I want to take up acting. And street performing maybe. Im not

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>>17815969
You are not strong enough with the Force, you ain't got the moves: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NGFRG09sHag

>>17815969
Just try going to a street corner and performing cold, to discover what real failure feels like.

90% of street performers, be they musicians, mimes or whatever, are trained professional or advanced student performers, practicing the craft they've learned and studied.

Performing is not just a matter of desire or even of native talent, It involves skill and technique you have to study.

Acting student here. I've seen a lot of people sign up for theatre work, and bail out because they got the wrong idea of what the work entails.

Have you ever got up on a stage outside of a middle/high school setting and acted before? Lots of people say they're creative and that they think they're talented at such and such, but have never really experienced the actual shit they're wanting to do

>>17816526
Go on, anon. Would be cool to hear some details. What does it entail generally, why exactly to people bail?

>>17816563
A lot of people bail simply because they have a relatively uninformed idea of theatre works in general. They typically have ideas of the big Broadway musical shows where they develop a sort of superficial relationship with what they're seeing and feeling, and think it is something they can duplicate simply because they felt that way. I'm not saying this is a bad thing because what I described is often a spark for some great people to get started, but the best actors put a huge amount of intellectual work into their craft and it can be more than some are willing to put up with.

It involves a lot of reading. More reading than most people expect. You may hear about an actor reading a bunch of comics when they get hired into a role in a superhero movie. That's kind of a minimum, and only told because it gets a quick little headline.

When you get a role, you're going to be reading the script several times attentively, making various notes linking lines to other scenes and developing the intellectual aspects of characters. You will also want to be well read on the defining circumstances of the character. Did they quote a single line from Shakespeare piece? Read that play and develop insight into why they would quote the line or why your character would read it in the first place. Does the character have a particular hobby? Learn about that. Read up on the historical events social climates of the time period the play takes place in and understand why it matters (or in some cases why it doesn't) for the character.

Granted, this kind of work isn't applicable in all roles. For example I'm right now working in the crew for an ensemble run of A Christmas Carol, and the majority of the cast didn't need to do this much leg work. But as a street performer or someone who is not doing relatively lighter pieces of work, this luxury shouldn't be assumed.

>>17815969
Audition at some local theaters. They don't usually require any experience.
If you'd like to try voice acting, you can build a decent setup for 200 - 300 dollars.

>>17816628
(cont.)
As an actor, you also have to be comfortable with vulnerability. This was my hardest aspect to change (and I'm sure I'll be working on it for awhile to come). There's an old idea about a good actor being able to cry on cue, but that's a bit of a weird outsider's statement. There are at least a hundred different ways to cry, several of them not happening instantly, and as an actor you need to be comfortable enough to go balls out, snot dripping, gasping for air on your knees while wailing like a ghost if the director asks in front of a bunch of people.

As I said, I'm still working on that because I intellectually thought I could do such a thing, but the time came for something that was probably half of what I described, and it just couldn't come out right. It may seem simpler to do in reading the description, but it's a sort of revelation of yourself as much as it is the character, and it can be a huge hurdle to overcome for some.

Which leads me to my next point about self discipline, but that's kind of self explanatory. I can go into it a bit more specifically if anyone is interested

>>17816628
>>17816675
>They typically have ideas of the big Broadway musical shows where they develop a sort of superficial relationship with what they're seeing and feeling, and think it is something they can duplicate simply because they felt that way.
Mhmm, makes sense. It's a common attitude when it comes to artistic stuff generally since people tend to see only the end results of the work and not all the steps before.

>It involves a lot of reading.
>making various notes linking lines to other scenes and developing the intellectual aspects of characters.
These things seem so painfully obvious in the hindsight but took me by surprise for some reason. Although it actually sounds pretty damn fun if you identify with or at least enjoy the source material. How do you deal with playing a character that doesn't interest you at all?

> vulnerability
>It may seem simpler to do in reading the description, but it's a sort of revelation of yourself as much as it is the character, and it can be a huge hurdle to overcome for some.
Nah, it definitely sounds like a pain, though not something you'd notice as being a potential pain for the actor as an outsider right away.

As for more AMA-style questions: What were your favorite characters so far? Also do you have any preference for the plays, say the Elizabethan era classics or more modern stuff? Also what was your reason/motivation to choose acting?

Thank you for the two walls so far, not OP and don't have any ambitions to do it but I fucking love to get a look behind the scenes of creative jobs.

Sooo, do it?

No one is stopping you.
My wife works full time and she is in at least one or two plays a year at community theatres. She's even done a few leads.

Have fun!

>>17816728
>How do you deal with playing a character that doesn't interest you at all?
I think it's a matter of perspective, honestly. I've never had a character that just outright didn't interest me through the course of the work. There have been a few characters that on a first read through I'd be like "oh, fuck I kind of hate this guy," but in doing the intellectual work you develop a level of respect for the character that makes the portrayal easier to get through. For example, I was once assigned Mitch from A Streetcar Named Desire, and I just thought he was a boring kind of bitch, but overtime the role kind of grew on me and I understood a lot about how a character like that might develop and a better understanding of the play itself. If nothing else, I try and adopt the attitude of the uninteresting character will help me grow in some regard as an actor.

>What were your favorite characters so far?
Out of the work I've done thus far, I really liked Higgins from Pygmalion. Without going into some long winded deal about the process, I found his sense of fake detachment really fascinating to develop and the creation of the tenseness with my Eliza made for a really fun experience.

>do you have any preference for the plays, say the Elizabethan era classics or more modern stuff?
I've mainly worked in more modern/contemporary pieces, so those are my forte, but I'm interested in doing some of the more classical work. I missed out on my school's version of Titus Andronicus awhile back, but the interest is very much there.

>Also what was your reason/motivation to choose acting?
I got a kind of late start compared to a lot of people in my program. In high school, I was in tv production (morning news type of thing) and the teacher of that class also led the drama department, and she suggested I take her improv class, and I would get these huge surges of energy when I got to be on stage and essentially play around. That evolved in time and here I am now

>>17815969

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA WHAT?

thats fine if you want to pick up acting for fun, but you're going to have to do labor work to support yourself. its not like all the struggling actors get paid but are just not 'famous' yet.

my best friends an 'actor'. he even landed an international miller light commercial. but he still has to be a male nanny to make ends meet.

my other friends an actor. works at a server at buffalo wild wings to make ends meet.

other friend is an actor, she is a shift manager at coffee bean.

my other friend is an actor. he also gives craigslist massages despite how uncomfortable his gf finds them.

she is also an actress: gets money from mommy and daddy

another female actress friend. shes pretty smart. she got an in at google doing website verification at 14 an hour, but only at 4 hours a day 4 days week, she relies heavily on her boyfriend to support her, and in addition to that buys and sells web domains.

my other friend is an actor. she is also a nanny to make ends meet.

my other friend is also an actor, works at yogurt stop.

see what im getting at here?

>>17816675

>vulnerability

this isnt just a meme. I live in los angeles, im a wannabe writer, and work with a lot of actors.

my best friend wants to be an actor, and his biggest issue is vulnerability. he is not willing to let down his guard long enough to actually act, cuz hes afraid that the moment he REALLY acts it wont be enough and people will judge.

you have to be willing to risk being ridiculous. and not for comic effect.

but most people are not. as a result he writes himselves these simple shallow roles of badass people doing calm things. hes unwilling to write himself a truly flawed character becuase hes afraid what people will think if hes not playing someone who is something men aspire to be.

and most people are the same way.

if you are unable to get naked in front of strangers withotu being erect, then you probably cant make it as an actor. because you're too worried about them judging something unimportant to waht is happening. a lot of men wont even let a woman see them naked unless they are erect cuz they're afraid of premature judgement on their size when they are soft.

apply that to largte scale acting.

For thoes of grilling me sayi g it take more that this or that. I just want to take ot up as a hobby and great for me of it becomes a full time time ive always been intrested in acting and the arts but never really done anything about it im not saying in gonna be robert deniero or call ly self a serious actor cause thT would be an insult to all who have perfected the art and all of the little things that go into bring a character to life

OP
My bad for all the mis spelling i type reclessly

>>17817319
>>17817325

and thats fine man, thats great. the only issue i had was you said

>im tired of doing labor as work

you'd still have to do labor as work if you picked up acting,

>>17817444
When i say labor i mean such as construction work specificaly dry wall tile paintitn factory work. Ive done this since i was 1e helping my dad and im done with ot o dont feel full filled with it and i ve tried applying for regular joe jobs. The problem is they dont pay as much