Monday, May 28, 2012

Acting Coaches in Los Angeles- Creating Personas

By Kirk Baltz


As with any art form, acting is an ability that requires hard work and long hours. It is only through rigorous study and training that actors can reach their goals. To reach this goal, an actor must delve into his soul and discover who he truly is as a person.

Each person and character alike is multi-faceted as opposed to being one-dimensional and static. These dimensions consist of the individual or character's public persona, his or her deep-seated fears and vulnerabilities, and the tragic flaw. Training with an acting coach can both aid the actor in discovering these dimensions in himself as well as allow him to utilize these personal traits to create very real characters.

Carl Jung espoused the belief that the human person creates a public persona as a means of protecting his true self from others and conveying an image of strength and security as a means for survival. Expression of this persona occurs in all areas of our lives. Similar to actual persons, characters develop public personas that must be unraveled and good acting workshops are designed to teach students how to accomplish just this.

Although the public persona is the dimension that is the most easily recognizable and obvious in a character, it is only an exterior facade and not the core of the individual. The root of a person's character is grounded in their growth and development from childhood. Acting workshops are quite helpful in training students to come to grips with these important facets of their being, allowing them to create very real characters.

These difficulties from our childhood remain with us to adulthood and shape the persona that we create to protect ourselves. Characters on stage or on film are no different. Characters and real persons alike adopt public personas as a means of shielding their weaknesses and helplessness from the world.

In order to become an exceptional actor, a student must learn to remove the superficial exterior of both his and his character's public persona in order to uncover the true self. Quality coaches work to train actors in communicating the sacred and intimate core of a person's soul and being.

All persons in the audience, like the actor and the character, have both a personal core as well as a public persona they have created to protect it. Presenting a character of similar dimensions is sure to create a bond between the audience and the story being told. Being able to create characters such as these is what separates the average actor from the exceptional.




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