What is acting? Can it be boiled down into fewer than 140 characters? For the last few months, actors training at The Modern Actor Coaching have been asked to answer this question. Here’s what they’ve come up with so far.

Acting Is Powerful Stuff

The beauty of theatre is that it’s a collaborative art.

Until every member of the crew, interprets the work of the writer, theatre has not yet been created. Therefore, acting can be whatever you interpret it to be. There are wide-ranging schools of thought on what acting is. I believe acting has always been about bringing my truth and my rawness to a script in a believable way using voice, gesture, and physicality.

For you, it may mean something entirely different!

“For me, our job as artists is to serve the story, serve the director, and serve the fellow actors.” - David Oyelowo

The only thing that matters is that you respect the craft and use it to create empathy. Empathy is the ability to understand and share the feelings of others. Empathy is what makes us become one with the character and one with each other.

Here Are The TMA Community Answers 140 Characters Or Less:

👉 Living truthfully under the imaginary circumstances.

💥 Acting is reacting and living your truth in the moment.

🎯 Acting is storytelling.

🔗 Bringing a scene to life through reactions. You are trying to become and portray a character.

📌 Acting is being. Authentically sharing a story/experience as if it were your own. Reaching a goal through passion, risks and growth.

📍 In my opinion, acting is being able to step outside of yourself to experience life from the perspective of another person.

250 Characters Or More…

👏 The freedom to be whoever or whatever you want! A chance to express yourself in a creative, artistic manner. An opportunity to empathize with others and learn more while becoming the character you’re wanting to bring to life to make connections with viewers!

🏅 A liberating performance art that when done well and successfully can be extremely therapeutic. An art that allows you to grow and heal as a human by living your past truths through someone else’s point of view. An art that perhaps fully allows you to learn things about other people that you never understood before.

🎁 Like a late, great man once said…acting is Doing. It is alive. It is playing truthfully under imaginary circumstances. It’s that ping pong back and forth. To me, it’s also medicine. Tapping into emotions and allowing the grace to feel a range of emotions we might not normally tap into. It’s art.

🚀 Acting to the art of storytelling. It is the bridge between connecting people to emotions. When done correctly, people can experience feeling things they had no idea they had inside of them.

📿 Acting is (for me) being someone you are afraid or nervous to be on a daily basis, with acting I can bring all my worries and frustration and lay it all out in a scene because that is what that character requires which is also very therapeutic.

Is Acting Innate In All Of Us?

Did you notice a pattern in some of the responses above? Acting takes courage and vulnerability. The average person protects themselves from ever being vulnerable. When we feel scared about something our natural tendency is to run or freeze. In order for a person to act they need to feel safe.

Focus On Your Breath

You can create a feeling of safety by breathing. The breath can either anchor you or help you relax. One of my early professors in acting said “Breath is life.” To breathe deeply was to be completely vulnerable. This vulnerability she described, was the essence of acting. “Acting requires that we take away the tensions that restrict breath and find a clear channel to our deepest breath.”

In other words, finding our deepest breath is necessary to connect us to our most profound feelings.

So just breathe… 😮‍💨

The Modern Actor Is Here To Serve YOU!

Coaching at TMA is for actors at all levels and from all walks of life. Whether you are just starting out on your journey or a seasoned veteran, acting should still be fun and enjoyable. Discover your connection to the art of acting either for the first time or all over again. Lessons are catered to any person willing to push past their limitations. It’s now or never! Click on the link here to get started.

Join The Conversation!

How do you define acting? Click on the image below. That will lead you to the original post on Instagram where you can leave your own definition. Or drop a line in the comment section below!

Wait Before You Go!

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