There’s the Art of Acting and The Art of Getting Work – they are different. So often actors, especially young actors, are grateful to anyone who gives them the time of day. I’ve been coaching/teaching/directing for years, but I still remember when I started as an actress. I was grateful just to get an appointment with anyone in the business. It took a while to remember that I had something to offer - my talent, my training, my work and that I needed to value it, if I expected anyone else to value it.

Let’s look at this from several angles. There is a difference between being genuinely pleased to get an appointment, an agent, a coach etc, and being insecurely and overly grateful. It only takes a moment to see whether an actor is coming from a secure or insecure position. This is so understandable – because to be a good actor you strive to be vulnerable and open. But that’s on-stage/on camera as needed. That’s really not about off-stage behavior.

Of course, if you seriously train, you must learn many skills. Briefly, you must know how to breakdown a script, carve out the beats, form intentions, choose actions and really work off your partner(s) moment to moment. Eventually you need to know how to find a character. I suggest you find how you are like the character in every way possible before you go for how you are different from the character.

Then of course you need to be able to prepare emotionally. A good preparation is personal. It’s really nobody’s business what you do in preparation. Preparation is private. It involves fantasizing in a way that involves you emotionally, physically and psychologically. The process is sometimes painful and must be taught carefully so that you develop a technique that really works. It is important to be quite ruthless with yourself when preparing. It’s critical to be emotionally affected and that kind of fantasizing requires the use of all six senses. Learning preparation skills is critical and takes time. It isn’t ‘instant coffee’. Once you know it – preparation is easy and pretty foolproof. The trick is to know when to stop, and how to get in and out of an emotional preparation.

Then of course, the actor must develop the appropriate cover for all this emotional work. You can’t play your preparation. You simply trust it. Easily said and a little harder to learn. Now you are ready for rehearsals. You now start to unfold your work before critical eyes – the director first.

This is when it become important to know how to be vulnerable and how to protect yourself. Both are your responsibilities. An actor needs to move back and forth from being protective to being vulnerable. It’s an important skill to learn. Everyone feels they can give actors comments. Grips feel they can say they ‘liked’ a certain take. This is the time to decide who you trust and to learn to ‘sift’.

A good director makes a safe environment for his/her actors. That said, there are many pressures on a director – not the least of which is the need “to get it done on time.” It’s important to ascertain for yourself if the set is safe or tense. In quick television there’s so little time.

The simple fact is: if someone isn’t good to you, it’s perhaps for reasons you may never know and really don’t need to know. Protect yourself and take criticism professionally. Get a piece of paper and write down the comments you are given. Put that piece of paper between you and the person giving criticism. If you don’t understand what’s said ask for clarification. If you still don’t get it…you really can’t use it can you? So don’t make yourself crazy over it. Just do the very best you can and move on.

Most importantly don’t make yourself wrong in your own eyes. Think of your talent as if it is a five-year-old child inside of you. If that child didn’t understand something would you hit it or beat on it? No - of course not. So don’t beat on yourself. We all have a critic inside of us. Its purpose is to beat us up. That critical voice often says awful things to us. Why did you do that? How awful you are! How stupid! Etc etc. It’s important to recognize how easy it is to fall into these negatives. It’s so easy to be negative.

Being positive to yourself seems takes more work somehow. So it’s important to move from child to adult. Being childlike, a necessity for an actor, isn’t the same as being childish. Notice when you are feeling calm and are able to deal with things in an adult manner. When our critical inner-voice(s), or our critics (directors, casting directors, agents, producers, families, etc) give us input, we really need to jump into adult. It’s a muscle that every actor needs to develop. All these techniques are absolutely learnable.

The same rules apply when picking an acting coach. Is this coach going to teach you to prepare, to breakdown scripts, to improvise, the stages of rehearsal? Is cold reading taught? Are the differences between film, TV and theatre addressed? Audit. Look at the interactions between the coach and the actors in the class. Look at the work being done objectively. Is it good? Is the environment creative and are the actors working hard and getting somewhere? Ask the people in the class how they feel about it. Is the coach accessible and is the instruction understandable?

Beware of classes that are only social gatherings and beware of classes where more than month-to-month fees are collected – long term commitments are unnecessary. If the private class is good and the teacher is good – people want to stay – they don’t need a 2 year contract. Does the coach recommend several photographers? If so, you are sure they are legitimate. They should be committed to teaching you a technique. No coach gives you talent. You already have all the talent you can have when you walk through the door. A good coach will teach you how to get out of the way of your god-given talent and how to free that talent with solid techniques.

"MARIA GOBETTI IS THE FINEST COACH. WE ARE SO PROUD TO BE PART OF THE VICTORY" - Director - Ron Howard.

Maria, one of the most well respected and highly recommended coaches and acting teachers in Los Angeles, coaches at all the major studios. She teaches at The New York Film Academy, The American Academy of Dramatic Art, UCLA etc. A member of the Directors Guild of America – she is a working professional Director. The Gobetti-Ormeny Acting Studio is at the award-winning Victory Theatre Center which is dedicated to new works and important revivals. She is the Artistic Co-Director of The Victory. Her classes include Preparation, Improv, Scene Study, Cold Reading, as well as On-Camera work. Beginning, Intermediate, Advanced Professional & Commercial Classes. Check out www.TheVictoryTheatreCenter.org Call 818.766.6944 for an interview and free audit.