Once you have decided that acting is your thing and that’s what you will do for rest of your life, the big question pops up is “how to start acting?” And for most people, the first answer is to find an acting school that will pave the path to stardom. That’s okay path to choose if you have experienced acting in some way or other. But if you are novice with null acting experience, I would suggest you to do some acting first. Some acting means take part in local theater group or if you are in high school or college, join the drama group. Get a feel of what acting is all about.
How to start acting?
Cruelest experiences are the best experiences. Why I am saying this because when I first decided to start acting, i straight away went for an audition. I had zero experience, never faced camera or audience. All I thought, acting is cool, actors are famous, and that’s why I must do it. To cut the story short, I was laughed off in my first audition. It wasn’t a major part. I was auditioning for an independent short film.
Since I was laughed off, I decide to learn acting from some reputed acting school. So, I applied to an reputed acting school, but failed get into it. Why? Because, admission procedure required me to present two 3- minute scenes. In addition, I was competing with applicants who were already doing some acting or other. So, again the experience was same as it was during independent short film audition.
But I am thankful for these experiences because it taught me an important lesson. I must experience acting before I ask anyone to teach me.
Grab even the smallest chance to act
My first step after those rejections was to find what I was capable of. I decided to make short films of my own. These short films helped see what I was doing. First, I didn’t know what was right or wrong but atleast I was comfortable with playing scenes. All the anxiety and nervousness was gone, which really helped me to improvise.
“improvisation is the most important tool to have in an actor’s armory. “
So to answer how to start acting, you can do following things:
- If you are in school, high school or college, just go join a drama group. Most of the institutions has these groups. Do any work you get. Do even the smallest role you get.
- Look for local theater group who are taking newbie. Even if it is non-paying job, take it.
- Best and must for any starter or even for student actor, is to shoot your own videos.
“Heath ledger loved shooting himself. (Watch his documentary, which has compilation of videos shot by heath himself.)”
- Get books of legendary teachers like Konstantin Stanislavsky, Stella Alder, Stanford Meisner, Uta Hagen and many more. They will give valuable tools that will make you better actor.
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These all steps that answer the question”how to start acting”, will help you develop a strong base for your acting. It will be like a bare skeleton, which then can be dressed by acquiring proper training from reputed school or coach. By just practicing these tips, you will be able to go through tough admission procedures of acting schools with confidence.
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