Acting Tips .Stay in Character.. .

Directors say all the time to "keep in character." What this means to keep acting, to behave as your character no matter what the situation.

If you drop a line, miss a cue, or even if a prop or piece of scenery breaks, you're supposed to behave as if it was supposed to happen. Or, at the least, react naturally to it.

The audience is at the performance to escape the world for a while. To be taken into a story. To live with a set of characters and experience their laughs, their cries, their highs and their lows. Although you're on stage right in front of them, people willingly believe the world that you've created.

An audience will believe anything you present them, as long as you adhere to the rules you set at the beginning of your performance. How do you maintain the illusion and "stay in character?".

Pay attention to what's happening on stage. Don't let your mind wander and be distracted by the hot lights or the coughing pest in the third row. Stay in the moment. Stay connected to your scene. If you've prepared well, your objective and your intention will be clear, you know what you're doing and why you're doing it. Stay focused on these and the scene will play out naturally.

Live with the unexpected. Suppose you're entering through a door. You open the door and the knob falls off into your hand. You see it. The audience sees it. You can either ignore it, or simply acknowledge it and move on. Just acknowledge it casually and move on. The same goes for missed lines or cues. The audience won't know anything went wrong unless you do something to let them know there was a mistake.

Pay attention, prepare, live with the unexpected and your audience will love your brilliant performance

Acting: The First Six Lessons. (Theatre Arts Book) : These six lessons are set as six acts of a drama to present the skills and tools of the classically trained actor. Concentration, Memory of Emotion, Dramatic Action, Characterisation, Observation and Rhythm. In each chapter, Boleslavsky demonstrates how these tools are applied through the three basic aspects of the actors craft: Emotion, Intellect, and Body.