! Read more scripts, watch more films, practice script analysis to know how the writer has created a particular character/narrative/style on the page.

One range expansion a lot of actors are looking to achieve is performing Shakespeare. Shakespeare’s plays, characters and words are scary to a lot of actors; they turn away a great deal of talented performers simply because they don’t know where to begin, and how to get comfortable. Set yourself the goal to become a Shakespeare expert! Or at least confident enough that you could have a conversation at a party without feeling like a fraud. Get to know his plays by reading or watching them, and work at deciphering and understanding (and appreciating) the language.

Expanding your acting range is a lot about confidence and knowing yourself. But like so much of acting, it’s mainly study and hard work. Let this comfort you: the hard work pays off.

Practice New Material

Once you’ve thought about your range, and you’ve decided where you’d like to expand and challenge yourself, find some material and have at it! Find a scene or monologue that typifies something unexpected for you as a performer, and bring it to life. The trick, when playing outside your usual range, is not to treat it like it’s anything unusual. Do the same work you’d do for any other role: interrogate character, analyse the script, find your character’s objective/s and the actions they deploy to achieve it.

Finding new, confronting material is paramount to improving your acting abilities and expanding your range. Often, when we see great performances in our Scene Club here at StageMilk, we find ourselves stuck with what to say. What do you tell a performer who’s nailed it, and has nothing in that needs fixing or strengthening?! We tell them to play. Experiment, try new things, make unexpected choices.

Make a fool of yourself! Be bold, be mousey! Go full Cage, go full Gosling! You can discover all sorts of amazing things in simply tackling unexpected material, or trying a comfortable scene in a less-than-safe way. In those moments, you are sure to surprise and delight yourself.

Put Yourself Out There

For all the great work you can do on yourself and your craft to expand your range, it all counts for naught unless you actually go out there and pursue new roles. Seek out opportunities to play roles that subvert your usual typecasting: look for casting opportunities, auditions, speak to your creative community about your goals (if you haven’t already) and see what they could do to help you break the mould.

If you’re lucky enough to be represented by an agent, talk to them about sending you for roles outside your usual slate of auditions. You might need to work harder to impress the casting director if you’re not an obvious choice, but you certainly didn’t set this range-expanding goal because you knew it’d be easy.

However, if this exploration is happening within the safety of an acting class or with a coach, then you have no damn excuse not to go hard on the range-busting roles. Every chance you have to perform and workshop your acting is a chance to change perceptions and grow. Don’t waste the opportunity to perform for and work with others on a safe role you know you can nail. From the other side of that equation, we’ll tell you this for free: there’s nothing more boring than watching an actor perform a scene they feel they’re ‘perfect’ for. Inevitably, this breeds complacency (and boredom.)

Consider Stage, Screen and Voice

One final provocation before we wrap things up: if you’re primarily a ‘stage’ or ‘screen’ actor, look for roles in the other discipline! Step onto a set or into a rehearsal room and see what happens when you’re taken out of your comfort zone. A lot of actors don’t think about range as being tied to the field in which they work. And that’s because it isn’t. Why would you deny yourself the opportunity to work across such a huge percentage of your field, simply because you don’t generally ‘do’ that aspect of your craft?

Working in a new medium gives you the chance to view your acting through a new lens. So branch out and look for work in the aspect of acting you don’t know so well, because that will provide you with a fresh perspective on what you can play—and well. You may even surprise yourself, and find that what you originally disdained or dismissed is actually your new passion.

As an extension to this strategy, consider pursuing more voice work as an actor. Voice acting is a great field that promotes an incredible diversity of jobs and styles; because of this, it’s a great place to try and expand the kinds of characters you play. Ideally from the comfort of your own, COVID-era home recording studio.

And if none of these things particularly appeal to you, you lose nothing by treating them as experiments. Think of them as you might an acting class: use them to challenge yourself, knowing that the comfort and safety of your usual field will always be there.

Conclusion

Confidence and honesty are paramount to expanding your range as an actor. So if you’ve decided to undertake this challenge for the sake of your career, know that it’s going to require a lot of introspection and frank assessment of who you are as an actor. This can be rather tough!

The good news is there are plenty of ways to approach this topic, and therefore options galore for you to consider. Here at StageMilk, we’re here to give you All The Encouragement and tell you that, for all its difficulties, expanding your range as an actor is fantastic. Think of all the incredible roles you’ll suddenly open yourself up to! All of the opportunities previously hidden or denied… It’s a tough road, for sure. But there is so much to be gained.

Finally, let us leave you with this nugget of encouragement. When you think about your range, you’re thinking on how to be a better actor, not simply how to book more roles. This will not go unnoticed, because you’ll be signalling your peers and the wider industry that you’re exactly the kind of actor people strive to work with: one who wants to improve, and challenges themselves to be more.

Good luck!

The post How to Expand your Range as an Actor appeared first on StageMilk.

Why Make a Web Series?

We started out with a theatre script that Val had written a few years before. The premise was too big to fit into a short film, but a feature felt too ambitious. A web series format allowed us to be flexible with structure while affording us the screen time we needed. Starting with a pre-established concept provided us with boundaries that kept us on track. Less time spent brainstorming hypotheticals pushed us to get cracking on productive scriptwriting.

The Scriptwriting Process

With a few characters and story beats in mind, we fit the story into a general outline and let the number of episodes be determined by how much material was available. When we were sitting down to write, we’d go episode by episode. Breaking it down like this gave us a simple framework to get a completed draft down on paper. 

This was a natural way to work, but not necessarily the best approach. Specifically crafting each episode rather than chopping a full story into parts would have reduced some of the restructuring we faced in the edit. At the time, our priority was to get a full, functional script so we could start on pre-production. The script was actually never locked off (we had to add and adjust scenes even during the shoot) so the aim wasn’t to make something perfect – just to have a blueprint to work with. 

What if You’re Not a Writer?

If you have never written anything in your life, then pick something from your acting history. It could be a character, a setting, or even just a single joke. If it’s something that could be used as a prompt for an improv scene, then you’re golden. Practical prompts will give you a better head start than themes or emotions – tangible problems are solvable problems – and the heart of your story will emerge naturally along the way.

Choosing a Role

If you’re producing, it’s a good idea to get someone else on board to direct. Even if you’re producing a micro-tiny-super-low budget production, it’s great practice to delegate roles. The other departments will appreciate the clarity and attention it provides.

If you’re directing, you’ll want to stay busy with the script, actors, and visual planning. The finer details of catering deliveries, transport & parking logistics or gear hire limitations can easily overpower your creative capacity. On top of that, legal & financial matters might include contracts, location viability, or Covid measures.

What’s Your Budget?

Once we had our script in a satisfactory shape, we could start looking at how much this whole thing would cost. The biggest costs are equipment, wages, and catering, but every little bit adds up and you’ll be tweaking your budget as often as your script. 

How much it costs is however much you’re willing to spend. We had a budget that far outweighed our experience and it was challenging to keep up with the high bar that was set. If there’s a couple of things to learn from this, they are:

• Compromising high production values can be a blessing. The pain of making costly mistakes is stressful. Making cheap mistakes only hurts your ego.
• Pick a number and stick to it. Your bank account will thank you, but so will your integrity. You don’t want to be offering pennies to Crew Member #1, but end up paying pounds to Crew Member #2. Adjusting your numbers in the middle of crewing leads to sacrificing that money in other areas, or ending up further out of pocket than planned.

And never forget about post-production! Assess the level of budget you worked with for your shoot to see how much you’re willing to invest in the final product. The budget for post usually falls at around half of what it cost to shoot it.

Crewing For a Web Series: Where to Start?

The timeline for making our budget crossed over with casting and finding our crew. First Assistant Directors and Producers are the key to avoiding nasty surprises and should be the first crew members you look for. A producer can help you put together your budget, then the First AD will let you know if your script is realistically possible in the number of shoot days you can afford. These two roles will ensure that the logistics are taken care of so you don’t lose focus on why you began this endeavor in the first place. 

Crewing For a Web Series: Where to Look?

Casting was a cinch with most of our friends being actors, but our crew contacts were a bit thin. Lucky for us, producing original work is networking at its friendliest. Begging and borrowing can actually lead to great relationships and there are plenty of talented professionals who are paying their bills through commercial work. Many were happy to come on board for less than their going rate because they were intrigued by the script. The downside here was competing work. A few crew members understandably had to take on full-wage work that conflicted with our schedule. 

This made for a challenging phase; should we set our dates now or schedule them around cast and crew availability? The annoying answer is that it’s a bit of both. There are so many moving parts that it was necessary to set some of them in stone, but remain as accommodating as possible to our generous collaborators. We just chipped away at progress while fixing the problems that arose, crossing our fingers that the stars would align.

Pre-Production

The number of aspects involved in pre-production is mind-boggling, and all of them are expertly covered around the internet. To avoid drowning in the ocean of information, we first focused on scouting locations, planning the shots & production design, and left creating a shooting schedule until we had a few more puzzle pieces locked in. Our crew was by far the best source of information and the series wouldn’t be possible without the collaboration involved in this stage. 

Writing is Rewriting

With all this new input, we were re-working the project constantly. Some of the changes were because there was a better way of approaching a scene, but others weren’t so positive. We had locations change because of cost, availability & lighting conditions. One location was scrapped because there was a flightpath directly over it. A change of venue can completely change the tone of a scene, so rewrites and last-minute solutions became routine. 

Gear Considerations

On our shoot, we wanted to give the actors the freedom to riff. To make sure this rough and loose attitude wasn’t going to leave us with footage we couldn’t use, there were some technical requirements we planned for. The sound recordist set up each actor with their own lapel mic and was always recording with a boom. We also shot as much as we could with two cameras. It took a little longer to set up, but would halve the time it took to shoot dialogue scenes. The main consideration here was to capture organic interaction. If there was a bit of improv, a skipped line or an unexpected moment of absolute gold, we could still use it even if it wouldn’t cut together with any of the other takes. 

The Shoot

We planned a 10 day shoot spread over 2 weeks. It turned out to be a blessing that we had so many adjustments to make in pre-production, because we were about to put that practise to good use. 

One of the best decisions we made on this project was to recruit another producer a week before we started shooting. One of our lead actors got a TV job and had to leave on Day 2 – after we had already shot a scene with them on Day One. Then on Day 3, we figured we were about to get rained out from our exterior location and had to completely reshuffle shooting days. We had our three original producers multi-tasking; directors, 1st ADs, and actors all have full time responsibilities on set, so having a dedicated producer on board was an absolute necessity.

Post Production

Seeing your work come together is the best learning curve, and you can always edit it yourself to maximise your time watching the takes. Dissecting what worked, what didn’t, and why can be extremely valuable. Because of the scope of our project, we worked with an editor and again, the collaboration paid off. A fresh set of eyes led to reworking entire episodes, reordering some scenes, cutting others entirely. It’s the last rewrite of the script from an entirely new perspective. Add some sound design & composition, and in our case a colour grade, and you’ve got yourself a web series!

Edit Timeline

In reality, the post production was the longest stage of our project. We spent about 3 months mulling over the script, 7 months on pre-production, 2 weeks on set, and over a year in post-production. The biggest challenge here was maintaining momentum. Cast and crew move on to their next jobs and you’re left with a few hard drives and a significant sleep debt. But it’s also the most rewarding part, and there’s really no deadline other than one you might set for yourself. The Fast, Cheap, or Good ratio comes into play – you can only ever choose two out of the three – and it’s been worth it to take this phase slow. It’s an expensive process if you’re outsourcing these skills, and it’s been invaluable to take this time to reflect on our work. 

Before the Credits Roll…

Here are a few bonus tips that we learned the hard way:

1. Don’t forget about Marketing & Distribution! We did, and it’s not an easy thing to fix in post. Where to release it and who’s going to watch it are pivotal considerations for budgeting and technical requirements. Making M&D plans during post was more difficult and less effective than doing it before the budget.
2. Getting feedback on our edits gave an outside perspective and made a huge improvement on the work. This would’ve been an excellent idea to do for the script. We got so caught up in getting it off the ground that we failed to put time aside for script feedback. What makes sense, what’s unnecessary, structural changes like how to start and end each episode – these changes aren’t always possible in the edit when we’d already shot the footage a certain way.
3. Plan for any funding opportunities before the shoot, crowd funding included. Grants and awards are out there, but most have requirements that are tough to fulfil when your project isn’t specifically tailored. All of these options will be made easier when you document your process – you can never have enough Behind The Scenes photos!

The post How To Make A Web Series appeared first on StageMilk.

#1 Work on Monologues

Whether we like it or not, the best way for us to practice and better our acting is to do just that; to act! Start by choosing a monologue. It doesn’t matter if it’s a particularly famous one or not so long as you feel it resonates with you. Then just follow your instincts and see how it turns out! Film your performance on your phone and watch it back. Maybe it will be Oscar worthy, maybe it won’t. The point is that you try. Try to watch it back objectively but with a critical eye. If you were watching this at the cinema what would you take away from it? Then ask yourself which parts worked, which parts didn’t and what can you improve one next time?

#2 Read Quality Acting Books

Now when it comes to acting books there’s a lot of fluff out there. But amongst the noise are some truly brilliant books. Make your way through as many of these books as you see fit. They’ll all offer different perspectives, and from time to time will downright contradict one another. What matters is that you give them a try and take the parts you find useful to become the best actor you can be and deliver a quality performance when you next work on a monologue! Here are some of StageMilk’s favourite acting books to get you started:

• A Challenge for the Actor – Uta Hagen
• The Intent to Live – Larry Moss
• The Power of the Actor – Ivana Chubbuck
• The Complete Stanislavsky Toolkit – Bella Merlin
• No Acting Please – Eric Morris

This is just a small number of the wealth of good acting knowledge to be found on bookshelves around the world. For more of our favourites click here! 

#3 Watch Quality Films (And Maybe Some Bad Ones)

Ah, the moment we’ve all been waiting for! Watching different kinds of films and paying attention to what makes them work or not can be a really helpful way for you to work on your acting. Not only because you’ll see what makes a good or a bad performance. But, also because you’ll gain a better understanding of storytelling as a whole. So throw on some classics, or maybe even some lesser known indie gems and get watching! You’ll be surprised just how much you can learn just by watching with intention.

#4 Go to the Theatre

So this one is a bit of a funny one as you may or may not be anywhere near a theatre, nor have the money to attend one. But with that in mind, most small towns will have some sort of local theatre or at least one that’s within a reasonable distance from you. And when it comes to financing it, just give them a call! A lot of smaller theatres are usually pretty affordable and some might even do deals for certain demographics, or on certain nights. With all that being said, it’s a great idea to go and see actors in action to gain an understanding of what good, or bad acting looks like live and in person. Maybe even if you’re feeling brave enough you could ask to audition, as we stated above the best way to learn is to keep doing it! So give it a go! You might be surprised how it goes.

#5 Watch and Listen to Interviews

There is a wealth of knowledge to be found on YouTube, and wherever you listen to podcasts. Countless hours of actors discussing their journey and their craft can be at your fingertips. If you don’t have access to smart devices or a personal computer, don’t worry! Your local library should have a computer you can use to watch and listen to some incredible actors break down their process. 

Bonus Tip – Join StageMilk

Shameless self plug time! As I said above, ultimately you probably won’t be able to teach yourself acting mastery, and teaching yourself should really act as a stepping stone on your journey to becoming an actor. When that time comes, and you feel you’re ready you can come and join us over at StageMilk Drama Club. One of the benefits of StageMilk is that you can join in from anywhere in the world so long as you have three things. A computer, an internet connection, and a camera/camera phone. In the Drama Club we work on a scene each month, provide feedback on your acting, and offer classes in acting, industry, voice and more throughout each month. One of the best parts is we have a thriving community of actors who are some of the most generous, kind and brave people you can meet! If this sounds like something you’d be interested in, follow the link above.

Conclusion

So as I said above, teaching yourself acting can be a great first step on the long journey to becoming an actor. Eventually you’ll have to put yourself out there, but in the meantime, you can use these five tips to teach yourself acting! So have a play, see what works for you, and enjoy!

The post Five Ways to Teach Yourself Acting appeared first on StageMilk.

Playing a real-life person as an actor is challenging, and does require a different mindset/skillset when preparing for the role. However, much of your foundational acting training will be useful in this scenario, and it is important that you still explore the role as you might any other fictional character. Research can be a vitally important tool when playing a real-life person as an actor, but it is only one facet of the task before you. Learn about the historical figure, but don’t forget to discover the ‘human’ as well.

In this article, we’ll be looking at six things you can do to prepare for playing a real-life person as an actor. Some of these tactics might already be central to your acting process—like given circumstances. Others, such as the daunting task of research(!), might be a little more foreign. Just remember that all of these things will aid you in your role prep, and not to mention improve your acting craft overall.

#1 Think About The Historical Figure

Let’s start with some big picture stuff.

Ask yourself “Why this person? Why this story?” Is this person historically significant? Famous? Infamous? What for? If they’re not famous, ask yourself why. What’s kept them out of the history books? And is this the reason you’re telling their story?

Whether they’re famous or not, they’re certainly important. To whom? What did they do with their lives to warrant their story being told? Were they a leader, or a great thinker, an artist, a revolutionary, a tyrant?

Are they still alive? Do they have the same/less/more impact today?

Finally, consider their context in history, in society and in the world. Are they a lauded figure? Controversial? An iconoclast? More often than not, people who aspire to greatness are kept apart from society by their drive, their deeds—the very things that make them extraordinary. What don’t people know or understand about them? How can you address this in your performance?

Keep returning to these questions of “Why this person? Why this story?” In pondering these queries, you can tap into what drives people to know this person—and know them beyond whatever they might read in a textbook or watching a documentary.

#2 Think About The Person

Next, take some time to think about the ‘human’ behind the ‘historical figure’. This is the side of the person you won’t necessarily get in the history books, and it’s the advantage you, as the actor, will have in bringing this person’s story to life. It’s the aspect of the character that your audience is going to connect with—whether they know the person’s story inside out, or are encountering them for the very first time.

Think about the emotions felt by this person, the weight of their (sometimes world-changing) decisions. Did they choose well, or poorly? How did their decisions affect them, or even haunt them? Consider their personality quirks and foibles: the little ‘character’ details that set them apart. I like to use the example of Abraham Lincoln, who far too few people know was a big fan of housecats. Will this play into your portrayal of Honest Abe? Who’s to say it won’t…

Consider their personal relationships: with other historical figures, with the people that supported or inspired or persecuted them. Who can’t you find in a history book or documentary? How did friends and family interact with this person? Were they treated differently in the living room than they were victorious on the battlefield?

At the very least, consider the personal strengths and weaknesses of this character. What are their human flaws? How can an audience relate to these flaws and find some affinity with this person?

In all of your preparation, keep returning to these concepts of ‘historical figure’ and human’. It is your job to strike a balance between these concepts: know both intimately, but don’t rely too heavily on either.

#3 Research Your Role

This is the step that can scare off many an actor—it can feel a bit like you’re back in high school! But research shouldn’t be a scary part of the process; think of it more like detective work, where you’re cracking the case of who this person is.

Below, we’re going to outline some good research methods you might find helpful when preparing a role:

• Wikipedia. A classic for a reason. Wikipedia has long had a reputation for being unreliable (left over from the days when high school English teachers thought the Internet was going to poison young minds); in actual fact, it’s an excellent first stop on your research journey. Look up the person, get a sense of their life and achievements. Tip: if you scroll to the bottom of the page, you can check out the sources for the information on the entry you’re reading: look at this for more detailed reading.
• Documentary/Film/Series. See if there’s a film or series about the person: aim for non-fiction if you can, but don’t shy away from historical drama to get a sense of the person’s life and experience. Just be careful that you don’t end up copying the mannerisms of a performer playing the same person, and beware historical changes due to artistic license. You’d hate to base something in your performance on fabrication rather than fact!
• Interviews/Archival Footage. If the person you’re portraying was ever filmed or recorded, watch these to see how they spoke, interacted and presented themselves. Even better is archival footage, where they’re not necessarily ‘on’ for a camera, but being filmed candidly.
• Books. This can be a tedious option for some, but books are the most reliable: researched, reviewed and with an unmatched density of information. If you have the time, settle down with a good biography of your real person and get lost in their life.
• Articles and Journals. On the more academic side of things, articles and journals online can provide some focused information, usually on one aspect of the real person you’re looking to portray. Not always the most accessible things to read (or find for free), they can still provide some in-depth info.
• Libraries and Museums. If you really want to do a deep-dive, get in touch with your local library/museum and ask them for help with research. If you’re looking into a real person/time period local to where you live, they may even have artefacts like newspapers, letters or other personal effects in storage!
• People. If you are very lucky, you may be able to interview people that knew your subject—perhaps even the person themselves!

#4 Voice, Accent and Physicalisation

Once you have some research under your belt, you can start to think about how this character will physically appear on screen or stage.

A lot of actors will jump straight to accent, and that is an important part of the process! But it’s not the only thing to consider. Start with accent, for sure: research where they came from and how people sound in that part of the world. If you can find a recording of them, fantastic! If not, you might need to look up a person from the same locale, or hear how an historian thinks this person/people might have sounded. Your discovery may surprise you—like this video of linguists performing Shakespeare in original pronunciation.

How is their voice beyond their accent? Low? High? Strained? Are they hoarse from bellowing in parliament all day? Is their voice strong from their training as an opera singer? Have years of smoking given them a thin sound, along with the occasional cough? General George S. Patton was brought to life by George C. Scott in an Oscar-winning performance; many people are shocked to learn that the real George Patton had a tenor voice, totally lacking Scott’s distinct gravelly drawl.

Physicalisation is another important thing to consider: how does this person walk? How is their posture, their gait? Do they move gracefully, awkwardly, aggressively? And, like Patton’s high-pitched speeching, does their physicalisation support or subvert what we know about this person’s personality/reputation/historical standing?

And don’t forget about costume…

We all know about the transformative power of putting on your costume for the first time: how, suddenly, your character is just sorta there. This can be an invaluable tool for portraying a real person as well—sliding into their shoes, allowing them to exist within you.

Take a look at this short clip of Cameron Britton from Netflix’s Mindhunter, where he talks about getting into character of the serial killer Ed Kemper:

#5 Script Analysis

Script analysis is one of the greatest secret weapons an actor can deploy when preparing for a role. When playing a real-life person, it’s doubly important: not only does it help you understand the character and text, it allows you to see what changes have been made in the telling of the story that might deviate from the truth. What has the writer changed? Which bits have been added, modified or left out? And why might this be the case?

We cover script analysis pretty comprehensively on this site, but here are a few important points we go over in the main article with particular significance to our topic:

• Textual Analysis. Analyse every word, phrase, punctuation mark. Think about what the writer intended to convey with the words on the page. Consider style and structure as well. For historical/real-life material, ask yourself what the writer is doing to bring truth to this character’s portrayal: what clues can you pick up on about characterisation and performance?
• Facts and Questions. Write yourself a list of ‘facts‘: irrefutable statements that can be supported by words on the page. “It is daytime.” “There is a character named Abraham Lincoln.” “Lincoln plays with a housecat.” At the same time, begin a list of ‘questions‘, that speak to everything from assumptions to subtext to things, as yet, unknown to you without reading the rest of the script. “What is the cat’s name?” “Does Lincoln love cats?” “Does his stovepipe hat have a lot of cat hair on it?” Facts and questions will help you work out the writer’s intentions, as well as where you might be able to take artistic license or support the story with your own research: “From research, I know that Lincoln loves cats. This will surely help me determine my playing of this scene.“
• Objective and Actions. Simply put, what does your character want (objective) and how do they go about getting it (actions)? Tie your actions to the scene, to your scene partner, and not to any larger understanding of the character’s goals or achievements. In our above example, Lincoln doesn’t want to end the Civil War (even though he is famously big on this topic). He wants to make the cat purr! Objective and action plotting will help you to bring that ‘human’ side of the character: the wants and needs that the audience can identify with.

After this foundational work is complete, you can begin to map out beats, blocking—all the other things you might do to prepare a scene for rehearsal or performance. But with your dramaturgical homework done, you will always be able to bring a greater sense of understanding and truth to the scene.

#6 Given Circumstances

Our final topic of discussion for playing a real-life person is an acting classic. Keep aware of your given circumstances—those all-important questions that keep you present and grounded in a scene. This will prevent you from getting ‘caught up’ in the bigger picture of the character you’re playing.

As with script analysis, we cover given circumstances in greater detail elsewhere on the site. There are also different sets of questions taught by different practitioners, used by different actors. Here’s a basic set to remind you just the same:

• Who am I? Identity, personality, upbringing, past, aspirations, relationships.
• When am I? What time period, what age, what time of year, month, day, hour?
• Where am I? Location, setting, world.
• Where have I come from? What has led to this particular moment? Why am I here (on camera/on stage)? Why is this the only outcome?
• Where am I going? What happens next? If I win, what will transpire? If I lose, what is my next move? IS there a next move?
• What do I want? Particularly in this scene, and from the scene partner? (This is your objective.)
• How do I get it? The tactics you play to get what you want. (This/these are your action/s.)

Getting History ‘Right’

So, why all this effort? Why bother? If you’re a talented actor capable of making compelling choices, why should you let the truth get in the way of a good story? The answer is that playing real-life people allows us to get history ‘right’: to tell stories unknown, or criminally under-known. We can set records straight, put people on trial who escaped judgement and give the world hope based on some very real stories.

As an actor, you have a debt to truth. Whether a character is real or completely fictional, it’s up to you to present them to the audience in a way that is believable—allowing that important artist-audience connection to be made. We won’t pretend that it’s easy, but it’s certainly rewarding. And before that: it’s one terrific challenge.

Good luck!

The post Playing a Real-Life Person as an Actor appeared first on StageMilk.

Acting “Emotionally”

Now, if you’ve read any of my other articles, you’ll know that when it comes to questions about acting and the craft of acting, I rarely give a straight and simplistic answer. I mean, it took me 6000 words to answer the question, “what is good acting” for crying out loud. This is because acting is not simplistic, it is complex and sophisticated, and questions about it deserve to be and have been explored and debated for a long time. 

The same, I’m afraid, goes for this question today. Although it may seem so on the surface, “How to act emotionally” is not a simple question. It’s going to require us to talk about a few things before finally coming to a point. So, allow me to begin by introducing a little anarchy: I’m throwing out the question. 

We should not be striving to act “emotionally”. 

The reason(s) for this is the following:

• Emotion can be a byproduct of a good performance, but is not the goal of a good performance.
• Emotion is an obstacle, not an objective.

The second of these statements is provable in any ‘real life’ situation where a heightened emotional state is present. Whenever someone is giving a eulogy at a funeral, tears and grief are the emotions which the speaker tries desperately to manage in order to be able to speak passionately and do justice to the person they are speaking of. In a confrontation between two people, emotions will be quelled at all costs – fear and intimidation must be hidden by both parties, not indulged in. In a break up between two people, how often have you heard of both parties trying to ‘win’ the break up by being ‘in the right’ or attempting to hold face and not allow their emotions to get in the way of what they really want to say to the other person. It is in the aftermath of these moments, in the quiet of solitude, where emotion may arise and consume a person. The same is true for a scene between two characters in a scene in a story. The two characters both want to win, whatever that may mean to them in their particular story. No-one ever wants to lose or be a victim, there is always something to be achieved, and emotion, (true emotion, not manufactured emotion used as a tactic to manipulate someone) is always something to be overcome rather than allowed. 

So, with that in mind, I’d like you to consider adjusting the direction you’re pointing your question. Take your focus off the ‘result’ of an emotional performance, and instead turn your attention towards the process of building a character and immersing yourself in a story. Focusing on this process rather than the result of an emotional state will always be more compelling for an audience, even if your final performance is seemingly void of any emotion at all.

The Problem with Emotion as “Function”

Now, I know what you may be thinking right now: “But what if my character has to cry in the scene?” or, “There are heaps of exclamation marks, surely my character has to be completely enraged?” 

I hear you. Believe me, I do. There are many times where it seems as though it is integral to a story that our character gets to a particular emotional place in a scene. Maybe it says “they cry” in the script, or some other stage direction or big print which you feel forces your performance in a particular direction. In certain situations, particularly in the context of an audition, I would encourage you to be wary of feeling the need to desperately adhere to the ‘big print’ of a script. The emotional direction of a character is included by the writer, and the detail and result of what the performance actually ends up being goes through many stages of conversation and development between the actor, director and writer before ending up on the silver screen.

That being said, there are times where I would agree that there is a particular place our character needs to get to, emotionally, for the sense and continuation of the story. I would call this the ‘function’ of the character. The function of the character is like the particular notes you need to hit in the symphony of the story. The highs and lows of the ark of your character which will give the audience the ride and experience the team of storytellers intends.

In my first two years at drama school I was really hung up on this conundrum. I felt as though I was incapable of any truthful emotional experience whilst I was acting at all. I ended up having dozens of back and forth discussions with a friend who was completely of the opinion that playing an emotional state should be avoided at all costs. I just couldn’t wrap this around my head. What about all the performances I’d seen, Oscar winning performances which featured incredibly emotional moments? Moments of total and utter devotion and vulnerability from the actor? Having the bug of this question well and truly wedged in my brain, I asked my acting teacher at the time, “If I have to cry in a scene, how do I do it?” I’m sure I also said, “Please help me!” a few times during the conversation, too. His answer was something to this effect:

“Sometimes, when I have to cry as a character, I just imagine myself kneeling down in the middle of a street at nighttime with a streetlamp overhead. I’m looking skywards. My arms are spread wide, and rain, tonnes of rain, is pouring down upon me.”

Pretty dramatic, huh? It took me a while to take that answer and translate it into something tangible and usable for myself. I tried that same visualisation, to little effect. But what I finally realised is that there are many ways to trigger an emotional response in yourself, or rather get yourself to a place where emotion may more easily arise, and the task is actually for each individual to figure out what works for them.

When it comes to acting and emotions, you gotta do you.

To not leave you hanging without any further guidance about this challenge, here are a few additional points/ exercises you might like to try in order to feel more emotionally entrenched in your character.

How to Act Emotionally:

#1 Translate Obstacle into Action

Say the function of our character is something emotionally based. They might need to cry or get angry or become hysterical to propel the scene forward. One thing we can do to achieve this functionality is to take the emotional result, the obstacle of the character, and translate it into an action for us to use. By doing this, we take an obstacle and change it into an aspect of our objective. We’re playing to win. Let me elaborate.

Say you need to act ‘angry’. Well, instead of trying to get to the place where you feel unhinged and enraged, (which simply might be an energetic or emotional place which isn’t available to you today) you as the actor have the ability to take back the reins of the character. You are in control. What is the character hoping to achieve, and how can a state of anger help them to achieve this? Translate the emotional result into a transitive verb; an action you can play on the other character. Instead of playing that state of anger, which is a self-fulfilling and self-focussed task, play the tactic to intimidate. Play the tactic to stun or threaten. Play the tactic to destroy. By truly committing to these actions, your performance will undoubtedly have the appearance of anger, though you as the actor may not ‘feel’ anger at all. Just like a duck gliding effortlessly on water with its feet frantically paddling beneath it, I believe the actor should always be holding the reins of the character. 

Let’s extend this device to other emotional states. How about sadness, grief or other melancholic experiences. Perhaps you could play the action to beg or to surrender. Once again, when we fully commit to these actions as a means to achieving our objective, we may appear as the emotional state our character’s ‘function’ demands from us. By really committing to these tactics, we may even instigate a truthful occurrence of the emotional state itself. If you want more actions to choose from, here is a great list: Actions: The Actor’s Thesaurus.

Take your focus off the emotional result of the scene and place it on objective, it will always serve you better. 

#2 Targets

Declan Donnellan, in his book The Actor and the Target, answers a bunch of FAQs from actors. I don’t believe he answers this question specifically, but he does go to provide solutions for the problems surrounding this question.

Essentially, what it comes down to is the fact that when we are asking the question, “how do I act emotionally” our focus is on ourselves, instead of the things in the world around us. Donnellan would call these ‘things’ around us targets, and he implores us, begs us actors to take our attention off ourselves and onto them.

In the target is all the energy and emotion our character needs. There is nothing within us which will incite a more powerful response from us than external stimuli from a target. A target could be anything: a loved one, a cloudy sky, an animal, a cold breeze, a television screen. When we truly place our attention on the target and allow it to energise us, we will have all the emotional truth we are seeking. I go into more detail about the practical application of this book here: The Actor and the Target.

#3 Substitution

This one comes from Ivana Chubbuck, though many other acting teachers encourage (or deliberately discourage) methods similar to that of substitution. Substitution is the method of replacing the circumstances of a scene, either in a single moment or perhaps in an entire scene, with memories and emotions which you have experienced in your life. The word ‘substitution’ then, comes from the act of substitution an imagined experience for a real one.

I, personally, take issue with this method, as I feel it can only achieve a performance in line with the given circumstances of a story. You are giving a performance which is similar to what the writer is acting from you, but not going the extra mile to imaginatively invest in the given circumstances of the story completely. I believe we all have the capacity to imagine and therefore emulate nearly all experiences which human beings are capable of experiencing. In fact I believe it is said that by the time you are 8 years old you have experienced every emotion it is possible for you to experience, including all the heavy hitters, like wrath and a desire for vengeance, for example.

That being said, this method does work for a lot of people. If you’re keen to find out more about it, head over to Indy’s article here: A Guide to the Ivana Chubbuck Method. She goes into great detail about Ivana’s method as a whole.

One final note, if you do decide to pursue substitution as a method, then please look after yourself! Prioritise self care. As I said earlier, that actor should always hold the reins of the character. If you’re substituting for something which brings you close to unresolved personal trauma, you’re really playing with fire, and putting the safety of yourself and the actors around you at risk.

#4 Allow

This one comes off the back of our substitution chat, not because I think it is the same technique, but it’s a similar method. Allow yourself to be wherever you are on the particular day you have come to act. I know this sounds counterintuitive. I’m playing a Soviet soldier crying over a wounded comrade in WW2 and you want me to allow myself to just be my cappuccino drinking, chino wearing self right now? Yes, kind of. 

There is great power in allowing ourselves to be and feel whatever it is we are currently feeling. If we are feeling a great sense of inadequacy at our inability to reach certain emotional heights – there’s energy to be found in that state! Dustin Hoffman famously talks about feeling completely inadequate in a scene whilst filming Rain Man, and he ended up using that feeling – not the given circumstances of a scene – to fuel his performance on this particular day. The performance he gives in this scene is remarkable and absolutely serves the story. Sometimes, we are exactly where we need to be to give a performance, all we need to do is allow and accept our current state.

Expanding on this, by allowing rather than forcing, we are giving the chance for dozens and dozens of exciting choices to arise which may not have been thought of before. What if your character is not crying their eyes out at the funeral? Does the character deciding to adopt a stoic persona in this moment work for or even enhance the moment? Say you’re feeling uncontrollably giggly today but your character is being diagnosed with a rare terminal illness, what if you were to bring laughter into that scene? Perhaps it would be incorrect for this particular story, but can we say that this choice is un-human? No. As humans, we are truly capable of any emotional experience, and to put ourselves in a box of forced emotional results is to be reductive of the potential of human behaviour. Cry at the job promotion. Laugh hysterically at the funeral. Get unreasonably angry about stepping on that dog turd. 

Go with the tide. Rather than forcing yourself to feel something that you don’t, try accepting where you’re at and working from there. 

If you feel this is not a suitable action for you, or will not be sufficient given the particular place you’re in, then let’s head on over to point number 5.

#5 Manufacture: Play Make Believe

I’m about to speak some acting sacrilege. If it is unavoidable in the function of your character and you must reach an emotional place that you do not feel you can truthfully get to, then manufacture the experience. Make it up. Play make-believe. 

Now, bear with me. What I mean by this is not for you to start your own special brand of melodramatic acting. No, what I mean is for you to use certain tools and techniques to get yourself emotionally primed for a scene. Manufacture an experience, so it is more easily accessible for you for the moments you need it.

I used this technique in a recent production of Hamlet, where I played Laertes. Laertes needs to enter onto the stage in Act four having heard whilst he has been abroad that his Father has been murdered and easily and unceremoniously buried. Once on the stage, Laertes is confronted by his sister, who has been driven mad with grief over the death of their father. I found this task SO difficult, and it took me a long time to figure out a process which worked for me. The thing I needed to meet the emotional challenge of grief, vengeance and shock was a ritual. A ritual whereby I might manufacture an emotionally primed state which I could submerge myself in for the rest of the play, to hit the functional and emotional ‘notes’ I felt Laertes needed to hit. 

My ritual involved three things: 

• Solitude
• Music (on headphones) and,
• Breathing.

Essentially, I would sit backstage 15 minutes (wish) before my entrance. This timing was important, any earlier and I would be ready prematurely, and any later would incite a stress response and a feeling of needing to rush. Then, I would play one song on repeat on my headphones (whilst always having a speck of my attention of what scene we were up to in the play – hands on the reins, remember). This song was the same every performance. Next, I would breathe deeply, and allow whatever I was feeling on that particular day to rise to the surface. This process of sitting by myself, listening to this particular song and allowing myself to feel everything I needed to feel primed me for my entrance. The process during rehearsals and the feedback from the director suggested to me that this ritual was having the desired impact on my performance.

So, the challenge is now over to you. What do you need to do to ensure you’re where you need to be, per formatively and emotionally? Practise what this looks like for you and have your process or ritual clearly identified and tried and tested, for you never know when you might need it backstage or on set, when you feel like you don’t have it in you to do your character justice. 

Conclusion: The Key

I want to leave you with a final little spiel about where your attention is best placed. 

If you take your focus off the results of the performance and place them on the process, you will achieve success in your performance. The process is everything supporting the character, the backstory, the history, the given circumstances, the relationships, the need, the persona, the tragic flaw, the objective, ect ect ect. All these things contain all the energy you need to give your best possible performance. 

Immerse yourself in these elements of your character, become the subject matter expert of the life of your character. Once you get to that place, it’s time for you to listen and allow whatever arises to arise.

I’d like to leave you with this scene from Doubt featuring Viola Davis and Meryl Streep. I’d like you to focus on Davis’ performance. 

In this scene, emotion is boiling within Davis’ character, yet it is an obstacle for her in achieving her objective of getting this particular message across to Streep’s character. Davis is so deeply and personally connected to the story and the given circumstances that emotion arises of its own accord. It isn’t forced, it isn’t premeditated. It just happens. This is the time of emotional expression in our performances we should be striving for. This is what truly great acting looks like. This is how we “act emotionally”.

This is the one scene Davis’ character is in this film. Boom. How’s that for a performance? 

Enjoy

The post How to Act “Emotionally”: 5 Ways to Access Emotion appeared first on StageMilk.

Skip to:

• Drama School Training
• 1 Year Programs
• Short Courses
• Drop-in Classes
• Alternative Training

Before You Begin…

In the process of deciding where to go and train as an actor, it’s important for you to do a little bit of thinking at the outset. What I’d like you to think about is “what interests/excites me most about acting?”. Notice that I haven’t asked the question, “What type of actor do I want to be?” This question can be a bit paralysing and hard to answer; I’ve been doing this for a decade and I’m still not necessarily sure I can answer that question for myself. What’s most useful for you at the moment is to pursue what brings you the most joy. Following your gut and heart is going to be the most reliable strategy for you.

So, what brings you the most joy? Do you love the theatre and being in front of an audience? Are you keen on the classics or more interested in the contemporary? Do you dream about film sets? Are you a triple threat musical theatre aficionado? Do you enjoy comedy and making people laugh? Are you interested in alternative theatre: mime, or other physically based theatre styles? List your top five focus areas on a page to keep them front and centre in your decision making process. 

Next, think about the commitment level which suits you best in your acting training. Is this a hobby you’re interested in pursuing alongside your main career, are you pretty serious about pursuing acting but keeping your other pursuits alive to be safe, or are you all in, ready to plunge head first into the pursuit of an acting career? There’s no right of wrong about this decision – it’s up to you. Only you can know what is right for you, it’s your time after all: the most valuable commodity you have. Spend that time in the way which suits you best.

Now that you have your focus areas and your ideal level of commitment, let’s have a look at your options.

Drama School Training

• General/comprehensive focus
• Significant time commitment (2-4 Years)

The top tier of acting training has always been and remains to be attending a drama school. This method of training has produced the majority of successful actors out of all of the training options. 

Attending a drama school is for actors who have well and truly ‘caught the bug’. They are hooked on the idea of becoming a professional actor and wish to dedicate a significant amount of their time and money to that pursuit. Drama school courses are usually a full time commitment for 2-4 years of your life. The length of the course will usually vary depending on the graduate degree the institution offers. 

In a full time drama school course you can expect to be immersed in a wide and comprehensive range of actor training. You will develop your voice and body – your instrument as an actor. You will learn about the history of acting, theatre and filmmaking and appreciate the importance of knowing whose shoulders you are standing on as an actor and storyteller. You will, of course, go into great detail of a range of different acting methods, such as the techniques of Stanislavsky, Meisner, Stella Adler, Larry Moss, Uta Hagen or Susan Batson. Some institutions cover several of these techniques, some prefer to focus on and master a single technique. Neither of these approaches is necessarily better than the other. 

As well as developing your craft as an actor, you will also develop your ability to collaborate with others; devising and writing your own work, performing in plays, making films and working as an ensemble with your peers. You will also have the opportunity to be directed by a range of directors and acting teachers from your industry – one of the main benefits to attending a full time course.

If this arrangement seems like it is what you’re interested in, great! That’s fantastic, and an exciting opportunity lies ahead of you. The first step of the process now is for you to select a school (or schools) which appeal to your interests. Each and every drama school will vary in focus and priority slightly when it comes to their approach to actor training. That being said, the structure for drama schools are quite similar around the globe. 

Here’s a list of acting schools written by our team here at StageMilk to help you with this decision making process: List of Acting Schools.

I’d suggest you choose a selection of three schools which would suit you well. Most drama schools have an audition process for their students, and some can be quite challenging to get into. Know that most actors have to audition for drama school more than once, (I did!) and if this happens to you, that’s absolutely normal and actually a positive thing in the long run.

If you’re concerned about the affordability of a full time course, head over to Andrew’s article here: How to Afford Acting Training. It’s wonderfully comprehensive and I hope will give you the confidence you need to pursue your ideal style of training.

One final note for you. Once you’ve selected and been accepted into a school, I’d like you to read this article: How to Get the Most Out of Your Training. This one was written by me, and contains my reflections on how to actually make your drama school experience as worthwhile as possible. All too often I see actors who have been accepted into a full time course begin to get lazy and feel entitled to future success by the mere fact they have been accepted into an institution. Getting into a school is only the first step, after that it’s up to you to actually milk the experience for all that it is worth!

1 Year Training Programs

• Narrower focus
• Medium time frame

Moving down the ladder of time commitment, next we come to the ‘one year course’. Most professional institutions will offer courses like this. They are, as the name suggests, only one year long. There are several pros and cons to this arrangement.

The primary benefit of a course like this is that it is less of a time commitment than a full drama course. As well as this, a one year course is usually still full time – so you are still cramming a lot of training into your year at that particular institute. As well as this, since the course is attached to a drama school, you’ll usually be taught by the same board of teachers as the main 2-4 year ensemble. A one year course is a fantastic place to start if you are unsure of the commitment you wish to make to the pursuit of acting, or if you have not been accepted into a 2-4 year course but would still like to spend the year training.

A 1 year course will obviously contain less content than a full 2-4 year course, which is not necessarily a bad thing. If the course you’ve selected is tailored really well to your interests as an actor, it may be all the training you need to get into the industry and start auditioning.

This being said, with a narrower focus of training and information comes its limitations. There is a reason drama school courses (2-4 years) are the length they are. There is an enhanced growth and development as an actor which comes from being submerged in a course for an extended period of time. As well as this, the connection formed in an ensemble who have been together for 3 years is unlike anything else. 

So, have a think about whether this style of training suits you. You can use the same links in the full time course section above in assisting you in deciding which institution will be best for you.

Training through Short Courses

• Singular focus 
• Short time frame 

Short courses are a wonderful way for actors to test the water of training, and they continue to be valuable for experienced actors who are keen to get back into the classroom. 

Short courses are offered by acting institutions and smaller schools, and there are a tonne to choose from around the world. A short course will usually have a single focus area. This might be comedy or Shakespeare, auditioning for the camera, or Chekhov, for example. Every short course you can imagine which would be useful for actors has probably been conducted at some point in time. 

A short course traditionally runs for 6-10 weeks, with 5-10 contact hours per week. The benefits of doing a short course are numerous. They’re a way for an actor to focus on developing a particular skill for a few weeks, and they are a great way for the actor to ‘stay in shape’ when it comes to the performative muscle. They’re also an awesome way to meet new people, to work with new teachers or directors. A short course is a perfect way to dabble in acting if you’re unsure of how interested you are in it, or to identify one skill you would like to work on specifically. For example, a little while back a friend of mine wanted to develop her skills when it came to comedy and comedic acting. To do this she spent much of a year jumping from short course to short course offered by a range of institutions and taught by a range of teachers. This suited her well; she still benefited from a range of teaching perspectives, without having to split her focus to a range of subjects that she was already confident or less interested in, (Like she may have had to in a 1 year/full time course). 

The limitations of a short course are pretty straight forward. Usually short courses only have one or two sessions a week, and that isn’t really enough time to establish an ensemble. Also when it comes to skills development, practising once a week will be a much slower approach than training every day in a full time course. That being said, I’ve made a lot of connections and friendships in short courses which remain today, and on top of that, short courses are usually quite affordable. 

Now, over to you. If you think a short course is your cup of tea, and the type of training you need right now, all you need to do is pick one and enrol. These courses usually don’t have an audition process (another benefit) so you should be set to go. To assist with the choosing process, here’s our list of the best short courses for actors around the world: Best Short Acting Course Around the World.

Training through Drop-in Classes

• Singular focus
• Minimal time commitment 

Finally for traditional actor training, we have the drop in class. A drop in class is a one-off, all in experience. They will usually run for a half day or a full day, and sometimes they might be two days (over a weekend). 

In line with the pros and cons of all the courses we’ve spoken about so far, I’m sure you can predict where the drop in sits. It is such a tiny time commitment, so there’s no need to worry about that element. They are inexpensive (usually – “famous” acting coaches can be unbelievably expensive. Work your way up to those ones…). They afford you the opportunity to drop in, meet people, practise your craft, build a particular skill set and go home that evening having become a better actor. They are an awesome and valuable thing to do. For actors who want to try something new, want to work with a new teacher to gauge their style, or for people who have never acted before and want to give it a go – a drop in class is an awesome choice.

Unfortunately, there’s only so much one can achieve in a drop in class, no matter how good the teacher is. The teacher will attempt to give everyone individual attention, but there is only so much time which can be divided amongst the group. You may learn some exceptional lessons in the time you have watching the other actors or working directly with the teacher, but it will be up to you to follow that up with practise and further development of that skill.

One final note on the ol’ drop in class: they can be kinda intense. With the whole ‘one night only’ vibe comes a heightened level of adrenaline and energy, both from the participants and the teacher. Everyone wants to squeeze every morsel of worth out of the class as possible. This can be an intimidating environment to act in for the first time. If you are an absolute beginner, I’d say that actually a short course is probably your best bet. A short course will give you enough time to settle in and grow your confidence. After that, shop around! Do a bunch of drop in classes, build your skills and confidence. 

Training: Alternative Avenues

Now, all the methods I’ve outlined above are pretty traditional ways to train as an actor. It’s important to know that these are not the only options you have. Of course, you may decide you wish to skip the whole training bit and start going for auditions straight away, (a daring approach which only leads to success for the 1%, who then usually seek full time training after their first job anyway). Here are a few options for other avenues of training as an actor which might interest you.

Learning ‘on the job’

What better way to gain experience than to simply start practising? Now, for this approach I don’t necessarily mean you start approaching casting directors and doing auditions – no. The best way to learn on the job as a beginner is to become involved in as many amateur productions of films and plays as possible. This approach is not a new one; it was an incredibly common and successful method for some of the British greats like Rowan Atkinson, Emma Thompson, Steven Fry and Hugh Laurie, who all earned their chops in theatre societies at university before being picked up by an agent and starting to earn money from acting. 

Finding any way possible to get yourself on a stage or on a camera speaking lines of dialogue is going to be beneficial for your development as an actor. I can’t recommend this approach to beginner actors highly enough; however, the benefit of this approach is capped at a certain point. At some stage you will need to seek outside perspectives and direct feedback about your work. It’s the journey of any skill development: practise and feedback from an expert. So, get curious. What local theatres are nearby? Is there a university theatre society you can become involved with, or what’s more; can you instigate a performance of some kind? This curiosity will see you gaining and growing skills which will stay with you for your whole career.

Alternative Skills

We’ve been talking about training our acting skills in a traditional sense – by going out and practising acting. However there are many other methods of training to be an actor which don’t always involve ‘acting’ specifically at all. I mean, of course, training in other performative art forms aligned with acting. This could be mime, clowning, commedia dell’arte, physical theatre, performance theatre, stand up comedy, skit comedy, musical theatre, opera, stage combat – even working on a film set in an alternative role. Finding yourself in any performative environment can be useful for an actor. It can give a unique edge to their performance style, and will be an interesting asset to their performative toolkit.

So, have a think. Perhaps you’re limiting yourself to the ‘well beaten track’ options for training. What’s the path less followed? 

Practice

Finally, if you want to train as an actor – then just go act. Find a script (Hamlet is on Google – I will not hear “there’s no good free material” as an excuse) and point the camera on your phone at your face and read the lines. So many people wait until they have been accepted into a drama school to begin acting. WHY?! Why does a position at a drama school give you permission to act? There is nothing stopping you from acting right now. Don’t wait, get into it. Build your craft and confidence that way, then, when the time is right, seek an outside eye or an acting course to get even better.  

Conclusion: It’s Your Career

There are plenty of options out there for you, and deciding how to begin your training is a significant decision. But what is most important is that you train in your way, whilst remaining curious and open to the perspectives of your teachers and mentors. 

But also, remember that there is time. You might commit to a full time course and realise it isn’t right for you. That’s ok! There are plenty of other places and courses out there which will be better suited to you. Prioritise your desired training style and then go after it with everything you’ve got. 

Look to the actors who inspire you who have come before you. The way they gained their experience may be a really useful guide for how you’d like to get yours. Take inspiration from all over, try a whole bunch of different things, and figure out what works for you. Action is to be prioritised above contemplation. The time is yours to get into it and start the development of your craft. Go forth and good luck!

The post Where Do I Train as an Actor? appeared first on StageMilk.

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• Why Does Self-Conciousness Arise?
• 3 Ways to Combat Self-Conciousness as an Actor

Self-Consciousness is Natural

First up, let’s immediately relieve some of the pressure you may be experiencing by reminding ourselves that self consciousness as an actor is completely normal. Every actor I’ve worked with, no matter how established and experienced, has had to deal with their own form of self consciousness from time to time. 

Acting places the artist in an incredibly vulnerable position. In fact, taking that notion a step further, acting actually requires a level of vulnerability from the artist. Not only are we putting our artwork (our performance) into the public domain for scrutiny and criticism, as all art is, but we are also the artwork. Our performance is at one time both an indication of our taste and ability free for anyone who has the time to dissect and decide how they would do things differently. 

Since this is the reality of our profession, that it places us in a vulnerable position and that a level of self-consciousness is to be expected, then there is no use beating ourselves up about it! Right at the outset of us understanding how we can best deal with our self consciousness, we need to be kind to ourselves. We need to accept that it is normal and that the task is not actually to remove our self consciousness, but to acclimatise to it and thrive in spite of it.

Why Does Self-Consciousness Arise?

There are many reasons why an actor might get self conscious, and perhaps one of these reasons is what has brought you here today. Self consciousness can happen both when we’re performing and when we’re not. When we’re acting, we can be self conscious about our performance itself, and when this arises it may manifest as fear. You may say to yourself “I don’t know what I’m doing” or “I don’t know who I am”. On a stage or a set we can become all too aware of the eyes of the audience or crew watching us, expecting us to do our jobs perfectly. It can be pretty scary, this acting thing! Such a shame we love it so much. When we’re not acting, self consciousness may arise due to our perception of our own ability or self. We may think we’re not as good as other actors or have issues with our appearance or how we present ourselves. Self consciousness may arise in the casting room when we have to try to calm our nerves and be the best version of ourselves for the casting director. 

There are SO many factors of this profession which may induce a self-conscious state. Rather than getting bogged down and daunted by all of these scary hurdles we have to overcome, let’s instead talk about the ways in which we can combat these obstacles and empower ourselves, so we can do what we love with the best of our ability.

3 Ways to Combat Self-Consciousness as an Actor

Let’s look at a few things we can do when that inevitable self-consciousness starts to creep up on us.

#1 Search Outside Yourself for the Answer

Self consciousness is a manifestation of fear which arises from inside our minds based on our perceived reality. More often than not, the thoughts we are feeling about ourselves are not shared by anyone else, and even if they are: that is outside our control and not worth worrying about. 

So, if self-consciousness is arising within us – if self consciousness is a focus which is directed towards ourselves, where is somewhere we could seek the answer to freeing ourselves? You guessed it. Outside yourself. We must turn our attention away from ourselves to gain freedom from self consciousness. Declan Donnellan’s book The Actor and the Target deals with this issue in great detail. Donnellan teaches us that all of the actors’ concerns about their performance: “I don’t know what I’m doing”, “I don’t know where or who I am”, can be solved through the use of a Target. The Target is anything seen through the eyes of the character to which attention can be paid. The target is the opposite of self-consciousness: it is consciousness about the world around us and the character. The place, the people, the relationships and situations of the character. 

If this concept interests you, check out my article about The Actor and the Target. 

If you’re someone who deals with self consciousness to do with your performance, whether you feel often as though you don’t know what you’re doing or what you ‘should’ be feeling, practise turning your attention to the world around you, rather than what’s going on within you. Set yourself the challenge in your next rehearsal room/ process to take responsibility for the challenges you’re facing as an actor; whenever a question arises in your mind which has you turning your attention upon yourself, begin by turning things around and searching for the answer outside of yourself. There are so many more solutions to be found outside ourselves than inside ourselves. If you’re self conscious about the fact you’re not reaching a certain emotional place with your character, relieve yourself of the obligation to find that experience within yourself. Search instead in the eyes of another character, or in the world around your character – full of detail and history which may inspire you to feel through them.

When we are self conscious about our performance, we are just adding yet another pair of eyes onto ourselves. Allow the audience to be the ones with their eyes on you, you don’t have to do that as well. Your eyes, your attention should rather be outside of you – on all the powerful and evocative forces surrounding your character. In the world around your character is energy and inspiration tenfold to the power of our own isolated emotional storage facility. 

#2 Practice Self-Care

In performance, the key to combating self consciousness is to turn our attention away from ourselves. Once we’re out of performance, however, the key is to get to know ourselves a little better. 

If self consciousness is a real ongoing problem for you, if you find it difficult to find self acceptance when reviewing your work, then you might like to consider starting a journey of self care. Self care is actually a really common and essential practise for the actor. Being in such a vulnerable position so frequently means that the actor is prone to having their ego and resilience battered around a bit, and it’s important that we prepare for this reality accordingly.

If the concept of self care is something daunting, foreign or too esoteric for you, consider it this way. Just as you would go to the gym to strengthen your muscles to be able to withstand greater challenges, so too is it worth strengthening our minds and resilience in order to be able to withstand the setbacks and disappointments of this industry. After all, rejection is a guaranteed element of the career of an actor. We will be told ‘no’ 99% more often than we will be told ‘Yes’ and if we’re not careful and don’t have the practises to take care of ourselves in place, we will start taking these ‘no’s as indication of our self worth. 

There are many different methods of self care, and only you will be able to determine which is most effective for you. What’s most important with any self care practise is that it is focused on the self. It is about you and it is for you, not anyone else. If you’re completely new to the concept of self care, the following list of practises is a great place to start, as they have great benefits for combating self consciousness and for your craft as an actor in general:

• Meditation
• Journalling
• Therapy
• Lifestyle awareness: Diet, sleep habits and exercise
• Reducing comparison: minimise social media use.

That last point on the list, “Reducing comparison” is of particular relevance to us as actors. Social Media will always be feeding us evidence of the fact that the people around us are doing so much better than we are. Be endlessly aware that social media is not an accurate representation of ‘reality’ and that behind those screens, everyone is dealing with their own challenges. As best as you can, reduce the amount of time you give to comparing yourself to other people. You will not find solace or a reduction of self-consciousness in jealousy, resentment or self-disparagement. 

The practise of self care will allow you to dig a little deeper into your understanding of what is fuelling your self consciousness as an actor. Self care will simultaneously allow you to understand where that self consciousness is coming from, and also allow you to recognise and notice when you are being too harsh on yourself whilst feeling self conscious. 

So, start getting curious. Ask other actors in your network, how have they managed their self-consciousness? How have they taken care of themselves in times of self-doubt? You’re not alone in this experience. I’d bet nearly every actor has had to find their way through self consciousness from time to time, and each may have an insight for you as to how they’ve navigated this period, and which practise of self care worked best for them.

Read more on: Self-Care for Actors.

#3 Search for the Golden Moments

Here’s an insight I learned from an actor who was two years above me whilst I was in first year of Drama School: 

“Search for the golden moments in other people and you’ll build your ability to recognise them in yourself.”

I think this is such wonderful advice, and particularly pertinent to the challenge of overcoming self consciousness. As we discussed in point number 1, this is a practise which takes our focus off ourselves and onto what’s outside of us. 

When you’re watching another actor perform or even rehearse, (any moment of an actor in process) search for their Golden Moments. Search for the breakthrough moments, search for their moments of victory, or their moments of overcoming struggle. Turning your attention to seeking out other actors’ Golden Moments is an endlessly rewarding process. Firstly, it will remove the temptation within you to compare yourself to them in a negative way and experience thoughts such as, “I wouldn’t do it like that” or, “I wish I could do that”. These thoughts of comparison aren’t actually all that helpful for us; they either give us a false sense of security that we’re already good enough and don’t need to keep progressing, or that we will never achieve what we want to achieve. If we instead search for the golden moments, we will sooner be able to recognise them in our own work. If we see an actor overcoming their own self consciousness, we are able to analyse that breakthrough and assess what we can learn from it. If we see an actor pick themselves up after a ‘defeat’ on the rehearsal room floor, we may find the courage to persist in the face of adversity the next time we’re on the floor.

Searching for the golden moments in the people around you requires humility and may not be a simple task at first. Often, the way we see ourselves and the way we see the world may be closely linked. If we are struggling with self consciousness, our perception of the world around us may be overly negative. By searching for the golden moments around us we give ourselves the chance to bring the positivity we seek in the world into our self perception. 

I really can’t recommend this process highly enough. I used to be someone who would only see the shortcomings in another person’s abilities. It’s not something I’m proud of, and it has taken a lot of work for me to recognise that this was actually coming from a place of self consciousness and self doubt. I didn’t want to be a judgemental, self conscious person and actor anymore, I instead wanted to be someone who could see the golden moments in others. In doing this, I gained the ability to see the golden moments in myself, and by seeing those golden moments my craft as an actor improved exponentially.

Conclusion

The task of overcoming self-consciousness is not a quick nor easy one. It is a process which requires self-investigation and the courage to face your fears. By reading this article and asking yourself the question, “how can I overcome this?” you have taken the first step. Thank you for taking that first step! 

Let’s continue moving forward along this path. Let’s leave ‘self consciousness’ behind us and replace it instead with ‘self awareness’. The more aware we are of who we are, how we work and the person we want to become, the better able we will be to achieve all those things. 

We’ve covered three simple yet powerful steps today towards achieving this goal: turning our attention from ourselves to a ‘Target’ outside ourselves, investing in self care and searching for the golden moments. All of these practises require just that: practise. Actively incorporate these tools into your day-to-day and craft as an actor, and I’m sure you will start to see and feel the benefits of them in your ability to manage any self consciousness which may arise.

The post 3 Ways to Combat Self-Consciousness as an Actor appeared first on StageMilk.