“Teachers
open the door. You enter on your own.”
-Chinese
Proverb
There are so many bad teachers out there that the
odds of finding a good one to train with, are stacked against you. Acting
classes are one of the most scam-filled areas of the entertainment business.
Literally anyone can call himself or herself an acting teacher, take out an
ad, and get students. Anyone.
Literally anyone can call himself or herself an acting teacher, take out an
ad, and get students. Anyone.
Nowadays, I see acting teachers everywhere espousing that they teach “Acting On-Camera”. Problem is that many of these “teachers” have never really WORKED on camera, or even on set or, in many cases, they've never even trained at all! Where do they get their knowledge? (Or their nerve for that matter!)
I remember one guy who worked as an extra on a TV show that I was the acting coach for. He worked three days and got union vouchers for each day (someone did him a "favor") and he got his SAG card. Three weeks later he took out an ad proclaiming he taught "on-camera acting technique".
And. He. Got. Students!
Don't be a sucker. Really check out any teacher you are considering training with.
Your goal should be to find an insightful teacher
that doesn’t abuse or direct you but instead, uncovers your walls and helps you
to focus so you can break through them; a teacher that tells you where to look but not what to see. Your teacher doesn’t get you jobs
or “manage your career”. They are not your agent or your psychiatrist. I
would be very wary of teachers who claim to do these things.
Often these
"teachers" offer to do other things to "help you in your career"
if you take their classes. Sometimes they offer head shots or career advice.
Sometimes they offer to cast you in a movie or create a "reel"
for you. (Please see my Blog post aboutwhat Reel really is!) One should wonder why they offer
these things. Are you paying to learn or to get (poor-quality) head shots and a (worthless) reel? And if
you are paying to learn, what qualifies this person to teach you?
It helps to
ASK A FEW QUESTIONS:
First, I’d want to know the
teacher's professional work background. This means
projects they were hired to work on, not movies they shot themselves, in
their back-yard. You can find their professional work background on IMDB - BUT look closely at their credits.
Are they mostly professional jobs they were hired to work on or are they all short films and
"features" that they produced & wrote & directed & did
camera/editing/props for?
Even if they’ve been teaching in college for the last
20 years, they might be very knowledgeable about theory and the history of drama
but they might not have the practical knowledge about the industry that you may want.
Or, perhaps they only know about “stage acting” and don't have any on-camera
knowledge.
Second,
are their students getting (paid) work and can you ask them about their
classes? Will the teacher supply you with references?
Third, are you allowed to
audit a class? Many teachers allow you to watch a class to decide if
you like it. Now I have to admit, I don’t allow audits of my classes—ever. In
fact, many teachers don’t. But if they do, I would highly recommend auditing a
class before you pay your money.
You may be wondering why a legitimate teacher
wouldn’t allow you to sit in and watch a class? At my studios, new students
must sign-up for a minimum of two-months. How can I ask you to commit to two-months
without having watched the class? Fair questions. I, like many teachers, don’t
allow audits because everyone in the class is taking risks, everyone is “up on
the tightrope”. And if people—even just one person—are watching, the atmosphere
in class goes from being a safe place where everyone is taking chances and
risking together, to a “performance”. You’re not all in the same boat. Someone
is watching. You become self-conscious. Constricted. Tense. This
hurts the whole class. So, I simply offer a money-back guarantee for the first
class. If the person doesn’t like their first class they get their money back,
no charge and no questions asked. But, when they are trying the class out, they
are a student. They do all the exercises with everyone, get up on the same
tightrope—and risk falling. (And incidentally, they get a much better idea of
what the class is like than would someone that was just watching).
Fourth, does the teacher
require you to do something that crosses any moral boundaries you may have?
I know of one teacher in L.A. that has worked with many recognizable
actors and even wrote a fairly popular book on acting. As a part of his
training he asks the actor (more often the actress) to sit on stage and
"explore and express their sensuality". Yes, this means what you
think it couldn't possibly mean. In front of the entire class. And to succeed in his class, you have to
"succeed" in this exercise. I had two students of mine, that moved to
L.A., call me in tears to ask if I thought they should continue in his class (I
said no and gave them a list of reputable teachers in L.A.). But the thing is, they
were not stupid girls. One had a masters degree in theatre. Yet, they
still considered staying in the class!
Bottom line
is, do a little digging on the teacher. Check out IMDB
for film and TV work experience (keep in mind that the word "Uncredited" next to an IMDB credit means they were most likely an Extra). You can check university records, check with
other actors, and (shameless self-promotion alert) read books that the
teachers have written to see if you agree with what they teach.
But the most important litmus test will be; are you really learning from
them – every class. If you are, then stick with them!
You see, I don’t believe, as some do, that you should train
with a lot of different teachers. You end up leaving one teacher as soon as you
feel a little stagnant, as though you’ve reached a wall. Then you start all
over with another teacher and take several months to reach that same wall – and
the process repeats. You never get past that wall.
About
"Walls"
I tell my students that Walls are the boundaries of your "Comfort Zone". To expand your comfort zone (and get better) you must break through these walls.
The way to
break through a wall is to lower your shoulder, focus, re-double your efforts
and keep pushing ahead. I had a client we’ll call “June”, who got some acting work and boasted that she had studied acting with 12 different teachers. Her
resume had over half a page of “Training” listed. After watching her do a scene
in class, I told her she was a very good technician but lacked heart. At first,
she was mortified. But upon discussing her work more, she admitted that,
although she appeared to be devastated in the scene, she actually felt almost
nothing. In other words she “showed us” devastated but didn’t really feel that
way inside. (Be wary of teachers that want to teach you how to "show
emotions"). I gave her some exercises to do and told her to bring the
scene back in a few weeks.
A few weeks passed and she came to me after class one day and said she was
frustrated and and confused and needed to take some time off. I asked why and she said she had
been working on the scene at home and it felt like she wasn’t getting it and it
was driving her crazy. I asked how long she had been feeling this frustration
and she said “about a week”. I asked if she had felt this frustration before
and she said she had in other classes. (In fact, this was what she felt just
before she left each of her twelve acting teachers.)
I told her that I would
not allow her to take time off! She laughed and I explained that this was her
underlying problem. Every time she felt stagnant or frustrated, she changed
teachers and started the process all over again. I told her the only way she
would succeed as an actor would be for her to stay in class, focus on this
scene, and stick with it no matter what. I also told her it would most likely
take another two to three weeks of work and then I was confident she would
break through this wall. And that’s exactly what she did. When she put that
scene up again it was truly remarkable. She finished the scene and sat there,
on stage, sobbing. When she finally stopped crying she continued to shake but
she said she had never felt anything like that before in her life. She had
become so good at indicating the emotion—such a good technician—that she was
able to get by (and get some day-player jobs) by just doing that. She told me
later that that had been the most thrilling moment in her life as an actress.
She's gone on to book quite a few co-star roles and two series-regular jobs.
I’ve found
that when an actor feels the most stagnant, it typically takes about two to
four weeks before they have a breakthrough. It’s like clockwork. This is the
process. And once you have that breakthrough you feel great and you love acting
– you finally “get it”! But be warned—down the road there will be another wall
(and another after that). It never stops as long as you continue to grow as an
actor.
The
thing to keep in mind is this: Walls are actually good things. If you weren’t
learning, improving, and having these breakthroughs, you would never have
reached this wall that you’re at now!
Your entire career/life as an actor
should be spent reaching new barriers and breaking through them.
So find the teacher that really helps you get better and then,
as Shakespeare wrote, “Grapple them to thy soul with hoops of steel”.
No comments:
Post a Comment