My friends at NohoArtsDistrict.com asked me to share with you a bit about the 'how to' in the craft of acting. I’ve spent the last 15 years teaching and acting in theatre, television and film. You can visit www.DawnnieMercadoInc.com and download my full Audition Prep guide for only $10.00 or book private coaching sessions.

Acting is easy compared to the business of acting.

Actors at all levels, the first thing you need to do is get into an acting class that challenges you. Always be in a class.

Acting is hard work! But it is also fun and very rewarding if you are in it for the craft of acting. Acting careers are made up mostly of studying and auditioning. When the paying gigs come along make sure that your focus is still on the work.

This next 'how to' section is going to sound much simpler than it is.

As Stanislavski would say “act as if your character and the situations you find yourself in are real”. If you don't know who Stanislavski is - you should. Google him along with Sanford Meisner and Uta Hagen.

Read your script out loud again and again. Believe what you're saying. Talk 'to' the other characters as if they are really who they say they are. Don't talk 'at' them. Make a connection with them. Ask yourself these important questions: Why are you saying and doing the things you are saying and doing? Your character always wants something, what is it? Where are you? Who are you? Who are you talking to? What do you want from them? What happened right before you started speaking?

You'll also find a lot of information in the stage directions.

There isn’t enough room here to go into depth about stage directions. I’ll just say that they are either italicized or (in parenthesis) between the character's lines. You don't speak these. They are sometimes directions to you from the writer, sometimes information from a former production in the case of a play. You should read stage directions to yourself as part of your homework as they may give you important clues as to what is going on in the scene.

Break your scene or monologue down into, at the very least, three sections. The beginning, the middle and the end. Remember every script is a story and you are the story teller.

This of course is only the beginning. Remember, no matter who you study with, keep it consistent. Singers, dancers and athletes don't expect to do their best if they have not been continually warming up their muscles. The skills you use as an actor are muscles too. You are never 'finished' with your training.

One final thought: The best things you bring to the table as an actor are the things that make you uniquely yourself. You are not competing with anyone else because no one else is YOU.

Dawnnie Mercado.


Ms. Mercado can be reached through the following sites: www.Dawnnie.com & www.DawnnieMercadoInc.com