THE ACTOR TOOLBOX
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How to be a Star in
5 Easy Steps
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Well okay, so maybe it takes more than 5 steps
to become a star. But if you do these 5 easy
things every time you are in a play chances are
that will have more fun in rehearsals, earn the
admiration of your director and fellow cast
members, and bring the audience to their feet
on opening night.
1. Read the script!
That means the whole script, not just your
lines. You'd be surprised how many actors don't
bother to read the entire play. Trust me, none
of them have ever become stars.
2. Bring a pencil with an eraser
to every rehearsal!
Again, you'd be surprised how many actors don't
bother to write down their movements on stage
(also known as blocking) as well as notes given
to them by the director. Be sure to write in
pencil so that you can make changes.
3. Use your time between
rehearsals wisely!
You don't just work on a play when you're in
rehearsals. For every hour you are rehearsing
with the rest of the cast you should spend at
least an hour working on your own. Use the
time between rehearsals to:
- Learn your lines!
- Review your blocking notes
- Create, work on and improve your
characterization
- Work on notes the director has given you
- Prepare for the next rehearsal
- Sell Tickets
- Promote the Show
- Assist the technical people if asked
- Deal with the rest of your life
4. Use your time at rehearsal
even more wisely!
Take rehearsals very, very seriously, as a lot of
people have gone to a lot of time and trouble in
order to arrange them. Rehearsals are
collaborative efforts, and they will not work
nearly as well if even one person is absent. So
be there! At rehearsals you should do the
following:
- Show up at least ten minutes before
rehearsals begin
- Be ready for your entrance - don't wait to
be called
- Warm - up your voice and body
- Do not interfere with or interrupt a scene
in progress that you are not in
- Assist your Stage Manager, ASM, Director
or fellow actors if asked
- Be available for publicity events, costume
fittings and other actor-related technical
issues
- Go out of your way to be pleasant and
polite, especially with frustrated, stressed-
out Directors and Stage Management
5. Act!
Standing on stage reciting lines is not acting. A
good rule of thumb is for every hour spent on
the “technical” aspects of acting (learning lines,
blocking, etc) you should spend another hour
on the “creative” aspects of acting
(character/script analysis, objectives, etc), and
neither of those aspects includes the time you
spend in rehearsal with the rest of the team.
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How to Learn Lines
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Let's be perfectly clear - as
an actor your single most
important task is to know
your lines. If you don't
learn your lines and learn
them well everything else
you do is wasting your time.
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It's also a waste of your fellow cast member's
time, and it's an insult to the audience who have
paid their money to see you.
So how can you learn all those lines? Here are
some of the most common ways.
Before you start to learn your lines:
- Highlight your lines. Take a yellow high-
lighter or some other light colour and
highlight every word your character says.
- Highlight your cues. Take another high-
lighter of a different colour and use it to
highlight the last few words of the line
before yours. These are what are known as
your "cue lines."
- Set aside a portion of your time each day to
devote to learning your lines. Look at how
many pages or scenes you have to learn and
the number of days you have left until you
are expected to be "off-book." Divide the
play up into sections accordingly and learn a
portion of your lines each day (leaving some
room at the end for review, of course).
And after that...
- Record and Playback. Record the whole
play into a tape recorder or your computer,
and then listen to the playback. Record the
play a second time, but this time leaving
empty spaces where your lines should go.
Then listen to the second recording and put
your lines into the empty spaces.
- Write it. Write out all your cue lines and
your lines in order. While most people don't
have the time or the patience to do this, it
can be incredibly effective.
- Telegram it. If you've got a big monologue to
learn try writing it out as if it were a
telegram - ie as if you were paying by the
word. What are the important words? What
tense are they written in? Little words like
it, the, and, etc will probably come naturally
if you know the big words in a given speech.
- Walk through the play. Some actors
remember lines because they're tied to
movements or actions. Arrange some
furniture in the same basic layout as the
set, gather up stand-ins for any props you
may need, and recite your lines as you go
through the movements of the play.
- Find the rhythm. If you're fortunate enough
to be working on a classical play or one
that's written in verse you can take
advantage of the natural flow of the meter to
help you learn the lines (see my article on
this subject here).
- Find the triggers. If you know the lines but
keep missing the cues try looking for the
word, phrase or action that "triggers" your
character to speak. Most of the time it's just
a single word in your cue line.
- Run lines with a friend. Getting someone
else to help you with your lines is one of the
best ways to learn them. Your friend reads
the cues and you give the lines. Tell them to
be brutal and make sure you speak the line
exactly as it was written.
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Major Schools
of Acting
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Here's a list of some of the largest,
best-known "schools of acting." I've
given a brief description of each,
followed by some links. I can't
personally vouch for the authority of
any of the content of these external
sites - please take them with a grain
of salt!
The Method
First developed by Konstantin
Stanislavski and the Moscow Art
Theatre "Method" acting became
very popular in America in the 20th
century. Perhaps its most famous
example was Marlon Brando
portrayal of Stanley Kowalski in A
Streetcar Named Desire, through
there were many others. Method
acting rejecting the blatant
pandering to the audience for
maximum applause that had come
before it. Instead method actors
strove, through careful study of the
text and the underlying motivations
of their characters, to actually
present on stage something
believable that resembled real life.
A Concise Explanation of The Method
Wikipedia's Entry on Method Acting
An Article on The Method
Book - Stanislavski: An Introduction
I have been unable to find free
e-texts of two of Stanislavski's
seminal works My Life in Art and
An Actor Prepares, though they
should be in the public domain by
now (Stanislavski died in 1938). If
anyone does come across free online
copies of these works please send
me the links and I'll include them in
a future update.
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Brecht
German Director, Playwright and
Marxist Bertolt Brecht provided one
of the 20th century's strongest
responses to the clinical, insular
Stanislavski system. Unlike Method
Acting which is largely focused on
the inner workings of the character
and the world of the play Brechtian
Acting is much more self-conscious -
the actor never forgets that he or
she is playing a role, on a stage, in a
theatre, before an audience.
A bit about Brecht's "Epic Theatre"
A bit more...
Comparison: Brecht vs. Naturalism
Book: The Theatre of Bertolt Brecht
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Other Schools of Acting
Physical
Check out Creating a Character by
Moni Yakim and works of the late
French mime Marcel Marceau. For
something really out there, try
Meyherhold's Biomechanics.
Political
In addition to Brecht there's the late
Augusto Boal's Theatre of the
Oppressed, as well as the entirety of
Post-Colonial dramatic criticism.
Intellectual
Antonin Artaud's Theatre of Cruelty,
Jerzy Grotowski's minimalism and
Martin Esslin's Theatre of the
Absurd all rank as major works that
saw limited practical application in
their day but have since grown in
importance as we better understand
the motivations of their authors.
Comedy and Tragedy
Henri Bergson's The Comic in
Situations apparently provided
much of the inspiration behind
Monty Python, while Aristotle's
Poetics is still, after over 2000 years,
the definitive guide to the elements
of tragic performance.
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Did you find the information on
this page helpful? If so, please...
- Tell all your friends about it!
- Link to it from your own
blog or website!
- Buy my a coffee!
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