It’s opening night and YOU are the star! The theater shimmers, the audience shimmers, and that’s your name up there in the lights! Yesterday nobody knew your name, but today you are a superstar!
Wouldn’t it be wonderful to be a star? Everyone screaming and yelling as you walk by! Expensive cars and clothes! Beautiful people around you! Famous! Wouldn’t that be great?
Yes, that would be great, but unfortunately, or for the true artist, not so unfortunately, it’s not as simple as that.
First of all, very, very, very few actors become stars overnight. Second, very, very few of all aspiring actors become stars!
So before you read much more about a career in theater arts, think carefully about yourself: Do you really want to be an ACTOR? Or do you really just want to be a STAR?
HOW TO BECOME AN EVENING STAR
1. Call yourself an “actor.”
2. Take some acting lessons.
3. Dress the part.
4. Go to some auditions.
5. Have the correct connections.
6. Being in the right place at the right time.
7. Have, for some reason, a certain appeal to a very fickle audience.
8. Have a lot of inexplicable luck, very good.
HOW TO BECOME AN ACTOR
1. Study acting, movement, speech, dramatic literature
2. Learn to use your mind, emotions, voice and body expressively and freely at will.
3. Get deep satisfaction from putting yourself in the role of another human being.
4. Think, analyze, use your intuition, feel and rehearse, rehearse, rehearse.
5. Have an image of yourself that is good enough, and an ego that is strong enough, to take many, many rejections before you get called back.
6. Being able to support yourself with a part-time job, even at low pay, to make time for classes and auditions.
7. Have talent: a special combination of energy, seriousness, expressiveness, insight, understanding and presence.
WHAT DOES AN ACTOR DO?
An actor’s job is to bring to life a character that has been invented by the playwright and, with their co-actors, director, and production members, to bring to life the playwright’s story and vision.
After choosing a role, your work as an actor takes place in rehearsal and at home. In rehearsal, your work will be guided by your director and influenced by the characterizations of the other actors. As your character develops, you will pay close attention to the theatrical effect of your voice, expression, and movement.
Much of his characterization will also take place at home. There you will analyze and begin to understand the entire makeup of your character, what he did and what he was like long before the play begins, and why he does what he does in the play. You will learn to move, think and speak as your character does and, in short, you will grow to identify with your character.
An actor’s work, which to the uninitiated may appear to be pure repetition, is in fact the careful development of a character based on intense intellectual, emotional, and physical exertion.
IF YOU WANT TO BE AN ACTOR, HOW DO YOU PROCEED?
Is it necessary to study at a professional acting school or college theater program to “make it” in theater?
No, not in the sense that a degree or certificate will ever be required for a position. However, if a director auditions two naturally talented actors, and only one, through training and technique, can quickly respond deeply and respond to emotional and intellectual direction, and use his body and voice freely and at will, then the director has no difficulty in making his decision.
What does a director look for? What happens at an audition?
In some cases, the director knows in advance how he wants a character to look, talk and walk, and chooses an actor who fits this image. If you’re not what the director has in mind, you’re out of luck. Usually, however, the director only has a general idea of what he is looking for.
There are basically two types of auditions: cold readings and those for which the actor has had a chance to prepare. In the first type, you are asked to read an unknown part in an unknown play. You can only give a brief summary of the work and the character. What you should do in this case is read with intelligence and variety, taking advantage of the pauses, showing your range, stage presence and talent to the maximum. However, for many auditions, actors are asked to prepare two monologues, usually one serious and one humorous. In any type of audition, if the director offers instructions, he follows his advice as carefully as you can because he wants to see how you respond to his instructions.
What if you don’t “make it big” on Broadway?
There are hundreds and hundreds of high quality theaters and theater companies that are not on Broadway, not even in New York City. And just as important, there are thousands of people outside of New York City who demand world-class talent and performance.
