A Few of Good Resources
Hey All
In today’s blog, I wanted to offer you a few resources that I’ve found across the web.
STINTON TALKS MAMET: The first is for people in the UK or for those who can listen to the iPlayer or catch Radio 4 somehow. Tomorrow evening (Monday 8th February), Colin Stinton will be reading some of Mamet’s work on Emotions, The Rehearsal Process, and The Play and the Scene. It would be good to hear Mamet’s close collaborator Stinton expressing Mamet’s ideas before Mamet’s latest book ‘Theatre’ is released in April this year. This will be a permanent resource, but check it out when you can.
APPROACHING SCRIPT ANALYSIS: I was looking up some stuff on the web, and wanted to seek other perspectives when I found this interesting article on Backstage, it compares several acting teacher’s approach, one of which is Practical Aesthetics, take a look here. I’m interested in what you think of the OTHER approaches mentioned.
CASTING THE UNKNOWN: This is a great Radio 4 (finite) resource on the show FRONT ROW is taking about acting, using REAL people, non-actors, casting straight from the street.
It’s only a few resources, but I’ll bring more too, let me know your thoughts…
To You, The Best!Mark Westbrook is a Professional Acting Coach and runs Acting Coach Scotland, a private acting studio offering acting classes in Glasgow, masterclasses, workshops and audition coaching for actors at all levels. His acting studio is based in Glasgow, Scotland, although he teaches all across the United Kingdom. All Blog Posts © Mark Westbrook 2009
The Wood for the Trees
Often when we’re working on a new scene, we find it difficult to get to the heart of it. Our acting techniques have been almost crippled by asking too many unnecessary and possibly academic questions and this really ends up with us missing the important parts of the scene, the actable bits. Not all of it IS actable to the same degree. When you find out that your character has been married twice and has two children, there’s nothing actable in there. Oh yes, but surely a man twice married behaves in a certain way. Maybe he’s MORE nervous around women than normal, maybe he’s over-protective of his daughters. Sure, they’re reasonable thoughts. But they’re not actable unless there’s a part of the script which allows you to reveal something of this. And here lies a small problem actors have, they get an idea and they want to force it onto the script. But that’s not how it works, it usually just makes for very bad choices, occasionally it will work, but more often than not, it’s just rubbish.
Pare back any scene, pull right back and get to see the most basic view of it. This will prevent your initial (sometimes wrong) view of the scene from colouring the potential for the many different ways to play a scene. Work to understand the basic human fundamentals going on within the scene, this will reveal to you the actable parts.
We must aim to get a clear understand of what we must DO in the scene. DO is the important word. DO is the essential word. Because acting is doing. It’s not thinking, it’s not pretending, it’s not creating, it’s just ‘doing’. And doing is acting, being in action.
To get to the heart of a scene we must ask:
QUESTION: What’s LITERALLY happening in this scene, in the most basic sense. Strip away all the detail, because it ends up confusing us. Within the scripted page, the simplest answer is there. Something simple and basic and universally human. This is the actable core of the scene. This leads to the next question:
QUESTION: What does your character WANT from the other character in the SCENE (AND what does your character want them to DO). This is a simple define the goal of the character, but place it in the other character (or the other actor) in practice.
QUESTION: What is the ESSENTIAL ACTION? What is the essence of what the character is doing in the scene? The WANT will lead you to this answer. When you have this, you have all you have to do in a scene broken down into something terribly simple, but compelling, that has its core in the other character, and then the other actor. It something so simple and yet so challenging that you will be able to immediately act upon it.
Now you can see the Wood. If you still can’t see it, let me be your guide.
To You, The Best!Mark Westbrook is a Professional Acting Coach and runs Acting Coach Scotland, a private acting studio offering acting classes in Glasgow, masterclasses, workshops and audition coaching for actors at all levels. His acting studio is based in Glasgow, Scotland, although he teaches all across the United Kingdom. All Blog Posts © Mark Westbrook 2009
Lessons from Sandy…
I’m sure you know by now that we’re greatly influenced by many of Sanford Meisner’s ideas. I find myself inspired by his words more and more. I found a few new quotes that I thought I would like to share with you. I will use the quotes to explore some ideas on acting and hopefully pass some of the inspiration onwards!
“Less’s more!” Mies van der Rohe and the Bauhaus may have gotten there first (well, second I think actually), but when Sanford Meisner says ‘Less is More’, I wish more actors knew this from birth. The actor should always aim for less, often much less. I spend much of my time reigning actors in, helping them cut back on their over-done faked emotion and their desire to push so hard. Less, less, always less, because more is often sickening, like too much cake.
“The truth of ourselves is the root of our acting.” Stripping back to the truth, the simplest most basic truthful sense of ourselves is often the best way to bring truth to the role. You bring your truth to the role and rather than creating character, you reveal the truth of yourself and that truth sells the audience on our well-meaning trick, the creation of the illusion of character.
“Acting is not talking, it’s living off the other fellow!!!” Of course, the basis of acting for Meisner, taking your inspiration, your fuel for the scene from your scene partners. Acting has nothing to do with talking, little in fact to do with words. The bit of the ice berg that you CAN see is the words. The rest of your acting is why lies beneath.
“You can’t learn to act unless you’re criticized. If you tie that criticism to your childhood insecurities you’ll have a terrible time. Instead, you must take criticism objectively, pertaining it only to the work being done.” You do need someone to help you cut the shit, can the bull, stop letting yourself off the hook, and if its done with love and care, or the professionalism you deserve, then that object criticism will make you stronger, a better, truer performance, and perhaps a better person too.
“The only way to deal with yourself as an actor is to follow the emotional truth of what you have to do under the imaginary circumstances. And as you develop you become confident. You come to believe in what you’re doing and trust it because it’s out of you.” Trust yourself. End of.
“Transfer the point of concentration to some object outside of yourself – another person, a puzzle, a broken plate that you are gluing.” One of the first things that I learned as a director was that actors that had a focus on something other than themselves were completely different in their performance from those that were ’self’ conscious, in other words, inwardly focused. A puzzle may be fine, something that holds your attention is good, but you can’t always find a ’something to do’ in every scene, although I confess I like scenes where people do something other than just talk. However, for most scenes, you have the most interesting, attention-holding thing of all, a fascinating human being playing opposite you. Let them be your focus and you’ll fly.
“You can’t fake emotion.” I think my greatest dissatisfaction with acting in general is that I see faking that’s done as if it’s done well and audiences lapping up like it’s remarkable, when really it’s just a downright lie. Fake emotion isn’t interesting, it’s distracting to me as an audience member, it doesn’t add to the scene, it completely detracts from it. If the emotion doesn’t come to you, don’t even try to fake it, your bullshit standardised, generalised fake-ass emoting won’t fool anyone, and all you’ll get from your audience is indulgence, which is to say, a sort of pity, wrapped in applause.
To You, The Best!Mark Westbrook is a Professional Acting Coach and runs Acting Coach Scotland, a private acting studio offering acting classes in Glasgow, masterclasses, workshops and audition coaching for actors at all levels. His acting studio is based in Glasgow, Scotland, although he teaches all across the United Kingdom. All Blog Posts © Mark Westbrook 2009
Making Excuses
There is one quality that I see in my students that indicates that they don’t really have a future in acting. It’s making excuses. There’s a million reasons why you didn’t do something, but if you want to be a successful working actor, then you must cultivate the habit of presence.
Acting is learned in through the body and presence is required. That means mental and physical presence, being there and once there, switching on and tuning in.
The cold you have, the busy you were, the ‘a lot’ you’ve got on at the minute, the thing you couldn’t get out of, the visiting nephew, the tickets you’ve booked, they are all an index to one thing, the value you place on your acting career. All these reasons are excuses and they all ask one thing, like the child that was caught being naughty and wants to evade punishment —Indulge me, I am special, I have special extenuating circumstances that crave special treatment.
Mamet says ‘what you practice, you will perform’. It’s the same with your attitude. If you treat class, or auditions or rehearsals like they aren’t the real thing, if you ‘i’ll do it on the day though’ you are making excuses. If you really want to nail it on the day, then from Day 0, you’ve got to cut the shit, put away your excuses and engage. And if you can’t, then perhaps this business isn’t for you.
I don’t trust Acting Schools
For Joanne:
I don’t trust acting schools.
There, I said it. Now I’m going to get some abuse. I don’t trust Acting Schools. Not the real ones, not the accredited ones, not the universities pretending to be ones, not the colleges desperately trying to be ones, not the small independent studios, not the large commercial ‘theatre’ schools that warehouse kids and offer them singing, dancing and acting, I don’t trust them. I’m not saying they’re bad, well, perhaps I’m inferring something about that, but what I’m saying is that I don’t trust them.
I don’t trust their programmes, their curriculum, their staff. I don’t trust their games, their exercises, their techniques, approaches, methodologies, systems, ‘ways’, means and motivations. I don’t trust what they teach or what they say. I’m not saying it’s wrong, bad, evil, wicked or deceptive, I’m saying I don’t trust it. Have I been to these schools, conservatories and universities, these studios, workshops, seminars and lectures? Yes I have. I have heard academics spouting theory about practice they’ve never experienced, I’ve heard acting gurus being economical with the truth, I’ve heard acting teachers berating students that don’t get ‘it’, when there wasn’t really ‘anything’ to get. I don’t trust them. It’s too easy to make money off aspiring people. Drama courses are resource hungry, institutions dislike them for THAT very reason, but they also like the fact that they attract high fees and as many applicants as they can allow. Drama courses are even worse, if you think I don’t TRUST acting schools, I’m downright hostile about drama courses.
Now wait a minute Mark, you have an acting school. Are you saying we shouldn’t trust you either? As a matter fact, as a matter of principle, I say NO, don’t. Be skeptical. I believe that we teach at Acting Coach Scotland, is sound, practicable approaches to acting for the acting industry. But I’d say that even if I was a charlatan now wouldn’t I? I’d bamboozle you with fancy terms, I’d show you the fantastic facilities and make you feel that ONLY THE CHOSEN ONES can come in. That’ll make you feel special and you’ll feel indebted to them for giving you a place. Perhaps you don’t need them, did you ever think of that? Perhaps you can do it without them. Oh Mark, you’re so irresponsible, fancy suggesting such a thing.
The proof of the pudding’s in the eating and most schools leaving you feeling empty and then you feel bad for pigging out on junk. Don’t trust ANY acting school, don’t hand over large sums of money, don’t play the game. Hold back. You’re the customer. You’re the client. Wait. Look. Listen. Examine.
If Such and Such a famous actor went there, it MUST be a good school. Only if you believe that the famous actor had not gift for acting before they got into the school.
Who is that the Acting School lets in? Those they feel already possess those capabilities and abilities that three or four years slog won’t discourage or destroy.
The acting schools rarely teach anything that works. So don’t trust them. And when you find one that works, that REALLY works for you, not something you guiltily comply with. Then stick with it.
But don’t trust them and don’t give up your common sense. No one said being an actor meant being a schmuck.
I don’t trust them. You shouldn’t either.
To You, The Best!Mark Westbrook is a Professional Acting Coach and runs Acting Coach Scotland, a private acting studio offering acting classes in Glasgow, masterclasses, workshops and audition coaching for actors at all levels. His acting studio is based in Glasgow, Scotland, although he teaches all across the United Kingdom. All Blog Posts © Mark Westbrook 2009
Advice to the Advancing Acting Student
At the end of the day, acting is doing. It’s doing, it’s not talking about doing (as the academics and some directors think) and it’s not pretending to do (as others have been known to posit). It’s real doing. Meisner said ‘the foundation of acting is the reality of doing’. Once you see an actor take that on board, there is a change in them which is often remarkable. They stop living in a semi-daylight state of pretend and they begin to commit to action, this is a transformation more captivating than any ‘character’ actor could perform. Looking at acting as doing is a healthy way to approach acting, psychologically it does not ask you to interfere with your emotions, it accepts them as part and parcel of you, and who you are, and what you bring with you. It does not ask you to stop being you in order to become someone else, it does not insist that you stop being yourself in order to pretend to be someone else, nor delude yourself into a state of otherness.
Acting that involves doing is highly watchable – how often do I see a show on television or stage where the actors really aren’t doing anything.
One of the keys to good acting is listening. Not pretending to listen – usually accompanied by an indicative little nod to prove/fake that you are listening, but REALLY listening. Once you engage in the task of really listening and watching your scene partners, you give up some of the control that you feel you must keep over yourself and the scene, and things start to happen by themselves. Your spontaneous humanity and your creativity come together and strive to help you – without even trying. Invent Nothing, Deny Nothing, Accept Everything – Mamet says.
Remember that which we do consistently (DO – consistently) becomes our technique. Whether this is good or bad, whether it works or not. So you must strive to listen all the time you are on stage, even when you have lines, or especially when you have lines. You must still be tuned in to your partner, even when you are busy DOING.
In repetition, you must remain relaxed and not strain yourself looking for something to say. You must learn to trust yourself that what happens, when it happens, will make itself apparent enough for you to see/hear it. And if something occurs, it is part of the game, everything that happens during the game IS THE GAME. Just like everything that happens on stage or on camera IS your performance, you can’t hide from it, and in those moments, those wee special moments, you will see the magic of the actor. Not where you seek for it, but when it finds you.
To You, The Best!Mark Westbrook is a Professional Acting Coach and runs Acting Coach Scotland, a private acting studio offering acting classes in Glasgow, masterclasses, workshops and audition coaching for actors at all levels. His acting studio is based in Glasgow, Scotland, although he teaches all across the United Kingdom. All Blog Posts © Mark Westbrook 2009
New Glasgow Acting Classes Begin Tonight!
Well, tonight’s the night, the beginning of a new term of Glasgow acting classes at the Acting Coach Scotland studio in Queen St. What started off as just a few hours a week has turned into a full-time operation and we’re excited that another 16 students will come through the doors this evening to discover acting, some for the very first time.
But why do people want to act? What is it that compels them to become actors, or equally, directors, writers, composers etc…
I suppose there’s some obvious factors, if you are successful movie or television actor, you get good money and a quota of fame. This is all very nice but if it’s your only reason for getting into acting, most of you, and I say MOST, not ALL, will be disappointed because most actors earn a pitiful amount, scrape a living and go hungry between jobs and are only remembered for that funny commercial they did once.
That’s painting it rather black, I appreciate.
But why else then?
Well, I suppose I hear a lot of people saying they always wanted to try it, or they were good at it at school and they want to ‘get back into it’ – that amuses me because most were never actors professionally, but since they did it once in school, they are now ‘getting back into it’ – no one would dream of saying ‘I dissected a frog at school, I’d love to get back into surgery’, but that’s of course not the point.
They experienced something in school, something special, that made them feel special, something that gave them a buzz, a sense of joy, perhaps even elation. Now they want it back, or they want more of it. And let’s face it, it’s a lot better than being an accountant or working in Sainsbury’s/Walmart (for the most part) in terms of enjoyment.
Many of us are compelled. We try to ignore it, we try to make it go away, we try to hide it, we become good at other things and we do those things, although we keep our headshots up to date and still remember the excitement of live performance or being on camera.
Whatever your reason, it’s exciting that you want to experience acting, don’t forget to find a reputable acting teacher, preferably someone who doesn’t charge the earth…
Good Luck Tonight if you’re joining our acting classes in Glasgow, or if you’re out there anywhere in the world starting an acting class or going back to it 
)
Gatekeepers: A Secret about the Acting Industry
Anyone can act. I know it pisses actors off to hear that, because we all want to be special, but it is my sincerest belief that anyone can do it. Not everyone can do it as well as everyone else, and quite often some people are predisposed to excellence in a particular field due to ‘an accidental gathering together of molecules and atoms’ as Sean O’Casey has one of his characters say in Juno and the Paycock.
Now, I’m not suggesting that anyone, or everyone SHOULD act. But I am saying it’s possible for anyone to learn the basic skills and put them into action However, it is a unique set of characteristics and criteria that make that person able to become a professional actor.
It takes a lot more than the ability to kick a ball to become a professional soccer player. It is a particular combination of skills and personality (character) to produce someone that can play professionally. Some people just have it, some people do not. Most people that are excellent are obsessive, there’s little real ‘effortless’ success. Obsession means hours, weeks, months and years of practice. So even if you’re gifted, it takes obsession and character to take you to the position of being worthy, but then you have to be lucky too.
Likewise, the actor needs more than just the capacity to ‘play’ to be an actor. They need obsession, practice, luck and character, and most of all, will. The desire to succeed no matter what. Most of the actors that I know that didn’t give up after being rejected found success and those that were instantly successful probably gave up when they found the going went tough. It is the strugglers, or should I say – the grafters that make it.
In order to become a professional actor, you must combine ‘a talent to amuse’ along with certain aspects of character that will ensure success. These characteristics are personal, but all are learnable with time, effort, experience and the capacity to organise oneself sufficiently.
But here’s the secret, if anyone can act, and if the rest is learnable? Won’t everyone become actors in an already tiny marketplace. No, because the gatekeepers will keep you out.
The secret is that the industry has many gatekeepers meant to trip up those that aren’t going to make it. But I believe that it usually only favours the instantly fabulous and forgets the struggler, the grafter, the one that has the character to succeed. I remember a friend of mine Kirstin, who auditioned for an acting course and was knocked back by the gatekeepers, so she took a different route, and now is an award winning actress. Why? Because her will to succeed was stronger than any gatekeeper’s will to keep her out. Kick the doors in. As Hannibal (the one with the elephants, not George Peppard) said ‘We’ll find a way, or we’ll make one.’ If you want to succeed, this must become your new motto.
Gatekeepers include Drama Schools, Agents, Producers, Creative Programmers, Directors, Committees, Panels, Casting Directors, Actors and actors that didn’t make it, university lecturers (not to be confused with the former) and of course, acting teachers.
Now I don’t think that everyone should become an actor. Just like everyone could learn to fly a plane but not everyone will or should become a pilot. But it shouldn’t be the gatekeepers that decide our future for us.
The real secret is that the industry will always, at all times, try to protect itself from the hordes, the barbarians at the gates, the thousands of people that want to make it in the business.
My advice is: patience is a virtue, and time brings the gates tumbling down.
To You, The Best!Mark Westbrook is a Professional Acting Coach and runs Acting Coach Scotland, a private acting studio offering acting classes in Glasgow, masterclasses, workshops and audition coaching for actors at all levels. His acting studio is based in Glasgow, Scotland, although he teaches all across the United Kingdom. All Blog Posts © Mark Westbrook 2009
The Skills of the Actor
I recently spent two full days working intensively with a client on the basics of acting. We broke the training down into the elements that I feel are necessary for an actor to excel in and habituate, it is the craft, it is our craft:
* Discerning from the script what is actable and what clues from the script should be acted upon.
* Harvesting from the script clues to the given imaginary circumstances.
* The capacity to work off your scene partner, to act and react, within the truth of the moment.
* Technical skils of voice, movement, an understanding of performing ’style’, and the professional skills necessary to act for stage, television, film and new media.
* Lastly the ability to connect to the script and the situation of the character.
Of course, I appreciate that traditional actor training has more components and if I taught a full course, it would certainly include more, but it wouldn’t include anything to do with character, because it’s unnecessary.
I don’t say that to be controversial. I don’t say that because I am not aware of character based training, I have trained in many of them and read the books of their master practitioners, I don’t say that ‘cos Mamet says so’, but because my experience, and this week’s work demonstrates that truthful, engaging, captivating performance can be delivered without it.
And as my intensive student goes off to Los Angeles to work with his agent on adding more acting work to his career, I feel confident that he takes with him, the seeds of the professional skills his acting career will need to blossom.
The Craft of the Actor
It’s a new year, a fresh start… and it’s time to start taking a fresh look at your profession.
Despite living in a quick-fix world, our profession does not support this kind of culture. The profession of the actor is one of the apprentice and one of the craftsm’n. The craft cannot be taught in a few minutes, a few hours, weeks or even months. Whilst training may only take a limited amount of time,the craft of the actor requires the acquirement of skill, expertise, knowledge and experience which takes the actor from the position of an apprentice – someone learning on the job, to the position of master craftsm’n. To learn the craft of the actor takes a significant amount of time, it needs both professional and life experience.
The craft of the actor is learnable. It is a discovering and developing a set of skills that will eventually allow you to effortlessly perform a task, just like the craftsm’n. Of course, a knack for your craft will probably help you to move faster in your learning at the beginning of your career, but acceleration will eventually slow right down. In the end, it’s a marathon and not a sprint. Craft requires constant work and unfortunately since most actors are out of work a lot of the time, they cannot get enough time on the job in order that they properly learn the craft of acting sufficiently.
Too quickly come the shortcuts, the basics are not well-learned, the technique still feels awkward, stiff and difficult to apply. You must spend your years working on the associated skills and knowledge of the craft, but it will take much longer to gain mastery of language, action, nuance and your own vulnerability. It takes years to learn to remove the layers of self-protection, self-doubt, self-conscious, to get out of your own way significantly enough that you can reveal yourself to the role and to the audience. That’s the greatest challenge of the actor’s craft, not to create a clever character, or out-think the writer, but to reveal youself, without barriers. That’s the real craft of the actor.
To You, The Best!Mark Westbrook is a Professional Acting Coach and runs Acting Coach Scotland, a private acting studio offering acting classes in Glasgow, masterclasses, workshops and audition coaching for actors at all levels. His acting studio is based in Glasgow, Scotland, although he teaches all across the United Kingdom. All Blog Posts © Mark Westbrook 2009
Why We Fail in Auditions
How come some talented actors never make it? Some very talented individuals, who are amazing in class, do incredible work on stage, really nail it on camera, but when end up in the audition room, or in front of a casting director, they simply fail – they fall to pieces.
It’s the audition or casting session when it really counts, because you can be the best actor in the world, but if you fall flat on your face in the audition, you’ll never get the chance to show your skills off.
With all your sacrifice, your devotion, your hard work and training, you are well prepared to do the work, but there is still one thing that gets in your way.
Call it self-sabotage, call it neurosis, call it freaking out or being nervous – but we do this to ourselves. We arrive without adequate preparation, we’re perhaps a ‘little’ late, we’re full of excuses, well okay, and we’re full of shit. We try far too hard, we end up looking desperate, we end up putting them off, and we end up turning them off with our repulsive neediness.
When we leave the audition, we end up feeling empty. But it’s okay, because we’ve already given ourselves an excuse, we didn’t really try all that hard, so we didn’t really fail. It’s a rather ugly way of protecting ourselves, because we didn’t risk it all, we can persuade ourselves that we didn’t actually fail.
We tell ourselves that if we had really tried, we’d have gotten the job. We give ourselves a get-out. We condone our own failure.
We tell ourselves that it will be different next time, but we know inside that it won’t. Sooner or later, we persuade ourselves we just aren’t any good at auditioning. You give up, all that hard work, dedication, training and everything is thrown away because you’ve self-sabotaged yourself.
So… what would I suggest? How could we fix this problem?
It will take a serious change, but it’s worth it. It’s really worth it, if you want a REAL and fulfilling career in acting for stage and screen, you need to make that change.
You need to cut the shit. Look at yourself. What are the bad habits that you’ve created to self-sabotaged your career? What causes them? Why are you late for auditions? Why don’t you put time aside to prepare properly for auditions? Are you lazy? What’s holding you back? How does all your self-sabotaging fit together? To get past this problem, you need to really take a hard look at yourself, look at what’s REALLY stopping you from getting what you want, make a list and go after it, change your behaviour.
But the real key is this. If you really want to be successful in your auditions, you need to attract success. How do you do this? You take every step you possibly can to attract it, create the expectation of success by the actions that you take. SIT DOWN RIGHT NOW AND MAKE A LIST OF 5 BAD HABITS THAT ARE PREVENTING YOU FROM SUCCEEDING. Next to it, write what you WILL do in 2010 to change those habits. Now start taking action.
Or you can keep running away from the real world, keep giving yourself excuses and end up in one of those safe jobs that will allow you to say to anyone who’ll listen ‘I coulda have been an actor, you know’.
To You, The Best!Mark Westbrook is a Professional Acting Coach and runs Acting Coach Scotland, a private acting studio offering acting classes in Glasgow, masterclasses, workshops and audition coaching for actors at all levels. His acting studio is based in Glasgow, Scotland, although he teaches all across the United Kingdom. All Blog Posts © Mark Westbrook 2009
7 Signs Your Acting Teacher Sucks
ONE: Mainly Clueless
Wise and sage-like, most of them know that their technique is practically useless, but carry on peddling their nonsense for years.
TWO: Charge Too Much
I’ve seen middle of the road acting teachers charging up to £100 an hour for a session in which they rob you blind for little more than a life-coaching session. If you’re teaching or coaching high earning actors, then perhaps your fee should be higher than normal. However, if you’re coaching jobbing actors, then something low like £25 per hour is more than enough.
What’s more there are so many people out there willing to pay hundreds or thousands of pounds/dollars to these marketing/acting guru charlatans, as if being ripped off was a badge of honour.
THREE: Some are Just Out of Work Actors
I’ve seen many out of work actors claiming that they have what it takes to teach acting. Clearly, they just need the money, and you gotta admire their pluck, they want to make some money, so they turn to the thing they’re apparently good at, well trust me, most actors can’t explain to you how they do it, so they’re going to struggle to explain it to someone else.
FOUR: Actually Teachers
Unlike out of work actors, some acting teachers are actually trained teachers. They’re certified Drama teachers, or perhaps worse ‘speech and drama’ teachers. People with certificates and medals, no actual theatre, television or film experience, just time spent ticking syllabus boxes, or stuck in a High School teaching English.
FIVE: Just NOT a Teacher
Teaching is a profession that requires craft. You can’t just call yourself a teacher, that’s why there are qualifications for the position. But acting teachers can set up in a village hall and call themselves ‘acting teacher’ or ‘professional acting coach’. It really helps if your acting teacher has actually got a professional teaching certificate, actually knows something about education and training.
SIX: Bullying
There’s a lot of bullying or hazing in the name of teaching acting. An acting teacher should never bully you, does not need to shout at you, demean you or insult you. That’s unprofessional and they don’t deserve your custom. On the other hand, you MUST be willing to learn, you must accept that the acting teacher will try to challenge you. There is no part of actor training and coaching that requires the acting teacher to be rude to you in any way.
SEVEN: Stomping around in your Mind
Acting teachers should not want to stomp around in your head. What’s going in your head is none of their business. I’ve seen acting teachers trying to make people cry, digging around in their past, pushing buttons that shouldn’t be pushed. If you want to ‘open an actor up’, might I suggest you become a surgeon instead.
There are some incredible people out there, great teachers, great mentors, great inspirations – seek them out, wherever you might find them. But steer clear of those that suck. You know who you are…
To You, The Best!Mark Westbrook is a Professional Acting Coach and runs Acting Coach Scotland, a private acting studio offering acting classes in Glasgow, masterclasses, workshops and audition coaching for actors at all levels. His acting studio is based in Glasgow, Scotland, although he teaches all across the United Kingdom. All Blog Posts © Mark Westbrook 2009
Does Practical Aesthetics work for Physical Theatre?
In yesterday’s Acting Blog, I stated that: “A technique of acting must work all the time, every time.” An anonymous (American?) commenter asked:
“Does PA work for physical theater?”
I feel that there are about eight different answers to this question, so we’ll have to take this one in parts.
For me, the answer is very much a Yes. However, it’s worth working through the entire answer to this question to see why:
First of all, when I said that a technique of acting must work all time, every time, I was referring to actors working in films, television and theatre on scripted pieces. I was referring to what we might refer to as ’straight’ acting. I was also referring to it working consistently for the actor, on each stage and set they tread – rather than Practical Aesthetics being some kind of answer to everything.
Because of course, Practical Aesthetics is no use at all for installing televisions or baking cup cakes. So part of my answer is Yes, it will work if it is useful to you. The answer is No, if it is not useful to you. A fork is great for eating with, but sometimes you need a spoon, right?
Next, of course, it depends on what we mean by Physical Theatre, according to various resources I checked, the term is a ‘catch-all’ meaning:
- Mime
- Contemporary dance
- Theatrical Clowning and other physical comedy
- Some forms of puppetry
- Theatrical Acrobatics
I’m sure many would argue that Physical Theatre is in fact, an entirely separate art form and has it’s own individual skill set, that an actor must learn separately from the main acting technique.
I do not believe that Practical Aesthetics is a catchall. However, it can’t hurt to apply some principles from Practical Aesthetics to ANY of these individual art forms. In this case, Practical Aesthetics might be considered to enhance this skill specific training.
Practical Aesthetics is also a philosophy of making theatre (Mamet’s new book ‘Theatre’ due out in April 2010 should offer us all more) and so many of the great principles of pragmatism offered by Practical Aesthetics are useful to any creative person or group. If we just take one idea of ‘Invent Nothing, Deny Nothing, Accept Everything and Get on with it!’ we can see how easily that this ethic could be used by the Physical Theatre practitioner in the creation of their work.
Furthermore, if we ask if PA useful for the creation, rehearsal and performance of Physical Theatre itself, then the answer is a resounding Yes. If we take the example of DV8, which in its recenty physical theatre performance ‘To be Straight With You’ used physical performance enhanced by the spoken word, then we can see that it could be useful and work well.
And if we remove the spoken word and think of a company such as the German-based, Russian monks of physical theatre such as Derevo, there are many principles and tools in the basics of Practical Aesthetics that could help, enhance or develop this type of work and its rehearsal/creative process.
Practical Aesthetics, is primarily an action-based approach. It isn’t about words but actions. As Mamet has one of his characters in American Buffalo say ‘Action talks and Bullshit walks’. Much of the early Practical Aesthetics training is learning to work on real spontaneous impulse. Those trained in PA learn to work truthfully from moment to moment, in a physical sense, they become great observers they learn to respond truthfully to what the other person is doing within the truth of the moment, – these are all surely useful, or vital to excellent physical theatre.
We train first and foremost to learn to act through the body – as Meisner said ‘the foundation of acting is the reality of doing’. Sandy also wanted an exercise where ‘there is no intellectuality’. Where we learn to work from the intuitive centre, where we allow ourselves to become impulsive – this can only aid the physical performer.
Additionally, when you add Practical Aesthetics training to something like Viewpoints, then you get a creative philosophy and practical tools that feed off each other and stimulate fascinating creative work.
So the answer is yes, many of the principles and some of the approach itself is suited to making and performing physical theatre, and finally yes, if Practical Aesthetics could be useful to the making, rehearsal and performance of Physical Theatre, then yes, it would work.
So I guess, my overall answer is yes, it works well for physical theatre, if you mean a physical theatre performer who wants to work impulsively, living in the moment, responding truthfully to other performers, to the situation or circumstance, to music, stimulus or mood. Yes, if you want to learn to work without denying those impulses. Yes, if you like to work in action. Yes, if you like to take too much thought out of the equation and move towards action. Yes, if the essential actions of Practical Aesthetics can stimulate the performer physically, yes if tactics lead a physical performer to express themselves physically, rather than simply in words.
In general and in the specific, does Practical Aesthetics work for Physical Theatre? Yes. Yes. Yes.
To You, The Best!Mark Westbrook is a Professional Acting Coach and runs Acting Coach Scotland, a private acting studio offering acting classes in Glasgow, masterclasses, workshops and audition coaching for actors at all levels. His acting studio is based in Glasgow, Scotland, although he teaches all across the United Kingdom. All Blog Posts © Mark Westbrook 2009
Acting Techniques are Pointless
BellaLuce asked ‘What acting techniques/exercises have you found particularly pointless?’
Hmmm. Acting Techniques and their exercises are necessary. The trouble is that most of them are entirely pointless. They do keep you occupied, they’re often fun, or least they make you feel like you’re working, or mostly, they frustrate and irritate you into complying with whatever the teacher says you’re meant to think/feel/do/pretend.
We need technique. The problem is that most of them are nonsense. Acting teachers and Professors of Theatre don’t want you to know that, because it undermines most of their careers, and frankly, the way they earn their living.
Personally, I’ve always had what I jokingly call ‘a Wank Radar’, anything that seems like self-gratifying, time-wasting, pretendy-crap almost definitely is so…
Sandy Meisner said that acting was ‘the ability to live truthfully under imaginary circumstances. To me this is a good enough starting point for acting. When I teach acting, I think of acting as something a little simpler. Look at the person you’re meant to be speaking to and speak the lines with a similar intention to the character in the scene.
Many people have a talent for acting, some don’t even bother to train, they simply go on their gut instinct and the gift they were given. I must confess some admiration for this. Nonetheless, it is my belief that talent is never enough. It can take us so far, then we need a little help. To some, that means ‘technique’, some think of a ‘methodology’, some look to the stars, but let’s be clear – many can do well on talent alone – but without the challenge, someone or something to work from, a framework, you end up stuck in the same place.
However, any technique that doesn’t immediately make its use applicable to your work as an actor is suspect, not necessarily pointless but suspect. It becomes pointless, when after a few hours of work reveal no positive benefits towards actually acting the damned scene.
I have been warned for my whole career not to get stuck into one technique. The people that told me that usually realised that the techniques they learned were bullshit, so they took a bit of that technique and added to a bit of something else, and sort of bungled together a technique from toilet rolls and sticky-tape. It’s a nice idea, the so-called Linguini-effect (it’s become the mainstream approach to acting in many drama schools in non-technique schools)- throw enough technique at the actor and hope some of it sticks.but basically it sucks because the results are unpredictable, inconsistent and cannot be relied upon to produce results each time you work. A technique of acting must work all the time, every time.
For me, that is Practical Aesthetics, a simple, no-bullshit approach to acting. It works for me, it works for the actors that use it and it works for the students at ACS Studio. It can work for you too.
To You, The Best!Mark Westbrook is a Professional Acting Coach and runs Acting Coach Scotland, a private acting studio offering acting classes in Glasgow, masterclasses, workshops and audition coaching for actors at all levels. His acting studio is based in Glasgow, Scotland, although he teaches all across the United Kingdom. All Blog Posts © Mark Westbrook 2009
Merry Christmas
Merry Christmas to all! I hope you have a great time, I’m watching It’s a Wonderful Life as Christmas Eve turns into Christmas Day, and you know what? It is!
Glasgow Acting Coach on…The Death of Method Acting…
I’m annoyed, it’s 03:44am in the morning and I’m fuming at the media’s constant need to agree with the Methodists, that’s Method acting practitioners to you and me. Remember Bush and his ‘You’re either with us or against us’ speech, well the same type of impractical theory has crept from the Methodists themselves to others. Their over simplistic rant goes that if you’re not a Method Actor, if you don’t sue for Emotional Truth, then you’re pretending. All those who don’t pursue this emotional truth are therefore fakes and frauds.
In this recent Wall Street Journal article, David Thomson gives his potted history of the Method, with a small gripe or two, he’s also fallen for the ’swat or not’ mentality. As if – not liking oranges only left you with apples.
Read the Article on Method Acting yourself.
Well sorry Methodists, sorry David Thomson, this just isn’t true. Look, I’m all against faking it, pretend just drives me up the wall and when I see it, it makes me shudder, because those that can pretend well are basically few and far between, so the rest are left asking for the audience or viewer’s indulgence while they fake it and hope to get away with it.
The opposite of Method Acting is not Pretending. To me, the opposite of Method Acting can be found in the philosophy of Practical Aesthetics, the approach to acting that was categorised by William H Macy and David Mamet in New York in the 80s, based on the work of Stanislavski and Sandy Meisner, it involves pursuit of action within the truth of the moment. Well, at least the title gave me hope, The Death of Method Acting, I hope so. I would say that the actors that are being called pretenders are just naturally gifted at taking action, pursuing achievable goals and acting in the moment.
Method Acting seems on the rise in the UK at the moment, who knows why? We’ve never been known for suffering that self indulgent crap before, why start now?
To You, The Best!Mark Westbrook is a Professional Acting Coach and runs Acting Coach Scotland, a private acting studio offering acting classes in Glasgow, masterclasses, workshops and audition coaching for actors at all levels. His acting studio is based in Glasgow, Scotland, although he teaches all across the United Kingdom. All Blog Posts © Mark Westbrook 2009
Glasgow Acting Coach on… Dialogue
The great philosopher Cher once said “Words are like weapons, they wound sometimes.”
Dialogue is a contrived thing. It is not speech. Those that think it is, are sadly deluding themselves. It is a contrived representation of real human speech, created assist with the creation of the illusion of character.
Characters speak to achieve something. This can be very simple like fishing for a compliment or complex like trying to turn your brother against your own father. Words are used by people to achieve an end. Verbal communication is the human struggle to formalise thoughts and feelings which have no real shape. They are often inadequate. But to hear a character speak like we do in life would be tiresome and so the writer works to construct the illusion, holding ‘as t’were the mirror up to nature’. It is not an accident that the playWRIGHT is written as a maker of plays, scripts are WROUGHT, not written. Dialogue is a constructed thing.
But when it comes to the actor, they must bring the dialogue off the page and turn it into action, into acting, into performance. After all, the actor’s rarely get anything more than dialogue on which to perform their role. And so, dialogue is the key clue in discovering how to take action and take your character into performance.
Words are weapons and when they are used, they often leave an indelible impression on the person that hears them. ‘What’s said cannot be unsaid’. For the actor, the words are gibberish, they are tools in the pursuit of the character’s desires. It is not the words, but how they are said and why they are said that matters. Of course, at the same time, without over-acting and mugging the scene to death, there is also the moments when you are not speaking and whether or not you have any input as an actor in the subtext.
On subtext, I would say leave it alone. It doesn’t need your help. If one character asks ‘How are you?’ and you must answer ‘Fine’, then playing the tactic DODGE or DEFLECT will take care of the writer’s subtextual demands.
Many would-be actors cannot handle dialogue. They make it sound like poor narration. They can’t bring the words alive, because they do not see the relationship between the dialogue and REAL speech. Whilst it starts as the constructs of another creative, your job is to make it come to life. Understanding why they are speaking is essential, understanding what motivates their words, their reasoning, their choice of words helps you the actor to understand what you have to do with the words. Without this, you are reciting text, not breathing life into the script.
To You, The Best!Mark Westbrook is a Professional Acting Coach and runs Acting Coach Scotland, a private acting studio offering acting classes in Glasgow, masterclasses, workshops and audition coaching for actors at all levels. His acting studio is based in Glasgow, Scotland, although he teaches all across the United Kingdom. All Blog Posts © Mark Westbrook 2009
Glasgow Acting Coach on… How to Avoid Faking It.
Okay okay you say, since you hate faking and love truthful acting so much, how the hell do I avoid faking it?
Actually, it’s quite simple, it’s a mental shift in the actor’s perspective that helps us to see things clearly. I was working with an actor today and it started to become very clear to me the different between states and action. When someone is angry, they are in a state of anger which is projected by the things that they do. Their emotional state is caused and maintained by their actions (and reactions to whatever made them angry in the first place). We know they are angry by the things that they do, the actions that they take, the tactics they use, and again – the things that they do.
When an actor is learning to act, they often get stuck in the trap of trying to reproduce emotional states. It is the mistake of playing the result rather than stimulating the truth through truthful action. Of course, any good director or acting coach knows this, yet still many insist on the production of a result or state rather than helping the actor to find it themselves. Over the years, this creates a self-confidence crisis in actors who were consistently having to fake emotional states in order to please their teachers and directors.
The key to avoiding faking it, is to remember that you canNOT will yourself into a state. I know the NLP voodooists would claim that you can, but to my mind, you can only turn the temperature up or down on a state, you cannot conjur one at whim. We’re not talking about emotional truth, emotional truth already exists without you seeking it. Acting is action and not emotion. Emotion is crazy state, uncontrollable and wild. If your character is angry, sad, horny or whatever, you have to look at what horny, sad and angry people DO.
This is the key to avoiding faking it. Find a coach that will help you learn this on a 1-2-1 basis, it takes someone else, someone you can trust to tell you when you’re faking it.
To You, The Best!Mark Westbrook is a Professional Acting Coach and runs Acting Coach Scotland, a private acting studio offering acting classes in Glasgow, masterclasses, workshops and audition coaching for actors at all levels. His acting studio is based in Glasgow, Scotland, although he teaches all across the United Kingdom. All Blog Posts © Mark Westbrook 2009
Glasgow Acting Coach on…Mediocrity
Hi All.
I’m sorry to say that I look about me and see a lot of mediocre performances. Flat, lifeless crap and shabby, flabby, overdone shit. It’s frightening that these people got through drama school and are paid to perform in front of you. Under a unique law in the UK, you can’t ask for your ticket money back.
I believe mediocrity has slipped inside our business. Directors are accepting mediocrity because it’s better the Devil you know, than the Devil you don’t. It scares me what passes for performance these days. I rarely can bare to go the theatre, the plays are boring and the performances lack a shred of truth. Of course, there are exceptions. There are already exceptions. But rarely do I leave the theatre without thinking that ticket money would be really great in my honeymoond fund.
Mediocrity is all around us. People accept it, because it’s safe, it doesn’t challenge and it makes the people in power (you know the ones) feel safe because they don’t feel threatened. We daren’t upset THOSE people, they may be talentless, but by God, they’re powerful. And so we prostrate ourselves and join their mediocre band.
So how do we make a change? First of all, we don’t accept shite. We walk out of shows, we turn off the television, we leave the cinema and don’t return. Okay, that’s all unlikely to happen. Okay, how about this, the people in power realise that they have no need to be afraid, that the creative people are there to help. They offer not a threat, but a chance to excel and when you put your faith in these people, they will bring you a return on your investment.
We have also let diversity in the arts hurt us. What do I mean? Oh, I don’t mean like social diversity, I’m all for that. But there are hundreds, no thousands of acting courses. They can’t all be exceptional people. The training course providers have a moral and ethical responsibility. But of course, they won’t listen to me.
So, I urge you as individuals, because some of you will HAVE the power and some of you already HAVE the power, to insist on excellence and to consider all acts of mediocrity in the arts, and for me in acting particularly, as minor crimes against culture. I just mean that if you have the power, use it, use it to help the excellent to excel and the punish mediocrity with absence and silence.
To You, The Best!Mark Westbrook is a Professional Acting Coach and runs Acting Coach Scotland, a private acting studio offering acting classes in Glasgow, masterclasses, workshops and audition coaching for actors at all levels. His acting studio is based in Glasgow, Scotland, although he teaches all across the United Kingdom. All Blog Posts © Mark Westbrook 2009
Glasgow Acting Coach spills the beans…
Hi
Some of you are asking about recommending acting coaches in other cities. Sorry guys, I’m afraid unless they’ve taught me, I’m unwilling to put my reputation on the line.
But since so many of you ask the questions, I’m going to talk to you about what qualities I think a good acting coach should have -
That way you can work to differentiate the frauds and charlatans from those dedicated to helping you achieve your acting goals.
- A good acting coach understands acting on an conscious level, that means they can abstract themselves for the process of acting in order to break it down and teach it.
- A good acting coach is well qualified, this means a mixture of experience and expertise, formal qualifications, are helpful, but you don’t need a talent to get them.
- A good acting coach is not upset by a difficult question that you ask, they want to help you at every stage of your journey, including during your confusion.
- A good acting coach is passionate, knowledgeable and wants to share it with you.
- A good acting coach talks sense and when you don’t understand, endeavours to help you.
- A good acting coach has time for you, after class, before class, by email.
- A good acting coach doesn’t lump all their students in together.
- A good acting coach never shouts at you for getting it wrong.
- A good acting coach never uses the verb ‘TO BULLY’ in order to teach you something.
- A good acting coach knows everyone’s name.
- A good acting coach can DO all the things they ask YOU to DO.
- A good acting coach only asks YOU to do THINGS that they are WILLING to DO.
- A good acting coach uses praise sparingly, but constructive criticism frequently.
- A good acting coach knows people in the business.
- A good acting coach is not just an actor trying to make a bit of extra cash.
- A good acting coach is not your friend, they are your mentor, your tutor, your drill sergeant and sometimes your worst nightmare, but they always respect you.
- A good acting coach never makes fun at your expense.
- A good acting coach is available when you need them.
- A good acting coach has planned your journey with you.
- A good acting coach wants to know what YOU want to achieve and plans the steps and helps you to get there.
- A good acting coach never wastes your time.
- A good acting coach has great stories but never uses them to big themselves up.
- A good acting coach is approachable.
- A good acting coach isn’t just in it for the money.
- A good acting coach doesn’t let their ego be the most important thing in the room.
- A good acting coach treats you like you’re the most important person.
- A good acting coach demonstrates all the good qualities of character that any good, respectable human being should be proud to embody.
- A good acting coach can REALLY kick ass.
- Okay, maybe not that last one.
Mark Westbrook is a Professional Acting Coach and runs Acting Coach Scotland, a private acting studio offering acting classes in Glasgow, masterclasses, workshops and audition coaching for actors at all levels. His acting studio is based in Glasgow, Scotland, although he teaches all across the United Kingdom. All Blog Posts © Mark Westbrook 2009
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Recent Posts
- A Few of Good Resources
- The Wood for the Trees
- Lessons from Sandy…
- Making Excuses
- I don’t trust Acting Schools
- Advice to the Advancing Acting Student
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- Gatekeepers: A Secret about the Acting Industry
- The Skills of the Actor
- The Craft of the Actor
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- Does Practical Aesthetics work for Physical Theatre?
- Acting Techniques are Pointless
- Merry Christmas