How many different things must an actor study in order to be great? Actors need to study everything! Acting is physical, it’s emotional, it’s cooperative. Acting requires knowledge of history, politics, religion, science…. Acting uses the self in its entirety. And acting Shakespeare uses all these things to the max. But what, exactly, can you or your children get out of it?
Acting is Fun
Mrs. Doubtfire rocking out with the vacuum; Hermione punching Malfoy in the face; Jack teaching Rose how to fly. Ordinary mortals don’t get to do these things, but actors do! When you act, you charge up your imagination, see the world from a different perspective, behave in ways that you normally wouldn’t – in short, you play. You say, “My name is Inigo Montoya, you killed my father, prepare to die.” You say, “There’s no place like home.” You say, “My precious.” But if you want the opportunity to say these things, you have to start in an acting class. Great actors are trained actors.
Acting is Good Exercise
Indiana Jones is tossed onto a dessert cart and rammed head-first into the bandstand; he rises and dives to the floor, sliding on his chest toward a vial; he crawls on all fours and then staggers to his feet; after ducking flung knives, he fights his way through a confusion of ice and balloons until he is able to run to safety behind a huge gong and jump out a closed window. Exciting. Actors have incredibly physical demands placed on them both on film and on stage, so actors need to learn to use their bodies. They might be called upon to dance, to run (Forrest) run, to fall down or faint, to wield a sword or fight a giant. The great actor, director, and teacher Richard Boleslavsky said, “The education of an actor consists of three parts. The first is the education of his body, the whole physical apparatus.” He goes on to recommend, “an hour and a half daily on the following exercises: gymnastics, rhythmic gymnastics, classical and interpretive dancing, fencing, all kinds of breathing exercises, voice-placing exercises, diction, singing, pantomime, make-up.” No less than an hour and half, daily. When looking for an acting studio, you should seek one that offers training in these fundamentals in addition to acting classes. Your ability to inhabit a character physically is as important as your prowess in inhabiting a character psychologically and emotionally.
Acting Allows You to Express All That Stuff You Try to Keep Hidden
You can’t strangle your girlfriend, but Othello can. You can’t challenge your enemy to a duel, but Tybalt can. You can’t plot the murder of someone you’d rather see dead, but Lady Macbeth, Richard, Iago, and Regan can. In the course of all of this strangling, dueling, and violent death, the characters express deeply-felt levels of anger, jealousy, love, heartbreak, betrayal, confusion…in fact, every emotion it’s possible to feel can be found in Shakespeare. We very often see students who want to play a love scene because they are longing to express, completely, something that dwells deep within. Just as often, students want to play fights or arguments, seeking to experience the release of anger. In our American culture, we are encouraged to pen up any strong emotion in public and wait for privacy to express it; often, it is never expressed. But actors are not only allowed to pour out their hearts completely, they are required to. A painter uses a brush to express emotion, a musician a piano, guitar, or orchestra. The actor must become comfortable with using himself because acting is pretending, but great acting taps into a human being’s lifetime store of unexpressed experience.
Acting is Teamwork
Imagine Hamilton without Burr, without Eliza, without Lafayette, without King George, without Hercules Mulligan. Every actor on stage is a supporting actor, including Alexander Hamilton because it’s an actor’s job to support every moment in a play, sketch, or movie. In theatre, we call teamwork ensemble. The ensemble is not just the group upstage backing up the lead actor – the ensemble is everyone in the production. Without everyone, there is no story. Without the wicked queen, Snow White just lives out her days eating bon bons. Without the dwarves, she dies of exposure in the woods. The Group Theatre, founded by Cheryl Crawford, Harold Clurman, and Lee Strasberg, was the first American company to create theatre based on the idea of ensemble, and their work changed American theatre forever and for the better. In basketball, team members pass the ball back and forth with the goal of sinking a basket and scoring; in theatre, actors pass focus back and forth with the goal of transcending mere storytelling. Learning how to emote is important, but learning how to support what’s happening at every moment on stage is just as crucial. You can learn this through acting class and scene work, but one of the best ways to really understand what it means is to learn and practice improvisation. In improv, actors put their focus on making their partners look good, on building a scene together, and on relying on their partners to be there if they falter. The lesson of ensemble is that, in the theatre, truly, no one is alone.
Whether you want to be a professional actor, in which case all types of training are important, or whether you seek a new way to increase your self-confidence or find an outlet for your imagination, acting classes offer a fun and active way to make new friends while you explore the landscape of your own mind, body, and soul.
