Choosing an acting class in SF Bay Area.
March 12, 2011 12:10 PM   Subscribe

ISO recommendations for and experiences related to acting classes in the SF Bay Area and general advice regarding the world of acting classes.

I'm a dude who wants to perform. I have a background in long-form comedy improv and want to try out acting, the real deal. I know how to make people laugh—I want to make them cry.

I've looked at A.C.T.'s and Berkeley Rep's 10-week courses—both are intriguing but I really have no idea how to judge them.

I am interested in other school ideas, related experiences, or general advice regarding acting classes. I figure there's a broad range of experiences to be had, things to avoid, pitfalls to watch out for, and reputations to take into account. I like making informed decisions—inform me!
posted by wemayfreeze to Education (4 answers total)
 
Best answer: General advice:
Your teacher doesn't have to be an actor to teach you how to act. However, the advice your non-acting teacher can give you will be limited since they have not been on stage. Keep attending classes until you feel as though you have learned all they can teach you. Don't stay because you'll miss all the guys, or the teacher. Expect to attend a few different classes.

However, a teacher who has acting experience will have experience to share. He/She will give you sound/proven acting techniques. And when you have trouble He/She will be aware of the different acting techniques and which might work for you, or at least will be able to try them all until you can cherry pick the ones that do work for you.

Beware the acting teacher who directs you instead of teaching you how to act. One way to know if this is happening is if the teacher puts the scene above your work. Learning to act often has AH-HA! moments. These moments often come from repetition.

Example of directing: "Wemay? Enter from left. Then perform your monologue."
Example of teaching acting: "Wemay, that wasn't as good as you've done before. Try it again, but remember your character is young, he loved his father dearly and thinking of him almost brings him to tears daily. Now he suspects his uncle and mother killed his father. Go ahead, when you're ready." You perform. "Wemay, I want to try it again, but remember his anger is around an 8 or a 9 here. Go ahead."

Learning to use blocking or props to improve your performance is a good thing, but adding an arbitrary entrance means the teacher is bored with your piece and they have resorted to spicing it up for themselves and they have stopped listening to your work. At this point, ask for another piece to work on or change classes.

I had an actor friend who performed "to be or not to be" as sarcasm. Not as if Hamlet is literally considering suicide, but if suicide is his only option, as in 'what the fuck is going on that this is my only option???' "To be, or not to be. THAT is the question?" His teacher told him to never do that again, or he would be kicked out. The classroom is exactly the place to experiment with things like that, a strong choice like that should be encouraged. Who knows, one day a director might even think of 'to be or not to be' that way...

You have some experience, but I'll say it anyway. Be off book. They can't do squat for you if you don't know your lines. Even if you can be on book, try not to be.

And lastly, my two cents... I find the two biggest obstacles for actors is 1. They're afraid of looking like a fool. 2. They can't really read. It sounds like you have number 1 beat and possibly number 2 with your experience already. Good luck! I hope to see you in Transformers 5!
posted by CarlRossi at 6:09 PM on March 12, 2011 [2 favorites]


CarlRossi: "find the two biggest obstacles for actors is 1. They're afraid of looking like a fool. 2. They can't really read."

Could you explain the second? Does "reading" mean something more specific for actors?
posted by d. z. wang at 7:46 PM on March 12, 2011


I mean they can't read well. Like asking someone to recite a piece of text (the only way you can hear how someone reads) and it all comes out flat, slow and with little to no rhythm.

It's not bad, it's just something that would need to be worked on, because if the actor reads that way, then they will memorize that way. It's a hurdle to work on.
posted by CarlRossi at 9:29 PM on March 13, 2011


Response by poster: CarlRossi, thanks so much for the pointers. You've given me a lot to think about and carry with me as I walk down this path.
posted by wemayfreeze at 12:09 PM on March 15, 2011


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