How To Elevate Your Acting Skills As A Student

IMAGE: Courtesy of Australian Performing Arts Conservatory (APAC) www.apac.edu.au

Are You Looking To Elevate Your Acting Skills And Take Your Performance To The Next Level?

Many actors believe that an unforgettable performance is 50% luck and 50% natural talent. The truth is that acting is like any other skill. The key to elevating your performance and dazzling the audience is fine-tuning your instrument and lots of practice.

There are a few ways you can help to improve your performance and perfect your craft. Enrolling in educational courses is the first step. For example, enrolling in a performing art school in Brisbane is a great way to begin your acting journey. However, to really supercharge your skills, there are some other tips you can follow outside the classroom to help improve your acting skills and ace every audition.

Vocal Training

What’s the first weapon in your arsenal for improving your skills as an actor? Regular vocal training.

 As an actor, it’s your job to bring words off the page and into life for the audience. However, it doesn’t matter how loudly you’re speaking if it’s a struggle for the audience to understand you. Make it your golden rule to “enunciate, enunciate, enunciate.

Vocal warm-ups are a sure-fire way to enhance a crucial acting skill. You’re probably already familiar with a few pre-show classics, but there’s a wide variety of techniques for you to try. Once you’ve found one that works for you, make it your goal to spend five to ten minutes a day doing vocal exercises. After a few sessions, you’ll notice a drastic improvement in speech, which is sure to be followed by a significant improvement in your performance.

Study Scripts

Once you’ve gotten into the swing of doing regular vocal warm-ups, it’s time to up the ante. Make it a habit to read regularly, study, and rehearse new scripts to really get a feel for the performing process.

When we act, it’s our job to bring words off the page and into life for the audience. However, there’s a whole universe of emotional complexity, depth and sophistication within every script you’re given. It’s one thing to read them, and it’s another to feel them truly. Regularly studying scripts will help you develop a second sense of what script writers are trying to do with their work and help you embody the character’s essence.

To start, set yourself a target for reading one script. It doesn’t have to be Shakespeare or challenging lines, just something well-written. Find something you like, find a character that interests you, and then dive in. Take notes along the margin, identify shifts in tempo or emotion, and make suggestions.

This is a great chance to incorporate your vocal exercises and review yourself as an actor, and it’s also a brilliant opportunity to re-centre your acting training.

Watch and Learn

Lastly, one of the simplest ways to improve your acting skills is by practising a simple technique: watch and learn. If you’re at an acting school in Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne or another city, you’re surrounded by some world-class experts in the field. Take advantage of that, immerse yourself in the world of acting, and learn by osmosis.

When we work on ourselves as actors, it’s easy to get stuck looking in the mirror. We become so concerned with bettering our movements, intonations, and expressions that we sometimes forget to look around us. However, there is so much to be learned from those around you. Everyone brings something different to the table, and no single way is better than the other. Immersion within the scene and exposing yourself to as many performances enables you to gain new techniques, skills, and inspiration for your craft.

The best way to begin this technique to become a better actor? Enrol in a performing art school in Brisbane, immerse yourself in a community of like-minded individuals, learn from the best and, most importantly, remind yourself why you’re taking all these steps in the first place; because you love acting.