Is it important to know several accents as an actor?

YES! 

And that is a big YES! 

One of the hardest things as an actor is getting yourself out there and getting noticed! But how can you get yourself to as many auditions as possible? 

1. Have a good agency representing you. 

2. Look clean, well presented and smart.

3. Be polite

4. Do your research into what you are auditioning for (as I have mentioned before!)

5. Be flexible in your skill!

The last one is very important if you want to get yourself out there! It's no use if you are a one trick pony that can't transform from a quiet Irish girl to a mouthy Southerner. Yes there are cases when actors and actresses have got a part as one thing but then can't exactly break out of it again yet they do pretty well for themselves but to be honest, that's pretty boring. 

The best actors in the business are those that can transform themselves into any character ever written. Take Johnny Depp for example; the range of characters he can transform himself into is extraordinary. From the timid Edward Scissorhands to the drunk ramblings of Captain Jack Sparrow, there's not a role in the world that this man hasn't done! And that's important. 

However, you don't have to be as flexible as Johnny, the most simple thing you can do to make yourself a little more malliable by learning different accents. Take this video for example. This is a good idea to get yourself noticed online. Learn a few, or even more, accents than this lady has done, record yourself, and put it online as a showreel. This way, directors, producers and agencies can see your capabilities, and you never know, you might be what they are looking for - and now they know you can change your accent to suit their needs :D Happy days! 

Obviously, this won't guarantee you getting more auditions than what you were getting before, but it sure helps!

If you have any more tips and tricks for auditions either comment below, send me an email at sophiimaria@gmail.com or tweet me at @SophiiMaria. Also you can contact me about any question you may have and I will email you personally and even maybe cover it on here :D

The future of the character

I've said before how important it is to use Stanislavsky's methods of using your emotional memory to become the character but this is in terms of being in the moment. As well as knowing your character's past and present, you must know what they want for the future. Don't get mistaken for knowing what is going to happen to your character, but more about what your character's goals are, what they want in life, who they want to see etc.

Here's a quick, fun exercise you can do to help you think about your characters future:

Make up a character; give it some given circumstances, who are you, what have you done before now, who is your family, who means the most to you, what have you done recently?

Now place yourself in a prison. You have committed a crime. What is the crime?

You have fifteen minutes of time in the exercise yard. What will you do? How physically fit are you? Do you like the time in the yard? You cannot speak to anyone.

With the last five minutes of the time, you can do what ever you want. What is the first thing you want to do? You cannot speak to anyone during this time or you will be shot by an armed guard.

You find out that some letters have arrived at the prison. Is one for you? How will you react if you have a letter? What does it say? Who is it from? Who did you want it to be from? How do you feel? What if you didn't get a letter? What is your reaction? 

You are allowed to write to your loved one. Take 3 minutes to write everything down what you want to say to this person. How are you feeling? What is on your chest? Are you sorry? 

You hear that half of the prison are going to be freed. How do you feel? What will you feel like if you are freed? How will you feel if you have to stay in the prison? Who do you want to see the most?

Doing this makes you realised how much you look into the future without realising. You need to know your goals for the character to blossom. Do this for other characters that you are playing. Find out what they want from the events or people in the play. What is there ultimate goal? Do they reach their goal?

Sorry again that this is a short one! But it is really effective! I love this which is why I've posted it! If you have any comments on the exercise or want more information, please comment below, or email me at sophiimaria@gmail.com or tweet me at @SophiiMaria

Voice of an Angel

The voice is the primary tool for the human being; it allows us to communicate to let others know how we are feeling and to give commands etc. It is essential for us in day to day life but we are able to extend the voice to beyond its natural boundaries for entertainment purposes, whether it's singing or vocal techniques in acting. The voice includes the whole body! So make sure you warm up your body as well as your voice before you try any speech!

To be able to be good at acting, or singing, or being a good public speaker, you need to have a good vocal range. This means you must be able to work through all the different scales in your voice, and try to extend them if you feel you are quite monotone. If you constantly talk on one level, it becomes boring, and it's not entertaining for anyone watching you. The voice should be fluid and interesting, so changing pitch naturally is a good way to keep people interested in what you are saying. And the chances are that if you are interesting to listen to and sound fluid in what you are saying, you are more likely to be believable and the character and the text show through rather than your process.


You also need to have good resonance in your voice. This is the volume of what you are saying. A lot of inexperienced actors fall into the trap of shouting their lines rather than projecting them. Sometimes you need to say something quietly, but loud enough so the audience can hear; using resonance exercises can help you with this. There are a lot of exercises out there to try, so have a look at a few that deal with resonance. If you have problems with being too loud, however, you may frighten or annoy people in the audience because, although they can hear what you are saying, the way you say it won't be very natural and will start to look amateurist. It's good to be loud sometimes, but if there is no change in your voice, the piece will become very boring.


You also need to be able to breathe. Sounds stupid, but there's a reason for this. If you learn to breathe between the thoughts of the text you are performing, you will be more believable because unfortunately, a lot of the time we breathe at the end of a line (especially in Shakespeare) rather than at the end of a thought. You breathe between the thoughts in real life without even thinking. Try to break down the thoughts, and keep reading through the text slowly. Eventually, piece together everything that you are saying so it is fluid, is believable and the audience is more likely to see the character, not you.


Always take care with any exercises you find on the internet to do with your voice. Only do what you are comfortable doing and make sure you drink LOTS of water when you do. If you find your voice is getting sore, drink hot honey and lemonade, it tastes gorgeous and is very helpful for sore throats! Also, it is known that pineapple juice is good for the voice (I forget why). Avoid drinks like tea and coffee when practising your voice and don't eat a lot of chocolate either (but you can as a reward afterwards ;D). 


Sorry this is a short post but I have been very busy today! :( Bad times... But I will do more on the voice at a later date! Put comments below with any sort of exercises you know or any tips and tricks you could tell us all! Thanks for reading 


:D

Phenomenology (pt.2)

Trying to understand phenomenology is hard! This is why I wanted to this blog post in two halves. This analytical approach isn't something you should try to do on it's own, it is better to use this approach to push your analysis into another analytical approach, such as semiotics. 

To understand this approach, you must learn how to use it. If you are analysing an object onstage, you must look at how you react to it, without using many adjectives...

...yeah, I know!

Generally, if you eat a lemon, you would say it is 'sour' or 'bitter', but this wouldn't be a entirely phenomenological approach. You could say, however, how you reacted to the tasting of the lemon, even if you just make a noise. The next challenge is to transform this reaction into language, as close as you possibly can to the real reaction. Avoid using adjectives as these are only signifiers to your emotions or reactions, rather than the correct way to describe this. 

If you are to write about an object and your phenomenological approach to it, you would describe how you felt around it, what it feels like in weight, texture, the smell of it, the taste of it, everything to do with your senses that you instinctively react with. 

There is no right or wrong answer to your own phenomenological approach and this makes it difficult to be of use to other people around you that read your phenomenological analysis of a performance, however, it is very useful in conjunction with other analytical approaches. Finding how you react to something, then getting into the nitty gritty of what this means and the semiotic approach to it is a far more effective way of analysing a performance. Nevertheless, you shouldn't dismiss phenomenology, but don't get too bogged down into the meaning of it.

I could go on and on about how to write about the phenomenological approach to something, but I find that all research on phenomenology is very repetitive. In a sentence, phenomenology is the build up to a very effective analysis of a performance, and can be used in conjunction with other analytical approaches.

I know this is a very hard subject, and it can relate to many other industries and subjects of interest, but it is very hard to discuss this without over-complicating. If you have any questions at all, please leave a comment, email me at sophiimaria@gmail.com or tweet me (@SophiiMaria), and I will try to answer your question as much as I can; after all I am here to help you understand! If you have any examples of this, please leave a comment or if you just want to say hi! again, please leave a comment. 

:D

Drama Queen!

A lot of people who study drama often have to put up the so-called "Drama Queens". The people that have to be the centre of attention all the time so talk utter rubbish to get in the limelight. Not to be confused with the earlier topic on Drama Snobs, the Drama Queen doesn't necessarily have to study or be involved with acting. We all know that one Drama Queen that drives us up the wall...

We all have a little bit of a Drama Queen (or King!) inside of us, but how often that part of us shows is what describes a person to be a full on Drama Queen! Personally, I believe there are more Drama Queens in the acting world than any other industry because we are constantly trying to get 'discovered' so we need to be a bit full on, but sometimes, it can get out of control.

As far as I know, there are two types of Drama Queen: the first being the full-on "it's all about me!" type who constantly speaks up with their own opinion and displays emotion to the fullest when it suits their fancy; the second being the subtle type who find a talent that they milk without anybody else (except a few) realising it. 

The first type are known to be friends with everyone, but at a certain point, all hell breaks loose and you either don't want to know them at all, or get shoved out of your little clique after a huge bust up on a day out with everyone. 

The second type are known to be a little more sneaky. They use social networking sites to promote their views/opinions on other things, or people, and often have a talent which they abuse to get attention. This sort of people aren't always malicious. They probably just get a lot of attention from the things they say online because they are too scared to say it in public, but it's still a bad habit to get into.

I know this is mostly my own personal opinion and experience but there will be the Drama Queen at some point in your lives. How do you deal with these kinds of people? What can we do to relax and not want to be in the spotlight all the time? I know I can be a Drama Queen sometimes, I admit it! But I'm pretty sure I'm on the scale of just wanting to have a little bit of attention to make me feel good, rather than the full-blown bitch a lot of people fall into. Let me know what you guys think! 

Sorry this is a rather negative and a bit ranty. But these kinds of people annoy me, and I'm sure they annoy you too. I just wanted to get it off my chest and see what everyone else thinks. Even if you're not in the industry, tell me about yours! I really do read all comments and I will publish!

:D

Framing

I have recently discovered how the framing of a performance can be translated into real life. I was talking to my boyfriend on how I don't really like going out anymore when I am at university because the atmosphere around the night life of a university has a different frame to the night life of, say, my home town. 

The atmosphere around university campuses are very "out-to-pull" sort of environments. Girls are constantly being hit on by drunk guys and the girls that are up for it are writhing around with two or more men. This is the atmosphere I don't really like. I used to enjoy a cheeky dance with a guy on a night out, but now I have someone very special in my life so these sorts of environments don't appeal to me anymore. Don't get me wrong, I'd love to go out with my friends and have a laugh but when you're in that sort of environment, you get sick of the atmosphere. 

However, if I went out with the same group of people back home, it would be a very different experience. Because in the past I have only been out in town back home with my friends for birthdays and celebrations, I find that there is less pressure on everyone, men and women, to go out on the pull. Back home, the atmosphere is more about enjoying your night out with your friends, not finding someone to 'get off' with. 

Now how does this relate to theatre? Well the framing of a performance depends on the atmosphere of the space that the performance is being. If a performance is held in a theatre, then there is a certain type of framing to it. You are expected to sit in the auditorium in a quiet and respectable manner, and not leave until the end. If a performance was held in a public space, however, such as a town square or a plaza, you wouldn't necessarily have to watch the whole piece. Now, I know these are only simple examples, but because there is a different attitude to both of these situations, the framing is different for each. In a public space, you are probably there for a purpose, so you may want to fulfill that purpose and not watch the performance, but in a theatre, you are there to watch a production, therefore, you watch and enjoy it (as much as you can). This is similar to a night out: in my experience, you go out in university for a purpose - to pull; at home you go out to celebrate something, and maybe if you pull, thats a bonus, just like a public performance.

Obviously, this is just my opinion and only an example but have a go at finding something similar to the framing of a performance in your life. Maybe there are situations at work that you could compare this to? Or even at school? Have a go and leave a comment below.

:D

It's nearly December!!!

A little something to brighten up the end of your day :D 

And if you get chance, watch more of ImprovEverywhere's videos! They're a really good example of a company that produces work in public spaces (linking with the post I did earlier :D). I love watching their videos. Even if you're not into all this drama malarky, they're really fun to watch without analysis :D

Space: where everyone can hear you scream...

What do we define as a space for a performance? What types of spaces are there and what is considered appropriate? How easy is it to transform one type of space into another?

If a performance is any action we do in life (I will write a blog all about performance at a later date...WARNING: that will be a long one! ;D), that means that the spaces all around us are part of a performing space, whether it's in a bathroom or a theatre, space must be any location where action takes place. 

In a performance called Entitled by the company Quaratine, we saw onstage the creation and disassembly of a performance. This took place in a theatre; the performance space. When the director was asked about the meaning behind this creation and destruction, he explained that the performance was about the space in which a performance happens, whether its the audience space, performers space or a collaboration of both. He also stated that one of the chairs in the production was the original chair from the first rehearsal session they had! The chair originally inhabited the rehearsal space, but then crossed over to the performance space where the object suddenly became part of the peformance and not a tatty old chair that was outdated.

We know it is possible to create a performance in any sort of space due to the creation and increasing popularity of Flash Mobs, but how do we know we are watching a performance when any space can become a place for performance? 

Performances produced in a theatre are framed by the space so we know we are watching a performance. However, creating a performance in a space where day to day life happens without much throught leads us to ask questions when we see a possible production. Is what we are watching real? Do I intervene in what is happening? etc. 


How do we define a space for performance? If you have any ideas let me know. Sorry this is pretty vague but this is still a subject that is still being questioned and I am confused as to how to describe it! Leave comments below of your ideas!

The importance of knowing your script!

Now I know a lot of drama students (and professional actors) hate performing Shakespearean texts because of the flowery, poetic language that is sometimes difficult to understand, but for the few of us that adore Shakespeare (like myself!), the language is just something to get our teeth stuck into. 

I have just come back from a mini rehearsal with my duologue partner and I could not rave about the importance of knowing your text more than what I'm about to! We are doing Act 3 Scene 2 of Romeo and Juliet (where the Nurse tells Juliet of Romeo's banishment and Tybalt's death) and we didn't know what the hell Shakespeare was on about when we read through it a couple of times. Then we thought, right, let's go through it, line by line, and try and decode Shakespeare's language. 

You would not believe how much you do actually understand of Shakespeare's texts! If you go through each line - make sure you are not reading the lines as they appear, but as sentences (so forget about the line break and just take notice of commas, full stops etc.) - you will actually be able to get a jist of what he's saying. For example, "What devil art thou that dost torment me thus?" simply means, "Why are you tormenting me and not telling me the truth?" 

Yes, it takes up a lot of time, but understanding what Shakespeare is saying helps you discover what the characters thoughts and feelings, helping you understand how you should play the scene. 

The next thing you should think about is where there are shifts in thought/emotions/goals. Where are the cues that tell you when to change emotions and physical memories? Go through the lines again and mark where these are! All the time you should be reading this over and over, making sure you make sense of what is being said and what your emotive memory should be picking up on so you can successfully portray the emotions needed for the piece! 

Even when you've done this for one scene, or only your scenes in the play, you MUST go through the rest of the play and create character profiles. Character profiles are a collaboration of every single detail about your character. Go through the play and write down all the things that have been said about your character, all the things that your character has said about themselves, and all the things that your character says about other people. 

Once this is done, collect all the given circumstances. These are all the details that are given to you in the text about the scenes, the places, the staging, the characters etc. Everything that is written is a detail about something. Character profiles help with this, but still, go through the text grabbing every single detail about the play, whether it's in the dialogue or the stage directions (obviously there are limited stage directions in Shakespeare but this works for any play too). Shakespeare gives a lot of information about the play in the dialogue so pick through EVERYTHING.

I know it's a lot of hard work but STOP BEING LAZY! If you want to successfully play Shakespearean text you have to put the work in! Work out what is being said, interpret the emotions involved (there may be several ways of going around this too so try them all!) and produce your own interpretation of the text. 

If you have any more tips and tricks on playing Shakespeare, please share them in the comments section or email me at the information at the top of the page! Also, let me know of your experiences with Shakespeare or anything else you find interesting in the world of theatre, film and TV.

:D

P.S. If you find on YouTube clips of the BBC's version of Romeo and Juliet, don't watch it, it's not as good as you might think! (I thought it was absolute rubbish because Juliet is a wimp!)

Drama Snobs

I don't know about you but I get really annoyed by those overly confident types that are instantly classed as the "Drama Snob". No, this is not a hate speech about these kinds of actors, but more of a critique of their style of acting.

Like all stereotypes, there is a general list of common behaviours of this kind of person, including: an overconfident personality, the ability to throw themselves in any sort of acting situation, a smiley attitude, ability to take criticism, a good posture and a generalised British accent to name but a few. 

The thing that annoys me most about this sort of person is their acting style. Don't get me wrong, I am so jealous of how much confidence these people have! To be able to be confident in yourself and throw yourself into any situation is fantastic! I wish I could do it! But I'm sorry, to me the way these people act is not realistic enough. In my opinion, theatre and film should be as realistic as possible (unless you're acting in a genre that doesn't require a lot of realistic acting, i.e. comedy or presenting), but this sort of person has only one or two acting styles that crop up every single time they act. Sometimes, you get the odd person that is just naturally talented and can mould to anything, but this is once every now and again! 

I think this type of actor needs to break out of their habits of being "generally good" at acting. These are the types of people that would benefit hugely from Stanislavskian theory and methodology. If you have the potential for being an amazing actor, why just stick with what you've had since GCSE/A Level Drama? Please boost yourself! Make yourself more realistic because that's what's annoying, the fact that these people are really good, but not realistic enough!

I think it is more important to be realistic in your acting than to be confident. There's nothing worse than watching a performance, whether its TV or film, and cringing at how unrealistic and amaturist the acting is. Again, this is not a hate speech, I'm just stating my opinion. I'll say it again, I am jealous of these people, I just think their acting style could do with a little tweaking! 

If you agree or disagree please leave a comment. I know this will offend a few people but don't take it to heart, I just think some people can do loads better. Let me know what you think!

:D

Baby-faced

It is no secret that in the entertainment industry that there are thirty-something year old actors and actresses taking up roles for characters aged sixteen to twenty. But how beneficial is it for an actor/actress to look younger than they are?

We as a society try to look as young as possible to try and hold onto our youth, but eventually, biology gets the better of us, yet there are that lucky few that stay looking young well into their thirties. 

Production companies obviously prefer actors who look younger than they are; minors can only work for a certain amount of hours per day, education must be supplied for them and they must have someone to look after them on set. Getting an actor who looks young, but is legally an adult, save the production company a lot of time and money.

It is also a major convenience if you employed an actor that as they grew up, stayed relatively young so you could drag out the storyline and make a year span a couple of years in a series.

However, does being baby-faced give you more opportunities to be an actor? I don't think so. Yes, production companies prefer it if you look younger than you are so they can use you for younger characters, but you still have to fit the bill. Instead of giving you an advantage of getting more acting jobs, you're just put into a separate category, i.e. adults that look like teens, adults, old people, children. 

So, it is helpful if you look younger than you are (for production companies) but you still have to burden of being asked for ID everytime you go to a wrap party! :)

I'm sure there are people who have a different opinion, so please leave a comment and tell me what you think!

Here are a few trivia about actors that are older than they look! :D

• Luke Perry was 24 when he started playing 16-year-old Dylan McKay (Beverly Hills, 90210)
• Michael J. Fox was 24-29 when playing 17-year-old Marty McFly (Back to the Future)
• Cory Monteith is currently 29, playing 18 year old Finn Hudson (Glee)

:D