Professional Development

Acting

Actors are responsible for embodying memorable characters and engaging with the audience, that being whether they’re on stage, on a screen or from behind a microphone. Actors help to bring a production to life. There are many skills an actor must have in order to portray a character correctly. These include:

Acting Skills Every Performer Should Have | Backstage 

Good memorization skills. 

Actors need to be able to remember their lines and stage directions. This helps the actor as it’ll help them give a better and more consistent performance. But it also helps to make the production easier and go faster as they won’t have to spend so much time on certain scenes, this can also help to keep the production budget down.

Memorization skills are very important for me. A lot of the shows we do are live and in front of people, so it's important that I don't forget my lines and ruin the experience for the audience. Luckily I would say I have very good memorization skills. I am able to learn and remember a script quite fast. For our production at the start of the year with miss Maggie's toy box, I was still tweaking my opening monologue up until an hour or two before the audience got there. But despite the small timeframe to learn it, I was able to remember the whole monologue when our first audience got there.

To maintain good memorization skills I plan to continue to practise scripts each week to improve my memorization technique. To help me memorise scripts faster I'm going to take advice from websites like nyfa.edu and backstage.com and practice using their techniques to find out what works best for me. These include: 

• Breaking down the script into small sections.

• Repeating the lines over and over until they're ingrained.

• Running lines with someone else.

• Writing my lines out.

• Quizzing myself.

• Working on lines before going to sleep.

• Using a mnemonic device.

• Learning the cue lines.

How Do Actors Remember Their Lines? | Backstage 

How to Memorize Lines: 6 Simple Tips (nyfa.edu) 

Creativity.

This is very useful for actors as it helps them to develop their character in an interesting way and can help them to convey the right emotions for that character. Being creative can also help actors to view certain characters or scripts differently to others and can help them to give a unique performance, which can really help for them to stand out during auditions.

Being creative and having a creative mind can be important for someone like me wanting to get into the industry and become Stanislavski's only because it'll help me with creating and understanding my characters but it could also help me get more work through other creative mediums in the industry, such as writing or directing. Which can also then help me to get acting work through networking. I'd like to think I am a creative person, I do and can come up with ideas for things fairly quickly. 

I would like to develop this part of me even further and become more creative. A pathway to help with with this is pretty simple and it's letting my creative mind be creative in a sense. I can do this by doing something creative like, drawing, doodling, writing/ flash fiction and improvisation roleplay. By doing this a couple times a week, I believe this will help me in training my brain to think more creatively.

15 Inspiring Ways to Become More Creative | Printivity 

9 Ways to Become More Creative in the Next 10 Minutes | by Larry Kim | Mission.org | Medium 

They need to be able to understand and interpret scripts. 

This is needed for actors to be able to understand the purpose for the script and what the director is wanting to do with it. It also helps for actors to better understand their character, including their wants and needs and goals, This helps the actor give a more authentic performance.

I believe my ability to understand and interpret scripts is good. I am able to understand my characters and interpret their wants and needs. With the help of Stanislavski's techniques I am able to create a more realistic character and performance. These techniques include emotional memory, which is using your own experiences to help develop the character. Subtext, which is using what isn't stated directly in the script and using context clues to create a backstory for your character and it helps you to think about why they do what they do. Objective/ super objective, which is basically what are your characters goals throughout the play. Their objective is what their immediate goal is in any given scene. The super objective is what your characters goal is that lasts throughout the play, like what is their long term goal. The 'magic if', This is basically where the actor puts themselves into the characters situation and asks themselves 'what would I do in this situation'. Plus many other techniques. The Stanislavsky Technique: an Actor's Guide | Backstage  

Stanislavski’s techniques - Naturalism and Stanislavski - GCSE Drama Revision - WJEC - BBC Bitesize 

This is something I would like to keep practicing as I believe I can develop it further to help with my acting abilities and improve my performances. I also believe it would be good for me to practise using different acting methods such as: 

The Chekhov Acting Technique which is described by Backstage.com as "a “psycho-physical” approach to acting; it seeks to ground emotion through physical gestures" - "The Michael Chekhov Association (MICHA) defines the artistic goal of the Chekhov Technique as “a connection between the inner response evoked by a physical action and its outer expression.”" Chekhov Technique Explained: What Actors Need to Know | Backstage 

Method Acting which is described by Backstage.com's Alex Ates as a method that "trains actors to inhabit the psyche of their character, sometimes for long periods, to facilitate realistic behaviour under imaginary circumstances." What is Method Acting? History, Exercises, and Examples | Backstage 

Meisner Acting Technique is described by Backstage.com's Alex Ates as being "centered around three tenets: emotional preparation, repetition, and improvisation. The logic of Meisner's method is that these components work hand-in-hand to help actors remain present and engaged with their scene partner instead of relying solely on rehearsal or memory." The Meisner Acting Technique: a Complete Guide | Backstage 

Practical Aesthetics Acting Technique is described by theactorspulse.com as "Practical Aesthetics asks an actor only to commit their will to the pursuit of an action based on their dissection of what is expected of them. It is very ‘I’ focused. The use of past memories is also discouraged as it is believed they can hinder the truth of the moment." Practical Aesthetics: A Beginner's Guide to the Technique (theactorspulse.com.au) 

Types of Acting Techniques (Classical, Meisner, etc.): Updated 2024 - Headshots NYC (cityheadshots.com) 

They need to be able to project and enunciate for the audience. 

This is very important, especially for stage actors, as audience members could be seated quite far away and if you aren't able to project whilst also enunciating properly it’s likely they won’t be able to pick up or understand your performance. Being able to distinctly enunciate your speech is also by far one of the most important aspects of your performance. If you don’t articulate or enunciate clearly, no one is going to understand a word of what you are saying and your performance won't come through.

My ability to project and enunciate isn't as good as I'd like it to be. When I was around 4 or 5 I ended up biting my tongue whilst running up the stairs, putting a hole in my tongue. This affected my speaking for years after, making it more difficult for me to speak clearly, making me mumble and speak quieter. I ended up having to relearn how to talk properly and I do speak much better than what I used to, but I still have problems sometimes with properly articulating everything I say and I still need to practise on properly projecting.

One of the ways I can improve my projection is with the ‘ha’ exercise. To do this you’ve got to breathe from your diaphragm. You just take a big breath in expanding your lungs down and your abdomen out and then you force all that air out saying “ha”. And to help with my enunciation I can practice my articulation by doing tongue twisters and practicing by overly enunciating words. I can also practise the methods from londonspeechworkshop.com, which has a link to it below, to help improve my enunciation. One of those methods being to put the knuckle of your thumb in your mouth and bite down gently. Then, using any reading material you have, read out loud and speak as clearly as you can. Do this for at least a minute a day and you'll notice straight away after doing it how much clearer you sound. Doing all this a couple times a week should help improve my projection and enunciation.

Projecting Your Voice Without Yelling (theatrefolk.com) 

How To Enunciate Better & Stop Mumbling (londonspeechworkshop.com) 

Improvisation skills. 

This can be very useful for actors, it can be used in case they forget their lines or in case something goes wrong. It can also be used to elevate a scene and make it better. This also requires a deeper understanding of an actor's character in order for the improv to feel right and work.

I feel as though I am okay at improv but I could definitely do with practising it more. When I end up doing improv it's normally to try and be funny or to get a laugh, which can be good for improv comedy but isn't the best for general improv. I also tend to not do improv in character, I normally end up breaking character when doing improv. The only time when I don't really is when the whole piece is improvised, but then the characters basically just a different version of me.

One of the ways I can improve my improv skills is by improving my listening skills. Improving my listening skills will help me avoid trying to just do my ideas during the improv and will help me in accepting the ideas they come up with. Doing this will open up new possibilities for new and exciting ideas to occur. 

Improv is also about making bold choices, so being confident in those choices will help instil that confidence in others and minimise any uncertainty in the performance. The audience will also better respond to you if you are confident. There are a lot of ways to help improve confidence, like being kind to yourself, recognising positives, build a support network, set yourself a challenge and looking after yourself.

3 Ways Improv Can Help You Professionally (saccomedyspot.com) 

5 Easy Tips To Build Your Confidence (commonpurpose.org) 

How can I improve my self-esteem? - Mind 

Stamina. 

Actors normally have to work long hours, whilst also acting out high energy scenes, so they need to have good physical stamina to be able to perform the scenes consistently with good energy throughout the day.

I would say that my stamina at this point in time isn't the best, especially when it comes to more physical and strenuous activity. This is especially bad if the show we’re doing is a musical as I’d likely be singing, dancing and acting all at the same time which will mean I'll end up out of breath quickly which is not ideal. However if the performance isn't too strenuous and I'm not running around for ages, then I can perform for quite a while.

I've already began to improve my stamina slowly by making sure I go to the gym a couple times a week focusing on improving my strength and doing cardio to improve my stamina. Increasing your strength through weight training will increase your metabolism and therefore your stamina. By becoming stronger, your body will feel lighter and you will be able to control your movement more efficiently, therefore using less oxygen. The more muscles workout, the more it will challenge your cardiovascular system, which will in turn, improve your stamina. Compound movements, such as squats, step-ups, press-ups or pull-ups, all utilise more than one muscle group, therefore will enhance your endurance quicker than isolated movements. Mixing these into my weekly workouts should help improve my stamina over time. 

10 Ways to increase your stamina (pitchero.com) 

Strategy to Improve my Skills

As this unit is running along side Unit 13 - Acting 1 I am going to make the timeframe for me to achieve my goals the Sunday before the performance, that being the 16th June. I'm going to start this on the 13th May, meaning I'll have 5 weeks to make these improvements.

Though my skills improvement sheet below includes everything I want to improve on. I am only going to set the goal of improving the most relevant skills at 5 weeks, as the rest are a longer commitments that I want to continually improve over a longer time period.

The skills I am going to focus on over the 5 weeks are:

• Projection

• Enunciation

• Stamina (will also be continuing after the 5 weeks)

I am focusing on these 3 skills as I think they are the ones that are going to help me the most with the performance we're doing in June. Projection as we are doing the performance outside and without mics so I need to make sure people can hear me. Enunciation because as an actor I want people to be able to understand what I am saying when I'm acting. Stamina because it'll mean I will be able to do the show without getting too tired and because it'll help me prevent any injuries to my self. We're also going to be doing 3 shows in a row, so having better stamina will help me handle the workload better.

Creativity.

Over the next 7 months, so to the end of the year, I am going to follow my skills improvement plan to help improve my creativity. This is something I think I am going to continue working on after the 7 months. My hope for this is that it will help me improve my story telling skills and to help me think of new and creative ideas. One of my hopes for the future is to be able to make my own films, this includes being the one to write and direct them. So improving my creativity could help me in getting opportunities to create my own projects in the future. 

Acting Techniques.

This is something I am going to continuously work on throughout my career as an actor. But over the next 7 months I am going to follow my skills improvement plan to improve my ability to act using different methods. This should not only improve my performances as an actor but my versatility as well. Being able to act in a bunch of different methods is very important for getting work as an actor, as projects may require different techniques, styles or methods. Knowing these different methods then will help in being ready for whatever challenge comes my way.

My Development

Over the last 5 weeks I have undertaken my skills improvement plan and I can definitely notice a difference in my stamina, projection and enunciation. 

Stamina.

Over the last 5 weeks I have been trying to consistently improve my stamina each week following the plan I made. Most weeks I was able to do this with out too much problem. For one of the weeks I was away on holiday so it was a bit more difficult to do the exercises, but I still managed to do some form of exercise to improve my stamina through swimming. After the 5 weeks I can definitely tell that my stamina has improved, but it hasn't improved as much as I would've liked. This was no problem for the show however, as I was still able to do all 3 performances without any trouble and I think doing this over the last 5 weeks have helped with that. I will be continuing with these exercises each week to help me improve my stamina more, as I believe it will open up more employment opportunities as I will be able to do more without getting tired. The other outcome of doing these exercises will be an improved physique, which I believe can make it easier for me to get cast in certain roles.

Projection.

I have also been practicing with my projection and I believe I have improved over the last 5 weeks. I have mainly been doing the 'Ha' technique 3 times a week to help me improve. I did have 1 week where I was on holiday and so wasn't able to complete them that week. During the performances I was able to be heard by everyone who attended and I didn't get any notes saying I needed to speak louder, which is definitely an improvement for me. I am going to continue with the exercises as I think it's something I should maintain going forward. Being able to project well will definitely help me when it comes to getting work in the future, projection is a must have if you are wanting to get into theatre. This is because obviously not everyone is going to be sat close to you, so it's important that you can project so the people sat right at the back can hear you.  

Enunciation.

I have also been working on my enunciation over the last 5 weeks. I have seen an improvement but I would like to keep practicing it to improve it more. Because of the accident I had when I was around 5 where I bit a hole into my tongue, my enunciation has always needed improving. So it's been nice to notice a difference over 5 weeks, even if the improvement is only small. Though I did have the one week where I was on holiday, so I wasn't able to fully practise during that week. Working on my enunciation is definitely something I'm going to continue practicing going forward. Enunciation is very important to getting work in the industry. Whether on stage, on film or in a recording studio you need to be able to enunciate your words properly so that your audience are able to understand what you are saying and fully take in your performance.