Professional Actor Training Centre
Philosophy
The Professional Actor Training Centre’s aim is to introduce students to acting as both a craft form and an art.
An artist (in whatever discipline) may possess amazing talent, but without the unrelenting work of the craftsperson, talent alone will count for nothing. A concert pianist, for example, may be born with brilliant musicality, but without constant practice, that “brilliance” will not sustain a professional standard of music.
It is the continuous practice and understanding of the craft that enables it to become art. However, you cannot plan the times when your craft becomes “art” – when it begins to move the very soul of its audience. That is the magic of theatre, and of certain moments captured on camera. Like the magic of falling in love, it is sustained best by recipients who understand how to hold and nurture it through very practical and day to day means.
By continuous practice of the craft of acting, you become more able to sustain and hold the moments of magic through the creation of a solid vessel through which it can flow.
This is obvious to dancers and musicians, all of whom must practice daily to maintain a professional standard, but, somewhere along the line, the profession of acting has become confused with fame.
It is true that someone from Big Brother can walk out of the house and into the profession of acting. However, becoming a celebrity and being an actor are two very separate things. Many good and great actors are celebrities, however most celebrities are not actors.
An actor’s training is never over. It is impossible to exhaust the limits of the imagination when it comes to acting. An actor is someone who transforms – themselves and their audience.
The Origins of the Acting Profession
The origins of our profession come from the festivals in ancient Greece. In some countries, an actor is not allowed on stage until he/she has trained for ten years. In other parts of the world the discipline of becoming an actor is akin to that of becoming a monk.
It is true that there are genres of acting and that, in the west in particular many a great film actor emerges “out of nowhere”. However, most often, if you look at that person’s history, you will discover that theatre exists somewhere as some form of training. It is through theatre that acting styles in the West changed and emerged from the representational to the believable – from the overly dramatic and stylized mannerisms of the past to the naturalism of what is today considered good acting.
The work developed by Stanislavsky in Russia, (and then adapted into what we know as ‘the method’ by Lee Strasburg in The USA) is the basis for all modern acting techniques in the west. He is known as The Father of modern acting. For this reason, we teach the basis of his technique.
When people talk about “the method” they are most often referring to actors who, rather than remaining in fixed personas, are capable of actual transformation through a range of characters, who, more often than not, are associated with some kind of intensity. This subject is far too wide and complex to discuss here, however we employ many approaches to acting most of which rely on imagination rather than on memory. The basics of the method are part of this training.
The “madness” associated with the method comes out of the perception (partly true but largely misunderstood) that its process relies on dredging up one’s own (often most unpleasant) memories. It is true that many actors have, over time, tended to take on the idiosyncrasies and neurosis of the characters they portray, which is not always wonderful, given that the most interesting characters are often the most vulnerable or disturbed. Paradoxically, comedy is considered to be harder to master than tragedy.
Our process is one which engages the imagination rather than personal history.
Although the personal may interact with the imaginative, we do not intentionally direct you to engage with your past nor do we use methods that are personal in any way. Such processes often require a thorough understanding of how to “de-role” so that they do not become intrusive. We rely on the imagination – the personal and the collective – which is a safe place from which to create all kinds of emotions, atmospheres and characters.
One of the “problems” with the Russian techniques of acting for today’s climate is that they were designed for companies who had long rehearsal periods (sometimes years) and for actors who were engaged by the state, often in life-long contracts with incredible ensembles, where they never had to go out and work as waiters. It can be difficult to apply these tremendous techniques (which demand so much from us) to today’s life as an actor in Australia, where even a four week rehearsal period is becoming a luxury. We now have to work faster than ever before and need techniques that can be adapted to the speed of film and TV which is the mainstay of work for actors in this country.
This is a path which, in whatever form you desire, takes time and discipline and most often, a great deal of hard work. Ask anyone who has worked in a lead role on an Australian Television Series, or has travelled through the Australian countryside on tour with a show. To be a good actor one must remain vulnerable and open but to survive, one needs incredible resilience.
Why do we persist with acting? Maybe it’s for the “moments” of magic which remain the moments of truth. This is aptly described by the renowned Swedish actor, Live Ullman, writing here about Charlie Chaplin
“Great actors see things more clearly than the rest…inviting us into a world they have caught a glimpse of so that we can go forth… enchanted… with an enhanced awareness of the possibilities of life.”
We look forward to meeting you at one of our courses soon.
