It is a well established 'fact' according to many peoples opinions that an actor must be self centred, arrogant and full of hot air. Whilst there is some sort of bravado that must indeed be linked to being an actor, being these things up above is more detrimental than anything else in this writers opinion. I will freely admit to having a boast about how many people congratulated me about this and that so and so from the RSC praised my work and said I had a future in the industry blah blah blah but the truth is that it is hot air that I don't need and that I shouldn't let get me resting on my laurels. Here is the cold hard truth, especially for me, the lack of work can lead your once sharpened skills to dull quickly. Last year I was very rusty when I did 'The Worthing Tales' and I would never say that it was a very good performance from myself, it was fun but it wasn't very good (my acting that is, the show was fabulous). So what can we do about this apart from keep practicing with monologues and joining drama clubs and societies etc?
We can remember our faults and analyse them. In 2005 whilst still at University I was taking an Auditions Workshop in which we had to look at our strengths and weaknesses before picking a piece we felt could win us a job. I had until recently forgotten what I had written down and had made up a lot of new problems or what I felt were problems I hadn't addressed before when lo and behold whilst going through my folder of random notes etc I found on the back of an Entertainment license information resource a list of my strengths and weaknesses dated the 26th of May 2005. The list makes for good reading as it instantly reminded me of work I had done to combat all these problems when I was rehearsing and creating a character. It also reminded me of some of the monologues I had toyed with doing ranging from the work of Edward Bond, someone in my class recommended him so I looked in the College Library for some of his work and found nothing I then went to Methvens in Worthing and spent £14.99 (that includes the student discount) on a brilliant book I have barely read due to all the roles being out of my playing range, to the eventual choice of Benedick from M.A.A.N by Shakespeare where I decided not to do this monologue and instead picked what I now believe to be the easier one. I have since reread my list of bad things and thought you might all like a read or at least a look.
Posture
Shuffling Feet
Diction on the letters P, B, D
I need to add more movement
I need to deepen my physical characteristics
Work on my mime work
Work on accents
I find this list now very refreshing to read mainly due to the fact that there is my complaining about my shuffling feet yet I am also saying I need to move more. I guess it was just a case of moving with purpose, something that I do not think I ever really got until my final degree year. Posture has always been one of my main problems, when you have spent years slouching it can be very uncomfortable to stand up straight and even today I have issues with this. P,B and D being problems for me was just laziness and as soon as I read this I remembered how the first couple of days after acknowleding this issue I went around and over emphasised those letters, it did make my Shakespeare speech sound very funny though. Mime is something I sometimes find very hard to grasp but I respect the ability to do it and I think with practice I could probably improve this a lot. As for accents, there I fall down quickly, much like my singing voice my accents fail after about 20-30 seconds of sounding even moderately correct. I would say the majority of this list still are things I struggle with but knowing them is half the battle. I really should make a 2010 one that brings all of this up to date and lets me work and focus on improving myself. I would recommend that you performers out there should always review what you are doing right and wrong because we need to be self critical. Without being your own critic you cannot grow, I am not saying slate everything you do because you want to grow. Its fine to compliment yourself and go 'Yes I did that well' but remember you are only ever as good as your last performance and that is why you should always be looking at ways to improve your abilities.
I know I said I wrote a positives list as well but I will not be sharing that with the World as I think everyone can see my point, plus I don't want to pat myself on the back. Complacency is the death of good acting, I should know I got complacent when I was younger and it took me nearly 3 years to get my confidence and ability back to where I wanted it to be. Remember to be critical means to be able to push yourself to bigger and better things. You can do it, we can all do it. Just remember to always review and if you think you're perfect then get a peers opinion because they will surely know what you did wrong.
Xtofer
