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Acting is a skill that can be practiced. If you\u2019re diligent and consistent then, like anything, you\u2019ll get better at it. However, another less convenient truth that, is that progress is not always obvious.<\/p>\n
\nYou train and practice and audition, but you can help but wonder: \u201cIs my acting improving?\u201d\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Say you\u2019ve started going to the gym and you start lifting weights. You can do about fifteen bicep curls using five-kilogram weights. A couple weeks go by and you\u2019re a bit stronger, so you move up to eight-kilogram weights. With enough time and effort, you\u2019re eventually pumping out fifty reps each side at a whopping fifty kilograms. Very measurable.<\/p>\n
The problem we face with improving our acting is that it\u2019s not as obvious that we\u2019re getting any better at it. It doesn\u2019t seem like a measurable skill. But what if I told you that acting is just as easy to track as going to the gym? Would you believe me? No? Good, let me change your mind.<\/p>\n
Keeping track of how you\u2019re improving isn\u2019t just reassuring, it\u2019s also a key part of improving. Acting is a very cerebral skill so by thinking about it, talking about it and analysing it, we actually aid our own improvement. Here\u2019s how to do it.<\/strong><\/p>\n
The word is the thing<\/h2>\n
What really makes our improvement difficult to track is not knowing how to articulate what we\u2019re getting better at. Start by digging up an old self-tape or recording of a performance you did, years ago. Take a deep breath and watch it all the way through.<\/p>\n
Sidenote:<\/strong> If you\u2019re at the start of your acting journey and don\u2019t have any tapes, great! Jump on YouTube and watch some Bad Acting videos for reference. Also, do your future self a favour and create a good storage system for your auditions now. A folder labelled Self Tapes with more folders inside it labelled Theatre, Commercial, Television and Film is excellent. Upload every tape you do, even the boring commercial ones, and save them for later.<\/p>\n
Difficult, right? You might\u2019ve breathed a sigh of relief when it finished and said something like \u201cWhoa, that was horrible.\u201d<\/p>\n
My question to you now is this: Why was it horrible? Any ideas?<\/p>\n
If you struggled to answer that, you\u2019re not alone. It\u2019s hard to say what exactly we didn\u2019t like about a performance, partly because it\u2019s so subjective. Someone might love what you did in that yoghurt commercial; someone else might have trouble sleeping at night because of it.<\/p>\n
We\u2019re not interested in subjectivity, though, not with our own performance. We need that sweet, sweet objectivity. Let\u2019s break it down.<\/p>\n
Tension<\/h2>\n
Returning to our old self-tape: the most obvious thing to look for is tension. Are our shoulders bunched up? Does our neck look stiff? We can even go as fine as the eyes; do they look strained at all?<\/p>\n
It isn\u2019t just physical, either. Tension can be things like overthinking a line, being unsure about a particular moment or character relationship, or feeling self-conscious.<\/p>\n
Tension that isn\u2019t a deliberate character choice is a notorious killer of good performance. It constricts the voice and strangles the imagination, and it\u2019s a sign of what Declan Donnellan calls a \u201cblocked actor\u201d.<\/p>\n
The best thing we can do to ease tension is to train our awareness of it. If you\u2019re interested in how to do this, check out the Alexander Technique.<\/p>\n
As you perform and train, you should start to notice that tension starts to dissolve just as quickly as it shows up. We all get nervous, which makes us tense, and you can\u2019t eradicate nerves, so naturally you\u2019ll still have moments of tension throughout your career, but you\u2019ll start to get more efficient at noticing it and letting it go.<\/p>\n
Voice<\/h2>\n
We can place our voices on a spectrum. At one end is Constricted<\/em> and at the other end is Retracted<\/em>.<\/p>\n
Give me your best Voldemort impression. Did you feel the muscles in your throat tighten? That\u2019s what we would consider a highly Constricted<\/em> voice.<\/p>\n
Now, give me a big yawn with lots of sound. Open your mouth as wide as you can and let out a big sigh of sound. Lovely. That\u2019s what we\u2019d call Retracted<\/em>.<\/p>\n
Generally, we want to be moving more towards a Retracted<\/em> sound. The less tension there is around our throats, the better.<\/p>\n
We should also be looking for improvement in our diction, which is basically how athletic your voice is. A strong set of articulators leads to clearer sound. Your projection should improve over time, too, which isn\u2019t just shouting or speaking louder, it\u2019s speaking with the full support of your diaphragm to create a full and resonate sound.<\/p>\n
A healthy voice can do a lot of different things, and you should be paying attention to this in your tapes and recordings as well. Don\u2019t just ask: does my voice sound nice? Ask does my voice sound healthy? How does it sound in day-to-day life, as well as in performance? Am I speaking clearly without any scratchy or tickly feelings in my chest and throat?<\/p>\n
Am I making choices that engage it in a way appropriate to the character? Also, how are my accents? Am I able to do a convincing general American and received pronunciation (General British)? Compare your accent-work to recordings on the International Dialects of English Archive.<\/p>\n
Everyone\u2019s voice is different and you\u2019ll have days where it sounds better and days where it sounds worse. Once again, it comes back to awareness. Being able to notice when your voice is sounding strange and identify why, e.g \u201cMy voice sounds more constricted today because I\u2019ve been at my desk a lot and I\u2019m holding tension in my neck,\u201d is a clear indicator that you\u2019re improving as an actor.<\/p>\n
Ask for feedback<\/h2>\n
From the right people. Remember we want objectivity as much as possible, it\u2019s lovely to get an occasional confidence boost from mum and dad telling you how great you are but, unless they\u2019re actors or directors themselves, they\u2019re probably not going to give you critical and actionable feedback.<\/p>\n