Notes from acting workshops in LA

“Get away from the results, and get in the moment to moment experience.”

Tasha Smith Acting Workshop

 My opponent is my teacher, my ego is my enemy.

 Leave it all on the stage
 There’ s a price to pay for art
 What do I have to lose. If you’re comfortable, you’re off
 Get it onto the other person

Pull yourself out of the scene, and then build it up

What freaks you out (your character). What’s normal?
Find a commonality of pain with your character
What’s his/hers main objective- everything else dances around it
Does your character enjoy attention?
On-stage, sit with where you are, even if you don’t feel like that’s the spot where you
should be.
Acting is not about mapping out the experience. We have the map in the form of the
script.
Do not drift. When we don’t know what to do, don’t do anything.

Go where the moment is taking you instead of predicting.

YOU GOTTA GET OUT OF YOUR OWN WAY.

If your character repeats lines, how does the character change between lines
Find a neutral spot for your character between extremes.

What does your character discover as they go?

As you perform for the class, make clear choices the first time, and show an investment in
your character. As you receive notes, don’t worry about getting everything the teachers
gives you in the second time. Just injest what they say, and build on the clear choices you
have already made.

Don’t wait for permission to start acting.

If you find yourself over-thinking in a scene, use it. Use your nervousness in the scene.

Your job is not to self-direct: Do not conflate a note to mean something else, like a critique.
We judge the note and demonise it, but take the note as a cup of warm earl grey. Down the
batch and see where it lands.