My Personal Acting Process

LEARNING HOW TO ACT

MY PERSONAL JOURNEY IN DISCOVERING MY ACTING PROCESS

Many perceive the work of an actor as a lot of fun and that it is easy as saying the alphabet . After all , who among us have not acted at one point in our lives ? Haven 't we put up an act when faced with daunting situations in our lives ? Haven 't we said lines that weren 't really part our true personality

All of us have acted one part or another at different times in our lives . But to

be an actor is not just about putting up an act . What many people do not understand is the fact that acting is just like any other job -you have to put a lot of work in it to perfect it . It is not just a talent you have . It 's a skill that must be developed over time and practice . In theater and in acting , it is true that practice makes perfect

With this thought , it necessarily follows that a real actor must continue to learn how to act and make it as natural as it possibly can It is thus very useful that many books have been written about how one can best capture the art of acting and how one is able to play a role and not just merely act it . I have used these books in my own personal journey in discovering my very own acting process . And I must admit that doing so has made my work , and my life , as an actor even more meaningful

Let us first take , for instance , the book written by the Members of the Atlantic Theater Company called A Practical Handbook for the Actor

In sum , this book outlines and explains the Practical Aesthetics Technique where emotions are explored through the use of the imagination and the pursuit of a physical action . Practical Aesthetics is an acting technique developed by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright David Mamet The book is co-written by Melissa Bruder , Lee Michael Cohn , Madeleine Olnek , Nathaniel Pollack , Robert Previto and Scott Zigler . It is based upon a series of workshops by acting coach David Mamet

According to this book , Bruder , et . al . postulate that acting , like carpentry is a craft with a definite set of skills and tools (Bruder et . al , 1986 . The book mainly aims to teach up and coming actors like me to find the truth in every scene they are to perform and to be able to identify the specific actions in the production and why they are doing them

I must say that I agree with the book when it said that the process of an actor begins before any acting is offered . To do this , I agree that that actors like me must learn to always keep themselves in a state of optimal conditioning . Doing this will allow us to immediately connect to any character that are assigned to us to portray as well as to discover the essence...