Some actors have an acting coach. Some don’t. Usually, actors that hire coaches do so for specific reasons and they usually have some experience and/or a fundamental understanding on how to become an actor. Often they need guidance to improve or help on how to prepare for a particular role.
As a budding actor, you might have come across the term acting coaching. Many people who are interested in becoming actors are torn between acting school and having an acting coach. There are many advantages of each of these options and it depends on what one thinks is best for their style of acting and their aspirations. Yet some people usually question whether indeed acting can be taught let alone be coached. Certainly, everyone needs some basic personal traits for them to make it big as an actor but one also needs some guidance to become great at acting. Good actors are born but great actors are made through guidance from acting teachers and coaches.
When i was younger, i did work with a coach. I went to this place called Actors Space in the Valley. I was pretty young, and we were doing acting and improvisation. I do now work with an acting coach, primarily for the initial intellectual connection to the material.
Jake Gyllenhaal
Acting coaching is a term that is commonly used in the acting scene to refer to an actor working under a coach to improve their acting skills. It works in the same way as normal one to one teaching where an actor has sessions with the trainer who is solely focused on one actor student for a duration of time. The time it takes depends on the preference of the actor depending on what skills they want to be taught about. When an actor is being coached, he stays together with the coach in a room and they go through the day’s syllabus as detailed for the day.
The acting coach bills the student actor on an hourly basis based on the lessons that are being covered in a single day. The rate billed could be higher than the rate given for a standard class because it is exclusive and the coach does not see any other actor during the class. Therefore, since the coach’s attention is solely on the student, there is likely to be a higher amount billed. Ideally, when one chooses to work with a coach, it is usually to help him in enhancing certain specific areas where they think they are not good at and hence the need for more enhanced classes. Coaches are highly specialized acting teachers who mainly focus on building actor’s abilities to the next level from the one they are in currently.
Why you need a private coach
The reasons why you may or may not need a private coach depend on several factors. There are numerous reasons why an actor may choose a private coach for their acting career. Some of the reasons why you may need an acting coach are as follows:
Preparation before applying to a drama school.
To become a good actor, it is important to receive some formal training which is given at drama school. At the school actors, are taught many things which they find valuable when they enter the real acting world. Also, some auditions require interested actors to have some training in acting from drama schools and it is therefore an added advantage. Taking on a coach before joining acting school is an added advantage for an actor. This is because you will have been taught about the basic things about acting and you will only work on their improvement once you land at the drama school. Therefore, you will not be a beginner like the other students will be when you start learning. You will just improve on your skills and you can specialize on the areas where you are strong at.
Work on an upcoming audition.
Auditions run the acting world and you cannot land a role without going through auditions. Agents and acting scouts use them to bring up new actors on board and also to earmark other actors for other roles that are expected to come around in future projects. To cut in any audition, you must have done your homework, worked on your skills, evaluated the role you will be auditioning for and act it our severally days before the audition date. To make an impression upon the judges, you must look for an acting coach who will take you through the role and correct possible mistakes that you could make and thus ensure that you are well polished and ready for the audition. He will take the role of the judge and urge you through the preparation stage.
Trying to fix specific mistakes.
Everyone has strengths and weakness which they unknowingly commit when on stage in the case of actors. Also each actor has bad habits that they need to work on to ensure that their acting skills are of impeccable standards. These mistakes and bad habits are best corrected at an early stage of an actor’s acting life before they become hard to change in latter stages. An acting coach is best placed to help an actor get rid of these mistakes because of the experience he or she has. It is therefore important to engage a coach for this purpose early in one’s career.
Learning a particular skill.
Each actor must develop skills that are relevant to the acting scene. To develop particular skills, an acting coach can help you in their development. They are best placed to help in the development because they will solely focus on this particular skill as requested by the actor in training. Acting coaches have many years of experience in training actors on different sets of skills and hence the best placed in taking anyone else through the skills training. They are also the ones who teach in different acting schools of acting due to their impeccable skills training abilities.
Improvement of Character.
Acting is not just about the skill of doing the actual act. It also entails character of the actor and this is also something that can be trained and usually trained by acting coaches. Actors are taken through different sets of character methods that they can take and what they need to do whenever they are faced with problems or challenges. Each character in a movie or play requires a different set of skills. A well trained actor can change roles with much ease which is a trait that movie directors consider as an asset for an actor to have.
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