Tips on Acting & Getting Started

Video Transcript

"I love William Shakespeare but I confess I don't always understand him, that's what my Shakesperian dictionary is for. Hi, I'm Janice Creneti. I'm director of the Girlstories Theater Project in Tampa Bay, Florida with Power Stories, Inc. I'm here to talk to you today about tips on being an actor and how to get started. I have a lot of people say to me well how did you begin, when I got involved in acting almost 25 years ago. It's actually pretty simple but it does take a lot of discipline on your part. The first thing you want to think about is as an actor you are going to have to audition to get a role so how are you going to prepare to go in for that audition? What's the director going to be looking for? Well first of all every good actor needs to be able to project and they need to be able to articulate. The audience needs to be able to hear you and they need to be able to understand and the best way to be able to do that is to practice, practice, practice. Do some lines for your friends. Read them the monologue that you are working on. Get some feedback from them. Can they hear you, do they understand what you are saying, do they believe what you are saying? That gets into the acting part. So make sure that you are able to speak clearly and be understood. Next make sure that you know how to show a character. How can you get your body involved and your face involved to show the audience the words that you are saying? They need to be able to see it in all of you if they are going to believe what's coming out of your mouth. Think about that character and be prepared for that character. Then be aware of all the different kinds of theater that is out there. Musical theater can be very different from straight plays. In musicals you might need to sing. You might need to dance and act and you usually have to do it all at the same time. Straight plays they might be looking for how you actually get into the depth of the character. Can you show really subtle changes in emotion? A lot of times that is called for in your more serious dramas. So you need to be able to use again that instrument to show your different levels of performance. You also need to know who is doing plays? Where can I go to audition? Maybe you would go to a local community theater, even your church or you school a lot of times will be doing shows especially around the holidays. So check that out. Join a local acting network if you can. They usually have a warehouse where they post auditions from a variety of groups and they'll keep you informed of workshops in the area which is also a great way for you to meet people that are doing the directing and the casting for a show. So get your instrument ready, be comfortable going into those auditions, find out what's around you and then dive in. Remember not to give up if you don't get cast the first couple of times, sometimes directors are looking for something very specific, hair color, height, try not to take it too personally if you don't audition. But if you have the opportunity ask for some feedback. What could I have done differently? Improve, improve, and then you are ready to tackle that next audition with confidence. I'm Janice Creneti and this is tips on acting and how to get started."