I Don't Need an Acting Class

What to work on

Sometimes I think we've just had too many classes - and too many teachers telling you what you have to do in order to play a part. An actor needs to develop the ability to figure out what is necessary for each part.

Seeing What's Not There

The ability to visualize and live off images that are in the actor's imagination is a great skill to develop. It keeps you from acting in a vacuum,– to say nothing of solving the problem of a bad partner.

Talking Out Revisited

Actor work is not an intellectual exercise. And it’s not about “good writing.” It’s about experiencing. The audience doesn’t come to the theater for the words on the page. They come for the experience of what the character is going through — in the world of the play. In this episode, I return to one of my core tools: Talking Out. Through études — structured improvisations in which you speak aloud everything happening with your character — you begin to move off analyzing and philosophizing about the character and move into the experience of the character.

The Technique Works!

Actors have a tendency to abandon their technique as soon as they get an audition – and leap to a performance. Just taking a little time to really think about the text makes an enormous difference.

Building a Character

There are many roads in to building a character and, unfortunately, there is no paint-by-number approach. It's great as an actor to play with several different techniques.