How To Find A Los Angeles Acting Class

Step-by-step Instructions

Here is what you need to do...
Step 1

An acting class in LA, or New York, ow wherever, in a production city. It can be in a theatre setting, it can be in a room, it can be out here by the pool. It can be wherever. What happens is you go there, after you love it. If you do not love it, then you are in the wrong place. You have to love it from day one. If there is a day that you don't want to go to class, you are in the wrong place. Point blank, that's it. Now, when you are there, you work from the ground up. There is a lot of back history that you have to develop in yourself. Its the building blocks. Its the fundamentals. There are certain things you have to do before you grab the scene for the first time. So, you learn that. You learn the basics. You learn the fundamentals. You build up.

Step 2

When you are ready for a scene, and that could be a couple weeks, a couple months, a year, all depends on how that acting school is structured. Once you are ready for the scene, you get your partner and either your teacher, or acting coach, I should say, will give you a scene of a play or you guys pick one out yourself. You and your partner.

Step 3

And, from there you go through whatever you were taught. You have to read it obviously, you have to know the ins and outs of it. You have to know the ins and outs of your character. And some of this stuff you can relate from your real, personal life, some of the stuff you have to totally make up.

Step 4

Whatever you make up, so have to know like its your real life. You and I, right now, we are in the middle of our real lives. We know what we did yesterday, we know what we are doing tomorrow. We know our sleeping habits. We know all of our history, We know our first car. We know the first girl we kissed. We know all these different things. You have to create that for the character. And that is what an acting class, with the correct acting coach, will show you how to do.

Step 5

Then, they show you other things. They show you your objectives of the scene. They will show you what the conflict is. They will go into everything. But, the purpose of the acting class, with your acting coach, is to build all that for the character. Its also to build the emotional habits of the character. Its to go deep, dark inside you and be able to pull out humiliation, anger. Now, humiliation is the hardest thing for anybody to act. Anger is the easiest. Fears, tears, joy, all that stuff is in the middle.

Step 6

But they show you how to get from A to B and it has to be in a professional environment, where you are protected. Because if you are under the wrong person's care, and you go into a deep dark memory, you might need therapy the rest of your life. So, you have to be in a safe place. Emotionally, physically and under the right care. So, that is what an acting class and an acting studio with the right acting coach with will do for you.

Step 7

The difference between that and a biology class is the setting. You go to high school, junior high, college, all that is one-way and this is it. You got to do A, B and C. You got to do it this way. So, you have go and sit in the class with 30 other people an not say stuff unless you raise you hand. Its totally just set up for you, there is no, you can't vary from what's going on. You go to stay with the pack. And when you don't what happens? You go into detention or you go down to the principal.

Step 8

So, with the acting classes, they are different because, like I said before, everybody wants to be there. You don't have to be there unless you want to be there. So, there is a different vibe. Everyone wants to learn. Everyone wants to help each other grow.

Step 9

You learn from other people's mistakes. Now, you can learn from other people's mistakes in biology, if your buddy raises their hand and gives the wrong answer, OK, so you learn the right answer. Great. But that same mistake can only happen one way. Even if its by 10 other people, it can only happen one way. And acting class, when you watch other people, present their scene, you are watching for things you do as well. But, they could do something wrong, and another person can do the exact same thing wrong a totally different way, totally different character, totally different scene. So, you learn by those mistakes. And hopefully you don't make them in your character, in your scene, which is totally different as well. So, there is learning experiences that help you by watching, which you really cannot do in a biology, mathematics class in a conformist setting.

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Suggested Further Reading

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Actors Survival Guide No Price

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This Student Author's Background

When did you first do this & how did you get started?

I have been an actor in Los Angeles.

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