Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Acting Workshops Los Angeles- Facing Vulnerabilities

By Kirk Baltz


True actors are not created in one day. 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.

Every character that an actor creates is multi-dimensional as are the actors themselves. These dimensions consist of the individual or character's public persona, his or her deep-seated fears and vulnerabilities, and the tragic flaw. Working with an acting coach has been shown to be highly effective in helping an actor to see past his own exterior and that of his character to reveal the heart of the person within and create characters that are both real and relatable.

According to the works of Carl Jung, humans form their exterior or public personas as a means of exuding a feeling of strength and stability to the world so as to conceal weaknesses buried within. 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.

There is no question that an individual's vulnerabilities are often buried deep beneath the surface, making the public persona seem like the dominant characteristic. However, the true identity of a person dwells within the difficulties, insecurities, and vulnerabilities that inevitably work to form each individual. 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. Both actors and the characters they create form their public personas as a means of defending themselves from these insecurities. 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. The best coaches will aid their students in both uncovering and portraying the inner workings of the human condition.

Every member of the audience has both a public persona as well as a deeper substance that has worked to create the exterior. Although many audience members may not be aware of the fact, creating multi-faceted characters is guaranteed to form a relationship between viewer and character. The exceptional actor is one who is able to create such a character.




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