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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.
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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By John Pallotta Acting Coach
Which Acting Techniques Should You Follow -Meisner, Adler or Method
Which Acting Techniques suits you -Meisner, Adler, and Method?
What is the difference between Meisner, Adler, and Strasburg acting methods?
In my past 38 years I have studied every acting Method know to man and almost every Master Acting Teacher this side of the region. These are just some of my thoughts.
Method acting comes from Stanislavski. In the United States, there are now three main versions of American Method Acting: Strasberg, Adler, and Meisner.
Strasberg was an advocate of what's called emotional/affective memory and subsititution. This is using past emotions to generate current emotions. Some famous people who studied this version of Method were/are James Dean, Marilynn Monroe, Al Pacino, Paul Newman, Mickey Rourke.
Stella Adler (Stanislavski disciple who studied alongside Strasberg at the Group Thetre) went to Europe to study with Stanislavski, himself. Stanislavski was originally an advocate of emotional memory, but he realized that it was flawed. Over time, a memory can change. For example a memory that was once traumatic as a kid is now a silly memory. Stella went back to the U.S. and said Strasberg was wrong and formed her branch of American Method. Her version focuses more on imagination. She teaches the importance of using your imagination to create the environment and the importance of "I am..." Robert DeNiro , Bennicio del Toro, and Marlon Brando were from this school.
Sanford Meisner (another Group Theatre disciple) also thought the emotional memory was junk so he formed his own version of American Method. His version focuses more on instincts and reacting to the moment. He defined acting as "living in imaginary cirumstances." Some people who use Meisner are/were Gregory Peck, Robert Duvall, Steven McQueen, Jon Voight, Jeff Goldblum, James Franco, just to name a few.
I'm biased towards both Stella Adler and Meisner, however it depends on which one works for YOU! You have to study them all and filter out what works and doesn't work for you.
I don't like Strasberg because I'm not good at substitution and affective/emotional memory. I'm neither introspective and nor did I have a messed up childhood.
I've studied Method Acting and prefer the Meisner and Stella Adler branches over Strasberg. Affective memory and substitution is not for me (Strasberg and Uta Hagenadvocate those things).
I like Meisner because it teaches you how to react to the moment and rely on instincts. I think it's great for scene study and especially if the other person in the scene is a great actor (Meisner teaches you how to react off the other person as well). I, however, think it alone sucks for cold reading and when your partner sucks. I find that Meisner relys too much on the other person at times. In cold reading/auditioning, you usually have a dry casting director just reading off of the script. How the hell are you going to react off of that? Same with a sucky actor.
Over Meisner's branch of Method Acting, I prefer Stella Adler's. Her branch teaches you how to really use your imagination and being the character (I am...). She teaches you to immerse yourself in the environment, being specific, and being the character. I think her branch does what Meisner's can and can't do. It's also the best for cold reading/auditioning. When I go in and the casting director/reader sucks, I imagine the casting director as the person whom I am talking to in the scene.
www.johnpallotta.com
WHAT MAKES
A GREAT AUDITION
From New York City Acting Coach John Pallotta
“Great, wonderful, fabulous, exactly what we’re looking for.
Our attitude about ourselves is a performer’s never-ending battle. Neither wise guy nor wimp. Neither a cocky know-it-all nor a shy, poor me, shrinking violet. While I personally find pleasant blandness boring, many audition committees prefer it to a hurricane of personality. It’s a tough decision for an actor.
FROM
ACTING COACH
JOHN PALLOTTA
www.johnpallotta.com
Sample - On Set Location Class with John Pallotta
Never been on set before, Our Wednesday class is set up like a location shoot. Join us every Wednesday at 7PM.One Free Sample class offered per student.
To attend class please call direct at 877 - 228 - 3115
ON SET LOCATION CLASS WITH CAREER MGMT
with John Pallotta
New York City Wednesday 7:30PM-10PM
On Set Location Class is offered in four-week cycles. Signing up for an “Acting for Film” cycle counts as a full BASIC membership package. Other classes are accessible when taking Acting for Film as part of an UNLIMITED membership package.
The goal of this class is to bring “A New Approach Towards Acting” process into the acting for film scenario. Each month there will be a new film scene chosen for actors to develop the characters, rehearse with the director and it will be shot on the fourth week.
Scenes will be original material based on an overall premise. Characters will be created for each actor and the story established after the first cast meeting. The script will be built and rehearsal will continue after the script has been completed. The shoot will emulate full on set coverage (Master, Medium, Close up, etc.) and the scenes will be edited and available for the actors within days after the shoot.
What you will learn from John Pallotta
-Take on a character in a split second with fullness and reality.
- Create believable emotion.
- Make choices as an actor and feel confident in those choices.
- Not freeze at auditions.
- Book more work.
- Memorize lines fast.
- Quickly change directions on a character or scene when new pages or role descriptions are added last minute.
- Prepare for an audition fast and feel good about it.
- Add rich layers to your roles and performances.
- Break your casting mold!
Join us today at www.johnpallotta.com
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
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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.
TIX $10 ONLINE $15.00 AT THE DOOR
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The process of the slam is you have to perform a 30-second monologue in order for us to see your talent and for the opportunity to possibly cast you in an upcoming show, the first set this month is already booked with our past champions so if you want to perform just prepare a 30 second monologue.
MORE INDUSTRY LOOKING FOR UNDISCOVERED TALENT
THE MANHATTAN MONOLOGUE SLAM VOTED BEST SHOWCASE SHOW FOR ACTORS
BY BACKSTAGE READERS
IT IS ALSO OUR SUNDAY SUPER SLAM WHERE WE CROWN OUR BEST ACTOR/ACTRESS FOR 2013, IT IS OUR OSCARS, WITH THE GRAND PRIZE, WINNER OF THE CHAMPIONSHIP SET WILL WIN AN IPAD MINI FROM JOHN PALLOTTA ACTING COACH, A FREE HEADSHOT SESSION FROM JEFFREY HORNSTEIN, THE MOHEGAN SUN AND MANY MORE!!!!!
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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
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:
Join John Pallotta on FaceBook at:
www.facebook.com/John.Pallotta.Studio.of.Acting
<!--EndFragment-->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:
Join John Pallotta on FaceBook at:
www.facebook.com/John.Pallotta.Studio.of.Acting
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