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Get Out of Your Way
When asked what advice he had for young actors, Frank Langella said, “Get out of your own way.” Why would anyone stand in their own way? Well, some actors won’t take a risk because they are afraid they...
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Holiday Acting Tips
As we closer to the holidays and the end of the year, people are thinking about taking some time off. Despite that there are some simple things you can do, that don’t even qualify as work, to enhance...
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Five Minute Guided Meditation
Relaxation is one of the most important elements of acting. You can’t work or create if you are tense. If your body is filled with tension it will not communicate what is going on inside of you. So...
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Making the Most of the New Year
2013 is upon us. There hasn’t been much talk about making resolutions or planning for 2013. Maybe it’s because 2012 was such a tough year. Sometimes it feels so hard to deal with the present that...
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An Actor Calibrates
To calibrate means to note or mark degrees of quantity or quality. It also means to plan something carefully so as to have a precise use, application, or appeal. While calibrating doesn’t sound very...
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An Actor Meditates
“You should sit in meditation for 20 minutes a day, unless you’re too busy; then you should sit for an hour.” That is an old Zen saying with a lot of wisdom to it. The point is that the busier you are,...
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The Three Types of Scenes
In a recent interview Mike Nichols and Elaine May were asked if there were any rules that guided their comic improvisations. Mike Nichols responded that there was one and that he continues to use it in...
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Remember, Recall, Reminisce
You can’t act adjectives and if you act emotions your work will be flat. So you must find good active verbs to define your character’s actions. The more descriptive the verb the more it will guide...
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Actor Rituals
Your call time is one hour before curtain. When you arrive, you sign in and after your hellos, it is time to retreat into yourself as you do your makeup. At 15 minutes before the house opens the stage...
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Personalizing Your Props
It is our job as actors to make the props we handle on stage and in movies come to life. It is not enough to simply handle them; we must personalize them and use them in interesting and honest ways....
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Restoring the Balance
One of the most important elements of a script is the concept of balance. Scripts generally start with the characters and situations in a state of balance. But then someone enters or something happens...
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Personalizing the Set
A set in a theatre generally has three walls and just offstage you can see actors and crew people. In a film shot in a studio, rooms are constructed with only two or three walls and those can be...
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Life Spills In
When you make an entrance in the theatre, you are just walking from off-stage to on-stage. But that reality is not the character’s reality and it is the character’s reality that you need to...
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Everyone Gives A Bad Performance Sometime
If you act for any length of time you will give a bad performance. Since even the very best actors do this, don’t let it destroy your ability to work. The trick is to learn from your mistakes. Get...
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You Can’t Become Someone Else
Watching Daniel Day-Lewis play Abraham Lincoln, audiences felt like they were seeing the real man. They felt that the actor had somehow turned the monument into flesh and blood. But the truth is that...
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The Unbroken Line
Music is composed of notes and rests and has a clear beginning, middle, and end. During the rests there is no sound but the piece doesn’t stop. The music unspools a beat at a time and the silences...
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Acting in the Age of Google
Before the internet existed, actors actually had to go to the library to do research. They had to stand in line for the reference librarian and wait to make copies of articles and essays. As valuable...
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More on Actor’s Research
To get inside a script, you need to read, brainstorm, research, and visualize. But sometimes you need more. Since professions define who we are, you need to understand your character’s profession and...
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Character is Behavior
You can create a character by building it from the ‘outside in’ by finding your walk, posture, and rhythms. Or you can build it from the ‘inside out’ by determining how the character thinks and...
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Acting Classes with Guest Victor Chi
Victor Chi, this week’s Notes on Acting guest, is an actor based in Los Angeles, California. In this podcast, Victor shares his thoughts on taking acting classes once you arrive in Los Angeles or New...
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