Sunday, October 17, 2010

Acting Tips

There are a thousand and one tips that are useful for the art of acting and it depends largely on what the actor needs. Throughout the centuries, different actors have sworn by different theories of acting. But I have some basic tips for movement and speech; free and simple advice. Move like your character would move. Study people on the street, how they move, how they walk, how they sit and how they gesture. Some teachers and directors think an actor shouldn't gesture but if real people gesture, than an actor portraying a character should gesture. Gesturing can help the audience understand what the character is talking about and where the gun might be, particularly in styles of writing that are unfamiliar to the audience like Shakespeare. Shakespeare becomes very easy for audience and actor alike to understand when physical movement, business and gestures help to unlock the keys to the genius that is Shakespeare. Act like real people act. I would say that would be a general rule but when it comes to speaking, an actor has to do something artificial, an actor has to hit their consonants. Without consonants, speech becomes a slur of vowels. An actor can speak softly on stage and if he or she hits their consonants they can be understood. As I like to say to my students, consonants are your friend. It is hard work to hit your consonants but with practice, it becomes more natural. It is well worth the effort. For more acting tips go to Bottletreeinc.com

1 comment:

Jordan Wilgus said...

I think that these tips are useful but they're a little too vague and they only really hit a small branch of theater acting. There are obviously far more tips and tricks that people can do to better their acting skills. I don't believe that simply hitting your consonants on stage is enough to be heard. That may work for small time theater like on a community theater project but on a major stage, the folks in the back row are not going to be able to hear you if you're speaking in a normal voice. I do think articulation is a good idea though. So this is definitely a good general acting tip.

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