We’ve all heard the sayings: Practice makes perfect! No Pain \u2013 No Gain! Good is the Enemy of Great! These words are emblematic of learning, improving and achieving something for yourself \u2014 or others! It’s all part of gaining knowledge and slowly mastering a subject or skill which we can simply call EDUCATION.<\/p>\n
Education for actors commonly takes place in an Acting Class. Generally, it’s an environment where, among peers and your teacher’s guidance, you gradually train your mind\/body to really discover your talent for representing truthful characters. It’s constant practice. Memorization. Rehearsal. Performance. Notes. Lather. Rinse. Repeat.<\/p>\n
For me, on the business pursuit of any aspect of an acting career, you’re going to hear me repeat these mantras: 1) Have I DONE MY Research? 2) What AM I THINKING I want to get out of this?<\/p>\n
1. CLASS SHOULD NOT BE USED TO VALIDATE YOU<\/strong> \u2014 For some, the degree of subjectivity in our profession is such that a class is a necessary calling card because if we look at our profession and see that we’re not in a class, what’s left to validate us as actors? Realize that you’re there to learn, risk, improve, stretch and grow more and more confident about your craft and natural talents. You’re not in class just to feel validated \u2014 you’re already an actor!<\/p>\n 2. CHOOSING A CLASS BASED ON ITS POPULARITY OR CLOUT<\/strong> \u2014 Ensure that you’re in ANY class for the RIGHT reasons. Don’t choose a teacher because “everyone” says they’re good or the name recognition will somehow open doors. That said, studying with certain well-known teachers IS terrific visibility and sometimes that teacher MAY be the best person for you at that time.<\/p>\n 3. TAKE THE VALUE OF CLASS INTO YOUR AUDITION<\/strong> \u2014 A common challenge we face is application. Outside of acting class, we tend to only exercise those acting muscles when we’re back in class the following week. If you’re going to class \u2014 MAXIMIZE IT. The only true way to judge the value of the teacher is when you’ve applied what you’ve learned to an audition that rocks the house.<\/p>\n 4. KNOW THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN MAINTENANCE v. PERCEPTION!<\/strong> \u2014 Similar to working out at the gym, unless you’re trying to become a professional bodybuilder, there comes a time when going to the gym is about MAINTAINING your physique. This is a VERY valid reason for being in acting class. It is important that you are genuinely maintaining your acting skills and not just giving yourself the PERCEPTION that you are.<\/p>\n CONCLUSION:<\/strong> When in doubt, ask yourself: Did I just think about the technique I’ve learned or do I KNOW that I used it? Am I just hoping an agent\/manager will like me more because I studied with them? Has acting class become more of an expected routine?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" What Makes An Acting Class For You? We’ve all heard the sayings: Practice makes perfect! No Pain \u2013 No Gain! Good is the Enemy of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-214","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kevinwest.jotfolio.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kevinwest.jotfolio.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kevinwest.jotfolio.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kevinwest.jotfolio.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kevinwest.jotfolio.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=214"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kevinwest.jotfolio.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kevinwest.jotfolio.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=214"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kevinwest.jotfolio.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=214"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kevinwest.jotfolio.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=214"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}