How to Improve Your Acting Skills
Whether you’re trying to break into the acting business or have a lot of downtime in between jobs, no matter how good your skills are, it’s important to work on continually improving them, considering how stiff the competition is.
There have been reports that just 2 percent of actors actually make a living from the profession, and nine out of 10 are out of work at any given time, which means ensuring your skills are up to par is a must for increasing the odds of acing that audition and getting hired.
Be Open to Almost Any Project
While you don’t want to take on a project that would compromise your values, you should be open to almost anything that will give you the opportunity to work, which is one of the best ways to improve your acting skills. Take advantage of any chance to act, whether it’s community theater, an amateur acting workshop, or through a drama club. It’s a good idea to list yourself among actors for hire on talent apps, too, so that those who are looking for talent can find you. It makes it easier to land jobs without having a talent agent take a potentially significant cut of your earnings.
Work On Your Voice
Your voice is one of the most important assets you have as an actor, which is why you should work on it just like you would an instrument. It needs to be strong and flexible to tackle emotional demands, or the language of Shakespeare, with the ability to embody any character from someone who speaks twice as fast as you do to a person of high status. Take time to practice every day, working on any sounds you struggle with, reading text out loud, whether it be a dramatic monologue or a great poem.
Record Yourself
When you aren’t acting, record yourself performing a monologue to at least provide the feeling that you are. It will bring the opportunity to constructively observe your skills, acknowledging both the strong and weak ones.
Watch Other Actors
Watching other actors with constructive awareness will help you become better at understanding weak and strong acting choices, which in turn improves your ability to observe your own acting or make the best choices in a scene. You might just choose one actor to learn from, observing all of their performances from their earliest to more recent ones, making a note of their strengths and weaknesses as well as how they might have improved over time.
Find Your Own Unique Voice
Don’t try to be someone else, originality is what will get you noticed. Find your own voice and create your own work. When you go out and create, whether it’s writing your own material for standup or creating a web series, it will enhance your creative and acting skills and might even get you noticed. You never know who is watching – you could put on a one-person show and get spotted by a producer who happens to be in town.