What Do I Do Now? A simple acting lesson

How does an actor know what to do on camera or stage? They take their answers from various places: the words of the script, stage directions, notes from the director and finally their spontaneous instincts, based in these former places.

So you learned your lines and you’re setting up for your first scene, how do you know how to behave? How do you know what to do?

And before the method/system lists come out, the answer is simple and basic.

1) Have something concrete to achieve on stage/screen from the first moment of the scene to the last. You have it, you the actor, you are truthful and real.

2) Watch what the other actor is doing and change, adapt your behaviour accordingly in order to successfully achieve 1).

Then speak the lines in ways that fulfil 1) & 2).

By having both a task and a reference point, you have more than enough to keep you occupied and in action/acting.
Get out of your head, focus on your target and the goal that you want from them.

Speak clearly, don’t mumble, don’t forget your common sense, stop yakking and get on with it!