What Acting Is and Isn't

What Acting Is and Isn't

This week’s episode is based on a question we received about adding your own circumstances in order to increase the stakes, or help you connect. Here’s the question in its entirely:

Is it acceptable to add your own specific circumstances or facts to bear down on generalities in the script?

Or is this dangerous embellishment? David Mamet says to invent nothing, and that the author has given you only what is germane to the physical action of the play, as the joke-writer gives you only what is germane to the punchline.

For example act 1, scene 4 (Richard III). Murderers and Clarence. There is nothing that mentions how much time they have to kill Clarence in the scene but the actors may add the fact “we only have 5 minutes to kill Clarence” so as to make the present circumstance more engaging and difficult, therefore more entertaining?


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Episoder(246)

Living Off Your Partner

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Building a solid relationship with the partner gives you grounding. Knowing who I'm talking to and what my attitude is towards them opens up what's going on in a scene.

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Talking Out a Preparation

Talking Out a Preparation

In this video Milton works with Rashaud as he prepares a monologue from The Laramie Project.

12 Jul 7min

Specificity • a Key

Specificity • a Key

Not just unexperienced facts can deaden our work as actors, the need to explain or report the facts can get in the way of our most creative work. Digging down specifically can help this problem.

7 Jul 12min

Getting to Depth

Getting to Depth

It's not just enough to be functional or accurate or good enough. There's a road in to our actor work that helps us find extraordinary choices and frees us up to do our best work.

30 Jun 16min

Before the First Line

Before the First Line

If you think of the play as a continuation of what has already happened, it gives you a sense of how much work you have to do in order to earn the play. Excerpted from my New York class, we continue o...

23 Jun 17min

The Human Being Behind the Character

The Human Being Behind the Character

Continuing work on the Frank Gilroy play, The Subject Was Roses, this expert from Milton's in-person class begins to explore the road in to building a character with more depth.

16 Jun 16min

Working on Text

Working on Text

Working on a play begins to give actors the foundation of working on any text they get. These are excerpts from my Script Analysis class at The Actor Lab in New York.

12 Jun 12min

The Partner and their Behavior

The Partner and their Behavior

We're combining two exercises in this class. (1) Seeing someone 'on the street' and being able to make decisions about who they are, based on their behavio and (2) building an attitude towards them.

26 Mai 14min

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