Starting a play reading club is a terrific way to keep your skills honed as an actor, and to build up your knowledge of the canon. Organisation is key: finding a location, a regular meeting time, a set text and a group of actors to read with. But a well-run club for play reading is not only a place to develop your process, it’s a space where you can uplift your acting community and enrich your social life.

From going to these readings, I’ve learned that there’s no such motivator as community. Even if there aren’t any existing clubs in your local area, setting up your own is surprisingly easy and could be very fruitful. So let’s go over the steps for setting up a play reading club of your very own.

Step One: Pick a Place

Whilst the comfort of your own home is … comfortable, it doesn’t always make for a great “getting things done” space. I can’t count the number of times my friends and I have talked about reading a play every Thursday and caught up at someone’s house only to end up playing board games instead.

A great way of building a strong habit is to associate that habit with a particular time or place. So, for your play reading club, I’d highly recommend a space you can hire. Check out libraries or community centres: they’ll often have rooms you can book for free or for very cheap. Make sure it’s somewhere central, too. Being close to the CBD or town centre will make it easier for people to get to which will increase the likelihood of them coming in the first place.

If you’re feeling particularly bold and enterprising, you could even approach a local indie theatre to ask them about space. It’s not a bad way to turn your club into a sneaky industry event… But eyes on the play reading prize, for now.

Step Two: Pick a Time

Again, consistency is key. It might sound intimidating to schedule a weekly read, it’s much easier to say “We read plays every Thursday night” than “We read plays on the 13th, the 14th and the 27th of each month.” Keep the timing as simple and regular as possible. Pick a day and a time that works for your schedule first, and let other people work around it.

You’ve probably heard before that the best way to build a following online is to post consistently. That logic applies to real life, too. If you do something regularly on a set schedule, word will spread and people will start to associate Thursday nights with play reading night.

Step Three: Pick Some Plays

Once you have a space and a time locked in, pick some plays to read and add them to the schedule. There are a few of things to keep in mind when making your selection.

First, pick plays that correspond to your numbers. Don’t pick anything too small that people end up sitting around, or anything too big so people have multiple parts to keep track of. 

Second, try to diversify the pieces you select. If you’re ever stuck for material, we have a great list of plays to recommend to you. When you select something, try to do a bit of background reading on the play and the playwright before you host. Having some background knowledge to share can really inspire people to keep coming and stay engaged with the material.

Once you get started with the readings, you can ask people for their recommendations and whether or not they have any PDFs they can share. Lastly, always invite writers to your readings. Not only are they a well-connected resource, but they might have a script of their own that they want to hear which could turn your humble club into a casting room for the night.

Step Three-and-a-half: Find Some Plays

Finding scripts can be a little tricky, because you’ll need to find a PDF you can download and send to everyone who is coming to the read. (I’d suggest this over killing a forest each week and printing copies out.) Thankfully, we live in the digital age and there are some great online resources to check out.

Drama Online is a fantastic resource; a membership actually comes free with a StageMilk membership. There are a couple of sites I use called AnyFlip and PDFCoffee which have a wealth of PDFs for viewing and downloading too. Failing all of that, a simple google search of “(Play name here) PDF” can sometimes yield results. 

This is a good time to mention that if you ever go to drama school, download and save every single script they give you. You don’t know how valuable such a thing is until you don’t have access to it. 

Step Four: Spread the Word

My least favourite thing about arranging parties is inviting everyone and then hoping they’ll want to come. You might feel similar about this play reading club, so keep it super simple. Invite your actor friends who you know are suffering from the same commitment issues we were at the start of this article. Regardless of how many of them show up, keep inviting them and reading every week.

The readings will gain traction over time. If you’re consistent, people will start to build their weeks around it as they realise they haven’t been reading plays as much as they should have. Once you’ve got a regular crew of friends reading each week, chances are they’ll ask to invite their friends which is great. The more, the merrier. 

Play Reading Club Itinerary (Example)

• Start by prepping the space: setting chairs, organising power for laptops/devices, popping the kettle on and putting out the biscuits.
• Greet people and get your cast comfy. If people are reading particular roles, you might wish to have them sit in certain places.
• Give a brief introduction about the play and the playwright. Nothing too long, just a little context.
• Read the play. Don’t forget to have somebody on stage directions, so that the visual aspect of the work isn’t lost.
• Schedule a short break after the read (or during, if it’s an epic.)
• Finish up with a discussion. You might like to prepare some questions to ask, or simply let the participants dictate this. Depends on how well you know people in attendance.
• Kick on to another location? You can always take the discussion to a cafe, or a bar, or a mini golf course. Up to you.

Remember that a good play reading needs structure, but not so much that it loses its sense of fun. If it feels more like a university lecture than a gathering, the club will die out quick smart.

Step Five: Keep It Organised, Keep It Going

As word spreads and more people become interested, you’ll need to get clever about how you arrange the readings. The simple way would be to create a group chat and add everyone to it. Then, when you know what play you’re reading next week, tell the chat which play you’re reading and how many actors you need. First come, first served.

If you want to be more professional, ask for peoples’ emails and create a mailing list. Then, at the start of each month, decide which plays you’re reading each wee and send out an email with the relevant details.

And if the club starts humming along, you can think about opening up management duties to any die-hard attendees. Share the load, ensure that admin doesn’t fall only to you.

Other Clubs To Start

Activities like play reading clubs are hugely beneficial to actors, because they provide structure—something that is all too often lacking from the artist’s life. If you find the regimented reading of plays and meeting up with fellow creatives is helpful, why not think about other gatherings you could run:

• Scene study. Pick a scene and work on it, either self-directed or by a third party.
• Self-tape/showreel Club. You know how many drama schools will charge you a fortune to do what you can do with friends for free?
• Writing Club. Work on a scene, bring it in and have professional actors read and workshop it.
• Film Club. Watch the classics, discuss cinema and get yourself caught up on the art of screen acting.
• Complain About The Industry Club. Honestly, this automatically forms with any group of actors.
• StageMilk Scene Club! Okay, we’ve already started this one. But our online membership includes monthly coaching sessions, tailored feedback and a wealth of acting resources.

Conclusion

There’s a certain level of logistical preparation that goes into creating a play reading club, but the pay-off is incredibly worth it. Not only are you reading plays and talking about what makes them good (or not so good) with likeminded people, you’re building up an address book of local artists who you can collaborate with at a later date. Congratulations on building a great habit and getting out there to meet some cool people.

Hope this helps. See you around the traps!

The post How to Start a Play Reading Club appeared first on StageMilk.

It can be difficult to determine what makes for good acting, because we often lack the tools to explain it. “It just felt good”, “it felt real”, “they had a great voice”, are all common answers. The same is true of bad performances as well. Determining good acting vs. bad acting is all about understanding the tools of performance: energy, connection, context and technique. This will help you make worthwhile choices in your own work, while avoiding thoughtless blunders.

In this article, we’ll focusing on the actor and what they’re doing right or wrong, but you’ll never catch me calling someone a “bad actor.” Honestly, I don’t think they exist. Declan Donnellan describes what people call “bad actors” as “blocked actors.” I think is a far more accurate and sensitive description. And never forget that direction, writing and even cinematography can have a huge impact on performance as well.

The Bad

Let’s start with the bad. In trolling for examples, I’ve tracked down some shockers—but let me clear that these performances are not necessarily an accurate representation of the actor themselves. Let’s work our way through the scenes in this handy compilation:

Troll 2 (1990)

Connie Riet plays Holly in this scene. The main thing going wrong for her is she isn’t connected to what she’s saying. She’s speaking clearly but not really communicating anything. Declan Donnellan talks about something called “The Target” which is the thing in the scene that you are being affected by and are trying to affect yourself.  Connie Riet has over-rehearsed and decided exactly how she is going to deliver dialogue in the scene, rather than allowing herself to be affected by her scene partner.

If you are paying attention to “The Target” every time you do a scene, the scene will be a little bit different every time because you’re actively discovering how your character is affecting and being affected. We don’t believe Riet is playing a character because she isn’t making discoveries about what she is saying in the moment.

Sidenote: I won’t be looking at every scene from Troll 2 because it hurts to think about that film for too long. If you’re game, I encourage you to identify what is going wrong in the other scenes and report back with your findings.

Judge Dredd (1995)

Sylvester Stallone and Armand Assante are really giving it their all in this one, to their credit. My acting tutor always used to tell us never to play a character as Stoic because it’s boring and it closes you off to your impulses. I understand that stoic is Stallone’s brand, and he must be doing it well to have worked as much as he has … but are you convinced that he is anyone other than himself when he performs?

It’s blaringly obvious in this clip that Stallone’s using old tricks. He’s not much more than a tough guy and if you watch his eyes, you can see the lack of connection between what he’s saying and how he’s saying it. Even the way his mouth moves is “looking cool like Stallone” rather than how Judge Dredd’s mouth might move. Armand Assante has moments where it “feels good”–when he checks his watch and looks back at Stallone, there’s some electricity there–but he throws it all away when he turns his head in the next moment. It feels unnecessary and uncertain, and so we get confused.

And let’s tackle the way Assante shouts “Law!” You can hear a gravelly tone, which suggests he is pushing from his throat and not supporting it with breath. This is very important in acting because human beings will, often unknowingly, mimic the shape of someone’s vocal qualities–even if they don’t say anything. Watch the scene again and see if you notice a different in the way you are holding your throat. This feeling affects how we view someone’s performance, even if we’re not consciously aware of it.

Bonus: Troll 2 (1990)

I can’t help myself. I want to talk about the second scene from Troll 2 in this compilation because there’s something unique about what is wrong with it. The way George Hardy is talking to Michael Stephenson doesn’t feel like how a father would speak to their 8-year-old son. If you changed the character and the context, the performance might make more sense, but this is a good example of how having a clear sense of the relationship between characters can be make or break a performance.

The Godfather Part III (1990)

A classic of bad acting—practically the standard against which all else is judged. The pacing and the action in this scene is so bizarre that I found it funny to watch. A lot of their reactions and attitudes feel out of sync with the action of the scene: it affects the pacing and rhythm. The final shout of “No!” doesn’t feel connected at all and is so abrupt that it makes us giggle instead of cry.

And while the actors aren’t blameless in this instance, it’s a great clip to examine for how the filmmaking can fail the actors present. Coppola was famously miscast by her father, and the scene feels like a melodramatic attempt to claw audience sympathy back. The framing, editing and even music feels melodramatic—at odds with the truth a scene like this lives or dies upon.

Tough Guys Don’t Dance (1987)

“Oh God, oh man. Oh God, oh man, Oh God, oh man…” Whether this was written in the script or not, Ryan O’Neal’s performance is comical when it should be dramatic mainly due to the lack of variation in his delivery. If you’re stuck with a script that’s making you repeat the same thing one too many times, ask yourself why the writer has asked you to repeat it. Even if it’s completely overdone, it’s up to you as the actor to analyse the script and determine the meaning.

Another way to deal with repetition is to stay attuned to emotions. Our emotions rarely stay exactly the same for longer than a few seconds; it’s a skill to be able to track them as they change. If saying “Oh God, oh man” over and over starts to make you laugh, then laugh. Let the laughter become embarrassment, let embarrassment become shame and so on. 

The Happening (2008)

We worked with a film director in drama school who taught us one of the best ways to create energy in the scene is to let it move. Zooey Deschanel and Mark Wahlberg are clearly dealing with a terrifying situation, but they’re getting stuck right next to each other right up against a window. See how when the camera cuts back to a wide shot their lower bodies are completely disengaged? Even if you’re doing a super tight close up, make sure your entire body is engaged: a lack of engagement in your legs will read on your face.

When Wahlberg answers the door and speaks to Betty Buckley’s character, you can still see how trapped above the neck he is. The given circumstances of the scene don’t seem very clear either. Stanislavski insisted that actors needed a crystal clear idea of where they were, where they had been, where they were going next and what was happening–everything that contributes to the situation the characters find themselves in. The stakes in this moment between Wahlberg and Buckley seem too blurry to make any sense of what either character is feeling, which leads to a very wooden “What? No!”

Star Wars: Attack of the Clones (2002)

A lot of people have a problem with Hayden Christensen’s portrayal of Anakin in the prequel trilogy and I am included in that demographic. There is a distinct lack of energy and grit to Christensen’s performance. It’s common for screen actors to dial back their performance to try and be more realistic but if you end up too dialled back, you appear lazy, stoic and boring. Great performances, even if they are subtle, have energy coursing through them (as we will see next.)

The Good

Now that I don’t have to worry about getting back problems from cringing anymore, let’s start with one of my all-time favourite scenes:

No Country for Old Men (2007)

Javier Bardem and Gene Jones are masters of creating an unsettling and subtle tension that builds into the final coin toss. What makes both of their performances so excellent is how receptive they are to one another and how they’re honouring the status of each component in the scene.

At the beginning, when Bardem’s character walks in, he’s no more than a customer at a gas station. There’s nothing at stake here, other than the price of the gas he just bought. The initial interaction is so domestic and simple that we’re almost convinced it will end with Bardem paying for the gas and leaving. That is, until Jones asks whether Dallas has been getting any rain. The switch in Bardem is instant and so intense that we, much like the gas station attendant, are shocked by the shift.

It’s a terrific example of a beat change. Bardem takes all of the status in the scene and pursues Jones into a corner that he squirms to escape from. When he introduces the coin toss, Jones (and the audience) are at the mercy of a little chunk of metal. And once the result is revealed, the tension dissipates.

There’s no immediate threat of violence in this scene, which I think adds to the unsettling atmosphere. If Bardem came at Jones with aggression and anger, the tension would vanish because we as an audience would anticipate what was coming next. Playing opposites is a simple yet incredibly effective tool for actors.

Bridge of Spies (2015)

In Bridge of Spies, Mark Rylance plays a man accused of spying for the Soviet Union. His performance is another lesson in playing against audience expectation, in that the stakes are clearly very high for Rylance’s character but he doesn’t respond how you might expect. Rylance is a master of portraying innocence in his performances. I believe this ability comes from the immense respect he has for the characters he plays: he understands their motivations, their wants, their dislikes and he uses all of that information to create a character who is an ordinary person—no matter how extreme their circumstances.

Never judge your character. Even if they are the most horrible person in the world, you need to find compassion and empathy for them somewhere–it’s very uncommon for even the evilest person in the world to believe themselves to be in the wrong.

Anatomy of a Fall (2023)

If you haven’t seen Anatomy of a Fall yet, stop reading this article and go and watch it right away! Sandra Hüller has considered her character’s history so thoroughly that it makes us resonate and empathise with her. Everything she is saying in this argument feels like resentment that has built up for a long time. Sandra’s character is giving voice to thoughts and feelings that she has had well before the events of the movie, making it feel justified and realistic.

It’s common for audiences to switch off when actors start to get frantic and angry in arguments, but if the actor has done their homework and really considered why everything is being said, we lean into them instead of away from them. Stanislavski and Meisner would be proud.

The White Lotus (2021)

Jennifer Coolidge is so entertaining throughout the whole series of The White Lotus because of how engaged her whole body is. It’s a terrific example of an actor “embodying” a character, and not simply reciting their words and miming their actions.

Remember: everything that happens in your lower body shows on your face. You can see everything about Coolidge’ character from the way that she runs, walks and leans on the railing of the boat. She is honouring the stakes of her character too, no matter how absurd they might seem to the audience, which makes it all the more enjoyable to watch her.

So, what is the difference?

We’ve identified a few different things that decide the difference between a good performance and a bad performance.

Energy

There is energy in every good performance. Rub your hands together quickly, get them warm then hover them above your skin. Feel that electric warmth? That’s some real good performative energy right there. When you’re performing, you’ll feel a similar sensation inside you somewhere. It might feel like nerves: sweaty palms, shaky legs or your heart pounding – that’s energy you want to learn how to harness.

Seasoned actors are masters at harnessing this energy and directing it where it needs to go, which is towards the other actor. If both actors are doing this, you get an electric exchange of energy that creates mesmerising performances.

Connection

Connection in every direction. Not just towards the other actor, but the text and given circumstances as well. This translates as being present and having intention. Every word said is considered–though don’t take that as speaking slowly. Let your character think fast, but always know what they’re saying and why they’re saying it.

You can develop this skill simply by reading the script over and over in different states of mind to get as many different reads on it as possible. One of my tutors used to tell us to imagine a golden line running from your stomach to the other actors’ stomach(s) and it’s amazing how it reads. The best way to give a great performance is to make the other actor look good.

Context

Actors love context. When I was working on The Seagull by Chekhov a couple of years ago, we’d all hang around and talk about things that weren’t explicitly said in the script after rehearsal for ages. “Do you think your character hears that offstage?” “Why do you think she says that?” “What’s making her so anxious right now?” “Where did they all go to school together?”

Remember that acting is a great big game of playing pretend. You need to have an active and vivid imagination to really participate in the game. Meisner talks about imagined circumstances as if it’s a hard science, but all it actually is, is creating the most realistic game of playing pretend, informed by your understanding of text and character.

Technique

There is undoubtedly a lot of technical skill that goes into giving a good performance. Vocal and physical proficiency is essential to any actor. Having a versatile and powerful voice and body only comes from consistent training–many of the great performers we looked at today come from some kind of theatre background which is generally more demanding than the screen. And it shows when these actors make the jump from stage to screen.

Bonus Comparison: Richard II

Have a look at this:

And now this:

Both excellent actors, but which performance did you find more watchable? Personally, I engage more with Mark Rylance. He plays against expectation and finds an ease with the text that Tennant does not seem to grasp. I find Rylance’s Richard to be charming and innocent, which makes it all the more tragic when he starts to cry. Tennant sets up a wizened Richard who is tortured from the moment his exploration of death and kings begins. 

Conclusion

“Know what you’re saying, say it clearly and mean it.” I could’ve opened and closed this article with just that saying, but there’s a more complex interplay of factors at work within it that we’ve explored today. In our dynamic profession, talent alone doesn’t dictate whether a performance is good or bad, but rather a complex interplay between energy, connection, context and technique.

Some homework for you: get together with some pals and watch a really good movie, then watch a really bad movie soon after. The more you analyse the good, the bad and the ugly, the more accurately you’ll be able to identify what is required to give a good performance and to know what’s good is a huge step towards being good.

Hope this helps. See you around the traps!

The post Good Acting vs Bad Acting appeared first on StageMilk.

Learning how to stay inspired as an actor will help you navigate the ‘down times’, when your career is quiet or when you find yourself exhausted from the hustle. The answer doesn’t lie in avoiding feeling tired altogether, but how you can harness dips in energy and ensure you’re fuelling up to hit the ground running again.

Acting is so much fun, but requires so much work. It’s very easy to get carried away with it–particularly at the start of a new year because when you might feel rested and motivated. Sometimes, no matter how driven or passionate you are, no matter how much work you are or aren’t getting, you’ll find yourself in these periods of exhaustion. Learn to cope with these, to deal with these, and you’ll be back on top again in no time. 

Motivation and Inspiration

First of all: I’m not writing an article about how to stay motivated as an actor (partially because we’ve already written that one.) Motivation and inspiration go together like vanilla milkshakes and French fries but they aren’t the same thing.  Motivation is what keeps you moving towards your goals. inspiration is the drive you have to set those goals. It’s that feeling you get from watching a great performance and thinking: “I want that. I want to be them.”

The problem is: when you’re feeling exhausted or downtrodden and you lose your sense of inspiration, it’s hard to stay motivated. And your goals grow old and un-ticked-off. When you’re feeling this way, your body/mind are telling you that it’s time to take a break. That’s normal and we should honour that. The temptation to keep pushing through these feelings is dangerous and can lead to burnout.

The great thing about inspiration is that it’s not as elusive or energy-consuming as we think it is. Motivation will always be there, so long as you’re staying inspired.

The Path to Inspiration: An Acting Parable

To explore the different ways to stay inspired as an actor, I’m going to tell you about my favourite, fictional actor, Nick Von (previously known as Schnitzel Von Crummington III in our stage name article.) Nick has been killing it for a couple of years, now. They’ve been on the main stage, they’ve been in a couple of feature films and they even landed a principal role in a limited Netflix series.

But that series was wrapped and released a couple of months ago. Things have gone quiet. The only auditions Nick is getting are for commercials—which they’re grateful for–but every tape feels like a huge chore just to be present for the camera. Nick watches the tapes back and is disappointed. They start to question whether or not they really have what what it takes to be an actor.

Their instinct is to push harder. They sit down with a two-line script for a toothpaste commercial and develop a character with a three-page backstory and peanut allergy. They ask their friend Claire to come over and workshop the character and give notes. The first thing Claire says when she walks in is: “Wow, Nick, you look exhausted.”

Mindfulness

Lightbulb. Nick is exhausted. They’ve hardly had any time to themselves for the better part of two years. They need some time off, but they’re worried that taking time off is a sign that they’ve lost all their motivation. Claire is watching all this flash across Nick’s face and suggests they do some yoga.

For the next 30 minutes, Claire and Nick are listening to the dulcet tones of Yoga with Adriene. After they’re finished, they spend some time stting and noticing their breath. Nick is already feeling a lot better. They shoot the toothpaste tape and send it off without a second thought. Claire suggests to Nick they should make a daily habit of practicing some form of mindfulness.

Over the next few days, Nick journals in the morning and does yoga whenever they get a spare half an hour. At night, Nick also makes a considered effort to check in with themselves and notice how they’re feeling without judging or trying to change it. The days start to feel a little longer and Nick notices they’re feeling less anxious about their career.

The Neutral State

Practices like yoga, meditation, physical exercise and journalling are essential tools. Our world moves at a staggering pace and encourages people to keep up regardless of how it could be affecting their physical and mental health. We’re so used to being overstimulated all the time that this abnormal state of being has become normal.

Making time to practice some form of daily mindfulness will allow your body to settle back into its natural patterns of regulation. You may have heard of “the neutral state” or “coming back to neutral” being taught in drama classes. “Neutral” is essentially a state of mindfulness where your body is relaxed and aligned so that it can dive headfirst into a character and/or scene without any held preconceptions about either.

Creativity flourishes when you practice mindfulness and allow your body to come to stillness in our nonstop world.

Trying Something New

Claire and Nick have been going to yoga classes for a few weeks now and they have a perspective-shifting conversation after one particularly rigorous Vinyasa session. Nick loves acting. It’s all Nick thinks about, reads about, dreams about and talks about. Claire noticed that Nick is muttering Shakespeare’s sonnets under their breath during their yoga classes and thinks it’s time for an intervention. Claire starts by asking Nick what their hobbies are. What do they enjoy doing in their spare time? What’s something that brings them joy? Nick’s answer is: “Acting, of course!”

“Acting is your job,” says Claire, “Even if it’s your dream job. When was the last time you learned a new skill?”

“Well, I learned about a great acting technique by Mike Leigh-“

“That’s still acting. Come on, I’ve got a voucher for a pottery class that we can try this afternoon.”

Work/Life Balance

Actors, even the most passionate of our kind, still need to consider their work-life balance. It’s particularly difficult because the work of an actor is often to imitate life in some way, so the line between where our work ends and where our lives begin can get very blurry. 

An essential part of being a well-rounded human being is to learn new skills and take interest in things you wouldn’t usually consider interesting. Pick up an instrument, read a book about science, go for a hike, take a coding class, go to a karaoke night–the less it has to do with the craft, the better. 

I’ll tell you a secret, though. It’s all part of the craft. Any skill or activity that requires you to engage with the real world in some way makes you a better person and, by extension, a better actor. That being said, try something new that sparks joy, not because you think it would be a good addition to your special skills section of your resume.

Get Social

Nick considers themselves an introvert. They have a handful of close friends, but no one except Claire has heard from Nick since they landed that Netflix series. Nick’s journals are starting to fill up with lines like: “I just need to focus on my work”, “I’m too busy to socialise”, “I’ll get back to those texts eventually”.

Once again, our fearless hero Claire is here to save the day. She arranges a dinner with Nick and all of their friends. It’s an emotional reunion, filled with “I haven’t seen you in forever!” and “How are you?” and Nick tells them all about the pottery classes and hikes and piano lessons. They’re all shocked and delighted: they won’t be enduring a night of Nick actorsplaining the intricacies of Stella Adler, but rather one of board games and jokes and deep and meaningful conversations. All the good stuff.

As an actor, you need people in this life: both in the biz and outside of it. There have been a lot of recent studies that show the greatest contributor to good health and overall happiness are peoples’ social connections. It makes sense because human beings are pack animals – back in the day, if you didn’t have a tribe of reliable people looking after each other, you were dead. Engaging with other people doesn’t only give you more insight to the human condition which is necessary to understand if you want to be a good actor, it keeps you happy and sane which is just as necessary to being a good actor.

Back to It

It’s been a whole month and Nick hasn’t felt anxious about their career at all. Their feet are getting closer to the ground in downward dog, they’ve learned to play Hot Cross Buns on the piano and they haven’t spent this much time with their pals since high school. They look at themselves in the mirror one morning and with a glowing smile and a deep breath say: “It’s time.” They open their phone and book tickets to a stage play.

Nick is nervous. What if it’s not the same? What if they’ve been away from it for too long? They take a deep breath, notice how they’re feeling and decide that it doesn’t matter. What will be, will be. The lights go down and the curtains go up. It’s a rush that Nick hasn’t experienced in almost two years. The lights, the set, the electricity in the air, the rise and fall of the actors’ shoulders as they wrestle with their objectives and their relationships and given circumstances. Nick feels a pull to the stage, a deep appreciation for the actors and the director and the writer and everyone who made the show possible. When the curtain goes down, Nick leaps to their feet, applauding. Around them, people are a little confused: it was good but it wasn’t that good…

Over the coming days, Nick gets tickets for as many films and plays as they can. They’re noticing things about the acting, script, cinematography, lighting and the sound that they’ve never considered before. There’s a richness to it all.  And when those auditions finally start rolling around, Nick is excited: ready to meet them with all of this fresh energy.

Finding Inspiration in the Work of Others

You also don’t have to completely step away from acting in order to recover your inspiration like Nick did. Seeing films and theatre shows and reading plays can be a part of your life just as much as yoga and socializing and pottery classes are.

The simple act of exposing yourself to other peoples’ work can be incredibly inspiring and valuable for your own craft. But don’t just stop at film and theatre, though. Read lots of books, fiction and non-fiction, play video games, go to clown shows and puppet shows, art galleries and museums. Find as many stories and ways of telling stories as possible and soak them up. If you’re living fully and experiencing new things and learning new skills, this will inform the way you absorb these stories—and gift you perspectives you’ve never had before.

Conclusion

Simply put: the way to get inspired as an actor is to live a good life. It’s what makes this job one of the best in the world, because all of the best things in life are technically research for the actor. If you’re looking after yourself and the people around you and seeking out new ways to grow and engage with the world, you’re going to be just fine.

 I’ll leave you with a beautiful letter written by musician Nick Cave to a young aspiring artist.

“Read. Read as much as possible. Read the big stuff, the challenging stuff, the confronting stuff, and read the fun stuff too. Visit galleries and look at paintings, watch movies, listen to music, go to concerts – be a little vampire running around the place and sucking up all the ideas you can. Fill yourself with the beautiful stuff of the world. Get amazed. Get astonished. Get awed on a regular basis, so that getting awed is habitual and becomes a state of being. Fully understand your enormous value in the scheme of things because the planet needs people like you, smart young creatives full of awe, who can minister to the world with positive, mischievous energy, young people who seek spiritual enrichment and who see hatred and disconnection as the corrosive forces they are. These are manifest indicators of a human being with immense potential.

Absorb into yourself the world’s full richness and goodness and fun and genius, so that when someone tells you it’s not worth fighting for, you will stick up for it, protect it, run to its defence, because it is your world they’re talking about, then watch that world continue to pour itself into you in gratitude. A little smart vampire full of raging love, amazed by the world – that will be you, my young friend, the earth shaking at your feet.

Love, Nick”

Hope this helps. See you around the traps!

The post How to Stay Inspired as an Actor appeared first on StageMilk.

Rhythm and pace in acting create or disrupt the sense of flow in your performance. Rhythm communicates patterns to the audience, who can determine factors about a scene such as tone, emotion or tension. Rhythmic performances can create a sense of pace. With pace, an actor can speed up or slow down their performance for dramatic effect; this extends to their use of pauses and silence in a given scene.

In this article, we’re going to tell you everything we know, including how these concepts can enhance the acting work you do. We’ll start with some basic definitions, and then outline where you might encounter rhythm and pace in your preparation for a role.

What is Rhythm?

Rhythm refers to repeated patterns marked by strong and weak occurrences, generally thought of in regard to sound and music. In music, rhythm operates over the framework of a ‘beat’—an underlying constant that denotes the passage of time during a piece of music—and carries the melody. Wherever something can stop and start, a rhythm can be made by either adhering to a pattern or shifting away from it.

In acting, rhythm is found in the actor’s speech, physical movement on stage, and even the structure of the media itself. Most characters in Shakespeare’s plays engage with rhythm when they speak in iambic pentameter (the poetic form the Bard used to structure his dialogue.) The writing of David Mamet is famously rhythmic: inviting quick back-and-forth banter between characters that seed their underlying relationships and dynamics, as seen in this clip from Glengarry Glen Ross:

The movement of a character can also be rhythmic, suggesting a fluidity in their physicality, or perhaps that their actions are natural and second-nature to them.

What is Pace (or Tempo)?

Pace is the rate or speed at which something occurs. It can measure the frequency at which a rhythmic action repeats: fast or slow, increasing or decreasing.

In acting, it generally refers to how fast or slow a character moves or speaks. Like rhythm, pace can change depending on external or internal factors: a character’s heightened sense of fear might cause the pace of their speaking to increase. Or, if you’re Steve Buscemi in Miller’s Crossing, you might naturally speak at a million miles an hour:

What Determines Rhythm and Pace in Acting?

There are many contributing factors to rhythm and pace in acting. We’ll list the major ones below. Note that in this list, there are certain things that are determined by the text, and others by the performer: remember that anything written down by the author is non-negotiable, and should be treated as rock-solid.

If you’re making choices as an actor about the rhythm and pace of the scene, be ready to justify your choices to your scene partner and director. And before you get too far into this list, give our article on script analysis a read/refresh.

Stage Directions

Stage directions, action, ‘big print’ in a screenplay can all modify rhythm and pacing. The inclusion of words like “pause” can stop the action dead in its tracks—and must be observed lest you risk missing out on the significance of that moment. We’ll actually explore this very point in greater detail below.

Sentence Structure

Ever notice the way that a long, long, run-on sentence with lots of thoughts and ideas (and parentheticals thrown in for good mesaurte) and—and we can’t stress this enough, seriously—words and clauses that confuse and distract, can be difficult to follow or comprehend, or even read in the first place without finding yourself hopelessly confused?

Smaller sentences hit different. Punchy. Easier to swallow. They make their point, they get out of the way.

Writers can control the pace of dialogue with the way they structure a sentence. Longer sentences tend to drag and slow things down. Shorter sentences have a greater sense of rhythm, and can convey ideas quickly—increasing the pace.

Punctuation

Commas can add rhythm, or pace, or excitement. Periods stop things dead in their tracks. New sentence, new thought. Elipses can slow things down … only to speed things up again on the other side. Parentheticals—or a clause separated by em-dashes like this—act like little asides (slowing things down just slightly.)

And page breaks?

(Pause.)

They can really disrupt the rhythm and make things feel important.

Writers use punctuation to direct actors straight off the page. When you work on a script, take great care to note the punctuation, as that is first-hand evidence of how a piece should read and be paced.

Character Personality

Your character’s rhythm and pace will be influenced heavily by their personality and their identity. Spend time developing your character to explore what this might be. A standoffish character might clash in their rhythm with other people, in the same way a slow-paced character might feel out of sorts in a fast-paced world.

Given Circumstances

Return to the Stanislavski basics of the given circumstances (or do they firmly belong to the incredible Uta Hagen these days?) Answering the who, what, where, when, why and how questions can significantly impact your character’s rhythm and pacing. If they’re starting a new job that has them up at 4am, that will throw off their rhythm. If the “why” of a character borrowing money is that the mob wants to break their legs, that will probably affect the pace at which they ask for a cash loan.

Narrative

Don’t forget to step back and look at the story as a whole. What plot factors might affect the rhythm of a character, or their pacing? How is the writer using this to evoke a certain response in the actor and, therefore, the audience? Take a look at this scene from Jordan Peele’s masterpiece Get Out:

Daniel Kaluuya’s character, desperate to leave this creepy house of people behind, works at a faster pace than everybody else. This creates unbearable tension, as it puts him out of step with the other characters: they don’t have an ounce of his aggression or anger, and yet he is powerless.

Peele creates rhythm through the repetition of Kaluuya’s dialogue, as well as the editing itself: back and forth between family members. It’s almost as if he’s allowing us a glimpse at each in case one of them might spring into action and attack. He breaks the visual pattern (another type of rhythm) with the extreme close up of the tea cup—struck three times.

How to use Rhythm and Pace in Acting

The first step is to do what you’ve already done by reading this article: make yourself aware of rhythm, and where you may find it. Audiences are innately aware of rhythm and pace in a scene, not because they have any formal drama training, but because they are human beings. When rhythm changes, we react because something in our situation has changed: if a bird’s call, repeating for hours, suddenly goes quiet, it might signal that a predator is nearby.

To be aware of the rhythm of a scene is to understand it. You can parse the relationship/closeness your character might have to another person simply by the rhythm of their interaction. And to manipulate rhythm or pace in a scene is to control it. Your character sets the tone and establishes their power dynamic.

How to Slow Down when Acting

“Slow down” is both an important acting note to receive … and a useless one. It’s like telling somebody not to think about pink elephants: the first thing you do is exactly what you’re trying not to do. Don’t think about them. Stop!

The trick to not thinking about pink elephants is to think about green elephants. The trick to slowing down when you’re talking/acting/performing is much the same. Rather than give yourself a useless prompt, think about why your character might talk slower. Perhaps they’re struggling to be heard, or trying to make a point, or keeping themselves from becoming angry, or upset?

Most actors can afford to speak slower—even if it’s only to aid in clarity and diction. But as a general character note: characters who speak slow sound calm and in control. Slowing down your pace when acting will give you a sense of strength and status. And who doesn’t want more of that?

“What do I do when the script says pause?”

Pause. Silence. Long pause. Beat. Nothing. A moment. Agonising pause.

When a script says pause, you stop. Take a second, take a breath and continue. Just as with any change in pace or rhythm, ask yourself why the writer has called for respite. Why has the character elected not to talk?

Often, pauses in scripts relate to beat changes. Beats denote a change in the scene due to an external factor, or perhaps a character’s tactic in pursuing their goal: “begging” for what they want didn’t work, so they decide to pivot to “bargaining”. A pause can denote a change in pacing—it’s certainly a modifier to rhythm. But running over a pause all but guarantees that you’ll miss something of significance to your character in the scene.

Conclusion

Although all texts suggest consideration of rhythm and pacing, it is unusual that a writer will specifically suggest how a scene should be performed in that regard. At least, not as explicitly as “this scene should be fast-paced”. So when it comes to determining rhythm and pace in acting, your personal opinion and input is always required.

With that in mind, let us leave you with the following piece of advice: keep learning and experimenting with rhythm and pace in acting. Develop patterns, cause disruptions, see what changes in a conversation when things speed up or slow down. The script (and director) can guide you, but you’ll always be the expert as to the way your character speaks and moves through the story world. Try things out, make mistakes, have fun.

Good luck!

The post Rhythm and Pace in Acting appeared first on StageMilk.

Character relationship speaks to the dynamic between two characters in a given scene. It is determined by social and cultural factors, the shared history of the characters in question, as well as their attitude towards one another. You may discover character relationships by examining the text for meaning about backstory and shared history, and by analysing the language and actions of characters to gain insight as to their connection.

In this article, we’ll discuss the importance of building nuanced and comprehensive character relationships when you act, and explore how this can improve and ground your performance. We’ll then draw up a character relationship map and apply this to an example script as a case study. Lets jump in!

Why Character Relationships Are Important

Conflict is the foundation of all drama. Without characters arguing, disagreeing, clashing, sparring, fighting, there is no friction to a story. In fact: there’s no story at all. No good plot unfolds from a person having everything they want. Therefore, more you can understand the character relationship dynamic, the more interesting and exciting the conflict is. It allows you to bring greater tension to the scene, especially when characters enjoy complex (sometimes contradictory) connections.

Take the example of our opening paragraph. There’s drama to be had in characters quarrelling over money. But the fact that these two people are married adds another layer of complication. The idea that one person appears more successful in their career raises questions as to their hierarchy (see Status, below). And the attitude they have towards one another muddies things further: frustration, pity.

Don’t you want to know what it all means? How you might tackle these complexities as an actor? If you find your interest piqued from the description alone, imagine how an audience will feel when they see all this marital messiness come together.

Important Factors in Character Relationships

Identity

Before you can understand the relationship your character might have with somebody else, you need to know everything them, inside and out. Engage with script analysis and search the text for anything you can use to uncover who they are. What can you determine about their personality, backstory, the way they might pursue their objective? Does subtext hint at things your character might be repressing or lying about—even to themselves?

Direct Relationship

In this context, direct relationship refers to the connection your character shares with somebody else. Are they a friend? Enemy? Lover? Rival? Do they work together, share a long history of friendship, or did they meet earlier that day? Try to be as direct as possible when determining this factor: this is not a matter for interpretation, but something you will discover in the text that can anchor the rest of your characterisation.

Attitude

We’ll talk about this in greater detail below, but attitude is the way your character feels about another person in the story. It may relate to the direct relationship, or it may subvert it. A couple may be married, but that’s no guarantee they actually feel love towards one another. If you can, aim for diversity in attitude towards different characters; very few people feel the exact same way about more than one person.

Status

Status refers to the power dynamic between characters: where they sit in the hierarchy of the story and what they do to gain ground/defend their position. It is determined by a number of factors including social standing, circumstances of the plot and the relationship shared between characters. Most characters of ‘low’ status are aiming to raise their status. Higher status characters seek to maintain it, sometimes at the expense of those trying to take more power for themselves.

Wants and Needs

All good characters and stories are driven by objectives: the thing/s your character wants from your scene partner. When plotting the relationship between characters, always ask yourself what your character wants and needs in a given interaction. They can be markedly different things in a scene, and add an interesting layer of complexity. A character might want to be independent from their scene partner, but ultimately need their help.

Creating a Character Relationship Map

One of the best ways to determine character relationships is to map them out on a page. You could do this on a blank section of your script, on the title page, in a notebook devoted to your character. But it’s good to have close by for quick reference, or in case you want to update the map as you make fresh discoveries analysing the script.

This particular mapping process is a favourite of veteran Australian stage and screen actor Anna Lee—also a celebrated acting coach right here at StageMilk Scene Club. She was kind enough to talk us through her method step by step, which we’ve recorded below.

Step #1: Select your Characters

Write out your character names and circle them. If you are mapping a single relationship between your character and another, the circles should be of equal size and far enough away that you can write in between them.

If you’re planning on doing a map for all characters in the script, leave yourself more room to work with. Lee also suggests characters with more significance to your own should have larger circles around them for quick visual reference.

Step #2: Determine their Relationship

Draw a line between the characters, on which you will write the nature of their relationship. This relationship dynamic is non-negotiable: if Character A is secretly the father of Character B, they are still parent/child—even if Character B has no idea.

Sometimes, characters have multiple determiners in their relationship: they might be friends and workplace rivals, newlyweds and strangers. If this is the case, you can write a list beneath the line in order of significance. And don’t be afraid to use a “/” to illustrate the dynamic with more detail: “shopkeeper/customer” (this goes a long way in examining status.)

Step #3: Discover their Attitudes

Finally, add two more lines: arrows pointing from one character to the other. These are your ‘attitude lines’, and on this line you’ll write/list the attitude of one character towards another.

Attitudes will help distinguish your character within the relationship dynamic. Sure, they might be married, but does one character annoy the other? Does one character hate the other? Is one character confused by them, or fatigued? Attitude lines will eventually help you plot your actions—the ‘tactics’ your character plays to get what they want in the scene. If a character’s attitude is colder towards the other person, their choice of actions will reflect this.

Case Study: “The Fan”

Let’s put the character relationship map into practice. As an example, we are going to use a StageMilk original script “The Fan”: available where all good copyright-free scripts are found, on our Practice Scripts for Actors page.

In this short script, an annoying character known only as “The Fan” confronts record store owner Jesse, convinced he is a former rock-star with the same name. The script leaves Jesse’s true identity up to the actor portraying him. Before we continue, have a read of the script HERE to catch yourself up.

Based on our reading of the script, this is the character relationship map we came up with:

Their relationship is centred around their status as strangers: this is their first interaction. However, we decided to make Jesse the actual rock-star for the sake of this reading, adding the idol/fan dynamic. Finally, the shopkeeper/customer angle is there, but less important. It’s jumped down into third place.

Jesse’s attitude towards the fan is a fairly firm dislike. There’s also confusion as to the character of the fan, with Jesse playing catch-up with much of his dialogue. Finally, we added “intimidated” with a question mark, as this is our surface reading of how the character might plot their actions. However, this may change depending on how the scene is realised by the other actor and the director.

And then there’s the fan. First and foremost, he’s adoring of Jesse. He also seems impressed, which stops the character from becoming too obnoxious. Finally, we added the possibility of frustration to the dynamic: this interaction hasn’t gone the way he’d hoped. As with “intimidated”, this will factor into how he chooses to plot his way to his goal in the scene (and so it does.)

How’d we do?

Changing The Map

One last thing: the relationship between characters can change drastically throughout a story. In fact, it has to if the plot has any worth at all. In response to this, you may wish to draw multiple maps for your character relationships—to plot how the relationship might change from scene to scene.

If this sounds like overkill, at least consider drawing a new map when a seismic event occurs between your characters. If a married couple suddenly divorce, this will change everything about their relationship and attitudes. What do you learn about your character when they respond to external stimuli? Which relationships are solid, and which can fall apart within the space of a page or two?

Conclusion

So there you have it: a character relationship map in action! Try this with your next project and see what kind of insights it grants you. Is your understanding of character more grounded? Have you given yourself some more interesting things to work with when it comes to navigating the scene?

Just remember: all drama is centred on the conflict between characters—what they want from each other, and what they’re willing to do to achieve it. So it stands to reason that the more complexity you can find in the relationship between characters, the more exciting and engaging your work will be.

Good luck, and happy mapping!

The post How to Discover Character Relationships appeared first on StageMilk.

You can learn an awful lot just by watching and listening famous actors. Many of us have the immense privilege today of living in a world where almost everything is documented and archived on the internet, including acting advice from famous actors—both living and dead.

For today’s article, let’s defer to them for some timeless advice that you can add to your acting toolkit. We’ve included some choice quotes, along with some clips of their work for inspiration!

Matthew McConaughey

“[You] Don’t try to remember all the lines. You look at what’s on the text. First you read it, you try to understand it. You read it again. Me? I read it after a run when my endorphins are flying, I read it late Saturday night when I’ve got a good buzz going, I read it right after Church, when I’m feeling very forgiving, I’ll read it when I’m mad, sad, glad, tired, excited, happy … that means I’ll have a different look at the same scenes because I’m in a different place. I’ll gather all of that for weeks if not months before I start locking in decisions on what my character would or wouldn’t do.”

The essence of what Mr McConaughey is saying is here is that you should be less concerned with learning the words of a script and more concerned with learning what the text is about. The more you go over a script, the more you learn about what is actually happening in a scene: what your character is trying to get (their objective), what’s stopping them from getting it and how they’re going to change tact to try and get it (the action).

Check out the source of this advice HERE.

Sir Michael Caine

In this interview, Sir Michael Caine talks about choosing and looking at one eye of the person opposite you in a close up:

“Don’t go from eye to eye… If you want to play strong, don’t blink; if you want to play weak… don’t deliberately blink but you can break it… Never change eyes. Only actors do that, real people don’t do that.”

He also talks about acting drunk. The advice first came from a producer, who saw fit to school a young Sir Michael on an early performance:

“The producer stopped [the take] and said what are you doing? And I said I’m drunk in this scene. He said I know you’re drunk but you’re not a drunk, you’re an actor trying to be drunk. I said I don’t know what you mean. He said well you’re an actor who’s trying to walk crooked and talk slurred; a drunk is a man who is trying to walk straight and talk properly. Go out and do it again!”

He gives more advice on crying on camera that follows a similar logic.

“You must fight the tears. And if you fight the tears, the audience will cry for you.”

The brilliance of Sir Michael’s acting is his subtlety and complexity. In this advice, he proposes that playing against your expectation of what someone might do. Never “show” the audience what a character is, but play to the truth of the scene.  Humans often fight against all of the uncomfortable things they’re thinking and feeling, so why wouldn’t actors do the same with their characters?

Kate Winslet

“There are challenges in every single day, the biggest one to be honest I think is being able to stay focused. Because you can rehearse and you can plan everything and you can think you have a framework that you want to stick with or a few ideas … and sometimes the craziness of an onset environment can be so intense that you can find yourself forgetting all of those things that you planned. So staying really, really focused and knowing it’s okay to take yourself off to a quiet corner and reminding yourself what it is that you set out to do.”

“It’s a funny thing because actors can’t really help other actors and I find that quite frustrating because I wish I could …”

“I think what I would honestly say to people starting out: it is difficult. It is definitely a hard job to do and you do have to keep working at it. You do have to keep practicing things, you have to allow yourself to make mistakes; make them, rehearse in your bedroom, try not to look in the mirror too much because then you rehearse a scene in front of a mirror and you like the way you’ve said something or done something and all you will do is keep picturing yourself doing it the way you liked rather than being completely present in the moment…”

“You have to keep at it, you do. And if it is the thing that you really believe you want to do with your life, you will get there, you just have to keep going and keep going and keep going. Keep yourself busy, don’t wait for the phone to ring. Fill your life in other areas because the more you enrich your life, the more enriched you’ll be as an actor.”

Ms Winslet is really talking about focus in both of these excellent pieces of advice. Whether it is on set or in your bedroom, there is a level of focus demanded of actors that it unique to the career. If you can keep your mind and your intention clear through the highs and lows, then you’ll be just fine.

Check out the source of this advice HERE.

Denzel Washington

“Dreams without goals are just dreams and they ultimately fuel disappointment. Goals on the road to achievement can not be achieved without disciple and consistency.”

Short, sweet and a crucial reminder to the actor that in order to have a sustainable and fulfilling career, you need to set goals that are tangible and achievable. Make plans and stick to them, rather than staying forever stuck in your dreams of winning an Oscar one day, somehow. Thank you, Mr Washington.

Don Cheadle

“People think that you have to have a job to work on acting. Which you don’t. You can read plays, you can work on monologues, you can always work on script analysis, you can very often read scenes with people that you don’t have to be performing to … that’s all working. That’s all doing acting work.”

“If you think [being in a film or a television show] that’s the only way acting happens, one of two things are gonna happen: You’re never gonna get that shot or you’re gonna get that shot and very quickly they’re gonna see that you’ve got nothing to bring to the game.”

Mr Cheadle reminds us that you don’t need to have been cast in a movie or a play to be working on your craft. You can develop a very strong personal practice that you can do anywhere, any time. This will ensure you’re able to give the very best performance when you do get your shot.

Check out the source of this advice HERE.

Hugh Jackman

“When I first began, to get over my nerves of auditioning I used to always go into an audition as though it was a first rehearsal. So I would always ask the director or casting agent, whoever it was, questions. If they said I think you should sit, I’d say I think the character would stand. It was just my way of trying to redress the balance so it wasn’t just you’ve got all the power and I’m trying to please rather we’re trying to work together.”

Ah, the dreaded audition room. Mr Jackman gives us a way to reframe the audition for ourselves to address nerves and think about the audition as already being on the job.

Check out the source of this advice HERE.

Bryan Cranston

“I tell actors all the time: get your personal life in order. If you really want to be an actor, you have to get your personal life in order so that you don’t flake out.”

There are many actors, particularly young actors, who seem to think that part of being an artist is to be a little (or a lot) unhinged. The age of the diva has left us all with a strange impression of what having an artistic career is. But this attitude has proven time and time again to be a very unsustainable way of being in this career. The first thing to focus on when embarking on the journey of an artist is yourself. So, take a leaf out of Mr Cranston’s book and get yourself together, damn it!

Conclusion

So there you have it: a wellspring of inspiring and helpful acting advice from famous actors of (and before) our time. I often find when I’m feeling confused or jaded about the industry, a remedy that works for me is to search for some words of wisdom from those who have tread a similar path to my own. You never have to go it alone. 

See you around the traps!

The post Acting Advice from Famous Actors appeared first on StageMilk.

In this article, we’ll examine acting lessons you can learn from the 2023 film Poor Things, directed by Yorgos Lanthimos and starring Emma Stone, Mark Ruffalo and Willem Dafoe. We’ll cover physicality, voice work, characterisation and how a strong knowledge of script elevates performance—aided by the support of a strong director.

Before we dive in: this article contains some fairly massive spoilers for the 2023 film Poor Things. If you’ve found yourself here before seeing it, track down a cinema and see it for yourself on the big screen. Love it or not, you owe yourself that particular experience…

Watching A Movie as an Actor

It might feel funny to watch a movie like Poor Things and count such an activity towards your skills development as an actor. Truth is, there is incredible benefit to sitting down in the dark with your popcorn—provided you watch and engage with the film in the correct way. Take a look at our full article on How To Watch Films As An Actor for a more comprehensive guide.

As a quick summary, consider the following when watching something like Poor Things:

• Character. How has the actor crafted this particular character? How do they interact with props, costume or space? Is there a physicality—a mannerism or a posturing—that they have incorporated? How about their voice?
• Technique. Can you see evidence of the actor’s training? If it’s an older film, how has training or acting style changed in the time since? Are they employing a stylised technique or training? How is it similar or different to your own?
• Choices. How does the actor navigate a scene? How clear is their objective? What kind of actions are they using to achieve it? Are their choices simple? Complex? Unexpected?
• Career. Contextualise the performance within the actor’s larger career. Where does this film sit in their journey? Does it mark the start or end of an exciting chapter, or the time they first worked with a new director, or opposite a soon-to-be collaborator? What did these relationships or films did to shape them as actors?
• Acting For Screen. Think on the actor’s relationship with the camera, the soundtrack, the language of cinema. Does their performance gain strength because of a low-angled close-up? Or is it the subtle use of sound design under their monologue that builds tension and dread…

Poor Things Revisited

Here’s a quick re-cap in case it’s been a while since your last viewing. In any case, it’s the kind of film that rewards a re-watch, especially in regards to how the characters develop and the performers portray them. (MILD SPOILERS AHEAD)

Poor Things tells the story of Bella Baxter, a woman borne out of an extraordinary science experiment by her creator/father Dr. “God” Godwin. He found her near-lifeless body after a suicide attempt in the Thames, and transplanted her unborn child’s brain into her grown-up skull.

As a result, Bella is completely fresh to the world: unafraid, unashamed and hungry for new experiences. She meets different people, experiences the joys and traumas of living as she attempts to triangulate her position in culture and society. All the while, the figures in her life try to understand and contain her—even those in her past, who view her new consciousness as something to destroy.

Physicality

Take a look at the embedded trailer for a look at Emma Stone’s strange gait as Bella Baxter. Before we’ve even met her properly as a character, we get a sense of who she is by the way she moves through the world. And as her mind and body develops, her posture and movements change, improve, refine. We are able to see her grow in front of our eyes.

Physicality is a fundamental part of character work. Too many actors develop negligent habits around it, due to ‘acting from the neck up’ in an endless parade of self-tapes. Pay attention to how your character walks, moves, sits, does anything. Even if you are indeed preparing for a tight-mid shot, know how that character got there, and how they moved through their world to do so.

Voice Work

Screenwriter Tony McNamara fills his plays, films and television series with polished, stylised, witty dialogue. In the mouths of lesser actors, it might sound entirely contrived and ridiculous. But spoken with confidence and ability, it is captivating—and contributes to the unique style we have come to know from his films (including The Favourite, which boasts the same star and director.) Emma Stone learns to speak throughout the vast majority of the film. And yet her intentions are never unclear, or her presence diminished.

Voice work brings gravitas to any dialogue. Speak with purpose and consideration when you deliver your lines. And support your voice with vocal exercises and warm-ups that will help you command a room and captivate an audience.

Consistent Characterisation

There’s no other way to put this: how the hell does Mark Ruffalo’s ridiculous performance, just, y’know, work? It’s the same reason Willem Dafoe’s scarred ‘mad’ scientist is so effective, or Ramy Youssef’s unlikely love interest and Christopher Abbott’s sadistic villain. These actors have crafted characters that fit consistently within the world of Lanthimos’ film. They adhere to the logic of the story world, and then are permitted to flourish.

Engage in thorough and consistent characterisation. Engage with the source material and build your character from the ground up, utilising every piece of information you can find in the script to help you. Know their journey, know what they want and how they plan to get it. Once you have those ‘rules’ in place … you can start to experiment and have some fun.

Small Things (Parts)

As an extension to the above: this kind of character work is doubly important for smaller, supporting roles—a single scene, even a single line! Small parts build out the story world, giving the audience a taste of the space beyond the narrative. It’s why certain small roles remain some of our most beloved characters on the screen: some with less than ten minutes of screen time!

Poor Things is chock full of memorable smaller roles. Jerrod Carmichael and Hanna Schygulla feature in the below clip; despite their relatively slim screen times, they remain memorable parts of the larger narrative.

Trust the Script, Know the Script

True for Poor Things, true for all films and series and plays exceptionally acted. The full ensemble of actors have a clear understanding of how their script is written and where their characters are placed. This enables them to make bold choices that remain supported by the text.

Engage in script analysis. Find out how all the pieces fit together by breaking down the words on the page and mining the subtext. It’s the same set of ‘rules’ we spoke about with characterisation: that kind of logic can make you bulletproof, and aid you in knowing when and how you can make the script yours.

A Great Director…

Emma Stone speaks highly of Poor Things‘ director Yorgos Lanthimos. “I obviously have full-blown, very intense trust in him”, she told The New York Times. And it shows. Her character Bella Baxter is put through some extreme situations—the kind of thing that requires a close working relationship between actor and director. And such closeness and trust results in the thrilling performance that is already racking up accolades.

Develop a healthy relationship with your director. Lean on them for dramaturgical support and character information. Don’t be afraid to try things in front of them that might not work: the worst they can say is no, and even a bad offer can uncover something more interesting beyond it. Most of all, build that trust, and remember that no matter the job, you’re in this together.

…And an Intimacy Coordinator to Match

One last point: it’s fair to say the content of Poor Things is fairly extreme. Actors participate in some graphic sex scenes—and the treatment of Bella Baxter raises uncomfortable questions for an audience around agency exploitation. However, sex in Poor Things is a positive force, especially for its protagonist. And its positive, unflinching portrayal in the film is vitally important.

What’s the lesson we can take away? An intimacy coordinator is the actor’s best friend. IC Elle McAlpine, who worked on Poor Things, explores the way safe practices can be used to create moments of intimacy—and not shut them down, as many (usually male directors) might think. As with most roles in the industry, it comes down to communication: “There is a language in this work that helps make it professional … that helps people open up, and really consider what might make them feel uncomfortable.”

Any time a character you play does something intimate, you need an intimacy coordinator on set/stage. Speak to your director about finding one if they are yet to do so, and approach them with this knowledge: many ICs will work pro bono on smaller productions, simply to support the actors. Your resulting performance won’t only be stronger and more truthful, it’ll make you feel that way as well.

Conclusion

So there you have it: lessons galore to be learned as an actor from Poor Things. As state earlier: give this film a re-watch, no matter how you found it the first time around. Even if it’s not your cup of tea, there are plenty of things you can learn that will help you develop your own process and craft.

And don’t forget, such analysis isn’t only for Oscar contenders. Everything you watch/listen to/read/play can help you garner a greater understanding of character and story. Be a sponge and soak it all up—such is the joy of the artist’s life.

Happy viewing!

The post Acting Lessons from “Poor Things” appeared first on StageMilk.

This is bad news for audiences. When actors keep dropping off, the audience inevitably misses what the actor is saying. Worse still, they are unclear on why the actor is saying it and lose interest in the story.

Why Do Actors Drop Off?

Dropping off before the end of the line is usually a sign of uncertainty on the part of the actor.  Sure, sometimes we will need to play uncertain characters. However, as performers, our skill is in delivering powerful performances no matter how understated our character’s traits may be. There’s always technique at play even if the character is one who mumbles or struggles with shyness.

Even anxious characters will try to get their point across by focusing their thoughts and intentions on the other character. Even if they are unsure about their thoughts, the thoughts are sent to the other character. Furthermore, those thoughts are sent with the intention of being received. The tendency to drop off before the end of a line is a manifestation of uncertainty on the part of the performer, not the character.

Wading off the ends of sentences or thoughts is weak, lifeless and uninteresting. When actors start losing the ends of their lines, the audience starts flipping through the playbill (and wishing they were on their couch binging Netflix and UberEats). To keep our audiences engaged, we must also stay engaged with the fullness of the language and the ideas that underpin it.

The audience will follow you as long as you don’t lose sight of your actions and objectives.

As actors, our confidence in our character’s intentions will help us drive those thoughts to affect the other actor. This, in turn, will capture our audience’s attention.

How to Get To The End Of the Line

So, how can we ensure our fellow actors and audiences are being affected by our performance? It’s simple… but not always easy.

Take in what has been said to you, let it affect you and then respond. This is all basic acting stuff, but the key is to do it all quickly. Turning up the pace can instantly transform a slug-fest into a fiery piece of theatre. This usually happens towards the end of the rehearsal process, when the intentions and thoughts are clear. You may hear your director politely shout at you – ‘pacey pacey darlings!’, this is your cue that it’s time to heat it up.

The audience will follow you as long as you don’t lose sight of your actions and objectives. Throughout your rehearsal period, play both of these with full commitment.

If you need a refresher on how actors use ‘actions’, we highly recommend Actions: The Actor’s Thesaurus.

Allow your speech to be influenced by the intensity of your intention. When actors can hit the keywords in the character’s speech, we make it clear and easy for our fellow performers and audiences. This clarity allows our audience to grasp the meaning and experience the story.

Practical Exercises

How do we take this note on? If you find yourself getting this note, try this exercise:

1. Get a tennis ball or other bouncing ball and find a wall you can safely bounce it against.
2. Imagine that your ‘thought’ or intention is contained within the ball.
3. Prepare to throw the ball. As you say the line of text, release the ball with some force against the wall.
4. Catch the ball as it comes back to you, and move on to the next line.
5. Do this for each line of the text.
6. Notice how the physical action of sending the thought influences the way you say the words.
7. Practice this a few times to imbue the text with new energy and intention.
8. Fun bonus: If you are rehearsing a scene with a partner, why not get them to join you? Throw the ball to them directly while saying your lines, and get them to do the same back. You will absolutely notice a change in the way you deliver the text. Pay attention to the new power of the lines and the drive in the performance. Feel free to discuss these changes with your scene partner afterwards.

Lastly, a quick note on pauses: Pauses should come naturally. They also must be earned. If you pause too much in a speech you will lose your audience, and they will ‘get ahead of you’. This spells disaster for the performance. As soon as the audience checks out, they lose interest in the next moments of the performance. Remember that a pause can hold more value than text, so don’t overindulge in them and rob them of their power.

Closing Thoughts

The next time a director tells you to “Get to the end of the line,” remember that this note is for everyone’s benefit. Actors who can get to the end of the line bring their performances to life at a professional level.  As we’ve touched on, this note is really about what lies underneath the character’s text.

As an actor, the clarity of thought and intention that you bring to the text will reveal your character’s motivation and story. Hitting your keywords and moving through the text with pace will give your performance energy, vitality and motivation. Don’t allow the uncertainty you may feel as a performer to limit the fullness of your character’s expression.

Commit to getting to the end of the line, and you will find your performance lifts in every way.

Want to practice getting to the end of the line in a rewarding and fun environment? Join our StageMilk Drama Club to get professional, individual feedback every month to help you take your acting to the next level.

The post Get To The End of The Line appeared first on StageMilk.

Asking yourself “Should I take an acting class?” is a strong indicator that you should give it a go. At the very least, look into some options in your city (or online) to see what’s available. Acting classes help improve and focus the skillset of actors at any professional level. For beginners, or non-actors, they will still develop skills in areas such as confidence, public speaking, critical thinking and communication.

In this article, we’re going to look over some reasons you might want to take an acting class. In case you do find yourself intrigued, we’ll also list some terrific resources designed to help you take the next step. Let’s jump in…

Reasons to Take an Acting Class

This is, by no means, an exhaustive list. If you stop and think about the benefits of taking an acting class, you are sure to out-list us in no time. But the following reasons cover the fundamentals—not just for career-minded thespians, but for everybody!

You’ve Always Wanted to Try It!

There’s a good chance you’re reading this article with little-to-no acting experience whatsoever. If that’s the case: hello! It’s great to have you here. We promise that very few of us bite. If you’ve always wanted to try acting but have no earthly clue where to begin, then an acting class is the perfect place to start.

Look for acting classes in your area—especially short courses with fewer required hours and commitments. We can’t guarantee it won’t be a little bit scary at first, but they’re amazing things to help build confidence and explore a passion. Go for it! Have some fun!

Building your Confidence

Even if you have no earthly interest in the actor’s life, an acting class can still be a useful space to develop important life skills. Acting classes will help you with public speaking, as well as communicating with others with a goal in mind. Engaging in script analysis and scene study fires up the analytical part of your brain, and you’re bound to improve memory when learning lines.

Good acting is all about confidence: how you speak and stand and move, and how you respond to the stimuli of the world around you. Can you think of any professional field where these qualities wouldn’t be valuable assets? From sales to parenting to charging into a burning building (as a firefighter, we hope), an acting class will prepare you for anything.

Shake off the Cobwebs

If you’re feeling an actor who’s feeling a little rusty, or you’re returning to acting after a break, an acting class is the perfect way to get your groove back. You’ll have a safe, supportive space to cover the fundamentals and get a sense of how the art may have shifted or evolved since you were last creeping the boards.

Of course, if you are coming back to acting after an extended period of time, there’s a lot more to be done. Update your headshots and your resume, and start to strategise on the getting-an-agent front. But don’t discredit how helpful it is to operate in a space where people truly see you as what you are: not a family member, sibling, friend, or colleague, but an actor. When it comes to support and understanding, acting classes are the perfect haven.

Work Towards New Goals as an Actor

In our highly competitive industry, it is vitally important that you keep upskilling yourself as a performer. Some of this you can do at home, or on the train to work, or online—even right here with us at StageMilk’s monthly Scene Club. But sooner or later, if you want to improve your skills, you’ll need to play with others.

When you take an acting class, you have the chance to develop your skills with other actors. For all the practice self-taping can grant you solo, there’s no substitute for doing scene work with fellow performers. So think about an acting class as a space that not only allows you to grow, but to do so with people on similar journeys, with similar goals. You’ll support each other on the way there.

Brush Up on the Fundamentals

Working in the industry as an actor is a sure-fire way to develop shortcuts and bad habits. To be fair, this is out of necessity—you seldom have the time you had in drama school to pour over a text before a self-tape is due. But eventually these habits do catch up with you and affect the quality of your work. So catch an acting class to brush up on those fundamental skills.

When you take an acting class, your focus returns to the work of your craft rather than booking a gig. You can focus on creating character, define your objective and plot your actions. Use it to revise your basics and hone your working process. Your subsequent auditions/self-tapes will be stronger for it: 100% guaranteed.

Explore New Techniques

Ever done clowning? Mask work? What about Suzuki training, or Meisner? Classes can help you explore new acting techniques, and ancillary skills  to your acting. Why not take a singing lesson or a dance class? All good things to add to your resume, and to be able to say “Yes!” to in an audition.

The great thing about a weekly class is that it isn’t necessarily focused on booking work, or even a showcase at the end of the course. It’s about the work being done in the moment. We call this kind of learning “process-based”, as opposed to “results-based”. You can try things, make mistakes, fall flat on your face and fail! Who cares? It’s a totally safe space, purpose-built for challenge and growth.

Network and Collaborate

An acting class is the perfect place to expand your network of peers and collaborators. It will be filled with hungry, like-minded individuals. Learn from them, support them, befriend them and welcome them into your creative community! Even when you finish with the class, you can keep in touch with these actors as you embark on parallel journeys. They’ll be the best resources for auditions, reading partners, scene study and even day jobs!

One thing we should clarify: don’t go to a class looking solely for networking opportunities. Nothing looks more desperate, nothing seems more fake. You should also be careful of courses that masquerade as networking opportunities—think expensive one- or two-day courses run by casting directors. Sometimes they’re run by reputable, generous individuals with lots of wisdom to impart. But more often than not, they’re bringing people in not to work on craft, but to give them a whiff of a job opportunity. Do your research.

“You should take an acting class.”

Ooft. It felt mean just typing that subheading—that’s how sensitive we can be to reading/saying/hearing those six little words! And it’s exactly why too few actors consider taking a class at some point in their life. Taking an acting class does not mean you “can’t act”, or you could be better (although you could, because, we all can.)

Honestly, it means that you’ve got the conviction to keep working on your craft and improve your skills. Actors who take classes, who continue to study and read and better themselves, are the most attractive potential collaborators on any project. They’re hungry, they’re hard-working, they’re not afraid to jump into a tough situation and struggle.

Who doesn’t want that person on their team?

Places to Find Acting Classes

Finally, we’re going to leave you with a list of acting class resources right here on StageMilk. Feel free to click through any of the links below for any further information, and don’t forget that you could always come study with us!

• StageMilk’s own Scene Club (offering carer advice, classes, coaching and self-tape feedback.)
• How to Get the Most out of Acting Class
• Are Acting Classes Worth the Price?
• Acting Classes in LA
• Acting Lessons Sydney
• Acting Classes Melbourne
• Brisbane Screen Acting Class
• Acting Classes in Vancouver
• Acting Classes in London
• Acting Classes Near Me

That’s it. What are you waiting for? Good luck!

The post Should I Take an Acting Class? appeared first on StageMilk.

Knowing how to communicate as an actor is all about listening and responding: speaking with purpose and reacting accordingly to what your scene partner offers in return. Doing so makes a scene feel alive and spontaneous. However, failing to do so can result in ‘fake’ acting, in which you seem unable to respond naturally or believably to the stimuli of the story.

Before we dive into this article, here’s something to keep in mind: communication is so much more than talking. Just because your character has dialogue with another person doesn’t mean that you’re communicating. So as you read the below pointers, remind yourself that communication requires active participation. You won’t get there unless you make the effort. Everything else is literally just noise.

How Important is Communication?

It’s everything. Communication is the conveyance of the thoughts, views, wants and needs of your character. If they are unable to communicate, there is no possibility for drama, as no conflict can be established. As communication helps a character pursue their objective, and navigate how to get there via their actions/tactics, a lack of communication can kill the momentum of a scene.

Beyond conflict, communication is also how your characters establish their relationships, their histories, their status. It ensures your character feels connected to the world of the story and the people who inhabit it with them.

It’s also important to realise that communication isn’t simply language-based (although that makes up a large part of drama.) It relates to body language, gesture, physicality and expression. Two actors can express complex emotions with the simplest of actions on stage or on screen, and say more in silence than others do with five Shakespearean acts.

Case Study: Big Night (1996)

As an example, clock this beautiful, wordless piece of acting by Tony Shaloub and Stanley Tucci from the film Big Night. This is the final scene of the film; the previous night was a disaster and led to these two brothers rolling around and fighting on the beach by their doomed restaurant.

For three-and-a-half minutes, Tony Shaloub is not even present in the scene. The only clue a third character will enter is that one third of the frittata remains in the pan. But the moment he walks in, you can sense the tension between him and his brother. The tiniest nod of his head, the way he chooses to look away as Tucci stands to serve him breakfast.

It is not until the final few seconds of the entire film that their relationship is truly solidified. Their hands rise to embrace one another’s shoulders in a sign of love and mutual apology. The future is uncertain for them both, but they have each other.

Care to try ruining this scene? Add a line of dialogue any-damn-where.

“Who are you speaking to?”

If you want to know how to communicate as an actor, this is the first question to ask yourself. In my work as a coach for StageMilk’s Scene Club (where we cover the fundamentals like communication every month), it’s often the first question I write in my notes to send as feedback to our members.

Who is the character you’re in the scene with? Who are they to you? What is their story, and how are you connected? How do they seem? How do you feel about them? Is there any cause you should be worried about them/happy for them/scared of them? It’s sobering to hear how many actors answer this question with the scene partner’s name, and nothing else. This is where the magic happens!

Think about the person you’re speaking to and interrogate how you might talk to them. If they’re a best friend, you’re going to tell them about a drunken one-night stand very differently to how you might convey the same information to a priest. You might not feel nervous recapping your weekend to your favourite auntie; this might be a different scenario if the person asking is a homicide detective.

“What do you want from them?”

When you’ve established your scene partner, the relationship and how you might relate to them, the next step is to determine your objective. All acting, all drama relates back to this notion: wanting something in a scene and then trying everything you’ve got within you to achieve it. And your objective must always involve your scene partner, because they’re the prime obstacle in the way.

In short: your objective speaks to the reason the scene exists, and why you’re talking to your scene partner. If you put two characters in a room who hate each other with a fiery passion, eventually you (and the audience) will ask: “Why doesn’t one of them just leave, or throw the other one out the window?!” As an actor, you have to discover what is so important about these two characters communicating. They may loathe each other … but they still have to speak in order to pursue their objective and achieve their goal.

Plotting Actions

If objectives cover what you want, actions (sometimes called tactics) are how you get them. They’re the intention behind each line, each phrase, that helps you to achieve your objective. All communication is about playing actions: trying little things to get what you want. You want to borrow $500 from a friend? “Flatter” them. Did it work? Maybe “bargaining” will do the trick. Still having no luck? Well, time it’s to pull that concealed pistol and “threaten.”

Actions aid your communication as an actor because they force you to impinge upon your scene partner: you must have an effect on the person you’re speaking to. And as actions can only happen in relation to the scene and the shape it takes on the page (see script analysis), playing them forces your performance to be dynamic and unlock the full potential of the writer’s words.

“But actions aren’t spontaneous!”

Some actors think that plotting actions results in predictable, boring choices. How can you possibly make the scene feel alive and spontaneous if you’ve planned it out beforehand? The same way you can you keep a script spontaneous when you learn your lines: you act. Actions aren’t for the benefit of the character, they’re for the benefit of you, the actor, as you navigate the scene. And if a pre-planned action doesn’t fit with the work another actor does in the piece? Well, that’s truer to life than you might think. How many times have you planned or practiced a conversation only for it to go horribly not-to-plan?

Checking In

As an extension to actions: communicate as an actor by ‘checking in’. This technique has you observe how your scene partner reacts to any of your lines, gestures or actions played. In short: how are they taking this? How are they feeling? Do they look like they’re about to speak, or cry, or launch across the table and start strangling you?

Checking in has you react to the reactions of the person opposite. If a particular action is effective, it might be an indication that you can push that particular tactic: move from “plead” up to “beg”. If it’s less effective, and you get a reaction that is unexpected or undesirable, it’s time for a shift in your tactics: move from “beg” to “flatter”.

Don’t Forget Subtext

Subtext is of the utmost importance in a nuanced, compelling, dramatic scene: so much so that we’ve dedicated an entire article to subtext in acting. When looking for strategies to better communicate as an actor, always think about what is being left unsaid.

It might be a comfortable silence between two great friends—united by a communicative shorthand that eliminates the need for excessive chatter. Perhaps the subtext points to an ugly truth that nobody in the room wants to admit. Subtext also relates back to the notion of the objective that gives drama its sense of tension and drive. The dialogue might be totally innocent, or even bland … but the subtext hints and the deep wants of the character: what’s really going on.

Communicating in a Monologue

The importance of communication as an actor is never more apparent than when you perform a monologue. This is because the responsibility falls to you alone to make the connection with your scene partner. You can’t rely on the back-and-forth of dialogue to mask poor communication: it all has to be there.

As a provocation: ask yourself why the piece of material you’re working in is a monologue. Why is your scene partner silent? What’s shut them up, and how are they taking the words you’re saying (a great opportunity to check in?) If you can answer these questions, keep them in your mind when you prepare/analyse/perform a monologue, then you can bet you’re communicating.

“What about a soliloquy?”

While a soliloquy is different to a monologue, the principles of communication are the same. While a soliloquy, by definition, distinguishes itself by representing the inner thoughts (or monologue, if you will) of a character, they’re still being spoken out loud for a particular reason. To whom are they being spoken to? And why?

Conclusion

One of the main reasons learning to communicate as an actor can be difficult is that it’s often hard for us as people—let alone performers. We don’t always listen when we talk to somebody. We’re not always receptive to how our words are being received. Sometimes, things are lost in subtext or poor word choice that creates unnecessary drama.

When you’re working on your acting, keep yourself open to these flaws. Because often it’s these parts of speech, moments of communication between people, that create the most human performances. When you think about it: if all characters were perfect communicators, we’d not have half the complications and plots in all of drama!

So when you’re acting, do your best to listen and be heard. Find what you want and fight for it, and know the person opposite you is the one in the way. Simple as that.

Good luck!

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