Acting: Do you really need to train?

Lets be honest, out there in the big wide world there are thousands upon millions of people all dreaming and wishing they could be on TV or on the big Silver Screen. I have lost count of the amount of young people and actors I have met who dream of being on Eastenders. Yet they do nothing about it, they do not try and start acting training or look into how to become an actor, in fact there are numerous youngsters who think that they are just going to get spotted in the street and somehow end up in a TV programme. Now granted that has happened once or twice in the past but the truth is that to be in the entertainment industry requires work and dedication and the beginnings of this really is in your training.

So what skills do you require to become an actor? Well wikianswers lists 3 skills imperative to becoming a skilled actor.

1. Control of ones emotional state.
2. The ability to project your voice.
3. The ability to memorize long passages of lines.

So lets look at these individually and I will give you some hints on how to do this without training. The control of your emotional state is a relatively important part of acting for TV and Film. Acting for film and tv has in the past hundred years changed the very definition of what acting is, what was once an artform of studying and acting out a feeling or situation has become a snapshot of reality of real emotional responses to scripted situations. This is most easily defined by what has become in many peoples minds the mecca of acting, the pinnacle of artistic legitimacy that is the Method. Championed by actors such as Brando, Hoffman and DeNiro the method evolved from the works of Russian Actor/Director Konstantin Stanislavski and developed by American Teachers like Strasberg and Adler it first permeated the mid 20th centuries Broadway stages before finally bursting through into film and TV. Using emotional recall and visualisation exercises the Method creates real emotion in scenes and really does fit the genre of TV and Film well, after all when you have to do several takes for a scene it makes it easier once you know how to use the method to just express your emotion in short bursts. Of course as well as changing the way acting works it has also really influenced programming, especially Soap Operas. Its made them more emotionally charged. Lets take Eastenders for example, which gets a lot of flack for being miserable and depressing, the recent storyline between Syed and Christian and the fact Syed was getting married would never have been so effective and compelling to watch without the brilliant level of emotion shown by the actors Marc Elliott and John Partridge. Ok so how do you learn how to control your emotions? The best bet is by getting hold of Stanislavski's book The Actor Prepares, or one of Adlers or Strasbergs many books and doing the exercises written within the pages. Then you must practice, practice and practice until it is drilled into your brain. Stanislavski would make his actors work on the true movements of the body part by part, spending up to six months on a single body part. I am not saying you should do this but you really need to know this stuff inside out as a method as a tool and the only way to do it is by practicing.

Number two, projecting your voice. The ability to project your voice without damaging it is vitally important. 99% of actors are out of work and when they are working they should be prepared for anything. If you are commited to being an actor then you cannot say that you will only do TV or Film you have to really be ready to do theatre and with the majority of theatres having between 200-500 seats then you had better know how to project your voice. Also you need to take into account that you need breathe control so you can say long lines. Shouting on stage will leave your voice damaged and you useless as an actor after the first show, if you're lucky and not hoarse by the interval, so you need to learn how the voicebox works. What is my suggestion, well there is a fantastic woman named Cicely Berry who wrote a book 'The Voice and the Actor' which covers warm up exercises, tips on how to project and a fascinating amount of information on how the diaphragm muscle can help your voice. Its one of my favourite books and I seriously reccomend you read it. Again you must study this subject and this book. Starting to see a pattern emerging?

Now wikianswers last point that of memorising lines. I cannot point you to a book on this one, nor can I explain because it is obvious why this is important. All I can say to you really are two things. If you really want to be in Eastenders then you need to learn how to read and remember lines fast. They give you approx 2 days to learn the lines they provide you with, there is barely any rehearsal time and if you can't do it then there are plenty of actors out there who can replace you. Then what do you do? You can do very simple things to expand your memory and mind, always challenge it. Keep the brain working hard, do puzzles, crosswords, play board games that require you to think. Keep it sharp and practice learning passages and it will seem simple after a while.

So what am I saying here? Yes those three things are important and yes you can find it out at home, practice it at home and perfect those techniques at home. Yet there are things that a college/university/drama school will teach you that are vitally important also. Take for example rehearsal etiquette, now I am not saying that there is a standard rehearsal procedure that everyone follows but if nationwide there are young performers being taught the same sort of procedure it will make it easier for companies to get together and work straight away. Rehearsing also slows everything down and by learning this way you will learn more efficiently and pick up more. 30 years ago an actor would be could join their local rep company and work their way up from acting asm to a higher position and improve their skills but nowadays you have to go to an educational facility. Todays training grounds are validated by the government and are monitored closely with a curriculum and much like my point on rehearsal techniques help push the subject and theory behind performing arts to make it a much better experience and give us all a better grounding in the industry. There are other aspects to the educational system that are excellent such as the lessons regarding funding and how to get your start. Before I went to University I would never have thought about how to get money for a theatre project, then i learnt about the Arts Council and it opened a whole new world to me. The list of things you will learn that will help you in your chosen career in University will continue to grow the more you think about them.

In conclusion I never went to a Drama School, I chose Northbrook College in Worthing and its fantastic theatre department at The Southern Arts Centre. Now do I regret going there to train? No, in fact it helped me immensly, I learnt things that I never thought possible about myself, about acting and about the wonderful art that is entertainment. I suppose that doesn't really matter because I got my Degree and I am happy, there are other people who just want to act and thats fine too but don't expect people to take you seriously without a degree or extensive training experience because when I look at the certificate they gave me at the end of my time there I see thousands of hours of experience in a working theatre, hundreds of characters tried and tested, historic events noted and learned from and finally I see proof that no matter what happens I am an actor in every aspect and that nobody can call me a dreamer or deluded or take it away from me because that piece of paper is proof that I have done it. Train for your own good, you will feel much better with the help of seasoned professionals and you might just learn something that will change your life. My last words for you are work hard Eastenders, The RSC, Wicked, Hollywood... they are all attainable as long as you work hard.

Not another Article about the Death of Regional Theatre + The Injustice of the Redgrave Theatre Farnham

Every single year it seems without fail there is an outcry from some corner of the theatre industry here in the UK regarding the failure of the Regional Theatres. Now am I really hearing this? Surely the truth is that the theatre industry is currently booming artistically and with the good box office receipts for shows such as Legally Blonde that the commercial side is doing well too. Of course Legally Blonde is a west end show but when there are regional tours of The 39 Steps, a west end favourite, coming this year then surely something right is happening. I can honestly say that in my area our local theatre has its best line up for the Spring Season in years, we have 10 quality plays between February and June visiting all vying for my money and all contain stars such as Kelly McGillis, Leslie Grantham, Gary Wilmot, Kate O’Mara, Damien Williams and Lee Mead. Also there are many respected theatre companies putting on productions, companies such as The Agatha Christie Theatre Company, Ian Dickens Productions, Kenwright Productions, Middle Ground Theatre Company and Black Eyed Theatre who were hailed as one of the most exciting companies currently in the UK by the Stage. Add in that there are several high quality amateur productions also being staged in the local theatres and there is enough to keep even the most ravenous theatre addict happy. Of course I understand that what is true in Worthing may not be true elsewhere but when I read about situations like that of the Redgrave Theatre Farnham I sometimes think that a lot of other places troubles are nothing but tragedies of their own design. Farnham in Waverly has a thriving Rep Company but no permanent home for said company. The Redgrave Theatre built for the original Farnham Rep is currently dark having been shut down by the local council in 1999 due to one disastrous season which saw revenues fall. The current company is doing great business but because the council has already sold the theatre off for development they are relegated to a tent by the side of the current theatre. I believe the saddest part of this tale is that the Redgrave is not an old theatre it was built in 1974 and is in perfect working order. So in Farnham we have a healthy market for decent theatre, we have a venue that is in mint condition but also a council that is disregarding this possible boon to their local economy. It’s just a crying shame that Waverly council cannot support the local Theatre Company by giving them another chance, instead they have sold it off and it will be demolished next year to make way for a new housing development. For more information regarding the Redgrave Theatre and the campaign to save it please go to this website http://www.farnhamtheatre.co.uk/RedgraveTheatre.html




The redevelopment of theatres on a regional scale still happens frequently; recently the Marlowe Theatre in Canterbury was demolished to make way for a brand new venue under the same name. This will be the third rebuild for the Canterbury venue and surprisingly enough the City council decided that the price of renovating the old venue, whilst cheaper than a new build, would be just throwing money away as it would need more attention in the future and be unable to house the West End quality shows expected of such a prolific theatre.



Then there are the box office receipts for companies such as Birmingham Rep which despite the fact we keep getting it drummed into us every single year that Reperatory Theatre is dead still boasts full houses and true artistic creativity. Their work and that of many Northern Theatre Companies tour extensively throughout the country and many end up on the West End, so if companies such as Birmingham Rep and West Yorkshire Playhouse are creating new work that feeds the stages of the nations capital I would argue that the regional industry is far from dead and in fact we are on the brink of a new era of local theatrical excellence.



The other aspect that these journalists, who report the death of regional theatre every single year without fail, seem to conveniently choose to ignore is the vast amount of experimental theatre companies, dance companies and fringe theatres dotted around the country. In Brighton alone there is a large enough amount of alternative spaces for them to have their own Theatre Festival to rival, like an annoying little brother screaming at an older bigger brother, Edinburgh’s summer festival. There are hundreds of theatre schools around the country feeding the main drama schools in London with performers who are more often than not being trained not just in the tools of the trade to make you a great actor/dancer/singer but also being given the chance to create their own work and develop their own plays, shows and revues. Those that herald regional theatre as dead are just mourning the fact that the industry they knew is dead and gone; instead it has evolved into a more inclusive multi format, arts propelled industry which has more to do now with the cultural identity of the UK than any other time in history. Those of us who may mourn the death of a local rep company should really stop moping and look at what is being offered in our local area before writing it off and just spending that money for theatrical entertainment in London.