Actors seem to need to know the right questions to ask and are required to do a lot of their own character and script analysis.  It’s our job (as actors) and we study for this: to figure out the character’s ‘objective’, the ‘super objective’, the character’s goal etc. etc. — whomever you listen to or with whom you study.  Then the Director has his say — ideally before the actor has read his mind!

This is a full-time job, and one must research and become the character and not over-intellectualize.  Oh dear, ‘the intellectual actor’.  You may think this is a compliment, but it’s not!  You must come from the gut and above all — truth.

For acting classes in Sydney              http://wp.me/sXTWu-1560

“If you catch somebody ‘acting’ in a movie, that actor is doing it wrong.  The moment he’s caught ‘performing’  for the camera, the actor has blown his cover.  He’s no longer a private character in a private world.  Now he’s a highly paid actor on contract to speak these lines for the public.  Good-bye illusion.  Good-bye career.”

– Michael Caine

So? Stop acting even in acting class!

Do it, don’t do it, just be……………………xx

Because:  Preparation allows for SPONTANEITY – freedom of EXPRESSION, CREATIVITY, VULNERABILITY and ACCESSIBILITY!

If you are prepared, know your lines, are aware of your character and the situation, you will then be FREE to be DIRECTED and EXPLORE more.  Once you are ‘off the page’ and not in your head, but into the FEELINGS of your character and the ‘Given Situation’, you will  be amazed at how much further you can take your awareness!

More information on this at: www.audition-secrets.com

P R E P – R O A R – F I N (These 3 words will WOW your audition technique!)

Auditioning?   Love it or Hate it…it’s necessary to Audition to get a job!  The more you audition,
the better you get at it (hopefully) and the less nervous you get.

Three things from the book “Audition Secrets…” are right here and seem simple:

PREP – Preparation
ROAR – Own the Room
FIN – It’s over, don’t beat yourself up or think it’s “in the bag”.

These tools are explained in more detail in the book, which can be found at

www.audition-secrets.com

You MUST prepare.  Casting Agents and Clients name this as their No.1 annoyance – when an
actor has come unprepared.

When you go into the audition room, these are the 2-5 minutes of acting you may do all week, so
make the most of it!

When it’s all over, it’s over.  At least enjoy the fact that you got SEEN and hope for the best.   Just
because you don’t get the job, doesn’t mean YOU were bad. You know, it’s the old – ‘they wanted
a different color of hair in the end’.  Give yourself a break.

Please remember that those people casting you are “not out to get you”. Actually, they are out to make you
look as good as possible – so help them out!  They have clients to please too.

So, as I always say, get out there and HAVE FUN and BE PREPARED.

To honor this, we have been asked to wear something Orange.

I have really opened my eyes to the horrible harm caused by bullying.  I have volunteered and ‘worked’ with underprivileged and abused kids most of my life.  All the time I was thinking how lucky I was not to have been bullied nor had any of my friends.  Also realizing that most of the time these kids (and teens/adults) believe this to be ‘normal’ as they have never experienced anything different.

WELL!  After over 50 years on this earth, a friend of mine realized she had, indeed, herself  been bullied and is still being bullied.  It HURTS!  It hurts really badly.  It’s frustrating and when a person feels there is no way out, it just adds to the pain.

As bullying comes in many different ways, you may not think her experience is as bad as others.  It may not be, but when you are on the receiving end, it’s pretty much paramount.

Rebecca’s story, which she has just been able to put into chapters in her life now goes like this…..

Her brothers made fun of her, called her names, got her in trouble with her parents, punched her, tortured her cats and humiliated her when she was young.  She had lots of very good friends (one of which was me), a loving mother and father; so she thought, “this is just what boys do”.  She left home when she graduated from High School at 17.

Now more than 40 years later, she is still being bullied as she let her brothers back into her life hoping love would be there.  She is still tormented as  they are keeping her from seeing her father who is in a nursing home slowing succumbing to the disease of dementia.

She wants him to remember her as long as he can – but how can he when she is not allowed to see him?  She was hit, punched and tossed around by one of her brothers just recently.  That’s what she gets for leaving home?  Her brothers might say this, but NO!  These men are the same boys who bullied her when she was young.  Does it hurt?  Yes.  Will she survive and overcome?  Yes!  She has me and her loving friends who now know what she went through and is going through now.

I hope all of you who have been bullied or who are being bullied in ANY WAY can share your pain and overcome.  I will be wearing ORANGE on Friday.  I hope you do too.