Lesson 1 of Theatre

Lesson 1 Tasks:

What is good acting? 

Good acting is:
Allowing yourself to be taken away by the stage space giving away every tiny piece of you to be used in the biggest and smallest actions. Putting 100% into everything you do  but having the control to bring it back again whilst finding the root of the character inside yourself achieveing this will make you absolutely blind from reality,In tune with the character completely.The lines are no longer just words, They are each invidual plays within themselves *see seperate post. Stanislavsky - Remember the feelings from the past and potray them in the present. All acting comes from the present, The past doesn't matter neither the future. Anything that is happening is happening Now. Bad acting comes from the mind and not the body.   

   

 

What is bad acting? 

Bad acting is...

Bad acting is hiding away on stage, from audience, from self and from emotion, not connecting or engaging with your fellow actors or audience leaving the piece flat and uniteresting. Over acting and adding unnecessary amount of physical actions. Sometimes the simple things are the most effective.Not learning lines or cues inhibiting the performance and slow down the general work ethic of everyone on the team. Acting from only one part of you e.g. The body but no mind. Not taking on notes one note should be enough DON'T REPEAT! Rehearsal things - Rehearsal = Re-Hear-All if you just go over bad work again and again without changing anything you are never going to get better. Shying away from hard topics such as genocide or sex will only put you in a confort zone and then you're stuck in a type-casted rut! You need to do what your character needs not what you need. Bad acting is being scared to embarrass yourself

How do I improve?

To improve oneself and to break free from being a "bad actor" you must for starters practice and practice and train the bad habits out of your system. If on stage you constantly find your eye line on the floor then practice looking straight out in front of you on the "horizon". If you find yourself being easily embarrassed then challenge yourself and out yourself in situation where you would be embarrassed. To improve on being a bad actor you must take every criticism and note you receive and work on it until you have it down perfectly. And finally to stop being a bad actor you must let go of the mind set of acting you have and embrace opportunities to learn!

Assessing myself

In this fist lesson I would grade myself at a P1, (Pass one). I demonstrated that I could control my acting skills to a competent level. I showed that I could interpret the text into an improvasational piece which according to an audience of my peers was very well constructed. Even though in lesson we didn't get that long to look at text I thought I did quite a good job at developing my own character and I was always focussed. To improve and move up to a merit mark I would need to start "getting things right" constantly and never breaking character. I could also improve by making up my own themes and ideas to add to the piece

Simple Skills Audit

• I have good projection in my voice but I need to work on my articulation because there's no point in being loud if no-one can understand what you are actually saying 
• I am not afraid of being embarrassed or making mistakes and learning 
• I can be very physical in my movements but sometimes I can be too physical so I need to work on my subtley 
• I need to focus on using my entire mouth and all of it's muscles to achieve the best sound in clarity and volume 
• I need to learn my lines cold so I don't get into a habite of saying it a particular way  
• I can leave all my own problems outside the door and get on with a fellow actor no matter what 
• I always take care in the speed of my lines but I could work on other areas such as pitch and tone