Course Introduction

So, what is this course? Let’s start from the beginning. What is acting? Whenever I meet a new group of students, I always start by asking that question. And everybody always seems quite surprised by it. Surely, we must know what acting is, they seem to think. We are, after all, actors. And yet, the answer doesn’t come very easily. The reason I ask this is because if acting is what we’re going to study– –it seems important that we have a shared understanding– –of what exactly it is that we’re talking about. So, how then might we start answering that question? Well, one way is to say that actors usually work within the confines of a story.

They are the inhabitants of a fictional world that is presented to us. They depict people that are not themselves. They exist in a universe that isn’t real– –but that seems so real to us that we invest our time and our emotions in it. What I mean is this. If you’ve seen the movie “Gravity”, you didn’t see actual astronauts in space– –you were watching actors working in front of a green screen. And still I think that most of us who saw it– –with all our hearts really wanted Sandra Bullock to return safely to earth. So how, then, do we do this?

My hope is that over the following 3 weeks– –you’ll be provided with some basic principles and ideas– –that might be helpful to you in your acting. I don’t think that I have any absolute answers– –and I certainly don’t claim to be “right” about anything. But all the same I’m hoping– –that some of what I have to say will prove useful to you in your work. I think it’s a lot more productive to think about acting theory or coaching in this way. As helpful or not, or inspiring or not or useful or not. –rather than something that is necessarily right or wrong.

More than anything you will be introduced to a way of thinking about acting– –that puts your focus outside of yourself and your own performance– –and instead onto what it is that you’re doing. Step by step, we will examine the different elements of the work of the actor. We will look at a practical approach to the first steps of the acting process. We will discuss the dramatic situation and what goes into it. And we will briefly touch upon working with text. The overall goal being to learn how to make clear and specific choices– –that will allow your instincts and imagination and creativity to take over.