Friday, June 22, 2012

Acting Coach in Los Angeles- Lifelike Characters

By Kirk Baltz


When it comes to acting, great abilities cannot be formed overnight. Instead, significant effort and training are required to form an individual skilled in his or her craft. One of the most necessary and yet difficult components of great acting is learning to rip past the facade that covers the actors themselves and the characters they create to reveal the true identities within.

Each person and character alike is multi-faceted as opposed to being one-dimensional and static. These facets include the inherent insecurities and fears that are integral in forming our personalities, the persona that we adopt to conceal these vulnerabilities, as well as 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. This persona is exemplified in all areas of our lives, from how we move to the way we speak and interact with others. 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. However, the core of a person lies in their innate strengths, fears, and issues that travel with us from childhood into adulthood. 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.

That which affects us in childhood remains a part of our lives until the day we die, whether we allow it to surface or not. Both actors and the characters they create form their public personas as a means of defending themselves from these insecurities. Covering up these vulnerabilities under a shield of stability is our means of appearing strong rather than helpless to others.

A great actor is one who succeeds in stripping away both the their own exterior and that of their character to reveal a deeper identity. 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.




About the Author:



No comments: