Acting Is... » Notes on Acting

Students in my acting classes know that when they do scene work the expectation is that they will rehearse and plan their work carefully to demonstrate that they can make and repeat good choices and give the impression that it is all happening for the first time.  I don’t want students improvising their scene work ...Read the Rest

I am delighted that you have chosen to listen tomy NOTES ON ACTING podcasts ng but I hope you understand that my goal in providing these thoughtss isto help you learn your craft so you can listen to  and trust your own acting instincts.  to have a career as an actor you must be ablle ...Read the Rest

If you have listened to my podcasts you know that I think you should be able to read a script carefully and pull out story and character clues to guide your work. You don’t have to be a scholar but you must be analytical and disciplined so you can find a doorway for yourself into ...Read the Rest

[inevery day in our private and professional lives we are confronted with irritants and annoyances.  The problem with these things is that they are as sticky as superglue and if you engage them foreven a moment it is hard to get unstuck from them and then they become more than annoyances. As actors We need ...Read the Rest

Stella Adler said, “You have to get beyond your own precious inner experiences. I want you to be able to see and share what you see with an audience, not just get wrapped up in yourself. The actor cannot afford to look only to his own life for all his material nor pull strictly from ...Read the Rest

If you listen to my Notes on Acting regularly you know that I haven’t added a new podcast in several months.  What you don’t know is that in April I developed an infection in my heart that caused several strokes. I was in a fight for my life and the strokes made it impossible for ...Read the Rest

Victor Chi, this week’s Notes on Acting guest, is an actor based in Los Angeles, California. In this podcast, Victor shares his thoughts on taking acting classes once you arrive in Los Angeles or New York.  He looks at the different types of classes, explains why you should take them, and how to find the ...Read the Rest

You can create a character by building it from the ‘outside in’ by finding your walk, posture, and rhythms.  Or you can build it from the ‘inside out’ by determining how the character thinks and responds to people, places, and things. Or you can figure out what your character wants and carefully determine how he ...Read the Rest

To get inside a script, you need to read, brainstorm, research, and visualize. But sometimes you need more.  Since professions define who we are, you need to understand your character’s profession and learn as much about it as you can.  The best way to do that is to watch people doing that job and interview ...Read the Rest

Before the internet existed, actors actually had to go to the library to do research.  They had to stand in line for the reference librarian and wait to make copies of articles and essays. As valuable as it was, just getting access to information put a lot of actors off the important task of doing ...Read the Rest

Music is composed of notes and rests and has a clear beginning, middle, and end.  During the rests there is no sound but the piece doesn’t stop. The music unspools a beat at a time and the silences compliment the sounds and make them all the more effective by creating rhythmic shifts and contrasts. Speech ...Read the Rest

Watching Daniel Day-Lewis play Abraham Lincoln, audiences felt like they were seeing the real man.  They felt that the actor had somehow turned the monument into flesh and blood. But the truth is that we don’t really know what Lincoln was like.  There are many books that describe him, his relationships, and his presidency but ...Read the Rest