I am really excited to read the responses to your call for individual practices. I remember being extremely confused in acting school, as I struggled to place myself into the technique being taught. I didn’t understand why I needed to lose all innate qualities (at least shove them aside) before I learned to act. Differing techniques and methods aside, I think that all acting technique is only foundational to you figuring out what your actor person needs. Talent is unique to the individual, so acting should be highly individualized. If we want our talent to work for us, we need to figure out how to tailor all we learn in an acting class/in life so that we can massage our talent in whatever way it needs.

So, more important than having a toolbox filled with techniques is figuring out which techniques can serve your talent. After that, figure out how to tailor the chosen technique to your talents and sensibilities. What you’ll find is that you can pick up something from any technique. Personalizing technique is like playing dress-up in front of thousands of closets filled with clothes. You can pick up a necklace, then decide to wear it as a bracelet.

Here are a few practices I have picked up in classes. Please add them to your pot of technique responses!

1. Each day, I practice cold reading. One purpose of cold reading is to display how the actor responds to the text. Cold reading is a great way to access your subconscious. Technically, I never speak while my eyes are on the text — this I picked up from AM Raychel, an acting teacher who studied with Hagen — so that I can trick my subconscious out of reading and into living. How I personalize: I work the same text a few times and challenge myself with finding a new read each time.

2. Each day, I practice learning lines. I sit with a text, using different techniques to see how each feels. I think we’ve all been in the situation where some text just won’t stick. For me, my approach to learning lines changes with every role. How I personalize: When I find a technique that works with contemporary work, I immediately pick up a classical text to see if it works there, vice versa. Then, I try and figure out what about the technique is easy for my subconscious to pick up (ex.: focus on rhythm).

3. Each day, I try to enhance my imagination. Whether by visioning or free-associating, I try to get my inertia going. How I personalize: Once I am familiar with a text, I say it with my eyes closed, creating the world. I do the same thing with my eyes open, tracing myself around the room as if I am watching my own performance.

4. Another great technique is making your piece physical. Say a line; move a body part. Then repeat a few times until you are speaking and moving at the same time. The goal is to connect the line to the body movement. You are meshing something qualitative with something physical. How I personalize: I love to sing, so I use my voice as a body part. I say the line, and then sing it.

5. Lastly, I think every actor should practice daily “personal work.” My acting coach always gives personal homework, along with her business homework. So, each night, I practice exercises like “having a conversation with my fears.”

The point of daily technique is to access the subconscious. Repetitious acting disciplines make the subconscious bold.

I hope this helps. I can’t wait to read what everyone else shares!

BTW, tonight I was at a seminar at The Network. I was sharing/picking up business tips with another actor, Erin Corcoran. Other actors chimed in. At one point, each person said, “You know there’s this column that’s awesome.” The east coast loves your column!

Sincerely,

Well, there are lots of things one can do on a daily basis — or even semi-daily (some you can just do when you feel you want to brush up on things). Here are some things I use or have used.

1) Cold reading: One of the best pieces of advice I got about improving my cold reading skills was to go onto Showfax and print out random sides. When I have the time (and can get a willing participant), I’ll try to practice them with someone, however you can also practice them alone. If you don’t have access to sides on Showfax (I would suggest you get access) you can just read the paper or some other magazines aloud.

2) Camera audition skills: For those who have a hard time looking directly at the camera for auditions, someone suggested to me to pick a specific spot to focus on while having a phone call — as if you were talking to them while they were standing in front of you. By doing so, that spot can stand in for your friend on the other line, and when you go in to audition, you can just substitute your “spot” for the camera.

3) Reading plays: It’s great to pick up a monologue book, but it’s even better to find a play you love that has a monologue you can use. By using a play, you not only know the tone of the material better, but also have a great sense of the character. You know how he or she got there, why they’re saying what they’re saying and to whom they’re saying it. Knowing all of that will help strengthen your performance — whereas a monologue book, while okay in a pinch, just can’t provide that.

4) Watch other great actors: Obviously, the best way to learn is by doing, but you can also learn a lot from seeing. I was lucky enough to have grown up in NY, so I got to see dozens of Broadway plays over the years. From watching live theatre, TV, or movies, I’ve managed to get a sense of how each differs and study the performances of some of the greatest actors ever.

5) Reading trades: It may be difficult to read all the trades all the time, but it’s even helpful if you can get them every once in a while. You can find out all sorts of useful information — whether about a project you may be interested in, an agent who is starting a new agency, or just a review of a movie starring one of your favorite artists.

I try to prepare myself every day as an actor. I think that having the mindset that I will be called in at any moment for an audition helps me focus on the fact that I moved here to build a career in acting and I expect to succeed. I have a toolbox binder of collected exercises, and will use different combinations each day, depending on how I feel mentally and physically.

Then, I’ll put myself on camera reading TV/film sides I’ve saved from previous auditions, and watch afterwards to see if I’ve held on to any facial tics, what I look like in different-colored attire, etc.

One of my favorite quotes is, “Do the best you can with what you have right now.” So that’s what I am doing!

Thank you as always for your inspiring articles.

Sincerely,

Just wanted to share a li’l something that I do, I’m sure so many others do it also. I browse through audition sides on Showfax to see if there’s anything that fits my type and I go through my audition prep rituals, especially for shows that I’m trying to target. For me I feel like I’m manifesting that target show audition as well as keeping my instrument tuned. I also attempt to watch one new movie a week (good, bad, ugly. Studio film, indie, web series, etc.). After I watch it, I have this weird twitch to watch it as least ten more times, but looking at it with a different eye.

(1) Always gotta listen to the commentary.
(2) I always watch the behind the scenes.
(3) I’ll watch the movie from the aspect of acting, directing, lighting, editing, etc.

See you at the movies!

Accent Thursdays.

A while back my roommates and I came up with a way to practice the accents we were currently working on or trying to master. We created Accent Thursdays. On Thursdays you pick an accent — say for example British North Country — and you must speak only in that accent all day, with the exception of important business meetings/phone calls and auditions. We find it an effective way of mastering a different accent.

Many actors can develop an accent for a particular set of sides but what happens when you’re in the audition room and the director changes a line? Practicing the accent for a longer period of time helps better prepare you to handle anything the director may throw your way. This practice can be done daily for a period of time every morning, just make sure you pick a time where can interact with someone. Post it on your Facebook and see how many of your friends call to see what accent you have picked.

PS — I love it when someone tells me, ” I love your accent,” or asks me, “Where are you from?” That’s when I break my accent and say, “I was born and raised right here in Los Angeles, California.” Gotta love what you do!

Some of the simpler things go overlooked though. Every day you see people — street, café, work, etc. You can learn a great deal if you just take people in, see how they behave, how they are. You can always tell if a person is happy, sad, or excited. However, there is much more internally that is happening. I always try to study people: What about a person makes me see the person is sad? What is the relationship between the couple in a restaurant? Are they married? Have they been together for a long time? Is the guy in love with the girl? Seeing things for what they are is crucial to an actor. It helps you create a truthful scene and/or character.

Besides all the exercises you can learn you can also examine yourself. The good old mirror helps. Create a character and talk to the mirror, studying your face. How does it change when you become a killer? A flamboyant gay? A teacher? Take yourself on a journey in the safest environment of all, your own home! It will teach you and give you confidence.

Cold reads are available on Showfax, so download scenes from your favorite shows, and break them down. If you have a camera or a webcam, put yourself on tape, and watch yourself.

Voice exercises are important too, to me, a foreigner. Add accent work. But anyone could gain a lot by working voice and accents 30 minutes a day!

If you do all this everyday — and you can, even though you have two jobs and classes, and doing the research an actor must do daily, and writing your journal (or scripts), and working out, and visiting with friends — can you? But watching people is something you do all the time, just think of it more. You see yourself in the mirror several times a day; brush your teeth as the character you imagined yourself playing! Driving to see your friends, work a voice exercise! There is a lot more we can do with our day, always, and impossible is nothing! Good luck on this most interesting journey!

Have a beautiful day,

Thanks for asking for feedback as to our daily techniques. I have a few things I play with. I will try to be concise.

Objectives

I think actors have to be inquisitive into human behavior by nature, therefore wondering about people’s ultimate motivation daily — not that you are a pop psychologist but if you break things down into acting beats and objectives…

TV Watching

TV time is not only leisure time but take that time to observe and break down. Also if you try to think like the writer as far as story goes it can put things in perspective.

Asking these questions:

Answering these questions, pretty soon you can get in tune with shows pretty easily and therefore when you get an audition this information aids the actor in his/her preparation.

Status

Have a day/hour/evening where you give yourself a “job” to lower your status or raise it just a slight bit above the person you’re dealing with. Okay, you’re using your friends as guinea pigs but trust me, as your friends, they’ll console you or slap you upside of your head ‘cuz, like, they’re your friends right?

I meditate 10 to 20 minutes a day, twice a day. I find that really helps me stay centered and human. It helps me see situations more clearly as well, e.g., if I have to make a hard decision and I get all wrapped up in my head and can’t see the way, I usually realize what I need to do during or after meditation. So… that’s what I do as a human and as an actor.

As an actor, specifically, I read out loud for 15 min a day. I mimic commercials on the radio while I’m in the car. I do a 15-minute series of voice exercises twice a day. I got these from Tom Todoroff, my acting teacher. I’m not sure where he got them. Basically, it’s exercises in the floor morning and night, vocally with “a voiceless hissing sound” and then “a voiced humming sound” and then “a voiced sighing sound.”

Here’s my two cents.

Let me offer two suggestions for The Actors Voice. Literally for the actor’s voice.

1. Vocal warm-ups of the tongue-twister variety. An accomplished VO guy named Rodney Saulsberry has posted a couple of YouTube videos about this. In addition to Rodney’s texts, you can add some classic Gilbert and Sullivan lyrics (“What a to-do to die today…”) or this favorite of mine: “A box of biscuits, a box of mixed biscuits, and a biscuit mixer.”

2. Read out loud five minutes from something you’ve never seen before: nytimes.com, commercial copy in a magazine, anything.

Hope this helps. Happy to share, and eager to learn what others do on their own!

Best,

Here is one of the things I do.

In my recent class I worked on a few scenes that really nail my type down. Some good homework was done on them. Now I run through them at least once a day to keep them fresh in my head. This way if I’m asked, “Got anything we can see?” I can ask for a reader, pull out my sides, and knock some socks off.

When do I do this? Either during my morning shower or whenever I’m in the car driving. Easy-cheesy!

Act every day. Period. No techniques or tricky mantras. Just act… all the time.

My two cents,