Here’s the latest video in the Craft of Acting Series.  A seminar-member asks the obvious question: “What do you do in an audition situation when you don’t have the whole story?”  Faced with incomplete information, and the pressure of delivering in the audition, actors are tempted to impose a ‘Choice’ on the story.  This is a dangerous line to walk.  It tends to lead away from the story and consequently the true actions of the character, and into your own intellectually-based, under-informed creations.

As Matthew explains here, this is not the ideal way to approach that sit­u­a­tion. A work­ing mas­ter­ful under­stand­ing of the laws of STRUCTURE will guide you to story-​based dis­cov­er­ies, define the actions of your char­ac­ter, and lead the way for your true essence to do the work, offer­ing cast­ing a true sense of you as the character.which, after all, is the POINT of the audition!

Robin Nielsen, often referred to as the ‘Guardian of the Process’ in these parts has been introducing people to our ‘CORE-Applied Process’ for years.  He was around through the discovery and development of what we teach, and continues, week after week, class after class to introduce actors to the beautiful simplicity of how it all works.

In this video, Robin describes week by week how his Fundamentals class runs – it’s two weeks longer than the other classes, and here he explains why.

…from Matthew Harrison – Teacher, Parent, and Actor.

THE INDUSTRY

Donʼt listen to the ʻHYPEʼ produced by ʻTMZ, US mag etc etcʼ if you stick to the art,
and craft and keep your head away from the trappings of the biz (red carpets et al -
addictive silliness and hollow shallow emptiness) you realize thatʼs not actually what
this is about, and the kind of people you end up working with are kind, artful, generous,
masters of a beautiful craft.

AUDITIONING

Remove the expectation of booking and making auditions job interviews to get on set
and instill the love of acting itself and make auditioning a joyful experience. Donʼt forget
the point is to enjoy playing. So often, parents teens to succeed and book as opposed
to making it a joyful and artistic experience. Those parents need to know that it is
indeed a business, but that to succeed at this business, the acting must be first and
acting is a fun-filled art form.

At the auditions themselves, young actors need to know itʼs a collaborative experience -
youʼre collaborating and co-striving and creating a community with other young actors.
They ARE NOT COMPETING AGAINST OTHER ACTORS.

Acting is not a competitive sport, itʼs a collaborative art-form.

ART

Young teen actors need to learn that acting is not about presenting a character or
pretending. Itʼs an art about ʻbeingʼ so the exciting aspect of this craft or art for teens is
that itʼs an art form of healthy self exploration and healthy exploration is exactly the
prescription for what every teen needs.

Many parents push teens to succeed are (for very good reasons) actually End up
hurting them. If you take the fun approach it becomes an incredibly healthy conduit of
teen energy – meaning it will lead into healthy and productive life choices. i.e. if you do it badly you can pressure your kids, but if you do it right, itʼs a healthy alternative to
drugs and video games. Itʼs a dangerous line because if you push it to the business
side you can fracture a kid – the key is to always make it about the art, communication
and self exploration and make believe, then it becomes one of the most powerful and
joyful things a young person can be immersed in.

BUSINESS

Parents tend to look at Tom Cruise and Julia Roberts and think ʻthereʼs no wayʼ theyʼre
probably right. but for every movie star there are hundreds and hundreds of people making very good livings in a thriving industry full of work.

When you do this right itʼs a wonderful fun thing to do, but when you do it wrong it can
turn ugly quickly. The business is beautiful, not ugly. The people who are really
succeeding are actually kind and generous; the stories you hear about the ugliness sells magazines, but are actually quite rare. For every ʻproblem actorʼ there are HUNDREDS of working actors who are finding joy in this exploration of life, which is what we do.

SUMMING IT UP

Both the art and the business can be fun and fulfilling, though itʼs sold sometimes as a
negative business and and art, it does not have to be that way and through discipline to
the craft, a compassionate collaborative point of view, and a healthy understanding of
how the business works thereʼs no reason this canʼt be a beautiful beautiful thing to do
for your life.