Common Sense Statements for Beginners to Acting

Here is some common sense advice to those new to acting.

These statements, potentially provocative - may be talking points, but centrally, they are points of action. You do not need to agree with them to 'please the teacher'. You do need to consider the points and develop your own opinion.

* The best kind of acting is truthful, instinctive, spontaneous and immediate

* If acting was about pretending, it would be called pretending, not acting

* You cannot become the character. Logic and common sense dictates that like it or not you are always you. People who believe they are someone else require psychiatric help. The goal of good acting has never been to develop a psychiatric disorder.

* Character is an idea, it exists in the mind of the reader or the audience member. Believing in imaginary things is the concern of children. As an adult all the belief in Santa will not make him real for you, because you simply and logically know he is not. Any attempt to coerce or force the mind to accept the illogical will be rejected. You may develop the skill to acting truthfully under imaginary circumstances, that's different.

* Emotion is the byproduct of action, trying to force yourself to emote leads everywhere but the feeling that you require.Your job is to serve the playwright's text.

* The Director is creatively in charge - Accept that and move on.The most important question the actor should ask is 'how should I play this scene'.

* Acting is storytelling, not painting or writing, it's a different kind of creative art.

* No one methodology is right, acting isn't one size fits all. It's personal. You must go with what works for you and produce the highest quality of performance. Graft hard and smart to make those two things the same.

* If you don't understand the scene, your performance will show it. You may give a highly polished, intuitive and truthful performance still, but it will not be connected to the text However, this type of performance is essentially improvising on your ignorance. A scene may be a puzzle, but you will develop the skills to solve it. Learn to solve it and you'll understand how to play the scene.

*Fixing the actor's performance 'the how' eventually kills the sense of spontaneous immediacy.

If these common sense statements seem to connect with you and your ideas on acting, why not get in touch with the author of this article, Mark Westbrook, Acting Coach Scotland.