Four tips to immediately be a better actor

Hi, I’m Tom, and this is the first video in my “Acting for Everyone” series. To get started, I’m going to give you four tips that can immediately pay off for you at your next audition or rehearsal. They’re common sense ideas that seem pretty obvious, but you might be surprised how many actors at all levels - amateur and professional - don’t follow one or more of them. Let’s get started!

First, when you’re acting, you have to Be loud enough! This is obvious, right? But how many times have you watched a live stage play – even professional productions! – and found it hard to hear one or more of the actors? Way too often! Actors do a lot of work diving into the personal motivations of their characters, and this is important, no doubt about it. But if I can’t hear you, there’s no point to all of the work you’ve done! It’s more common than it used to be to wear microphones on stage, but we can’t stop working on the main tool in our kit… our bodies! You must be heard, and you must be understood, or everything is lost. Work on volume and projection constantly. When you do, you will automatically discover more vocal variety, which will provide you with more – and better – character choices.

Number two: Don’t cheat. Now, this tip also works as a general reminder not to be lazy in your acting work, but, in this case, I’m talking about the dreadful - and yet still very common - habit of twisting your body forty-five degrees, pointing our upstage foot at our partner and the downstage foot at the seats, and talking “across” our partner instead of at them. This is known as “cheating,” and it’s much more common in community theater, but I’ve seen it plenty of times in professional work as well. We’ve been told that from the audience’s point of view, it looks like we’re talking to each other. (beat) It doesn’t! It does look like the next song in a musical is about to begin, which is particularly distracting when the play isn’t, in fact, a musical. Just look at your scene partner and talk. Real eye contact can’t be faked and it is important to the audience. Trust that your profile and the rest of your body will help convey your character’s emotional state until the next time the audience sees your wonderful face.

Okay, third tip: Be neutral, then move. The overall responsibility for what the play ends up looking like belongs to the director. When I direct, I like to think of it as “painting with people.” But a good director expects their actors to bring blocking ideas to the rehearsal, and then lets them experiment with those ideas. I mean, you know where you come in and where you exit… it right in the script! But what happens in between those moments? Where do you need to be on stage when you meet, or hug, or fight, or kiss? Obviously, those need to be worked out with your scene partner and the director. Other than those vital moments, though, the rest of the blocking is gonna be up to you. But… you have to know why you’re moving, so you can make purposeful, instead of random, moves. I once asked an actor in a rehearsal why they’d gotten up off the couch and crossed down stage right. They told me it was because they - the actor, not the character! - had been sitting too long and they - again, the actor, not the character! - had gotten bored. Your audience doesn’t know the story the way you do, and they will assume that anything you do, including moving, has a purpose or a meaning. Can’t think of a good, justifiable reason to move? Don’t. Stay in neutral until your character needs to move.

Finally, and this is a quick introduction to the overall idea behind my upcoming videos: Ask “why?” I’ve seen it hundreds of times as a director, but it never fails to surprise me: an actor makes a choice that has no connection to the character’s reality. I ask them to explain the choice, but they can’t, because it’s not grounded in the character’s needs or wants at that moment. Fall back on Stanislavski’s “Magic If:” If I were in this situation, and if I wanted or needed what my character wants or needs, how would I behave? Ask the most important question: Why? Ask it over and over. Why does my character say this? Why do they behave this way? What do they want, and as important, why do they want that specific thing? And once I know “why?”, how do I act out that desire or need? How do I help the audience see the reasons behind what my character is doing, and not just hear the lines being said? Your acting choices have to be grounded in reality. After all, if you don’t believe what your character is doing, why should the audience?

Okay, that’s enough for this video. If you’ve found these four tips interesting, try them out at your next rehearsal, and consider subscribing to the channel to get updates on my upcoming videos. I also love it when people share videos they found useful or inspiring with other actors. Until next time, I’m Tom Kephart… Go be an artist!