Acting Tips for Beginners

Acting for me is letting go of myself for a while and become somebody who I will never be. It is like living an alternate life for a brief period of time. It is an opportunity to conquer all my inhibitions, conditioned by society and release myself from them. This article has some acting tips for beginners from my study and experience of 'Method Acting' or 'Realistic Acting', an acting theory, which is based on realistic imagination! The acting principles explained here are based on Stanislavsky's theoretical treatise, on method acting called 'An Actor Prepares', which is recommended reading for any serious student of theater and acting.

Method Acting Tips For Beginners
As the zen masters say, if you try to fill a cup, which is already full, it will all spill over. To fill something new in a cup, first it must be emptied. So, acting tips for beginners that I give here will have an effect, if you give it an unbiased thought. Read and consider the acting tips and tricks, given here, apply them and then judge them. These are tips from master theater artists, compiled by me.

First part is dealing with stage fright of course! To deal with it and forget it, concentrate on your role and think about nothing else. Learn to enjoy the spotlight and just do what you need to do! With every outing on-stage you will get better at handling it. A little stage fright will always remain and keep you alert on stage.

So, let us begin with our method acting tips for beginners or actors who are looking for a fresh perspective! What I talk about here is mostly acting in theater, which is the most real and challenging type of acting, according to me.

Beware of Overacting or Mechanical Acting
Good acting is not over acting or mechanically saying lines. It is not reading out lines! Do not say or do anything on stage or on screen, without understanding what you are saying. Do not say anything, unless you understand the emotion that evokes the dialogue.

Acting is all about Belief and Creative Imagination
Acting is living an alternate life, as I said before. It is make believe. The audience is only going to believe that you are indeed the person you are playing to be, if you yourself believe that you are that person! To arrive from being who you are in reality to who you are on stage, is a process which you have to go through. The thing that is going to get you there is creative imagination and belief!

An Actor Must be An Athlete Philosopher
An actor must cultivate his mind and body as an instrument in portraying roles. His mind needs to be able to grasp things, as astutely as a philosopher and his body must be able to portray a range of emotions.

Read and Understand the Script
Read the script thoroughly. Understand the story first and think about what the playwright has tried to say through the script. This a view from the outside. Then again read the story from the perspective of the role you are playing. Discuss with the director about what exactly you feel about the story and clarify your doubts. This is very important, as you need to understand the people, the surroundings, the time of the story and its message.

Know Everything about the Role and the Person
Next step is to know as much as you can about the role you are portraying, in explicit details. You must ask questions about the role. Who is that person? Where does he come from? The answer to these questions will be partly found in the outlines of the play and partly out of your own creative imagination! Research the script as much as you can, to know your role! Some actors even write a diary of a day, in the life of that character! You must know him/her like the back of your hand. Even if the details of the character come from your imagination, and only partly from the script, they must be very specific.

Then slowly you will get an idea about how this person might be thinking. You will know why he reacts the way he does in the particular situations of a play. You will get an idea about the rationale behind the character's behavior. Understand his philosophy about life and his super objective . This is your homework.

Connect to the Role through Emotional Memory
Now, you exactly know who you are going to portray! Next part is being him/her! It is the easiest and the most difficult part. Learn the dialogues of the play thoroughly and understand the mood of the character when he/she says them.

Draw parallels between the character's life and your own experiences from your emotional memory! Emotional memory is the parallel memory that you have stored inside you, through which you can relate to that character! Invoke your emotional memory when you say the dialogues as that person. Slowly, you will not just sympathize with the character, you will empathize! You will start thinking the way he/she thinks, feels. Once you get that character, all your body language, your toning will fall in place accordingly! In all this process, the director will aid you. Then you can polish other minor details like your positioning on stage, your entry and exit cues and all the other mechanical things that must be remembered.

It is all about Concentration and Practice
Once you start getting the role, you need to practice and rehearse it regularly. To get into the role on stage and make other people believe that you are him, you must concentrate and cultivate your imagination onstage. You must be able to see what the character sees!

Lose Yourself in the Role but Stay Aware
On a character level you must be involved, but your awareness as an actor should also be there, all the time while performing. There are certain subtleties about presenting a character and performing on stage. There is a limit to how much realism you can bring on stage. There are some things which you need to modify, so that it is presentable on stage. While playing the role, in the flow of character, one has to be aware as an actor of all those subtleties.

Enjoy the Process
Last but not the least, to do it right, you must enjoy the process! A very important part is bonding with your co-actors and developing good chemistry onstage. A play is a team job and you need to be a team player. The success of a role or a play is directly proportional to how much the team enjoyed while preparing!

Read more on 'History of Drama'.

Hope these acting tips for beginners have at least intrigued you to explore the field of acting. Learning to be a good actor is synonymous with learning to be a good human being!