Do You really want to be an ACTOR?

Before you read much further about a career in theater arts, think very carefully about yourself: Do you really want to be an ACTOR? Or do you really only want to be a STAR?

How to become a star overnight?

1. Call yourself an “actor.”
2. Take some acting lessons.
3. Dress the part.
4. Go to some auditions.
5. Have the right connections.
6. Be in the right place at the right time.
7. Have, for some reason, some appeal to a very fickle public.
8. Have a great deal of unexplainable, very good luck.

How to become an actor?

1. Study acting, movement, speech, dramatic literature
2. Learn to use your mind, emotions, voice, and body expressively and freely at will.
3. Derive deep satisfaction from putting yourself in the role of another human being.
4. Think, analyze, use your intuition, feel, and rehearse, rehearse, rehearse.
5. Have a self-image that is good enough — and an ego that is strong enough — to withstand many, many rejections before you get a single call-back.
6. Be able to support yourself with a part-time — even a low-paying – job in order to have time for classes and auditions.
7. Have talent – a special combination of energy, earnestness, expressiveness, insight, understanding, and presence.

What dose an actor do?

The work of an actor is to bring to life a character that has been invented by the playwright and, with your co-actors, director, and production members, bring to life the playwright’s story and vision.

After you are cast in a role, your work as an actor takes place at rehearsal and at home. At rehearsal, your work will be guided by your director and influenced by the characterizations of the other actors. As your character develops, you will pay close attention to the theatrical effect of your voice, expression, and movement.

A great deal of your characterization will also take place at home. There you will analyze and begin to understand the whole make-up of your character, what he did and what he was like long before the play begins, and why he does what he does in the play. You will learn to move and think and speak as your character does, and you will, in short, grow to identify with your character.

The work of an actor, which, to the uninitiated may seem to be pure repetition, is, in fact, a careful development of a character based on intense intellectual, emotional, and physical effort.

If you want to be an actor, How do you proceed?

Is it necessary to study at a professional acting school or in a college theater program in order to “make it” in the theater?

No, not in the sense that a degree or certificate will ever be required for a role. However, if a director auditions two naturally talented actors, and only one, through training and technique, can quickly and deeply respond to emotional and intellectual direction, and use his body and voice freely and at will, then the director has no difficulty in making his decision.

What does a director look for? What happens at an audition?

In some cases, the director knows ahead of time how he wants a character to look, talk, and walk, and he casts an actor who fits this image. If you are not what the director has in mind, you’re out of luck. Usually, however, the director has only a general idea of what he is looking for.

There are basically two kinds of auditions – cold readings and those for which the actor has had the chance to prepare. In the first kind, you are asked to read an unfamiliar part in an unfamiliar play. You may be given only a brief summary of the play and of the character. What you should do in this case is read intelligently and with variety, taking advantage of pauses, showing your range, stage presence, and talent as much as possible. For many auditions, however, actors are asked to prepare two monologues, usually one serious and the other comedic. In either kind of audition, if the director offers instruction, follow his advice as carefully as you can for he wants to see how you respond to his direction.