The Drama Sessions

These days, the prevailing style is that of naturalism. The fact is this:

Nobody wants to see ‘acting.’ Acting is about telling the truth. There is no lying in

acting. The actor must learn to recognize the difference.

Many actors are nervous when approaching a text. It can feel like the

enemy. But learn to control it and it will soon become a friend. It is meaning that drives the relationship between actor and audience.

The Monologue is the first weapon in the actor’s armoury. The point about the

monologue is that it’s in your control. It’s been your choice.

It’s important to know at least three monos. A serious contemporary. A light contemporary. And a classical.

An actor is not in the business of reading. Actors are in the

business of conversation. And we can all hear that

difference, the difference between someone reading and

someone conversing.

Be aware of what your character is saying and, even more

importantly, meaning but also be aware of what other

characters are saying.

In Acting it’s as important to listen as it is to speak. If actors

don’t listen how will they know how to respond?

Many people believe that it is the words we speak that make people interested in us. On the

contrary, we are judged and measured by our level of attentiveness to others.

Where Acting is concerned knowing what to avoid doing can be

every bit as important as knowing what to do. A character is not a person so essentially there is no one to become. It is not so much the character as the emotional

characteristics that the character is.

Episode 8 might be considered as one long exercise in both looking and listening. Look at what the actors are doing. Study them. You should be able and willing to learn from good actors. They too can teach you many important things about acting as an art and a craft.

Scene work is give and take. It demands the complete understanding

that no actor ever acts in a vacuum. It’s what people do almost every day of their lives. Just talking. Essentially, though it may sound banal, most drama boils down to two guys in a room having a chat.

The point about confidence, it’s not about adding something to yourself. Rather it’s about subtracting, a stripping back to who you really are and a belief that who you really are

is sufficient in itself. I am enough, I am all that’s required for me to be interesting.

Getting a job is not the same as building a career. There is no point in getting a two month contract if you're then going to be unemployed for six months afterwards. A job is NOT a career. Many actors are so pleased to have found work that they forget that they must continue to look ahead, to the bigger picture.

I frequently find that many actors, whilst claiming that they are trying very hard to

find work in an overcrowded industry, are, in my view at least, doing very little. Bottom Line: Those most likely to succeed will have spent a lot of time acquiring a network.