I believe acting is a craft and you have to practice it to get better and better. No one technique may work for every character. You need to know all of them so you have a toolbox available to use for every character. My job is to teach what the tools are. Your job is to decide what works best for you.
Are you working from the inside out or the opposite? Do you dress your character and then see how he behaves or do you remember circumstances that made you feel like the character feels? That is one example. Also, what would you do if you were in the circumstances of the character. After all, you are playing the part. You need to be in it. How do you get where you need to be emotionally? Do you use Michael
Chekhov’s technique of psychological gestures or Sandy Meisner’s repetition? There are many tools available for this craft and my job is to pass them along to you.
That is an example of how I feel about acting.
Auditioning is another story. You need the right material and you need to keep it present tense and also just over a minute long. Anything more can only hurt you. My job is to teach you how to look for age appropriate material and then to teach you how to cut a monologue from the play. As Stella Adler says ” You must know the play. That is where you get most of your character information.”
Another thing I believe is that everyone can benefit from a good improvisation class Using Viola Spolin’s theatre games and improv.,kids as well as adults learn to think on their feet in the moment. They learn the importance of eye contact. They learn to really play with the ” who, the what, the where of improvisation.
This skill is useful not only for acting but for everyday living.
There is another important aspect to acting which is the business of acting.
I educate my students in ways to market themselves. Where and how to find auditions. Be proactive rather than feel like a pawn waiting for that phone to ring. I have been there.
I have been SAG-Aftra and AEA for 20 years, As well as a certified regular education teacher