Acting is Learning by Practice

“Learn by Practice” – Martha Graham

Talking about it won’t help. It might get you good at articulating ideas, but it won’t help.

There really is no theory of acting, it is either doing or talking about doing, and mostly the theory puts us back into our heads and stops us doing.

Academia wants to talk about it, because learning to do it is considerably more effort of time and energy than talking about doing it, which is considered a discipline in and of itself.

“But if only I understood, I would understand, and I would be able to demonstrate my understanding through practice.”  

Unfortunately that’s not the case. You will only understandafter you do it. And when you do it, you may be frustrated, you may still struggle to understand but eventually, through the practice of doing, you will eventually do it right – and then you will understand it.

Sitting down to talk it through is just stalling, it’s just letting yourself off the hook. Yes but yes but yes but nothing… Do it and you will learn, talk about it and you will avoid doing it.

Learning to act occurs through the body, through practice, certainly through some reflection on your practice, but in the end, just like dance, to act – which means to do, to take action, is learned through doing, through practice.