Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

    • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    From $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    The Young Actor's Handbook
    The Young Actor's Handbook
    The Young Actor's Handbook
    Ebook126 pages1 hour

    The Young Actor's Handbook

    By Jeremy Kruse

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    The way some introductory acting books are written, it seems that a literal leg break is your best option. In The Young Actor's Handbook, Jeremy Kruse, an actor, writer, producer, and director who teaches method acting, acting for camera, improvisation, and sketch comedy at The Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute in New York, mends this mangled genre, distilling invaluable lessons and years of experience down to a lean, mean, intuitive hundred page primer.

    Rather than bludgeoning the uninitiated with dense paragraphs, vague concepts, and opaque examples, The Young Actor's Handbook ignites the beginning actor's creative soul with inspirational acting exercises, acting theory, writing exercises, and insight into what it means to be an actor. This concise and pragmatic manual will guide and inform the young actor, beginning actor, novice acting teacher, or anyone who wants to understand acting through a broad and diverse survey of essential knowledge. The teachings of Richard Boleslavsky, Stella Adler, Sanford Meisner, Uta Hagen, Michael Shurtleff, Lee Strasberg, and Constantin Stanislavsky are eloquently and accessible rendered, as are basics of script analysis, camera technique, the audition mindset, agent acquisition, and the actor's life.

    Whether you're a curious novice, veteran acting teacher, or even an interested observer, The Young Actor's Handbook will enhance your understanding of this vast and rewarding craft.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRowmanLittlefield
    Release dateApr 1, 2017
    ISBN9781495093951
    The Young Actor's Handbook

    Related to The Young Actor's Handbook

    Related ebooks

    Performing Arts For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    Related categories

    Reviews for The Young Actor's Handbook

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      The Young Actor's Handbook - Jeremy Kruse

      INTRODUCTION

      Acting is the art of bringing a character to life. An actor does not figure out how to say the lines that are written for a character. An actor figures out why a character says the lines. If you are young or new to the art of acting, this book will help clarify what it means to be an actor. If you have experience or acting training, this book will serve as a refresher with new insights and inspiration. This book will be useful for teachers seeking student exercises, fresh insights or basic knowledge about the acting world. The acting exercises and short monologues in this book can be done at home, in a classroom, on a stage or on a film set. Any interior or exterior location will work.

      The first section of this book includes the Open-Ended Scene Exercise and the Hitting Your Mark and Continuity Exercise. These exercises are intended to get you, the actor, on your feet and introduce some very basic acting concepts.

      The Actor’s Worksheet and the Advanced Actor’s Worksheet contained in this book will help guide you in making choices about your character, relationship, situation and other important elements.

      The sections in this book, Concepts, Guidance, Acting Techniques, Film Acting, Auditioning and The Business of Acting, will help you gain a deeper understanding of acting terms, concepts, what is means to be an actor and the art of acting.

      The Writing section is designed for actors who have an interest in crafting their own stories. It gives a basic explanation of the elements that make up a story and contains writing exercises that will help a beginning writer generate story ideas for plays and screenplays.

      The last section of the book contains original short monologues.

      There are two ways to go about using this book:

      1. You can read the whole book from beginning to end. From there, you can decide what you want to work on. You can move chronologically through the book or skip around.

      2. You can start with the Open-Ended Scene Exercise and Hitting Your Mark Exercise in order to get warmed up. From there, you can read Concepts, Guidance, Acting Techniques and Film Acting. Perhaps you will want to go back to the first exercise and practice what you’ve learned and then proceed with the rest of the chapters in the book.

      CHAPTER 1

      OPEN-ENDED SCENE EXERCISE

      The open-ended scenes are for two actors. The character names are Actor A and Actor B. The characters are not age- or gender-specific. However, it is best that you choose to make your character close to your own age. It is rare, in the professional acting world, that you will play someone who is significantly older or younger than you.

      Stories are about people in heightened situations, life-and-death situations. Every scene in a play or screenplay is important. A scene is designed to move a story forward in a small or large way. If a scene is casual, conversational or a day in the life, then it is either bad writing, bad acting or part of a piece of work considered non-genre.

      If a character does not start at point A and end at point B, the story is not a narrative. Most stories that are written and executed are about people in heightened situations. It is the actor’s responsibility to make strong choices in order to fuel a scene so that the scene carries weight.

      If your character wants something and it is not life-or-death, then it is a weak choice. Great writing has this principle built in. If Little Red Riding Hood doesn’t figure out a way to get away from the Big Bad Wolf, she will die. In the novel The Old Man and the Sea, Santiago risks his life to catch a marlin. Michael Corleone, in the film The Godfather, risks his life to save his family. If Michael is not 100 percent dedicated to saving his family and willing to risk his life, the story will fall flat. This principle applies to novels, plays and screenplays of any genre and of any length. It is your job, your obligation, to make strong choices.

      The following scenes are completely open to interpretation. Use your imagination. Draw upon past experiences, invent details or both in order to bring the relationship, situation and character to life.

      Before working on a scene, the basic choices to make are:

      Where am I?

      What is my relationship to the other person in the scene?

      What is happening in the scene?

      Be specific about your choices. The more specific you can be, the better. For the location, avoid choosing at school. Where at school? In the cafeteria? The locker area in the hallway? The principal’s office?

      For the relationship, if you choose my brother, be specific about how you feel about your brother: my older brother, whom I look up to and revere.

      When deciding what’s happening in the scene, again, be specific. I am devastated because my brother saw me in the hallway at school and didn’t say hi to me. He made eye contact, but did not acknowledge my existence.

      The choices you can make for this exercise are infinite. You are only limited by your imagination. The point of this exercise is that it doesn’t matter what the lines are. What matters is what is happening underneath the lines. Avoid deciding how to say the lines. Avoid choosing what words to stress. Focus on the choices you make and allowing those choices to feed the scene and your behavior.

      Avoid telling the actor with whom you are working what to do. Never impose your own ideas on another actor. Never tell another actor how to play a scene. Make the basic choices for this exercise with your partner and then make choices for your own character. Let your partner make his own choices. Actors do not like to be told what to do by other actors. You are only responsible for your own choices. It is the teacher’s or director’s job to guide each actor toward strong choices. If you are working without a teacher or director, kindly ask your partner if you can make a suggestion about how the scene can be played and see if your partner has any ideas.

      A few questions to ask yourself with regard to choices before and after performing a scene are:

      Have I made the strongest possible choice?

      How can I make this scene more interesting for me and for the audience?

      The Actor’s Worksheet and the Advanced Actor’s Worksheet contained in this book will help guide you while doing the exercises and making choices.

      Do not focus on how to say the lines. Do not focus on creating emotion. Focus on your choices.

      OPEN-ENDED SCENE #1

      Actor A: Hi. Nice to see you.

      Actor B: Nice to see you.

      Actor A: You look good.

      Actor B: I feel good.

      Actor A: I have to go.

      Actor B: So do I.

      OPEN-ENDED SCENE #2

      Actor A: I feel great.

      Actor B: I don’t.

      Actor A: That’s too bad.

      Actor B: I don’t think you understand.

      Actor A: I don’t.

      Actor B: I feel a little better now.

      OPEN-ENDED SCENE #3

      Actor A: This is what I expected.

      Actor B: That’s surprising.

      Actor A: Really? I don’t know why.

      Actor B: It just is.

      Actor A: I’d like to know why.

      Actor B: Think about it.

      Actor A: I knew it.

      OPEN-ENDED SCENE #4

      Actor A: I feel bad for you.

      Actor B: It’s OK.

      Actor A: It’s unfair.

      Actor B: Maybe you can help.

      Actor A: I can’t.

      Actor B: It’s OK.

      OPEN-ENDED SCENE #5

      Actor

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1