Breaking Character/Forgetting Lines

I have had a lot of questions lately about how to stay in character or how to keep from forgetting my lines. These topics are closely related as they are caused by the same thing: a lapse in concentration by the actor.

I find that the biggest cause of breaks in concentration is self-awareness (being self-conscious). When the actor switches from being the character (concentrating on the stimuli of the scene and reacting moment by moment--what the famous acting teachers Meisner and Adler called "staying in the moment") to thinking about what he or she looks like and/or is doing, the actor has lost it; and it is visible to all observing him-- just as though the character is a pasted-on image that has been ripped off of the actor. Thus our challenge as actors is to forget ourselves for in doing so we are then open to be the character.

Playing the moment means that the actor does not think about what has already happened in his or her performance. Nor does he or she thing about what is to come later in the play. It means that the actor is fully concentrating on the moment of the scene that is present. Without the concentration to do that, the actor cannot respond successfully and will give a poor performance.

The actors concentration begins with the actor being fully confident of having the lines learned perfectly.

Then the actor focuses his or her eyes on the other actors. Watch Marlon Brando, James Dean, Paul Newman, Clint Eastwood, John Wayne or other famous actors. Watch how they focus on the other actors. Their eyes steady and burning into their scene partners demonstrates stong concentration and leads to effecive performances.

Being self-conscious is always detrimental to the actor. It is essential to having good emotional responses to the stimuli in the scene that the actor is free from inhibitions that cause him or her to be worried about what people will think about what they are doing in their performance. Such an impediment to acting effectively must be avoided. And it will be avoided by those actors who work to rid themselves of being self-conscious. Being in many plays and studying in the proper acting classes will bring the actor a sense of security and effectiveness in their acting.

Where Did They All Go?

I decided to clean out my address book which is full of email addresses of people to whom I sent an email some time or other, and for the most part have never returned the favor. I have only just finished the D's and am about to start the E's.

I suppose everyone's address book is like that, but since most of my correspondence is about acting and becoming an actor I find it a little baffling that those hundreds of people who swore that acting was their life or their passion, or their only possibe career have not returned an email to ask another question, or report a success in the quest.

I think that most of them have given up on becoming a professional actor. That would be hundreds and hundreds of people who contacted me who have fallen by the wayside. It is amazing how complicated and difficult it is to become a professional for most aspiring actors. A lucky few are "discovered" and waltz right into it. But that is a very very lucky very very few.

So much energy wasted by people who, if they had done a little research or asked another question, might have been spared the waste. Or might have found some success.

I decided a while back to tell the truth about acting. Almost everyone else who answers questions on Yahoo Answers or who has a web site about acting encourages aspiring actors to go for it. Well, very few of them have any idea what they are going for. That's what Iam trying to do, give them an honest reply.

Acting is so overcrowded now with aspiring actors (ten thousand graduate academic or professinal acting schools every year) that I think it is a better service to discourage the unprepared (or at least tell them what it is really like) and get them the hell out of the crowd. This may sound cruel, but I think it is really kind to those who have an honest chance and to the profession as well.

Well, that's about it. A few thoughts that were inspired by my address book. If you have ever contacted me, and you are still acting, I 'd like to hear from you again.
God bless, Doc

This May Be of Help

It seems that I have found an honest web site for casting and for acting information of all kinds. It is JB Casting Network. I encourage all aspiring actors to take a look. If you have questions, let me know. God bless, Doc

Must an Actor Be Good Looking?

I get a lot of email from people who would like to be be actors, but they are concerned that they may not be handsome or beautiful enough.

What an actor looks like has a great deal to do with his or her success. Professional casting is always done first by look--does the actor look like the character. There are often characters in plays and films that are not necessarily handsome or beautiful in appearance. Many film stars of both sexes were not. In fact, some stars' careers were built on their "ugliness."

Before everyone gets all excited that they are going to become film stars in spite of their mediocre looks, we need to consider that the actors and actresses who succeeded without being handsome or beautiful were still attractive in the sense that the audience was drawn to them. This happens because of the charisma, or charm, that the actors and actresses have. Charisma is that unidentifiable quality that makes someone interesting. It could be a vocal quality, a sparkle or twinkle in their eyes, or any number of other things that draw people's attention.
This quality must be strong enough to make the audience want to see that actor again.

Good looking or not, the thing that the actor must project is being someone that the audience can idenify with -- someone that the audience finds exciting, interesting, and appealing. When we say the audience identifies with an actor or character, we don't mean that they recognize qualities in them that remind them of Uncle Joe or their brother. What we mean is that they recognize in them the people that they, they audience, wish they were -- romantic and exciting people -- instead of the boring, everyday drudges that they are. That is what makes film and TV popular -- that it provides a means for everyday people to live exciting lives via identifying with the characters and actors in the shows.

Because of this identifying process, actors must make themselves extraordinary people. They work hard to develop those characteristics that will make them attractive to the audience. They have personal trainers. Some have cosmetic surgery. Others develop powerful voices or physiques. But most actors and actresses don't just rely on the looks they have been born with. Instead, they spend hours and sometimes lots of money to become the idols of the audience.

There is so much more to being an actor than acting. There is becoming an interesting physical person. There is developing a charming personality. There is having the business savvy needed to succeed. There is the hard, physical work of staying fit and healthy. And there is much more to this complex, fascinating business called being an actor.

Education and the Actor

Would you believe that this blog, my e-book, and my web site came into being because I was contacted by a high school student from Houston, Texas several years ago? He had seen a posting on a forum that I wrote which said that I did not think it was necessary for actors to go to college, and he wanted to know if it were true. Well, it was true. I did write such a post. Moreover, I still believe that it is not necessary for a person to go to college to become an actor.

In my e-book, I explain why colleges and acting schools are not necessarily the best way to prepare for a career in acting. However, most people would benefit from the added knowledge, experience, and maturity that the four years of college provides. It really is the exception that someone becomes an actor with no formal education or training.

I have talked to many teens who wanted to become actors, but could not see the benefits of formal education. Most want to know how to become actors without going to college or acting school. One wanted to drop out of high school. One wanted to know which college acting programs did not require good grades. I forgot to tell him my daughter was dropped from a prestigious university acting school because her academic grades at the university were not sufficiently high. Teens sometimes get the strangest notions about becoming actors: that a BFA Acting degree does not require the same academic classes as other degrees; that somehow they just go to an agent and say 'I am an actor, find me a job;' or that because one of their high school teachers told them they should become an actor that they can do so.

First, no one wants an uneducated actor. An actor needs good grammar. He needs to know how to find information about things such as the time and place of the play historically. He needs to be well read. And he needs to be able to carry on an intelligent conversation on many subjects. Only a formal education or an extraordinary informal education would provice these things. Intelligence in actors is much prized by directors.

So I am afraid that if someone really wants to become an actor, that person needs to be well educated. High school and college grades are important--not to get a job as an actor, not to be brilliantly talented, but to be the most effective human being you can be. Acting is such a difficult profession that many of the most talented people never make it because they are not properly educated and guided toward success as an actor. That is why I created my web site--to offer the kinds of information and guidance needed by people who want to become actors. It does not substitute for formal education. It adds to it. There are other things aspiring actors need as well, but they are subjects for another time. Pehaps they are elsewhere in this blog or elsewhere on my website.

An experience in film acting.

Film acting requires the actor(s) t0 do some pretty odd stuff when they perform their roles. Take for example Roy M. Davis working on the French film "Nous York." For the director to get just what he wanted, Roy had to repeat his singing over and over again without the takes being cut and restarted in the traitional way. He writes:

"I completed the film engagement on the French film, Nous York. As it turned out, I only had to sing the first two lines of the song but the drawback was that I had to do it over again several times during each single take. I mean that I had to sing the two lines,wait ten seconds and start again. Without cutting. And then we did at least half a dozen takes.One more lesson on how drastically film acting can differ from acting on the stage. And I did not have to make any effort at projection. I was wired up with one of those sound devices that almost makes it possible to record the dropping of a pin and yet have the sound register in the movie theater very audibly. So I sang very quietly. A new experience. I am so glad that I was ready. I may not have been two years ago. Let us keep in contact."

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ON TO THE NEXT LEVEL

Probabaly the most asked question that I get is "How do I become a [professional} actor? This is mostly asked by very young people and teens who have done a school play or two and was in a community theatre production and now want to take it on to the next level.

What these kids do not realize is that being a professional actor is not something you just start doing when you feel like it. You don't just suddenly become qualified to be a professional. Being in a few amateur plays doesn't really come close to what you have to do to be an actor.

First you must be an actor. You must be reading everything you can find about acting (at least from the more modern of the books), and reading all the plays you can find, and you have to be doing all the acting you can in amateur theatre, {university} student films and indie films. And these experiences must show that you are one of the few extraordinarily talented and charming people in the world who cab become an actor.

Then someone, your parent if you are under 18, mus devote their life to your becoming an actor, This is harder than it seems. The actor's life is solitary and spartan and it requires someone who is a good self starter. The aspiring actor has to overcome the frustration of rejection and extended periods of not getting any result for their efforts. This sounds like something many people can endure, but few survive it as actors.

Finally, those that you will be competing with professionally for agents, jobs, and success will have had years and years of acting experience and professional training. They are the best actors in the world. You have to be one of them if you are going on to the next level because the next level is heavily populated with them.