{"product":{"product_id":"0394744128","title":"A Practical Handbook for the Actor","price":"10.59","image_url":"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51IWtQe4rRL._SL500_.jpg","url":"https://www.amazon.com/dp/0394744128"},"comments":[{"body":"Unless you're doing some sort of highly stylized melodrama or something along those lines (which it doesn't sound like you are) you don't \"act\" emotions. That's going to come across as superficial and unconvincing. For the type of naturalistic acting your project is most likely going for, you act objectives, obstacles and tactics and use \"what if\" to stimulate your imagination and get yourself into the situation. Then the emotions come naturally.\r\n\r\nIn this case, your objective is to get to safety. This is very high-stakes; if you don't get to safety, you die. So what if you were really in that type of situation? Imagine if suddenly, right now, right behind you, you caught in the reflection of your screen the image of a man with a giant butcher knife about to stab you. You're going to freak out, right? You're going to scream, run, pull out your phone and call 911 and/or your friends and family and do whatever it takes to get out of there and get help and be safe again. Start out by practicing as if that was the scene. Have someone stand behind you as if they were the killer, then run screaming and shouting with reckless abandon from one side of the room to the other, yelling the names of all your most trusted friends and family for help, as if this was the one moment in your life you need them most of all. It doesn't matter how you look doing it, it doesn't matter if anyone's convinced, the only thing that matters is that you, Ahmed11105, get away from the person that wants to kill you as fast as possible and get to a safe place. Feel what it's like to go after that goal with everything you've got.\r\n\r\nOnce you've done that, once you're feeling that urgency and immediacy, start adding in the given circumstances to the exercise, one at a time, and see how they create obstacles to your goal of getting to safety, and how you have to change your tactics to get there. For example, instead of right behind you, the killer's in some unknown place nearby. How does that affect things? Can you still risk screaming for help, or will that alert him to your presence? Can you still run in a straight line, or do you know have to pay more attention to your surroundings, since you don't know where he is? Now imagine that you've forgotten who you are. How does that affect your character's situation, feeling that instinct to find someone to help them but not knowing if any such people even exist? How does that influence the choices the character makes? Remember, underneath everything your prime focus is to *get to safety* - these are just added obstacles that are standing in your way. It's the tension between the character's objective and the obstacles that stand in the way of that which create the emotion in the actor's body.\r\n\r\nRead up on Method/Stanislavski/Etc. for further info about how to develop this sort of technique (the sidebar's a good start, I also highly recommend \"[Practical Handbook for the Actor](https://auditionscripts.files.wordpress.com/2011/03/bruder1.pdf)\" as a great crash course in this stuff), or, better yet, take an actual acting class, and this all makes a lot more sense if you have an experienced teacher guiding you through exercises that teach these principles.\r\n\r\n(*Edit: I guess that \"Practical Handbook\" link is only the first chapter, but here it is on [Amazon](http://www.amazon.com/Practical-Handbook-Actor-Melissa-Bruder/dp/0394744128).)","subreddit_name":"acting","author":"haleym"},{"body":"I will echo these sentiments.  The best place for a beginner to start is also the cheapest - read. Read and then practice the strategies of script analysis/character development/unit \u0026amp; shift identification/etc. In addition to “Audition”, check out these:\r\n\r\nhttps://www.amazon.ca/Practical-Handbook-Actor-Melissa-Bruder/dp/0394744128\r\n\r\nhttps://www.amazon.ca/Intent-Live-Achieving-Potential-Actor/dp/0553381202/ref=asc_df_0553381202/?tag=googlemobshop-20\u0026amp;linkCode=df0\u0026amp;hvadid=292975707775\u0026amp;hvpos=\u0026amp;hvnetw=g\u0026amp;hvrand=10941463332594922131\u0026amp;hvpone=\u0026amp;hvptwo=\u0026amp;hvqmt=\u0026amp;hvdev=m\u0026amp;hvdvcmdl=\u0026amp;hvlocint=\u0026amp;hvlocphy=9000982\u0026amp;hvtargid=pla-437114081035\u0026amp;psc=1\r\n\r\nhttps://www.amazon.ca/Acting-Camera-Revised-Tony-Barr/dp/0060928190/ref=asc_df_0060928190/?tag=googlemobshop-20\u0026amp;linkCode=df0\u0026amp;hvadid=292950728533\u0026amp;hvpos=\u0026amp;hvnetw=g\u0026amp;hvrand=15502815575913007078\u0026amp;hvpone=\u0026amp;hvptwo=\u0026amp;hvqmt=\u0026amp;hvdev=m\u0026amp;hvdvcmdl=\u0026amp;hvlocint=\u0026amp;hvlocphy=9000983\u0026amp;hvtargid=pla-470196135784\u0026amp;psc=1","subreddit_name":"acting","author":"King_Theseus"},{"body":"Maybe Oberon is gloating or showing off his power. Use those lines to knock him down a peg. And notice that they're exit lines. Trying saying them assuming it's the end of the scene and then leaving--really leave. Don't \"start to leave.\" Leave. Maybe Oberon will say something that stops you in your tracks, but, at that moment, commit to knocking him off his high horse and leaving, as if you're slamming a door in his face. \r\n\r\n**OBERON**\r\n\r\n\u0026gt;Tarry, rash wanton: am not I thy lord?  \r\n\r\n\r\n**TITANIA**\r\n\r\n\u0026gt;Then I must be thy lady: but I know  \r\nWhen thou hast stolen away from fairy land,  \r\nAnd in the shape of Corin sat all day,  \r\nPlaying on pipes of corn and versing love  \r\nTo amorous Phillida. Why art thou here,  \r\nCome from the farthest Steppe of India?  \r\nBut that, forsooth, the bouncing Amazon,  \r\nYour buskin'd mistress and your warrior love,  \r\nTo Theseus must be wedded, and you come  \r\nTo give their bed joy and prosperity.\r\n\r\n\u0026amp;#x200B;\r\n\r\nSomething about \"am not I thy lord\" makes her stay? Maybe it's the fact that the snubbing failed. Okay, so on to the next target-changing tactic. \r\n\r\nShe throws his \"your lord\" right back at him: \"Then I must be your lady.\" And then she brings up two dalliances he's had with other ladies. She's *exposing* his affairs. What's her goal, here. Maybe it's to get him to admit to cheating. Okay, then *make* him admit it! \r\n\r\nI won't go through the rest of the text this way. That's your job. If you're not to analyzing scripts as an actor, I recommend this book, which is really short. You can read it in an hour. [https://www.amazon.com/Practical-Handbook-Actor-Melissa-Bruder/dp/0394744128/ref=sr\\_1\\_1?ie=UTF8\u0026amp;qid=1543679856\u0026amp;sr=8-1\u0026amp;keywords=a+practical+handbook+for+the+actor](https://www.amazon.com/Practical-Handbook-Actor-Melissa-Bruder/dp/0394744128/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8\u0026amp;qid=1543679856\u0026amp;sr=8-1\u0026amp;keywords=a+practical+handbook+for+the+actor) \r\n\r\nYour interpretation may be different from mine. That's fine. It's fine if it's the same, too. What's important is that you go in prepared, playful, ready to listen and react: and when you react, actually *do* something. And what you should do is to try to change Oberon (or Bottom or whoever you're speaking to) from State A to State B. \r\n\r\nAnd if the director throws something at you--\"pitch your voice higher,\" \"stand up straighter\"--that's fine (because you will have practiced in many different ways). Do what he asks, and, while doing it, change your target! \r\n\r\n\u0026amp;#x200B;\r\n\r\n\\---\r\n\r\n\\* In my biased opinion, this is the best acting book ever written: [https://www.amazon.com/Actor-Target-New-Declan-Donnellan/dp/1559362855/ref=sr\\_1\\_1?ie=UTF8\u0026amp;qid=1543680682\u0026amp;sr=8-1\u0026amp;keywords=the+actor+and+the+target](https://www.amazon.com/Actor-Target-New-Declan-Donnellan/dp/1559362855/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8\u0026amp;qid=1543680682\u0026amp;sr=8-1\u0026amp;keywords=the+actor+and+the+target)","subreddit_name":"shakespeare","author":"grrumblebee"}]}