Acting in Order for Any

Acting In order for any true artist to create something of genuine substance, it is necessary for him or her to first experience life. Technical theory and training are effective means for refining an actor's performance, but the essence of this craft is largely defined by an actor's ability to transmute human emotion into forms readily recognized by audiences.

Doing so requires real life experiences that credible actors are able to internalize and convey in a number of situations to bring an authenticity to the character he or she is portraying. It is this ability to bring the poetry of life (the daily, mundane experiences that regular people go through from bathing to driving home after a long day's work) to audiences in a relatable way that initially attracted me to the acting industry.

I believe that acting is one of the most viable art forms today because it is alive; paintings, sculptures, and even books cannot speak and transcend a moment in real-time the way theater can. Other media within the profession, such as television or film, have simply refined the capability of acting to reach larger audiences.

Whatever particular form of acting I am involved in, I always believe that it is my duty to present original, thought-provoking and entertaining performances with a vivacity that allows audiences to actually feel the sentiments that my character is going through, regardless of how minor it might be. Creatively, my biggest influence is life itself. Working part time jobs and pursuing postsecondary education has allowed me to meet a wide range of diverse people that each have something to contribute to the world around them.

I truly believe that my responsibility as an actor is to both socialize and study a plethora of people in order to have a full range of character traits and attributes to draw from in my performances. That is also why I've developed the habit of avidly reading, primarily fiction, in order to analyze different types of characters and characterizations.

Naturally I am also somewhat of a film buff, and have been studying the classic films by some of the best in the trade -- Marlon Brando, James Dean, and even contemporaries like Robert De Niro -- in attempts of finding a common denominator, some sort of iconic quality, that they bring to the profession. As a performer, my strength so far has been my natural instincts.

After learning lines and engaging in my own form of role studying, I have been told that I have a natural ability to immerse myself within a character. Yet my principle weakness in this field at this point is in drawing out intangible aspects of characters -- details that may not be scripted or expressly denoted by the authors -- that aid in a fully fleshed out, three-dimensional presentation of a character. This aspect represents the zenith of acting.

I have seen it before in the films of some of the actors I mentioned, and in certain live performances as well. Yet I am convinced that entering a formal acting institution such as this one will.