CHARACTER BUILDING AND CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT

John Pallotta Acting Coach

www.dcacting.com

877.228.3115

 

Acting technique is paramount to anyone wanting to be a serious actor. It's quite easy to imitate a character or even an emotion, but where's the depth in that? How can you sustain or repeat again what you might have found intuitively? Do you even know what you did or how you did it?

The technique, however, will help you find a character, which in turn informs how you approach the text/script/written word. How do you bring the dialogue alive? How do you know what choices to make? The goal of a trained actor is to become a fully realized three-dimensional character, with a rich backstory. I must believe the character you play is truthful and not a cliché, a caricature, a thin external representation of someone who barely resembles a human being. I must believe what you say is real and that you're not reciting, spouting or commenting.

In order to help you understand, I will lay out the backbone of what I teach at mu studio and around the world to professional and student actors alike. This is based around Stanislavski's acting technique and his seven questions which, over the years, I have adapted into 10 key acting questions every actor should answer in order to be a fully rounded and connected actor.

1. Who am I?

2. Where am I?

3. When is it?

4. Where have I just come from?

5. What do I want?

6. Why do I want it?

7. Why do I want it now?

8. What will happen if I don't get it now?

9. How will I get what I want by doing what?

10. What must I overcome?

1. Who am I?

The first question is dealing with the type of person you are. I'm sure if I asked you that question, you would be able to tell me about your family background, your parents, grandparents, and siblings. You would be able to describe them in detail. Also the house you grew up in, what it looked like, inside and outside. Your favorite room, what you could see out of your bedroom window, the smells you remember. You’re earliest childhood memories, the kind of games you played, and family holidays. Your education, favorite teachers, best friends, and times you got into trouble. Your first kiss, first job, your likes and dislikes, influences, attitudes, anecdotes. All these good, bad, funny, interesting experiences shape us into who we are today. Most people don't walk around with all these memories on their shoulders like baggage. They've seeped into our being, our muscles, and our subconscious, allowing us just to be, to exist.

When you play a character in theatre, TV or film, you should know your character as well as you knows yourself, so you can just exist and live. Of course that doesn't just magically happen, nor does it evolve just from rehearsals. As an actor you have to plant those memories, anecdotes and backstory.

So how do you build a character? Well, first a good script should give you some initial information about your character, and also what other characters say or think about your character can be very revealing. All this should be extracted and written down in a separate notebook. The next stage is research. You need to find out through detailed research what the history, economics, politics, music, art, literature, theatre, film, foods, fashion, religion might have been at the time the play was written, in order to know how you would have lived and what and who your influences were, just as you know these things in real life. Possible sources include the Internet, films of the era and finding images of landscape, as well as going to museums, art and photographic galleries. Fill your mind with images - not facts and figures. The more visceral you understand, the better.

The final stage in building a character, once you've filleted the script and completed your research, is to use your imagination to flesh out the details you've gathered and bring them alive. Don't underestimate the power and the necessity of your imagination in the acting process. You can't use your imagination without the backup of research and reading. Nor can you use your imagination alone.

2. Where am I?

You might find in the script a description of the room you're supposed to be in, including details such as the style and period of the furniture. What does it mean to you though? Is your character supposed to be familiar with the surroundings? Is it the first time you've entered this room? Is it a cozy cottage? A freezing barn? A familiar street? We usually behave differently depending on our surroundings. You need to establish your relationship with your environment because this affects the way you use yourself. For example, you wouldn't start walking around, touching ornaments and putting your feet up if it wasn't your home. The geography will have an impact too: playing someone from very cold northern climates such as Norway or Russia will be different to playing someone in a baking Mediterranean climate such as Italy or Spain.

3. When is it?

We need to know what season it is, what year, what time of day. We tend to carry ourselves differently in the colder months than we do on hot, muggy summer days. We would also hold ourselves differently if the piece were set at the turn of the century. We must be aware that we can't bring our modern physicality to a play that is of another period. People expressed themselves differently then and didn't slouch or use modern gestures.

4. Where have I just come from?

You need to work out what your character has been doing, where they've been. When you make an entrance on stage it shouldn't look as if you've just stepped on stage from behind the curtain. Even if that's true, you should have worked out during rehearsal where you would be coming from - the bathroom, having just brushed your teeth? The kitchen in the middle of baking an apple pie? The car after being stuck in traffic? Shopping? What is your state of being supposed to be on your entrance? Does it tell you in the text? Has your director informed you of what they would like it to be? Or do you have to invent it? What's just happened in the scene before? Have you just had an argument? Have you just been proposed to? Whatever the situation, you should always know your previous circumstances at all times. It can be good fun inventing it, and no entrance should ever be the same. Just think about real life: do you always enter your house in the same way every night? No. Where you come from will have conditioned your mood.

5. What do I want?

This is a key question. "Want,” means what do you need, what is your intention, your motivation, your action? You should never walk on stage just to play a scene. You should always have an objective. Often in a good script, an objective is written into the scene: to end the affair, to propose, to move out. Your action can change from scene to scene but you should always work out what you are meant to be doing.

You may be in a scene, for example, where you have very little dialogue. Instead of sitting doing nothing, give yourself a physical action, which can be anything that fits your reason for being in that room, from making a salad to polishing your nails. Even if you are pulled away from what you're doing, so long as you're doing something, you've always got something to return to once you're no longer engaged in conversation. The importance of this is so that you don't look or feel silly on stage doing nothing. You must have a life on stage, you must have a purpose for walking and talking, and otherwise you are in danger of "just acting", which is fake. Don't forget you're trying to be truthful and three-dimensional, and in real life, no one ever comes into a room and stands with their hands by their sides or sits with their hands in their lap and just talks.

6. Why do I want it?

You must always have a strong justification for your action. All right, perhaps in real life we don't always have a strong justification for everything we're doing but, particularly in the theatre, you always need one. Most plays present a heightened version of reality (this can be different for the naturalistic performances and stories we see on television, particularly in soap operas). Having a strong justification means you have a strong motivation.

7. Why do I want it now?

The "now" gives you an immediacy that is crucial in acting and in any drama. You must know why your motivation has to be right now, not before, not later but now. Why should we sit through two hours of this play if you're not that bothered about getting the money or the house or the power?

8. What will happen if I don't get it now?

The stakes should always be high. Otherwise so what? The consequences of not getting what you want should always be very important to you. If the high stakes are not clear to you in the play, you need to invent them, otherwise it will come across that you're not bothered at all about the outcome.

9. How will I get what I want by doing what?

This question brings us on to how you break down a script. How do you know how to play the line as opposed to how one should say the line? There's a big difference.

Once you've worked out what your action is (question 5) you then have to work out your smaller action, which is called an "activity". You need to work out how you are trying to affect the other person with what you are saying.

One-way of doing this is called "actioning" your text. Break your script up into chunks: every time you have a new change of thought, you need to find a transitive verb, a verb that is active, such as to beg, to entice, to charm, to get sympathy (a good thesaurus is very handy here). Remember that this technique is not about the emotional content of what you are saying or feeling but about what you want the other person to feel psychologically. By playing these chosen activities you are trying to make the actor that you are playing opposite feel something specific in order to further your action.

So, you have to think: how can I affect the other character by doing what? At this stage you should know who your character is, and your choice of active verbs should be informed by your character choice and not your personal choice. If my character was a loving, open, sweet, sensitive young girl and my dialogue was: "I don't love you anymore, I think you should go", my verb will be determined by my above characteristics and not by the actual line itself. Therefore verbs such as to plead, to get sympathy, to reason, should be chosen, as opposed to verbs that might reflect another type of character, such as to demand, to threaten, to hurt. If in the rehearsal a choice doesn't work then you can change your choice. Nothing should be initially set in stone.

I like to call this process "scoring" your text. Just as a musician or singer would rely on their score to know how to sing or play their song, an actor works out how to play the monologue, scene or play. Once you've done it, you have to play it fully; otherwise it's pretty pointless. The challenge is the execution of it. It's time-consuming initially to find the right verbs, but once you have them and tested them in rehearsal, not only will you have given your performance light and shade but also depth. It also means you do not have to fall into a dreadful cliché performance by thinking of how to say the lines and what you should be feeling and emoting. This technique allows you to be free and truthful without playing external emotion. It's really about what you don't say and trusting that actions will speak louder than words.

10. What must I overcome?

Every actor should always have an inner and an outer obstacle. The outer obstacle is the resistance (usually the other character) to obtaining your action. The inner obstacle is your inner conflict, which you must always plant in a scene even though it can change. There must always be a problem you are trying to overcome. If you think of yourself in life, you're never without an inner obstacle. You'll have seen scenes on stage or screen where the inner obstacle has not been properly planted: you get a load of actors just shouting, over-emoting and sometimes just playing the aggression. If the inner obstacle is there, the anger, fear or hate, for example, then you've got something to fight against in the scene. Much more interesting.

Actors may believe that they can do without formal training. But I have worked with untrained actors, who have landed a film or a TV series on the basis of their looks, and seen them struggle to be able to reproduce what they were able to do in the first take. Natural ability will get you so far, but it's the trained actors who know what they're doing and how they're doing it and can produce that emotion take after take.

To fully transform into a character, to be truthfully and emotionally connected needs hard work, technique, and good direction. But the audience should see none of this. They should see nothing other than the fully realized three-dimensional character right in the truth of the moment.

 

 

One of the best ways to get to know your characters is to ask questions about them. Many writers do this as a kind of homework before they actually start writing a story. The more you know your characters, the fuller they will be. This might also make your story easier to write. The following questionnaires may be downloaded so you can work with the actual documents.

 

ACTOR/Character Questionnaire

This questionnaire is found in The Book by John Pallotta, Acting I A State of Mind.

www.johnpallotta.com

www.dcacting.com

 

You might start with questions that address the basics about a character:

What is your characters name? Does the character have a nickname?

What is your characters hair color? Eye color?

What kind of distinguishing facial features does your character have?

Does your character have a birthmark? Where is it? What about scars? How did he get them?

Who are your characters friends and family? Who does she surround herself with? Who are the people your character is closest to? Who does he wish he were closest to?

Where was your character born? Where has she lived since then? Where does she call home?

Where does your character go when he’s angry?

What is her biggest fear? Who has she told this to? Who would she never tell this to? Why?

Does he/she have a secret?

What makes your character laugh out loud?

When has your character been in love? Had a broken heart?

Then dig deeper by asking more unconventional questions:

What is in your characters refrigerator right now?

On her bedroom floor?

On her nightstand?

In her garbage can?

Look at your characters feet. Describe what you see there. Does he wear dress shoes, gym shoes, or none at all? Is he in socks that are ratty and full of holes? Or is he wearing a pair of blue and gold slippers knitted by his grandmother?

When your character thinks of her childhood kitchen, what smell does she associate with it? Sauerkraut? Oatmeal cookies? Paint? Why is that smell so resonant for her?

Your character is doing intense spring-cleaning. What is easy for her to throw out? What is difficult for her to part with? Why?

It’s Saturday at noon. What is your character doing? Give details. If he’s eating breakfast, what exactly does he eat? If she’s stretching out in her backyard to sun, what kind of blanket or towel does she lie on?

What is one strong memory that has stuck with your character from childhood? Why is it so powerful and lasting?

Your character is getting ready for a night out. Where is she going? What does she wear? Who will she be with?

Who am I?

Who am I named after?  Do I like my name?

What is my gender?  What do I think about sex?

How old am I?  What do I think of my age?

How does my posture express my age, health, inner feeling?

How is my complexion?  What do I think of it?

What is my height?  What do I think of I?

What is my weight?  What do I think of it?

What is the pitch, volume, tempo, resonance or quality of my voice?  What do I think of it?

Is my articulation careless or precise?  Is my articulation standard or colloquial?  Do I have a dialect or accent?

What is my hair color and style?  Do I like it?

Do I have any deformities?  What do I think of them?

Do I have any mannerisms?  What do I think of them?

Do I have any handicaps?  What do I think of them?

How energetic or vital am I?  Do I like it?

Do I suffer from any diseases past or present?

Are my gestures complete or incomplete, vigorous or weak, compulsive or controlled?

Do I like my walk?

How do I usually sit?

How do I usually stand?

Do I have any objects, hand props or accessories with me?  Why? How do I handle them?

Are my basic rhythms smooth or jerky, even-tempered or volatile, impulsive or deliberate, ponderous or light, broken or continuous?

What do I like to wear?  What do I have to wear?  How do I wear my clothes?  How do I handle them? 

What do you consider your greatest achievement?

What is your idea of perfect happiness?

What is your current state of mind?

What is your favorite occupation?

What is your most treasured possession?

What or who is the greatest love of your life?

What is your favorite journey?

What is your most marked characteristic?

When and where were you the happiest?

What is it that you most dislike?

What is your greatest fear?

What is your greatest extravagance?

Which living person do you most despise?

What is your greatest regret?

Which talent would you most like to have?

Where would you like to live?

What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?

What is the quality you most like in a man?

What is the quality you most like in a woman?

What is the trait you most deplore in yourself?

What is the trait you most deplore in others?

What do you most value in your friends?

Who is your favorite hero of fiction?

Whose are your heroes in real life?

Which living person do you most admire?

What do you consider the most overrated virtue?

On what occasions do you lie?

Which words or phrases do you most overuse?

If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?

What are your favorite names?

How would you like to die?

If you were to die and come back as a person or thing, what do you think it would be?

What is your motto?

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 CHARACTER BUILDING AND CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT

John Pallotta Acting Coach

www.dcacting.com

877.228.3115

 

Acting technique is paramount to anyone wanting to be a serious actor. It's quite easy to imitate a character or even an emotion, but where's the depth in that? How can you sustain or repeat again what you might have found intuitively? Do you even know what you did or how you did it?

The technique, however, will help you find a character, which in turn informs how you approach the text/script/written word. How do you bring the dialogue alive? How do you know what choices to make? The goal of a trained actor is to become a fully realized three-dimensional character, with a rich backstory. I must believe the character you play is truthful and not a cliché, a caricature, a thin external representation of someone who barely resembles a human being. I must believe what you say is real and that you're not reciting, spouting or commenting.

In order to help you understand, I will lay out the backbone of what I teach at mu studio and around the world to professional and student actors alike. This is based around Stanislavski's acting technique and his seven questions which, over the years, I have adapted into 10 key acting questions every actor should answer in order to be a fully rounded and connected actor.

1. Who am I?

2. Where am I?

3. When is it?

4. Where have I just come from?

5. What do I want?

6. Why do I want it?

7. Why do I want it now?

8. What will happen if I don't get it now?

9. How will I get what I want by doing what?

10. What must I overcome?

1. Who am I?

The first question is dealing with the type of person you are. I'm sure if I asked you that question, you would be able to tell me about your family background, your parents, grandparents, and siblings. You would be able to describe them in detail. Also the house you grew up in, what it looked like, inside and outside. Your favorite room, what you could see out of your bedroom window, the smells you remember. You’re earliest childhood memories, the kind of games you played, and family holidays. Your education, favorite teachers, best friends, and times you got into trouble. Your first kiss, first job, your likes and dislikes, influences, attitudes, anecdotes. All these good, bad, funny, interesting experiences shape us into who we are today. Most people don't walk around with all these memories on their shoulders like baggage. They've seeped into our being, our muscles, and our subconscious, allowing us just to be, to exist.

When you play a character in theatre, TV or film, you should know your character as well as you knows yourself, so you can just exist and live. Of course that doesn't just magically happen, nor does it evolve just from rehearsals. As an actor you have to plant those memories, anecdotes and backstory.

So how do you build a character? Well, first a good script should give you some initial information about your character, and also what other characters say or think about your character can be very revealing. All this should be extracted and written down in a separate notebook. The next stage is research. You need to find out through detailed research what the history, economics, politics, music, art, literature, theatre, film, foods, fashion, religion might have been at the time the play was written, in order to know how you would have lived and what and who your influences were, just as you know these things in real life. Possible sources include the Internet, films of the era and finding images of landscape, as well as going to museums, art and photographic galleries. Fill your mind with images - not facts and figures. The more visceral you understand, the better.

The final stage in building a character, once you've filleted the script and completed your research, is to use your imagination to flesh out the details you've gathered and bring them alive. Don't underestimate the power and the necessity of your imagination in the acting process. You can't use your imagination without the backup of research and reading. Nor can you use your imagination alone.

2. Where am I?

You might find in the script a description of the room you're supposed to be in, including details such as the style and period of the furniture. What does it mean to you though? Is your character supposed to be familiar with the surroundings? Is it the first time you've entered this room? Is it a cozy cottage? A freezing barn? A familiar street? We usually behave differently depending on our surroundings. You need to establish your relationship with your environment because this affects the way you use yourself. For example, you wouldn't start walking around, touching ornaments and putting your feet up if it wasn't your home. The geography will have an impact too: playing someone from very cold northern climates such as Norway or Russia will be different to playing someone in a baking Mediterranean climate such as Italy or Spain.

3. When is it?

We need to know what season it is, what year, what time of day. We tend to carry ourselves differently in the colder months than we do on hot, muggy summer days. We would also hold ourselves differently if the piece were set at the turn of the century. We must be aware that we can't bring our modern physicality to a play that is of another period. People expressed themselves differently then and didn't slouch or use modern gestures.

4. Where have I just come from?

You need to work out what your character has been doing, where they've been. When you make an entrance on stage it shouldn't look as if you've just stepped on stage from behind the curtain. Even if that's true, you should have worked out during rehearsal where you would be coming from - the bathroom, having just brushed your teeth? The kitchen in the middle of baking an apple pie? The car after being stuck in traffic? Shopping? What is your state of being supposed to be on your entrance? Does it tell you in the text? Has your director informed you of what they would like it to be? Or do you have to invent it? What's just happened in the scene before? Have you just had an argument? Have you just been proposed to? Whatever the situation, you should always know your previous circumstances at all times. It can be good fun inventing it, and no entrance should ever be the same. Just think about real life: do you always enter your house in the same way every night? No. Where you come from will have conditioned your mood.

5. What do I want?

This is a key question. "Want,” means what do you need, what is your intention, your motivation, your action? You should never walk on stage just to play a scene. You should always have an objective. Often in a good script, an objective is written into the scene: to end the affair, to propose, to move out. Your action can change from scene to scene but you should always work out what you are meant to be doing.

You may be in a scene, for example, where you have very little dialogue. Instead of sitting doing nothing, give yourself a physical action, which can be anything that fits your reason for being in that room, from making a salad to polishing your nails. Even if you are pulled away from what you're doing, so long as you're doing something, you've always got something to return to once you're no longer engaged in conversation. The importance of this is so that you don't look or feel silly on stage doing nothing. You must have a life on stage, you must have a purpose for walking and talking, and otherwise you are in danger of "just acting", which is fake. Don't forget you're trying to be truthful and three-dimensional, and in real life, no one ever comes into a room and stands with their hands by their sides or sits with their hands in their lap and just talks.

6. Why do I want it?

You must always have a strong justification for your action. All right, perhaps in real life we don't always have a strong justification for everything we're doing but, particularly in the theatre, you always need one. Most plays present a heightened version of reality (this can be different for the naturalistic performances and stories we see on television, particularly in soap operas). Having a strong justification means you have a strong motivation.

7. Why do I want it now?

The "now" gives you an immediacy that is crucial in acting and in any drama. You must know why your motivation has to be right now, not before, not later but now. Why should we sit through two hours of this play if you're not that bothered about getting the money or the house or the power?

8. What will happen if I don't get it now?

The stakes should always be high. Otherwise so what? The consequences of not getting what you want should always be very important to you. If the high stakes are not clear to you in the play, you need to invent them, otherwise it will come across that you're not bothered at all about the outcome.

9. How will I get what I want by doing what?

This question brings us on to how you break down a script. How do you know how to play the line as opposed to how one should say the line? There's a big difference.

Once you've worked out what your action is (question 5) you then have to work out your smaller action, which is called an "activity". You need to work out how you are trying to affect the other person with what you are saying.

One-way of doing this is called "actioning" your text. Break your script up into chunks: every time you have a new change of thought, you need to find a transitive verb, a verb that is active, such as to beg, to entice, to charm, to get sympathy (a good thesaurus is very handy here). Remember that this technique is not about the emotional content of what you are saying or feeling but about what you want the other person to feel psychologically. By playing these chosen activities you are trying to make the actor that you are playing opposite feel something specific in order to further your action.

So, you have to think: how can I affect the other character by doing what? At this stage you should know who your character is, and your choice of active verbs should be informed by your character choice and not your personal choice. If my character was a loving, open, sweet, sensitive young girl and my dialogue was: "I don't love you anymore, I think you should go", my verb will be determined by my above characteristics and not by the actual line itself. Therefore verbs such as to plead, to get sympathy, to reason, should be chosen, as opposed to verbs that might reflect another type of character, such as to demand, to threaten, to hurt. If in the rehearsal a choice doesn't work then you can change your choice. Nothing should be initially set in stone.

I like to call this process "scoring" your text. Just as a musician or singer would rely on their score to know how to sing or play their song, an actor works out how to play the monologue, scene or play. Once you've done it, you have to play it fully; otherwise it's pretty pointless. The challenge is the execution of it. It's time-consuming initially to find the right verbs, but once you have them and tested them in rehearsal, not only will you have given your performance light and shade but also depth. It also means you do not have to fall into a dreadful cliché performance by thinking of how to say the lines and what you should be feeling and emoting. This technique allows you to be free and truthful without playing external emotion. It's really about what you don't say and trusting that actions will speak louder than words.

10. What must I overcome?

Every actor should always have an inner and an outer obstacle. The outer obstacle is the resistance (usually the other character) to obtaining your action. The inner obstacle is your inner conflict, which you must always plant in a scene even though it can change. There must always be a problem you are trying to overcome. If you think of yourself in life, you're never without an inner obstacle. You'll have seen scenes on stage or screen where the inner obstacle has not been properly planted: you get a load of actors just shouting, over-emoting and sometimes just playing the aggression. If the inner obstacle is there, the anger, fear or hate, for example, then you've got something to fight against in the scene. Much more interesting.

Actors may believe that they can do without formal training. But I have worked with untrained actors, who have landed a film or a TV series on the basis of their looks, and seen them struggle to be able to reproduce what they were able to do in the first take. Natural ability will get you so far, but it's the trained actors who know what they're doing and how they're doing it and can produce that emotion take after take.

To fully transform into a character, to be truthfully and emotionally connected needs hard work, technique, and good direction. But the audience should see none of this. They should see nothing other than the fully realized three-dimensional character right in the truth of the moment.

 

 

One of the best ways to get to know your characters is to ask questions about them. Many writers do this as a kind of homework before they actually start writing a story. The more you know your characters, the fuller they will be. This might also make your story easier to write. The following questionnaires may be downloaded so you can work with the actual documents.

 

ACTOR/Character Questionnaire

This questionnaire is found in The Book by John Pallotta, Acting I A State of Mind.

www.johnpallotta.com

www.dcacting.com

 

You might start with questions that address the basics about a character:

What is your characters name? Does the character have a nickname?

What is your characters hair color? Eye color?

What kind of distinguishing facial features does your character have?

Does your character have a birthmark? Where is it? What about scars? How did he get them?

Who are your characters friends and family? Who does she surround herself with? Who are the people your character is closest to? Who does he wish he were closest to?

Where was your character born? Where has she lived since then? Where does she call home?

Where does your character go when he’s angry?

What is her biggest fear? Who has she told this to? Who would she never tell this to? Why?

Does he/she have a secret?

What makes your character laugh out loud?

When has your character been in love? Had a broken heart?

Then dig deeper by asking more unconventional questions:

What is in your characters refrigerator right now?

On her bedroom floor?

On her nightstand?

In her garbage can?

Look at your characters feet. Describe what you see there. Does he wear dress shoes, gym shoes, or none at all? Is he in socks that are ratty and full of holes? Or is he wearing a pair of blue and gold slippers knitted by his grandmother?

When your character thinks of her childhood kitchen, what smell does she associate with it? Sauerkraut? Oatmeal cookies? Paint? Why is that smell so resonant for her?

Your character is doing intense spring-cleaning. What is easy for her to throw out? What is difficult for her to part with? Why?

It’s Saturday at noon. What is your character doing? Give details. If he’s eating breakfast, what exactly does he eat? If she’s stretching out in her backyard to sun, what kind of blanket or towel does she lie on?

What is one strong memory that has stuck with your character from childhood? Why is it so powerful and lasting?

Your character is getting ready for a night out. Where is she going? What does she wear? Who will she be with?

Who am I?

Who am I named after?  Do I like my name?

What is my gender?  What do I think about sex?

How old am I?  What do I think of my age?

How does my posture express my age, health, inner feeling?

How is my complexion?  What do I think of it?

What is my height?  What do I think of I?

What is my weight?  What do I think of it?

What is the pitch, volume, tempo, resonance or quality of my voice?  What do I think of it?

Is my articulation careless or precise?  Is my articulation standard or colloquial?  Do I have a dialect or accent?

What is my hair color and style?  Do I like it?

Do I have any deformities?  What do I think of them?

Do I have any mannerisms?  What do I think of them?

Do I have any handicaps?  What do I think of them?

How energetic or vital am I?  Do I like it?

Do I suffer from any diseases past or present?

Are my gestures complete or incomplete, vigorous or weak, compulsive or controlled?

Do I like my walk?

How do I usually sit?

How do I usually stand?

Do I have any objects, hand props or accessories with me?  Why? How do I handle them?

Are my basic rhythms smooth or jerky, even-tempered or volatile, impulsive or deliberate, ponderous or light, broken or continuous?

What do I like to wear?  What do I have to wear?  How do I wear my clothes?  How do I handle them? 

What do you consider your greatest achievement?

What is your idea of perfect happiness?

What is your current state of mind?

What is your favorite occupation?

What is your most treasured possession?

What or who is the greatest love of your life?

What is your favorite journey?

What is your most marked characteristic?

When and where were you the happiest?

What is it that you most dislike?

What is your greatest fear?

What is your greatest extravagance?

Which living person do you most despise?

What is your greatest regret?

Which talent would you most like to have?

Where would you like to live?

What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?

What is the quality you most like in a man?

What is the quality you most like in a woman?

What is the trait you most deplore in yourself?

What is the trait you most deplore in others?

What do you most value in your friends?

Who is your favorite hero of fiction?

Whose are your heroes in real life?

Which living person do you most admire?

What do you consider the most overrated virtue?

On what occasions do you lie?

Which words or phrases do you most overuse?

If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?

What are your favorite names?

How would you like to die?

If you were to die and come back as a person or thing, what do you think it would be?

What is your motto?

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Acting Technique is Paramount

Acting technique is paramount to anyone wanting to be a serious actor. It's quite easy to imitate a character or even an emotion, but where's the depth in that? How can you sustain or repeat again what you might have found intuitively? Do you even know what you did or how you did it?

The technique, however, will help you find a character, which in turn informs how you approach the text/script/written word. How do you bring the dialogue alive? How do you know what choices to make? The goal of a trained actor is to become a fully realized three-dimensional character, with a rich backstory. I must believe the character you play is truthful and not a cliché, a caricature, a thin external representation of someone who barely resembles a human being. I must believe what you say is real and that you're not reciting, spouting or commenting.

In order to help you understand, I will lay out the backbone of what I teach at mu studio and around the world to professional and student actors alike. This is based around Stanislavski's acting technique and his seven questions which, over the years, I have adapted into 10 key acting questions every actor should answer in order to be a fully rounded and connected actor.

1. Who am I?

2. Where am I?

3. When is it?

4. Where have I just come from?

5. What do I want?

6. Why do I want it?

7. Why do I want it now?

8. What will happen if I don't get it now?

9. How will I get what I want by doing what?

10. What must I overcome?

1. Who am I?

The first question is dealing with the type of person you are. I'm sure if I asked you that question, you would be able to tell me about your family background, your parents, grandparents, and siblings. You would be able to describe them in detail. Also the house you grew up in, what it looked like, inside and outside. Your favorite room, what you could see out of your bedroom window, the smells you remember. You’re earliest childhood memories, the kind of games you played, and family holidays. Your education, favorite teachers, best friends, and times you got into trouble. Your first kiss, first job, your likes and dislikes, influences, attitudes, anecdotes. All these good, bad, funny, interesting experiences shape us into who we are today. Most people don't walk around with all these memories on their shoulders like baggage. They've seeped into our being, our muscles, and our subconscious, allowing us just to be, to exist.

When you play a character in theatre, TV or film, you should know your character as well as you knows yourself, so you can just exist and live. Of course that doesn't just magically happen, nor does it evolve just from rehearsals. As an actor you have to plant those memories, anecdotes and backstory.

So how do you build a character? Well, first a good script should give you some initial information about your character, and also what other characters say or think about your character can be very revealing. All this should be extracted and written down in a separate notebook. The next stage is research. You need to find out through detailed research what the history, economics, politics, music, art, literature, theatre, film, foods, fashion, religion might have been at the time the play was written, in order to know how you would have lived and what and who your influences were, just as you know these things in real life. Possible sources include the Internet, films of the era and finding images of landscape, as well as going to museums, art and photographic galleries. Fill your mind with images - not facts and figures. The more visceral you understand, the better.

The final stage in building a character, once you've filleted the script and completed your research, is to use your imagination to flesh out the details you've gathered and bring them alive. Don't underestimate the power and the necessity of your imagination in the acting process. You can't use your imagination without the backup of research and reading. Nor can you use your imagination alone.

2. Where am I?

You might find in the script a description of the room you're supposed to be in, including details such as the style and period of the furniture. What does it mean to you though? Is your character supposed to be familiar with the surroundings? Is it the first time you've entered this room? Is it a cozy cottage? A freezing barn? A familiar street? We usually behave differently depending on our surroundings. You need to establish your relationship with your environment because this affects the way you use yourself. For example, you wouldn't start walking around, touching ornaments and putting your feet up if it wasn't your home. The geography will have an impact too: playing someone from very cold northern climates such as Norway or Russia will be different to playing someone in a baking Mediterranean climate such as Italy or Spain.

3. When is it?

We need to know what season it is, what year, what time of day. We tend to carry ourselves differently in the colder months than we do on hot, muggy summer days. We would also hold ourselves differently if the piece were set at the turn of the century. We must be aware that we can't bring our modern physicality to a play that is of another period. People expressed themselves differently then and didn't slouch or use modern gestures.

4. Where have I just come from?

You need to work out what your character has been doing, where they've been. When you make an entrance on stage it shouldn't look as if you've just stepped on stage from behind the curtain. Even if that's true, you should have worked out during rehearsal where you would be coming from - the bathroom, having just brushed your teeth? The kitchen in the middle of baking an apple pie? The car after being stuck in traffic? Shopping? What is your state of being supposed to be on your entrance? Does it tell you in the text? Has your director informed you of what they would like it to be? Or do you have to invent it? What's just happened in the scene before? Have you just had an argument? Have you just been proposed to? Whatever the situation, you should always know your previous circumstances at all times. It can be good fun inventing it, and no entrance should ever be the same. Just think about real life: do you always enter your house in the same way every night? No. Where you come from will have conditioned your mood.

5. What do I want?

This is a key question. "Want,” means what do you need, what is your intention, your motivation, your action? You should never walk on stage just to play a scene. You should always have an objective. Often in a good script, an objective is written into the scene: to end the affair, to propose, to move out. Your action can change from scene to scene but you should always work out what you are meant to be doing.

You may be in a scene, for example, where you have very little dialogue. Instead of sitting doing nothing, give yourself a physical action, which can be anything that fits your reason for being in that room, from making a salad to polishing your nails. Even if you are pulled away from what you're doing, so long as you're doing something, you've always got something to return to once you're no longer engaged in conversation. The importance of this is so that you don't look or feel silly on stage doing nothing. You must have a life on stage, you must have a purpose for walking and talking, and otherwise you are in danger of "just acting", which is fake. Don't forget you're trying to be truthful and three-dimensional, and in real life, no one ever comes into a room and stands with their hands by their sides or sits with their hands in their lap and just talks.

6. Why do I want it?

You must always have a strong justification for your action. All right, perhaps in real life we don't always have a strong justification for everything we're doing but, particularly in the theatre, you always need one. Most plays present a heightened version of reality (this can be different for the naturalistic performances and stories we see on television, particularly in soap operas). Having a strong justification means you have a strong motivation.

7. Why do I want it now?

The "now" gives you an immediacy that is crucial in acting and in any drama. You must know why your motivation has to be right now, not before, not later but now. Why should we sit through two hours of this play if you're not that bothered about getting the money or the house or the power?

8. What will happen if I don't get it now?

The stakes should always be high. Otherwise so what? The consequences of not getting what you want should always be very important to you. If the high stakes are not clear to you in the play, you need to invent them, otherwise it will come across that you're not bothered at all about the outcome.

9. How will I get what I want by doing what?

This question brings us on to how you break down a script. How do you know how to play the line as opposed to how one should say the line? There's a big difference.

Once you've worked out what your action is (question 5) you then have to work out your smaller action, which is called an "activity". You need to work out how you are trying to affect the other person with what you are saying.

One-way of doing this is called "actioning" your text. Break your script up into chunks: every time you have a new change of thought, you need to find a transitive verb, a verb that is active, such as to beg, to entice, to charm, to get sympathy (a good thesaurus is very handy here). Remember that this technique is not about the emotional content of what you are saying or feeling but about what you want the other person to feel psychologically. By playing these chosen activities you are trying to make the actor that you are playing opposite feel something specific in order to further your action.

So, you have to think: how can I affect the other character by doing what? At this stage you should know who your character is, and your choice of active verbs should be informed by your character choice and not your personal choice. If my character was a loving, open, sweet, sensitive young girl and my dialogue was: "I don't love you anymore, I think you should go", my verb will be determined by my above characteristics and not by the actual line itself. Therefore verbs such as to plead, to get sympathy, to reason, should be chosen, as opposed to verbs that might reflect another type of character, such as to demand, to threaten, to hurt. If in the rehearsal a choice doesn't work then you can change your choice. Nothing should be initially set in stone.

I like to call this process "scoring" your text. Just as a musician or singer would rely on their score to know how to sing or play their song, an actor works out how to play the monologue, scene or play. Once you've done it, you have to play it fully; otherwise it's pretty pointless. The challenge is the execution of it. It's time-consuming initially to find the right verbs, but once you have them and tested them in rehearsal, not only will you have given your performance light and shade but also depth. It also means you do not have to fall into a dreadful cliché performance by thinking of how to say the lines and what you should be feeling and emoting. This technique allows you to be free and truthful without playing external emotion. It's really about what you don't say and trusting that actions will speak louder than words.

10. What must I overcome?

Every actor should always have an inner and an outer obstacle. The outer obstacle is the resistance (usually the other character) to obtaining your action. The inner obstacle is your inner conflict, which you must always plant in a scene even though it can change. There must always be a problem you are trying to overcome. If you think of yourself in life, you're never without an inner obstacle. You'll have seen scenes on stage or screen where the inner obstacle has not been properly planted: you get a load of actors just shouting, over-emoting and sometimes just playing the aggression. If the inner obstacle is there, the anger, fear or hate, for example, then you've got something to fight against in the scene. Much more interesting.

Actors may believe that they can do without formal training. But I have worked with untrained actors, who have landed a film or a TV series on the basis of their looks, and seen them struggle to be able to reproduce what they were able to do in the first take. Natural ability will get you so far, but it's the trained actors who know what they're doing and how they're doing it and can produce that emotion take after take.

To fully transform into a character, to be truthfully and emotionally connected needs hard work, technique, and good direction. But the audience should see none of this. They should see nothing other than the fully realized three-dimensional character right in the truth of the moment.

 

 

One of the best ways to get to know your characters is to ask questions about them. Many writers do this as a kind of homework before they actually start writing a story. The more you know your characters, the fuller they will be. This might also make your story easier to write. The following questionnaires may be downloaded so you can work with the actual documents.

 

ACTOR/Character Questionnaire

This questionnaire is found in The Book by John Pallotta, Acting I A State of Mind.

www.johnpallotta.com

www.dcacting.com

 

You might start with questions that address the basics about a character:

What is your characters name? Does the character have a nickname?

What is your characters hair color? Eye color?

What kind of distinguishing facial features does your character have?

Does your character have a birthmark? Where is it? What about scars? How did he get them?

Who are your characters friends and family? Who does she surround herself with? Who are the people your character is closest to? Who does he wish he were closest to?

Where was your character born? Where has she lived since then? Where does she call home?

Where does your character go when he’s angry?

What is her biggest fear? Who has she told this to? Who would she never tell this to? Why?

Does he/she have a secret?

What makes your character laugh out loud?

When has your character been in love? Had a broken heart?

Then dig deeper by asking more unconventional questions:

What is in your characters refrigerator right now?

On her bedroom floor?

On her nightstand?

In her garbage can?

Look at your characters feet. Describe what you see there. Does he wear dress shoes, gym shoes, or none at all? Is he in socks that are ratty and full of holes? Or is he wearing a pair of blue and gold slippers knitted by his grandmother?

When your character thinks of her childhood kitchen, what smell does she associate with it? Sauerkraut? Oatmeal cookies? Paint? Why is that smell so resonant for her?

Your character is doing intense spring-cleaning. What is easy for her to throw out? What is difficult for her to part with? Why?

It’s Saturday at noon. What is your character doing? Give details. If he’s eating breakfast, what exactly does he eat? If she’s stretching out in her backyard to sun, what kind of blanket or towel does she lie on?

What is one strong memory that has stuck with your character from childhood? Why is it so powerful and lasting?

Your character is getting ready for a night out. Where is she going? What does she wear? Who will she be with?

Who am I?

Who am I named after?  Do I like my name?

What is my gender?  What do I think about sex?

How old am I?  What do I think of my age?

How does my posture express my age, health, inner feeling?

How is my complexion?  What do I think of it?

What is my height?  What do I think of I?

What is my weight?  What do I think of it?

What is the pitch, volume, tempo, resonance or quality of my voice?  What do I think of it?

Is my articulation careless or precise?  Is my articulation standard or colloquial?  Do I have a dialect or accent?

What is my hair color and style?  Do I like it?

Do I have any deformities?  What do I think of them?

Do I have any mannerisms?  What do I think of them?

Do I have any handicaps?  What do I think of them?

How energetic or vital am I?  Do I like it?

Do I suffer from any diseases past or present?

Are my gestures complete or incomplete, vigorous or weak, compulsive or controlled?

Do I like my walk?

How do I usually sit?

How do I usually stand?

Do I have any objects, hand props or accessories with me?  Why? How do I handle them?

Are my basic rhythms smooth or jerky, even-tempered or volatile, impulsive or deliberate, ponderous or light, broken or continuous?

What do I like to wear?  What do I have to wear?  How do I wear my clothes?  How do I handle them? 

What do you consider your greatest achievement?

What is your idea of perfect happiness?

What is your current state of mind?

What is your favorite occupation?

What is your most treasured possession?

What or who is the greatest love of your life?

What is your favorite journey?

What is your most marked characteristic?

When and where were you the happiest?

What is it that you most dislike?

What is your greatest fear?

What is your greatest extravagance?

Which living person do you most despise?

What is your greatest regret?

Which talent would you most like to have?

Where would you like to live?

What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?

What is the quality you most like in a man?

What is the quality you most like in a woman?

What is the trait you most deplore in yourself?

What is the trait you most deplore in others?

What do you most value in your friends?

Who is your favorite hero of fiction?

Whose are your heroes in real life?

Which living person do you most admire?

What do you consider the most overrated virtue?

On what occasions do you lie?

Which words or phrases do you most overuse?

If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?

What are your favorite names?

How would you like to die?

If you were to die and come back as a person or thing, what do you think it would be?

What is your motto?

 

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ARE YOU THE BEST ACTOR IN NYC? PROVE IT!!!
SPOTS STILL AVAILABLE TO PERFORM YOUR BEST 30 SECOND MONOLOGUE

LIVE SUNDAY FEB. 23RD 1PM IN FRONT OF CASTING DIRECTOR HARLEY KAPLAN WHO HAS CAST SLAM ACTORS
IN HIS LATEST Cannes Prize-Winning Thriller Blue Ruin
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uIwzTUzmXto

AND JOHN PALLOTTA NUMBER 1 ACTING TEACHER AND NOW CASTING DIRECTOR, PRESENTLY CASTING THE FEATURE FILMS TUCHT AND HUSTLE, HE TEACHES IN NYC, DC, BOSTON AND INTERNATIONALLY.

Acting Tip of The Day: Almost every acting class in the world trains actors to "play an objective", in other words, to choose an action based on the information you get from reading the script, or, why the character is doing what he is doing. Believe me, that's the easy part of dealing with actions. The piece of the puzzle that few actors learn to deal with is the deeper, personal layer of "why" they are playing those actions.

Please consider this acting fact. Without a personal need to accomplish the "action", you have not yet earned your right to stand on that stage and speak the words of the script. I am talking about having the true need to do the things you are doing in the play. The "true need". Not the pretended need or the indicated need, but the authentic need. Having the true need to do what you are doing, is the seed of all life on stage.

Isn't this true in life? Yes, in life, your actions are purposeful, you have the true need to do the things you do in each moment or you would not bother doing them. It is the same on the stage - we call this "purpose", your acting must be truly purposeful.

Remember, theatre is not an imitation of our lives, it demands a greater truth. "True purpose" is an essential part of that greater truth."

Join us Today.

John Pallotta Acting Coach.
www.johnpallotta.com
877 228 3115

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Just off the phone with an actress who is in search of her very first acting teacher/coach and wanted to share my thoughts that reminded me when sat in the audience some years back at the actors studio in New York City when Kevin Spacey visited:

 

Too many young actors walk around with no idea why they’re doing what they're doing. That there is no prize and the only prize is what is in your heart and what you feel and what you want to accomplish. To want and to be ambitious and successful is not enough - that is just desire!

 

To know what you want, to understand why you’re doing it, to dedicate every breath in your body to achieve. If you feel you have something to give or your particular talent is something worth developing, is worth caring for, then there is nothing you can't achieve.

 

This is a tough road that they have chosen, so its important to instill passion in their hearts and the right mind frame as to what is to be expected in the journey ahead.

 

I tell my students that they must have a Ph.D. in Passion to survive in this industry. You will have lean years and you will have fat years. You will see the successes of your fellow classmates and you will also see their failures. You will come to class and live your career seeing this each and everyday (their successes and their failures). But how you deal and how you handle watching their success and their failures will determine exactly who you are as an actor and will be the greatest teacher you will ever have.

 

In my 38 years as an actor of the craft I have sat in the classrooms of such greats as Lee Strasberg, Uta Hagen, Bobby Lewis, William Hickey, Herbert Burghof, Austin Pendleton and many more and have seen the success and the failures of 10,000 classmates. It is in them that I have become the teacher of acting that I am today and I am so very honored.

 

Stay blessed in your journey

 

John Pallotta

Playwright, Actor, Coach

 

Visit John Pallotta in New York City, Washington DC, Boston and Chicago at:

 

www.johnpallotta.com

 

 

 

 

Join John Pallotta on FaceBook at:

www.facebook.com/John.Pallotta.Studio.of.Acting

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Do you Really have what it takes?

Every actor knows there’s no business like show business. Whether it’s the curtain opening and you’re in front of a live audience, or the director yells action on a movie set and you become someone else on a drop of a dime, this is the biggest reward in the profession.

Young and old actors alike dream of making their way in Hollywood or the lights of Broadway. However, with millions of you aiming for the same goal, the competition is fierce! It takes a PhD in passion, non-stop training and thick skin to make it through all the rejection you're going to be faced with. And no matter how much rejection your faced with, you keep going non stop. Like momma used to say. If you find yourself going through hell, crash and burn baby, crash and burn. Bigger the headache, bigger the pill, as actors we use rejection as an opportunity and keep going.

Living in this town all my life as an actor, playwright, acting coach and now casting director, I am still trying to figure this town out. But it’s not about figuring it out, it’s about becoming an actor, working and surviving in the most unpredictable occupation imaginable. The road traveled as an actor takes a lot of endless blood, sweat and tears, constant training, taking risks and connecting with industry professionals. Even when I think I know everything I find that I am wrong. With all my mentors/masters gone except for Austin Pendleton, I find myself sitting in his Sunday Advanced class just so I know that their is something always to be learned.

To know what you want, to understand why you’re doing this, to dedicate every breath in your body to achieve a dream. If you feel you have something to give or your particular talent is something worth developing, is worth caring for, then there is nothing you can't achieve."

I tell my students every day that "Acting is first and foremost a craft.  It is something that cannot be taught in a few minutes, a few hours, weeks or even months. The craft of acting is a journey that will last a lifetime to anyone who truly considers themselves a real actor". 

Learning and mastering the craft of acting is the nuts and bolts of the job and acting classes are the key ingredient for developing the ability to appreciate the craft in you. Just as those that train and educate themselves to be a lawyers, doctors, athletes, writers or any other type of professional, acting is a craft best learned. The more you know, the more knowledgeable you'll be and ultimately, the better prepared you will be for whatever comes your way.

As a young actor in the 1970s and 1980s, if I heard about a good teacher, I checked them out. Many actors find their teachers through word-of-mouth from fellow actors. If someone suggests a teacher, research him or her online and audit the class before committing. Ask yourself - Can I learn from this teacher? Will he or she give me what I need to excel? Is the teacher all about themselves and their own glory (past or present) or are they honestly interested in you and your development? And most importantly, can the teacher inspire you to be the best that you can be.

Being a professional actor requires an enormous investment, an investment in your future. Headshots, Comp Cards, Networking Events, Union Fees and lots of classes. Before you start, you should have some cash on hand and be prepared to get a job that supports you while you make the rounds. Unless you are rich you are going to have to have a “day job” and one that hopefully allows you the opportunity to go out on auditions and projects. Be sure to find employment that gives you the freedom to follow your dream. 

Educate yourself (Always) - Being a professional actor means learning your craft. Good acting requires that you study in order to master the craft. My method, I teach actors how to achieve and respond to honest emotions both on and off-camera by utilizing certain principles: Innocence, Imagination and Vulnerability, Instincts and Imagination. Using these principles encourages actors to experience rather than indicate an emotion. Not just see a character, become them. Not just become them, become a living breathing thinking human being. We work on this on a conscious level in the classroom so my students can use it on a subconscious level on a set or stage. I don't waste time dictating about whose method is best; I encourage my students to conflate different methods and find out what works for them.

Drawing on wisdom absorbed from the masters Lee Strasberg, Uta Hagen, Herbert Berghof, Bobby Lewis, Anne Jackson, William Hickey, Austin Pendleton and many more, he founded John Pallotta Studio in New York City in 2005, where he has honed a highly successful approach that emphasizes teaching students to rely on their own instincts, imagination and choices. John Pallotta Studio is an acting studio providing workshops that offers a safe and challenging work environment for the beginning or professional actor. The Studio is dedicated to training and preparing actors for professional work in the film and television and theatre industry. Classes are small and very individualized. The Studio was created so actors can work on their craft every week.

John Pallotta is based out of New York City where he is an award-winning playwright, actor,coach and just recently casting director. In addition to his New York City studio classes, he has recently established classes in Washington DC, Virginia and Chicago. The demand for his teaching style encourages him to coach acting students and teach intensives around the country.  

Note as of July 24^th: John Pallotta has been casted in a major supporting-role as a mentally/physically challenged deaf-mute in the feature film Tucht” from the makers of About Schmidt/ALI/A Beautiful Mind - opposite Terry Crews, Joe D'Onofrio (Goodfellas), the Torry Bros., Keesha Sharp, Natia "Lil Mama" Kirkland, et al.

 

Visit John Pallotta at www.johnpallotta.com

877 228 3115

 

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Actors are made by their own desire for greatness.

By John Pallotta Acting Coach

www.johnpallotta.com

 

Inspired by his gift for providing deep insight with quiet, well-chosen words, John Pallotta at John Pallotta Studio www.johnpallotta.com is quickly becoming one of the top acting coaches and on set coaches in New York City. Some have taken to calling him the Actor Whisperer, but thanks to amazing reviews from Academy Award winners, nominees, Emmy winners and so on, his secret is out. He is sought after by film companies, actors and schools.

John is based out of New York City where he is an award-winning playwright, actor and coach. In addition to his New York City studio classes, he has recently established classes in New Jersey and Chicago. The demand for his teaching style encourages him to coach acting students and teach intensives around the country.  John’s 2011/2012 Intensives include: New York City, Chicago, Washington D.C., New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Washington, Ohio, South Carolina, and Indiana.  He has received kind words from Academy Award Winners, , Emmy Award Winners, Obie Award Winners and so on. Actor Joseph D`Onofrio (Goodfellas, A Bronx Tale) credits him with being one of the best acting coaches that can change anyone on a drop of a dime.

Drawing on wisdom absorbed from the masters Lee Strasberg, Uta Hagen, Herbert Berghof, Anne Jackson, William Hickey, Austin Pendleton and many more, he founded John Pallotta Studio in New York City in 2005, where he has honed a highly successful approach that emphasizes teaching students to rely on their own instincts, imagination and choices. John Pallotta Studio is an acting studio providing workshops that offers a safe and challenging work environment for the beginning or professional actor. The Studio is dedicated to training and preparing actors for professional work in the film and television and theatre industry. Classes are small and very individualized. The Studio was created so actors can work on their craft every week.

I remember William Hickey quoting Rosalind Russell back in 1980; “Acting is standing up naked and turning around very slowly”. He also said “Actor must be like children playing in the field that have forgotten all the rules”.

I am a firm believer that there is no such thing as 'acting' there is only ‘life’. John’s technique is based on his belief that “Acting is A STATE OF MIND. It is about Innocence, Imagination and Vulnerability. It is about practicing the potential qualities that you were born with. The less you think like an actor and the more childlike and innocent you are the more productive” and in the moment “you will be”.

I was taught a long time ago, as a young actor in the late 1970s, that when you bring your love of the craft to class, you change the way other actors and teachers look at you. Take that same love for the craft and apply it to the stage or set, you change the way the actors, industry and audience look at you and allows you to fulfill your desire to be great.

Anyone can say that they are an actor, but can they deliver what it truly means to be an actor. It’s much more then expensive headshots, more than just smiling for the camera or the way you walk into a room. It’s about being a part of something greater than just yourself, it is your heart as an actor, the colors of your soul, the way you wake each and every morning and question the universe, your very being as an actor and a person, and this thing we all do and want to be successful at. 

Kevin Spacy said it best in an Actors Studio interview - "Too many young actors walk around with no idea why they’re doing what they're doing. That there is no prize and the only prize is what is in your heart and what you feel and what you want to accomplish. To want and to be ambitious and successful is not enough - that is just desire! To know what you want, to understand why you’re doing it, to dedicate every breath in your body to achieve. If you feel you have something to give or your particular talent is something worth developing, is worth caring for, then there is nothing you can't achieve."

My Method is aimed exclusively at unleashing the actor’s emotional power. My aim as a teacher of the craft is to help each and every one of my students find their own voice as an actor. Acting is a process. It is a journey of discovery. It is a living breathing process that happens each and every day and does not happen overnight. Becoming an actor is learning a new way of thinking and about the way you look at life. Just as you make choices in life that determine your success or your failure. It goes the same for your choices you make as an actor.

Good acting requires that you study in order to master the craft. My method, teaches actors how to achieve and respond to honest emotions both on and off-camera by utilizing certain principles: Innocence, Imagination and Vulnerability, Instincts and Imagination. Using these principles encourages actors to experience rather than indicate an emotion. Not just see a character, become them. Not just become them, become a living breathing thinking human being. We work on this on a conscious level in the classroom so my students can use it on a subconscious level on a set or stage. I don't waste time dictating about whose method is best; I encourage my students to conflate different methods and find out what works for them. I also teach them to turn it into performance.

 

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As you search for The Greater Truth in your work as Actors... 

May your life be blessed. May your soul be free to direct your mind.

May peace be the first choice and the last memory of each day.

May you have happy work through which to share your special gifts. 

May you have dear friends to ease your sorrows and multiply your joys.

In the New Year, may your dreams take form and make a real difference in this world. 

May you dare to be all that you came into this life to be. May you remember how essential you are.

And may you ask for and receive all the help you need along the way. And always remember,

being an actor is being a part of something much bigger then just yourself. 

As a Christmas Gift to all actors, my first book on The Craft of Acting will available for free

download on our website starting 01/03/13 before it retails in stores at 29.99. It will be free until 01/30/13. 

Also a reminder about our Huge Networking Party to only our Registered students in NYC and DC 

Saturday 12/29/12 from 2pm - 6pm 

Y'all know who's going to be there and thanks for being a part of it. 

God Bless 

John Pallotta 
www.johnpallotta.com 

TRUE ACTORS QUESTION THE UNIVERSE - TAKING IT TO THE NEXT LEVEL
By John Pallotta
Acting Coach
New York   Washington DC   Chicago
www.johnpallotta.com


Almost every acting class in the world trains actors to "play an objective",
in other words, to choose an action based on the information you get from
reading the script, or, why the character is doing what he is doing. Believe
me, that's the easy part of dealing with actions. The piece of the puzzle
that few actors learn to deal with is the deeper, personal layer of "why"
they are playing those actions.

Please consider this acting fact. Without a personal need to accomplish the
"action", you have not yet earned your right to stand on that stage and
speak the words of the script. I am talking about having the true need to do
the things you are doing in the play. The "true need". Not the pretended
need or the indicated need, but the authentic need. Having the true need to
do what you are doing, is the seed of all life on stage.

Isn't this true in life? Yes, in life, your actions are purposeful, you have
the true need to do the things you do in each moment or you would not bother
doing them. It is the same on the stage - we call this "purpose", your
acting must be truly purposeful.

Remember, theatre is not an imitation of our lives, it demands a greater
truth. "True purpose" is an essential part of that greater truth."

God Bless.
John Pallotta Acting-Coach
www.nycactingclasses.com
www.dcacting.com
www.johnpallotta.com