Acting

Also known as drama.

I’ve been an acting student for the last few years, and had some tiny stage performances as part of some acting classes, but have not taken this much further yet. Stay tuned!

This note, as well as associated ones, are about externalising my acting skill, both for myself and others.

Primary topics

• Given circumstances
  • Beyonds
• Unit of action (beat)
• Objectives
  • Overall objective
  • Scene objective
• Obstacles (Acting)
• Stakes (Acting)
• How to approach a script
• Moment before
• Learning lines
• Acting warmup
• Acting warmup: games

Books

These are the books I found useful:

• The Power of the Actor¹¹1 Ivana Chubbuck, The Power of the Actor (East Rutherford: Penguin Publishing Group, 2005). 
• Audition²²2 Michael Shurtleff, Audition (Random House Publishing Group, 1979). 
• A Challenge for the Actor³³3 Uta Hagen, A Challenge For The Actor (Simon and Schuster, 1991). 
• Respect for Acting⁴⁴4 Uta Hagen, Respect for Acting: Expanded Version (John Wiley & Sons, 2023). 
• The Actor and the Target⁵⁵5 Declan Donnellan, The Actor and the Target (Theatre Communications Group, 2006). 
• Directing Actors⁶⁶6 Judith Weston, Directing actors: creating memorable performances for film and television (Studio City, CA: M. Wiese Productions, 1996). 

There are more books that I have read. Recommended to me were:

• The Empty Space (Peter Brook, 1968)
• Backwards & Forwards: A Technical Manual for Reading Plays (David Ball, 1983)

Schools

I can recommend these:

• The Acting Muscle (Berlin, Germany)

Me

• My acting course

Assorted stuff

Lots of stuff that I have not properly put into words and sentences and notes.

• Tactics
  • Actioning
• Voice work
  • Being on voice
  • Breath work
• Verbal action
• Contentless scene
• Beats and transitions
  • Escalation
  • Don’t drop the energy at the end of a beat
• Make a choice
  • Be specific
• Pacing
• Making it real
  • Anchors
• Physicality
  • Where is the pain located?
• Find the love
• Moment before
• Eyeline
• Playing opposites
• Recording myself: a checklist
• Dream work
• Importance of purpose
  • Each word has a purpose
  • Each line has a purpose
  • Each prop has a purpose
  • Each movement has a purpose
  • Each breath has a purpose
  • … what is it?
• Substitution
  • Inner objects
  • Substituting situations
  • Substituting characters
• Staging/blocking
  • Stage positions
  • Upstaging
  • Using the space to convey power
• “Action” vs. Bitte/Danke
• Text
  • Know the core words
    • Play around with accentuating different parts
  • Read the entire play (multiple times) and highlight
    • what “I” say
    • what other characters say about “me“
    • what “I” say about “myself”
• Monologues
  • Who are you talking to?
  • Does the target change or does it stay the same?
  • Why do I keep talking?
• Tom Hanks’ three rules
  • Be on time
  • Know your text (not just learn lines)
  • Have an idea
• Analysing a script
  • Secrets: What does your character know but isn’t in the script?
  • Stage directions (cross them out unless they have an effect on the script)
• Each scene is a power struggle
  • Every scene is a chase scene⁷⁷7 Frank Hauser and Russell Reich, Notes on directing: 130 lessons in leadership from the director's chair (New York, London, Oxford, New Delhi, Sydney: Bloomsbury, 2008), p. 33. 
  • Each confrontation can always(-ish) be bigger.
• Don’t play safe
• Don’t play pity/helplessness
• Simplify
• In each practice run, figure out what you want to focus/work on
• Space
  • What is the space I am in?
  • What is my relationship to the space? Do I own it or not?
  • What are the objects in the space?
  • Where are the characters in the space? Where are the ones that are not in the scene?

Archive

Past events:

• A Night of Scenes and Monologues (December 2025)