I Don't Need an Acting Class

This week, we explore the actor’s preparation: how to get beyond vague ideas and find something specific that actually feeds you; why we need to shop more widely for choices instead of settling for the first thing that works; and what happens when you return to a choice that worked before. We also look at repetition—how to do the work again without trying to recreate the previous result, how preparation can become shorter once you’ve truly built something, and how to recognize when you’ve done enough. Because sometimes actors find exactly what they need—and then, because they don’t trust it, they keep going until they’ve talked away their talent.

This week's episode is about learning to trust that acting can be built a little at a time – and recognizing when what you've built is already enough.

Picking up where last week’s episode left off, we dig a little deeper into what it actually takes to make a great acting choice. What makes a choice come alive? In this episode, Milton works with actors on cutting through the explanations, descriptions and unnecessary details that can kill a moment. Stop trying so hard to perform . Stop decorating the work, stop explaining it, stop trying to be impressive—and get to the thing that actually brings you to life.

What does it mean to make a great acting choice? This week, we challenge the current obsession with being “authentic” and look instead at what Stella Adler demanded: choices that are appropriate to the play, that require the actor to pay a price, and—importantly—that make good theater. From A Doll’s House to NCIS , we explore why actors have to understand the world and form of the material they’re working on, and why even the simplest line can become compelling when the actor brings something specific and personal to it. Because ultimately, acting isn’t about being accurate or safe. It’s about shopping for choices until you find the one that makes you think: Oh, I love that.

Actors often do wonderful preparation—and then abandon it the moment they begin speaking. This episode explores how to trust your work, stop explaining the plot, and let your preparation carry you naturally into the life of the scene.

Rushing to make choices means we miss great acting opportunities. In this episode Milton works with one of his students who's going into rehearsals for a play soon.

There's a tendency to complicate our choices by inventing elaborate plots, when simplifying to something specific will bring us to life. Also being more specific allows you to dig deeper.

Building a solid relationship with the partner gives you grounding. Knowing who I'm talking to and what my attitude is towards them opens up what's going on in a scene.

In this video Milton works with Rashaud as he prepares a monologue from The Laramie Project.

Not just unexperienced facts can deaden our work as actors, the need to explain or report the facts can get in the way of our most creative work. Digging down specifically can help this problem.

It's not just enough to be functional or accurate or good enough. There's a road in to our actor work that helps us find extraordinary choices and frees us up to do our best work.

If you think of the play as a continuation of what has already happened, it gives you a sense of how much work you have to do in order to earn the play. Excerpted from my New York class, we continue our work on the Frank Gilroy play, The Subject Was Roses.

Continuing work on the Frank Gilroy play, The Subject Was Roses , this expert from Milton's in-person class begins to explore the road in to building a character with more depth.

Working on a play begins to give actors the foundation of working on any text they get. These are excerpts from my Script Analysis class at The Actor Lab in New York.

We're combining two exercises in this class. (1) Seeing someone 'on the street' and being able to make decisions about who they are, based on their behavio and (2) building an attitude towards them.

Making choices that really bring you to life seems to be a constant struggle. Maybe it's because we're relieved that we can come up with any choice, but the choices must be worth it. They can't be passive.

Actively building an attitude to your partner can open you up to the action of the scene.

We need to really be careful about the vocabulary of acting. There are concepts that keep working their way and it can dangerously lead actors to a kind of passivity that lessens the power of experiencing.

After I vent about the Broadway production of Death of a Salesman, where they yelled at the audience for three hours, we look at the necessity of not just making great choices, but believing them. Not just performing them.

Directors give performance or effect directions. It forces actors to play cliches. Figuring out the nature of a character trait or spine or personality frees an actor to play an action ... or an impulse ... that makes behavior more actable.