10 Top Tips for Acting Students
As an acting teacher, I think that a lot of what we teach people is common sense. However, common sense is a dangerously presumptive concept, it means that people should know what you know.
Here are 10 apparently common sense things that all acting students should know.
ONE: Arrive early and leave latest. The students that do this are almost always the best. It’s not that it bestows on magical qualities by being there more time than anyone else, but it’s certain that you will be better placed to take advantage of opportunities and everyone considers you keen and professional.
TWO: Presume Everything Positive. Presume that you should know your lines, presume that you should be early, presume that they wanted you to read the whole script, presume that you should practice extra, presume that you should have that tiny script learned for the accent masterclass, that you should understand it, that you should have google the writer, presume EVERYTHING.
THREE: Assume Nothing Negative - The teacher or coach is particularly hard on you? That’s not necessarily because they think you are bad, it may well be because they think they can push you a little harder than everyone else. Not getting much feedback? That’s a good thing isn’t it?
FOUR: Understand that Every Reason You Have For Not Doing Something Sounds like an Excuse. Simple enough, the reason that you didn’t read the script for Friday is that you didn’t get it until Thursday night. That sounds like an excuse. Not that you are lying about a late delivery, but that you didn’t stay up Thursday night to read it.
FIVE: Get Self Aware – One of the biggest hurdles to development as an actor is a total lack of awareness. Crippled by self doubt and self consciousness, students don’t take the time to work out what is going wrong. It all starts and ends with awareness of self, afterall – you are the instrument.
SIX: Be First Up - I’m beyond disappointed when asking for volunteers to see people straining to hide themselves. If you want to be a wallflower go study accountancy. You pay the same as everyone else, when someone asks for volunteers, stand up first.
SEVEN: The Race Is WIth Yourself - While you are training, you are competing with yourself only. Yes, there may be others up for similar roles for you, but the goal of training is self development and not ‘winning’.
EIGHT: Learn to Be the Best Failure – You are going to fail, you are going to fuck things up, it’s going to happen. But if you feel like you mustn’t fail, you will risk nothing and grow little. Embrace failure, learn from it at every turn, not in a despondent ‘making the best of it’ kind of hippy way, but understanding that failure is a far better teacher than success.
NINE: Answer the Question For Yourself – then ask for Help. The real learning doesn’t happen when the teacher or coach gives you the answer, but when you discover it for yourself.
TEN: Be Patient. You can’t have it all in one day.
These things might seem like common sense, and if you do them all, you will make the most out of your time training as an actor, and if you don’t – well, time to make a change.