(Part 2) Best products from r/acting

When I taught acting for young people I relied on four books:

[A Practical Handbook for The Actor]
(https://www.amazon.com/Practical-Handbook-Actor-Melissa-Bruder-ebook/dp/B007QPFFXY/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1503710497&sr=1-1&keywords=a+practical+handbook+for+the+actor)

True and False

Sanford Meisner On Acting

Theater Games for the Classroom: A Teacher's Handbook

I taught Acting and Improv to a range of students: from elementary and middle school kids who didn't really want to be there to dedicated high school kids studying theatre 12 hours a day in the summer. This is typically how I built my curriculum:

The Meisner Technique personalizes a student's relationship with whatever text they're working with. Acting exercises shift away from Being A Good Actor and become about being honest in imaginary circumstances, making observations, and taking action. The exercises can be grueling. The games require focus, and a willingness to make observations about scene partners. Good for serious students.

True and False is a series of essays by David Mamet. If you're not familiar with Mr Mamet, he is an important American Playwright who's work will never be performed in a high school. But he was a student of Meisner's and does a masterful job of articulating the point of Meisner's method and distinguishing it from Method Acting.

A Practical Handbook is Second Generation Meisner - based on the notes of David Mamet's and William H Macy's acting students. It focuses on HOW to choose a dynamic action. Much of the material can be made into worksheets for use in later scene analysis. Suitable for all ages.

Many young actors have little experience to draw from to make dynamic choices. For some students it may be the first time they've thought of how and why they reacted to people and situations. Viola Spolin's exercises can help unlock their imaginations - plus, they're fun.

I say all of that to actually answer your question about finding material:
I highly recommend Spare Scenes.

In College we called them Contentless, or Empty Scenes. They are short, two character scenes. Characters are 'A' and 'B' (sometimes there's a 'C' as well) with anywhere from 10 to 20 lines each. There's no real context to the scenes. There is no action described, only vague dialog:

A: Do you believe me?

B: Yes mostly.

A: Mostly.

B: Yes mostly.

A: But not always?

B: Usually always.

A: Usually

B: Yes, usually.

A: But not absolutely always.

B: I guess not.

A: That's strange.

B: Why?

The student must apply techniques from Meisner, and The Practical Handbook to analyze the Spare Scene, create a scenario and choose actions that convey dynamic characters. It's hard. But that's the best part - it is very beneficial to fail at these exercises. When students get their hands on actual text - it's like they only have to do half the work! But, as an educator, you also have an endless source of material to practice. So when you have a play, or a One Act, or an actual performance - it becomes an Event.

I've noticed that while many young musicians are taught the difference between Practice and Performance, many young actors are either On or Off. The Meisner Technique encourages the student to resist the temptation to be The Great Actor, and instead focus on building Great Character.

Please forgive the wall of text. This is my favorite thing to rant about. Hope that helps. (edit: formatting)

I bought some cheap studio lights, similar to these ones and a small mid-grey pop up backdrop like this. I bought a cheap handicam for ease of use, but actually it's hard to get one with an external mic jack - a good smart phone with a semi decent lavalier mic is probably fine.

I've seen tapes people did on their smart phone and I was really impressed, but my own tapes on smartphone always seem a bit off in quality.

I have just started using a FujiX30 to shoot on - it's primarilly a stills camera but has decent video in good light, a lovely lens and an external mic jack - but I haven't tested it enough yet to fully endorse getting one! A few people recommended to me that I should pick up a second hand Canon EosM.

Also, if you are lucky enough to have a location with good natural light then you don't need lights. I much prefer shooting with natural light but my home doesn't have great light.

(On mobile so I'm sorry if things are messed up)

Hey there. I also suffer from anxiety and depression, and I'm quite shy as well. I find acting very therapeutic. I'm not in theatre for just that reason, but it certainly helps.

Although yes, theatre and acting is a group and collaborative art there are lots of exercises you could do by yourself that many actors use, especially in the area of understanding your emotions and being more in tune with them. Many of these I use myself not just for acting, but to help my mental health as well.

I would first suggest checking out the book Mindful Way Through Depression I would actually recommend this book to any actor. It helps me be aware of my emotions and helps me when I'm having a particularly hard time. Also Respect for Acting which is an actor book. I recommend this one because it may help to see how universal the emotions of fear, embarrassment and so on, are and to help raise your emotional intelligence. There are actor exercises in this book you may find really silly, but they may be worth trying out.

I'd also recommend yoga and meditation. Not all across do these but I know many that do. They help ground you and get more in touch with the "self" and all that jazz.

Lastly, read a lot of plays. Check out Next to Normal. It's a musical about mental illness. The whole thing can be found on YouTube.

Read Shakespeare. It's hard to read at first yes, but the more you give to Shakespeare the more he'll give back to you. You'll discover a lot about the human condition and probably a lot about yourself as well.

That's all I can think of at the moment. I hope this helps.

Fantastic advice. I'm an actor in Atlanta and I see actors of all ages in my classes and auditions. I also attended Jason Alexander (George from Seinfeld) Streaming Class from LA recently where audience members were selected to perform and get feedback from Jason. And there were a few who were 50-60+. So never too late to start. I'm a guy in my mid 30s starting out myself so I know a thing or two too :)

And in terms of resources, I super highly recommend the following book "Acting for a Living: How to Act Outside Hollywood" by Roy McCrery. There's some super actionable concrete advice on what you need to do and why regional markets (ie, not LA or NYC) actually are much BETTER to start your acting career in.
Amazon link to book: http://www.amazon.com/Acting-Living-Outside-Hollywood-Become/dp/1466383402/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1345734877&sr=8-1&keywords=acting+for+a+living (It's NOT a referral link).

EDIT: To elaborate on why I like this book - Roy talks about what the best survival jobs are for actors (sales), how to self-market even if you have an agent (calling production companies directly), how to cheaply practice earprompter skills etc. Awesome advice.

I agree. Your hunger is an incredibly good thing. But you should always be training and stretching If you're interested in some books on technique here's what I've been reading.

A Practical Handbook for the Actor by a bunch of interesting people. It's a practical, repeatable, and analytical way of approaching acting. While it is best practiced in a classroom with a knowledgable instructor, the text is good enough to stand on it's own.

History of the Theatre by Brockett is a longggggg read. But it's detailed and a great perspective on what was happening when in relation to plays. Also you can older editions for way way less.

I'm just now reading Sanford Meisner on Acting and that's been an interesting so far, it has a lot more of a narrative which is enjoyable to read.

Hope any of that helps someone!

I've used the rote method Ausmossie mentioned, but found it frustrating. I recently had a significant part in a play and was overwhelmed. I had a bad day of memorizing when I could hardly get through two paragraphs, but then I stumbled upon this e-book: https://www.amazon.com/Line-Creative-Memorize-Monologues-Dialogues/dp/0982655835/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8 I was able to read the e-book, then was able to crank out eight pages over the next day. It uses memory castles, but the book takes you through progressive examples. I found it helpful because it lets you rely on your cues in your mental images to stay on track that you don't get with rote memorization.

I also supplemented this with a series of Powerpoint slides of the places I visited in my memory castle (I used locations in World of Warcraft, you can pick places familiar to you) and then put some clipart images to help remember the key points as well as initials of the first letter of each word to give me multiple methods to use. The only downside I really had was that my recitation had brief pauses in it as I "moved" to the next location. It worked for my character, but the director did bring it up to work on. Definitely worth the $9 ebook investment for me!

I also use the Line Learner app for when I'm in the car so I can practice. https://linelearner.wordpress.com/ http://www.alldayapps.com/ I've used it with benefit for two plays now.

Like Ausmossie, I also found walking about while learning to be of great help.

I've also set up my learning area as much like the stage as I could to help with the blocking while I learned.

There are lots of ways it can be done although the most surefire to at least get a meeting is through a referral. It also helps to understand how this business works. It's very rare at best for somebody to just fall off the turnip truck, sign with a good agent, and go to work despite the myth that I've even recently seen perpetrated here.

I suggest that she get a copy of An Agent Tells All and Self-Management for Actors as well as to watch the lecture on iActingStudios entitled Mastering Your Career which should put her on the right track.

You haven't said how long you've been in town, but it usually takes awhile for those who aren't supermodel gorgeous and/or coming straight out of a top drama school and/or don't have some serious heat from a festival film or a webseries blowing up. The common wisdom as far as getting a viable career going is that if you're going to give it five minutes, you'd better plan on giving it five years although that can be shortened a bit if you do things smart.

I'm going to throw this edit on top because it trumps everything else: Can you honestly read out loud with a chest voice (no mumbling!!!) and can you act? It's painful to listen to people who can't do either. I've heard some newer people who read syllables word. to. word. in. stead. of. read. ing. like. a. person. ^ormumblinglikethey'retryingtokeepasecret


If you live in Atlanta, I have a great course to recommend that I'm almost finished with that sets you up with a reel during the course. It's a college certificate program through Vince Bailey who is a BOSS and pushes you to refine your voice. He's also a hustler and will teach you how to promote yourself. I'm really happy I took this course (and even happier my company is reimbursing me for it.)


Other than looking into classes, the equipment recommended by him (and what we use in class) are both of these TOGETHER:

• Audio-Technica AT2020
  
  
  
• Kaotica Eyeball
  
  
  We used these in a college classroom with buzzing lights and A/C units running. I couldn't hear a thing when we listened to them again, and if there was the tiniest buzz, it was edited out through Adobe Audition (he says if you master Audacity you can do just as good of work.) We also had a session in a real studio and side-by-side they were almost identical -- even to my friend who is an audio snob and hates USB mics.
  
  If a company is big enough and really wants to confirm studio quality, they will bring you into their studio. Alternatively, if you are nervous about your home setup, there is likely a recording studio nearby that will let you record for around $80/hour.
  
  
  Examples of some of my work in class after he edited them (Note: These aren't my best yet, he's editing the newer ones which blow these out of the water. I recorded these right after my grandmother died so I wasn't really in a peppy announcer mood. I'm also still new so someone will have something to say.)
  
  
  Personally, I'm going to opt for the Blue Yeti Pro Studio mic because I can get it at an insanely good price and it has extra hookups for when I do need the more advanced setups. I've heard it's just as good if not better than the AT2020.
  
  
  Yes, audio geeks and voice over superstars will disagree since they say USB newbies are saturating the industry. However, my teacher uses this equipment in various locations (noise-levels be damned) keep his "20 minutes or less recorded and mixed" reputation alive. His clients never notice he's not in a studio and he makes $100k per year on this alone through projects big and small.
  
  
  Another thing is to explore /r/RecordThis (paid) and free listings on Casting Call Club. My first gig was through /r/RecordThis for $90.

I would not attempt calling them!!

A friend of mine's aunt is a casting director. She had to change her "professional" name because with her legal name people would find her home address and phone number and people would show up at her house to try to get auditions. Its a big no-no to not go through the correct channels when trying to get an audition. Like, I can't even use my friend to help weasel my way onto this CD's good side. Its just frowned upon.

You should read CD Jen Rudin's book, Confessions of a Casting Director. Even if you have been professionally acting for years, its just a really good read. It really helps get into the mind of a CD.

Good Luck!

> It's never too old to start with acting.

Reading this made me feel a lot better. Even though I've been acting since high school and just graduated with a BA in theatre performance, I still sometimes feel like I'm way behind in the game because I wasn't into youth theatre or haven't gotten an agent yet. Great inclusion!


Also, if you wanted to add a book that's a great starting point for reading plays, the Norton Anthology of Drama (Shorter Edition) is a great collection of classics leading up to more contemporary plays. It was basically a staple all 4 years at my university. (Kind of expensive, but if you can find a library where you can check it out, it's definitely worth the read! There's also the full sized Norton Anthology of Drama that comes with two volumes and quite a few great plays.)

Get the book "Acting: Make It Your Business". This book shows you the dos and don'ts of resumes, headshots, auditioning, etc. You can also subscribe to the author (Paul Russell) on Facebook. There are many similar books out there, but I find this to be one of the best (he also is a casting director).

Do not put extra work on your resume if you want to be viewed as a professional serious actor. Extra work is not acting, it's just work that helps pay the bills and sometimes helps make connections. Your resume (as you would see in this book) would not list non-acting jobs on it. While you are building your resume, you can have training on there, and can bulk it up with anything you've done in class as well (list it as a showcase or something similar, especially if it was an open class performance where outside people were invited to attend).

Continue with acting classes. Look up headshots; ask friends for advice on photographers within your budget. You NEED a professional headshot. Find out where castings are listed. Start auditioning. Looks like you are near Chicago(?)...Actor's Access is on casting site that lists auditions in your area.

Then in that case if you want to up the ante of gift giving, (i ordered all my supplies on Amazon since i have Amazon student and 2 day free shipping) but i also ordered a stand. Like you can build your own kit really nicely and then arrange it for him as a surprise!

Razor

Blades

Badger brush

Stand

Shaving cream, my favorite

And as for a cup to mix the shaving cream? Don't bother buying one just use a short mug it's much easier

Also, think about it this way, when you are using a regular 4 bladed razor you need to go over each spot at least 2 times right? That's as if 8 individual razors went over that spot. With a single blade you usually get every hair in one pass but sometimes you need 2-3 but still, 2-3 is less that the original 4 so you're regardless way less likely to get razor burn