Studying acting is something that requires openness and commitment. If you want to excel in this art, you need to exert yourself out of your perceived limitations. While pushing yourself, you need to explore the different acting methods to ensure you always deliver your best performance.
As you study, you may know about the different methods that can be employed. There are no standard techniques that all actors are going to use. The one being used will depend on the style that works for the individual. While there are no universal techniques, you should know about some of the most commonly practiced ones.
The Meisner Technique
This acting technique is centered on the concept of truth in acting. The pioneer of this method was Sanford Meisner who encouraged all his students to “be real” under the circumstances they are acting. This approach of acting will have the actor use their feeling impulses and lend their heart instead of their brain to the performance.
Stanislavski’s System
This method needs you to use your own emotions and memory about past events when it comes to acting. When using this method, you have to remember past events and memories that will help you with the scene or character. As you use this, you will need to ask yourself how you would react to the same situation if it was a real event in your life.
Lee Strasberg’s Method
When you use this method, your connection to the art is intensified by imitating the experience of the character in the frame of your own life. This will help you achieve a bigger insight of the character. This creates a stronger connection that allows you to display the emotional state of the character.
Atlantic’s Practical Aesthetics
Unlike other methods, this technique focuses on 2 parts. That is to “act before you think” and “think before you act.” Classes in analyzing the material and the technique you use in your acting will help you analyze the script and understand the story or given circumstances. You will then go through the steps of selecting a course of action and choices that will form the character you play.
Actors will be shown how to pay attention to what is taking place in the scene and to make the choices of an action based on this. The method of script analysis was developed by William Macy and David Mamet to explore what the character is actually doing and what they want. This is then distilled into an action that the actor can take.
The second step to this method is called “Moment.” Courses called “Moment Lab” will focus on this and take you through exercises that help you overcome any self-consciousness. The classes also teach you to put your attention on another actor and act truthfully on what you experience.
Practical Aesthetics is taught by some schools in New York. These methods are also taught at New York Acting School for Film & Television. Students trained at this school of acting in NY will have skills that they can use throughout their careers.
