Theatre: The Actors

I would be willing to bet that when most of you think of actors, you think of the people in your favorite films or TV shows. While they need to have many of the same skills as actors in live theatrical productions, their jobs are quite different.

At a basic level, both groups are artists practicing the same craft. And many of them spent years acquiring and perfecting the skills necessary to have even a small chance at success! Most of them worked for years as servers in restaurants or bars, tour guides, temporary workers.. any kind of job that would pay the rent, put at least a bit of food on the table, and provide enough cash to pay their acting coaches. The kinds of jobs they take are important: the only chance of that 'big break' is being available for every audition, so jobs with flexible schedules are critical (having a very understanding boss doesn't hurt either!) A very few of the most lucky ones got paying work from time to time - frequently as 'spear carriers' - those folks in the crowd scenes who never get to speak, but whose physical presence is important in many productions. Once in a while, the most fortunate ones got a speaking role or got cast as an understudy, or just happened to be in the right place at the right time and became "overnight" successes!

There is no such thing as an overnight success in the theatre. In TV and film, there are some actors who get decent parts in TV series or in a film or two, but often they become the features on those 'whatever happened to...' ET-type programs. The ones who continue to be successful year after year, in a variety of roles, worked hard to learn their craft.

When people find out about my involvement in the performing arts, many of them feel compelled to tell me that they plan on heading to California or New York to become stars. When asked about their training and background, more often than not they tell me that all they have to do is get up there and be their cute, loveable selves and they will achieve instant stardom. After all, they believe, actors are just plain people playing make believe and anybody can do that, can't they!

The answer is an emphatic NO!

Don't call 911. These people are actors. Nick attempts to keep Martha from popping George! Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolff? Littleton, CO Town Hall Arts Center 1983

Skills

Actors have no tools but themselves to use in their work, so they have to learn to use their bodies, their voices, and their experience to help them create believable characters.

Vocal Skills

Most of us, whether or not we're aware of it, have regional accents and certain vocal 'tics' - those little filler words or sounds we stick in between sentences or phrases. Most of us are also pretty sloppy about speaking clearly or even breathing properly so that we can get a whole thought out without stopping to breathe in the middle. If an actor doesn't work with a speech coach over a long period, he or she will only be cast in roles that require those particular speech characteristics.

And, of course, it's rather important for the audience to be able to understand what you're saying. It is the actor's responsibility to tell the story to the audience. You don't have long to get the audiences' attention; it will never happen if they give up trying to understand you in the first few minutes.

The audience also has to be able to hear the people on the stage telling the story! Non-actors may think that means shouting, but the trick is in learning to project your voice so that even a whisper onstage can be heard clearly in the farthest reaches of the theater. These days, you're more likely to see actors with microphones attached to their bodies and battery packs on their backsides. Talk about distractions!

Actors are, above all, communicators. Becoming an effective communicator takes a lot of work over a long period.

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