Acting

college audition success
Auditioning for college theatre programs needn’t be a mysterious process.  Here are some things you can do to increase your odds of success: Work with a coach This is not blatant self-promotion on my part.  You’d be foolish to rely on the advice of your high-school drama teacher, friends or family for such an important audition.  Go to a professional with a record of success preparing students for college auditions. Start Early I can’t stress this enough.  Please don’t wait until the audition is coming up to begin preparing. As soon as you know you want to audition start working.  You put yourself at a distinct disadvantage if you don’t.  Choose your audition pieces wisely Check out my blog about how to choose an audition monologue here.  Some things to consider are: Choose monologues from plays instead of films or television.  When choosing musical pieces avoid songs strongly associated with […]

5 Steps To College Audition Success

10 Steps to a great cold reading
1. Start with the facts you’re given: It’s time to be a text detective.  Find the irrefutable facts in your script (aka given circumstances).  Make no assumptions yet.  Only the things you know for sure.  These are the foundation upon which you build your reading. 2. Who are you? What can you learn from the words your character chooses?  Is there a word or phrase they repeat?  Do they use an interesting expression or word choice or in an unusual way?  What do the other characters say about you?  What can you learn about your education, temperament, sense of humor, moral compass, etc. 3. What do you want? What is your character’s great dream?  What do they want more than anything else, the thing that drives them to do everything they do? 4. What is the obstacle? What or who is the source of the conflict in the scene? In […]

10 Steps To A Great Cold Reading

Listening is more than hearing
There seems to be some confusion about what listening means.  I’ll often watch actors fixated on their partner’s every word listening like there were going to be a test at the end of the scene only to give the line reading they’ve prepared in advance when it’s their turn to speak.  Bravo for trying but they’re not really listening. . . Listening is much more than hearing.  Beyond the words, we see and feel what is being said to us.  Inflection, volume, tempo as well as facial expression, posture and gesture are crucial to the information we gather when we listen.  Listening is hearing everything that’s said and unsaid. . Listening is receiving.  When we allow ourselves to receive what we “hear,” it makes an impact that resonates on our face in our throat, heart, gut or groin.  Listening is physical.  Everything we hear, see and sense about what is […]

Actors, Listening Is More Than Hearing

why acting on-camera is easier (and harder) than acting on stage
You’re in a play.  Rehearsal ends and you and your scene partner decide to grab a bite to eat together.  After your meal you decide to work through the lines to your “last date” scene.  You quietly begin talking, exploring the script together, just talking, like the married couple who decide to divorce over dessert in the play.  Now you’re on stage in the same scene in front of an audience.  But the audience is now several yards away and you must include them by making physical and vocal choices ample enough for them to see, hear and follow your story.  You are also influenced by and make adjustments to your performance based upon the feedback you receive from the audience.  In the restaurant you were talking with just one person across a table.  Onstage you talk to your scene partner and the audience at the same time. On-camera, there […]

Why Acting On-Camera Is Easier (And Harder) Than Acting On ...

can I use my facebook as my actor website
Two Actors this week asked me the same question: “I have a Facebook page.  Does that count as an actor website?” So I figured some of you might be wondering the same thing. . As an actor, having social media accounts, including a Facebook, is great! But Facebook is not a website for many reasons: *On FB you have no control over what people post, on a website you have total control. *Posts are fleeting. Approximately 10-15% of posts in a news feed are even seen and those just scroll down and disappear. On your own website you decide where to prominently place a resume, headshots, news about your career, your reel, etc. *Social media sites are someone else’s real estate. Facebook changes their rules on posts and what people see on your wall all the time. Facebook, tumblr, etc. could also just disappear.  It’s not likely anytime soon but […]

Can My Facebook Page Be My Actor Website?

8 things to do after you get an agent
Getting an agent is certainly an important step in any actor’s career but it’s not necessarily the answer to all your prayers.  Here are 8 things you can do to maximize this important opportunity. . . 1. Keep self-submitting and looking for work on your own. Think of your agent as a new team member rather than someone who will do the work of finding work for you.  Now is not the time to sit back and relax.  You only had one person (you) looking for work for you before you got an agent.  Think what you might accomplish with both of you working together! I list some sites where you can self-submit here. 2. Give them great tools. Supply great pictures and a beautifully formatted, up to date resume for them to represent you with.  Your reel should rock and be posted on Actors Access and/or your IMBD Pro account. […]

8 Things To Do When You Get An Acting Agent

act like no one's watching Philip Hernandez
. I often hear actors talking about acting in abstract terms as if it were some elusive mystery you had to somehow “feel” your way to discovering . They ‘ll endlessly debate what is means to be “in the moment” or how to “emotionally prepare” for a scene, etc.  All that is fine but I can’t help feeling they’re forgetting that acting, at its essence, is really just pretending. It’s the same kind of pretending kids do effortlessly without all the philosophizing.  They just leap right in exploring how the person they’re playing  acts.  They instinctively know how important the way they walk, and talk is to being believed.  They listen to what their playmates say, decide how they feel about it, then respond and go full tilt after what they want.  It’s so simple. I rarely hear actors talking about the physical aspects of creating a role and, not […]

Act Like No One Is Watching!

The world is your acting teacher
The difficulty many young actors have creating multi-dimensional characters often lies in the degree of self-knowledge they possess. Before you start analyzing characters you need a point of reference.  Want to be an actor? Then start working – on yourself.  Characters on the page confront challenges that often shake them to the very core of who they are.  Sometimes they know very well what drives them and sometimes they are completely unaware.  Actors must understand the very real emotional life of the character and connect with it if they are to tell their story so that others will recognize themselves in it. To do that you must have some experience navigating your own inner world. Acting problems are often life problems. If you have difficulty revealing some aspect of yourself in life, it certainly won’t be easier when you get onstage or in front of a camera. Acting teacher Eric Morris’ […]

The World Is Your Acting Teacher