The Acting Blog

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.

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