Oh, Hey there!
Oh! Well, hello there!
My name is Kat (in case you hadn't figured out by my oh-so-clever title... heh... heh... AHEM. Okay, so not THAT clever.). I am an actor! -cue dramatic music, accompanied by my best transatlantic accent-
So, what does that mean, why should you care? Well, I'm just starting out, so you probably haven't heard of me just yet. No, you probably haven't seen me in anything (yet). In fact, I don't even live in LA (YET!).
I am a newbie, but fiercely passionate, and hoping and working at making this dream into my full-time career. In the film industry, there are no guarantees of success, but something that I looked for when I first was struck by the bolt of lightning that is this enthusiasm for acting was any sort of resource from actors before they made it. I wanted to see the struggle. Even in the really rough times, I wanted to know others had a 'before' and at least I wasn't alone. There are interviews, books, all about how they've been there too, but it is said after they have already overcome the hurdles, not while they are in the midst of them.
I have no idea if I will "make it" or not, but what I do know is that I am going to give it everything I have, and in the event I do manage to find myself amongst those actors that so inspire me, I want to be able to say "Hey, I've been there. Check out my blog from back in the day and see for yourself!"
Anywho... My biggest question after I was first bit with the bug was "How do I even start?". There is no objective answer to this one, unfortunately. All I can give you is how I started, and where I have gone from there.
Theatre.
Musical theatre, actually.
The Music Man.
Before acting, I wanted to sing. I didn't have the fire and passion for it like I do with acting, but I enjoyed it. I enjoyed getting lost in a song, I enjoyed the goosebumps I could get from certain music, and I enjoyed how others could make me weep or make me overjoyed. Only one problem- I had AWFUL stagefright. I went to an open mic night and when my name was called, I went up to the mic, prepared with a song I had sung thousands of times, I knew it so well, and yet I forgot the words. In a restaurant crowded with people. I stood there, blank, terrified, and I bolted to the back of the restaurant and hid in a dark corner at a table by myself and I cried.
After that, I decided that if I wanted to sing in front of anyone, I would have to get over that fear, but I knew doing it alone would be torture, so I found a community theatre audition for a musical and I showed up with my sheet music, sang my heart out (of course, my voice was VERY shaky), and lucky for me I was cast as ensemble. Which meant that I could sing my heart out on stage, but I would be surrounded by others doing the same and somehow that made it a lot easier.. only... When I realized I was cast I though "I can't act... if I am going to be in a musical, I need to learn how to act!". I dived into research, spending night after night researching what acting is, techniques, questions to ask, how to get into character. I found Uta Hagen's 9 questions, and I wrote answers to them. I read somewhere that some actors write a full background on their character, even if it's not given in the script, so I wrote page after page. About week 2, I realized I was far more excited about learning who this person was than singing. I still learned the songs of course, but I was more fascinated with WHY she was singing these lyrics than I was with actually singing them. It didn't quite hit me though until a member of the cast, Collin Wallman, came up to me and asked if I had an acting coach. That totally caught me off guard. I said no, and he told me he knew a coach if I wanted to start taking lessons- since I was already taking it so seriously. I didn't realize I was taking it all that seriously until he said something. I just wanted to be good, I just wanted to be able to do justice to this role I had been given, I din't want to fail the director or the writer.
After the play closed, I auditioned for another, this time- Jesus Christ Superstar and that's when I bumped into Collin once again. He and I were both cast as ensemble. This time I asked for the coach's information. He told me that the coach didn't take everyone, he would want to meet with me first to talk about why I want acting coaching. I called him and scheduled an interview after one of my rehearsals. He agreed to take me on as a student. His audition techniques were odd and unorthodox (I spent the first class screaming a monologue and punching a pillow), but they worked.
I was cast next as Ermengarde in Hello, Dolly! My first thought - why did I get the annoying whiney character? I got right into research and I started watching interviews with actors on YouTube and I borrowed An Actor Prepares by Constantin Stanislavski from my coach. I stumbled onto a quote by Alan Rickman - "If you judge the character, you can't play it." Called out... by a quote on the internet.
I needed to try and see things from her perspective, so I needed to figure out why she behaved the way she did. I bought a diary to keep backstage during rehearsal when I was not in a scene, one that I thought she would have, I wrote things in first person, as if I was really her, and tried to see what she would write about. I thought of her parents- where were they in the play? Why did she live with her uncle? Why did she want so badly to marry Ambrose? Why him? How did she meet him? What attracted her to him? Etc, etc, etc. I bought books on charm school, on New York in the 1800s, on Women in the 1800s. Anything I could get my hands on to know about this girl. Apparently.. that was unusual. It shocked me a bit when I didn't see my fellow community theatre actors doing the same thing, so I started looking into drama school.
WOW. That's too much money. Drama school is expensive. I was already broke, living by myself, and my family is a pull-yourself-up-by-your-own-bootstraps sort of family- which means there isn't the option to move in back with mom or to ask her for financial help. I had to figure out things on my own. I looked into the major schools- where are they and what do they teach? RADA, Guildhall, LAMDA, Julliard. OUCH. $$$$$
There was no way I could afford it. Even if I managed to get grants and scholarships to afford tuition, the cost of living would kill me. Though, I dreamed of RADA.
No drama school, so what else is there? I googled local classes. Coaching was going great, but I craved more knowledge, I wanted to get as good as I could as fast as I could. I found a school in Orlando that cost just a couple hundred dollars, and I paid up and went. Unfortunately, I didn't think about auditing a class first. I was given articles that I had already read online, defnitions of words that I already knew from reading An Actor Prepares. We did a neutral scene, which was new to me, but it wasn't worth the money I spent on the class. I was very disappointed, and afterwards- leery of other schools near me.
My next play was Christmas Belles. I was cast as the youngest of the Futrelle sisters, Twink. This play was different. I wasn't the only one with books anymore. I wasn't the only one writing backstories and journals. Other girls in the cast started talking about Meisner, about different acting techniques, different exercises that I had never heard of, and I had to know where they had learned all of this. Laura Law and Maya Angel told me about Truthful Acting Studios in Orlando. A small acting school that was working on becoming a 2 year acting conservatory. The owner of the studio came to see the play and support Laura and Maya (as it turned out, Maya is his step-daughter). I immediately found him after the show and asked him about the school. He recommended that I come to one of their seminars for free and check out what the classes are like before I enroll, so I did. One of my best decisions.
I showed up, attended the seminar, and was thrilled that their approach and respect for acting as an art form was so like what my coach had been teaching me. Their teaching style and techniques were different, but their appreciation of the history, of theatre, of the art of acting struck me. I asked about class pricing and payment plans and signed up with my next paycheck!
---
That's the story up until my training at TA, so I'll leave it there. That's how I jumped in, that's how I got started.
I want this blog to inform and inspire. In future entries, I'll share my journey through acting classes and various projects, through coaching, auditioning, and curveballs that life throws your way. I will also be sharing resources that have helped me.
If anything strikes you, or if you have any questions or comments- please leave a comment or send me a message on Facebook , I would love to hear from you! I am also working on creating a Vlog series, so if you would rather check me out on YouTube (I'll be talking about the same things over there in video form), I'll post a link once I start that up.
Thank you so much for reading!
Much love!
-Kat
My name is Kat (in case you hadn't figured out by my oh-so-clever title... heh... heh... AHEM. Okay, so not THAT clever.). I am an actor! -cue dramatic music, accompanied by my best transatlantic accent-
So, what does that mean, why should you care? Well, I'm just starting out, so you probably haven't heard of me just yet. No, you probably haven't seen me in anything (yet). In fact, I don't even live in LA (YET!).
I am a newbie, but fiercely passionate, and hoping and working at making this dream into my full-time career. In the film industry, there are no guarantees of success, but something that I looked for when I first was struck by the bolt of lightning that is this enthusiasm for acting was any sort of resource from actors before they made it. I wanted to see the struggle. Even in the really rough times, I wanted to know others had a 'before' and at least I wasn't alone. There are interviews, books, all about how they've been there too, but it is said after they have already overcome the hurdles, not while they are in the midst of them.
I have no idea if I will "make it" or not, but what I do know is that I am going to give it everything I have, and in the event I do manage to find myself amongst those actors that so inspire me, I want to be able to say "Hey, I've been there. Check out my blog from back in the day and see for yourself!"
Anywho... My biggest question after I was first bit with the bug was "How do I even start?". There is no objective answer to this one, unfortunately. All I can give you is how I started, and where I have gone from there.
Theatre.
Musical theatre, actually.
The Music Man.
Before acting, I wanted to sing. I didn't have the fire and passion for it like I do with acting, but I enjoyed it. I enjoyed getting lost in a song, I enjoyed the goosebumps I could get from certain music, and I enjoyed how others could make me weep or make me overjoyed. Only one problem- I had AWFUL stagefright. I went to an open mic night and when my name was called, I went up to the mic, prepared with a song I had sung thousands of times, I knew it so well, and yet I forgot the words. In a restaurant crowded with people. I stood there, blank, terrified, and I bolted to the back of the restaurant and hid in a dark corner at a table by myself and I cried.
After that, I decided that if I wanted to sing in front of anyone, I would have to get over that fear, but I knew doing it alone would be torture, so I found a community theatre audition for a musical and I showed up with my sheet music, sang my heart out (of course, my voice was VERY shaky), and lucky for me I was cast as ensemble. Which meant that I could sing my heart out on stage, but I would be surrounded by others doing the same and somehow that made it a lot easier.. only... When I realized I was cast I though "I can't act... if I am going to be in a musical, I need to learn how to act!". I dived into research, spending night after night researching what acting is, techniques, questions to ask, how to get into character. I found Uta Hagen's 9 questions, and I wrote answers to them. I read somewhere that some actors write a full background on their character, even if it's not given in the script, so I wrote page after page. About week 2, I realized I was far more excited about learning who this person was than singing. I still learned the songs of course, but I was more fascinated with WHY she was singing these lyrics than I was with actually singing them. It didn't quite hit me though until a member of the cast, Collin Wallman, came up to me and asked if I had an acting coach. That totally caught me off guard. I said no, and he told me he knew a coach if I wanted to start taking lessons- since I was already taking it so seriously. I didn't realize I was taking it all that seriously until he said something. I just wanted to be good, I just wanted to be able to do justice to this role I had been given, I din't want to fail the director or the writer.
After the play closed, I auditioned for another, this time- Jesus Christ Superstar and that's when I bumped into Collin once again. He and I were both cast as ensemble. This time I asked for the coach's information. He told me that the coach didn't take everyone, he would want to meet with me first to talk about why I want acting coaching. I called him and scheduled an interview after one of my rehearsals. He agreed to take me on as a student. His audition techniques were odd and unorthodox (I spent the first class screaming a monologue and punching a pillow), but they worked.
I was cast next as Ermengarde in Hello, Dolly! My first thought - why did I get the annoying whiney character? I got right into research and I started watching interviews with actors on YouTube and I borrowed An Actor Prepares by Constantin Stanislavski from my coach. I stumbled onto a quote by Alan Rickman - "If you judge the character, you can't play it." Called out... by a quote on the internet.
I needed to try and see things from her perspective, so I needed to figure out why she behaved the way she did. I bought a diary to keep backstage during rehearsal when I was not in a scene, one that I thought she would have, I wrote things in first person, as if I was really her, and tried to see what she would write about. I thought of her parents- where were they in the play? Why did she live with her uncle? Why did she want so badly to marry Ambrose? Why him? How did she meet him? What attracted her to him? Etc, etc, etc. I bought books on charm school, on New York in the 1800s, on Women in the 1800s. Anything I could get my hands on to know about this girl. Apparently.. that was unusual. It shocked me a bit when I didn't see my fellow community theatre actors doing the same thing, so I started looking into drama school.
WOW. That's too much money. Drama school is expensive. I was already broke, living by myself, and my family is a pull-yourself-up-by-your-own-bootstraps sort of family- which means there isn't the option to move in back with mom or to ask her for financial help. I had to figure out things on my own. I looked into the major schools- where are they and what do they teach? RADA, Guildhall, LAMDA, Julliard. OUCH. $$$$$
There was no way I could afford it. Even if I managed to get grants and scholarships to afford tuition, the cost of living would kill me. Though, I dreamed of RADA.
No drama school, so what else is there? I googled local classes. Coaching was going great, but I craved more knowledge, I wanted to get as good as I could as fast as I could. I found a school in Orlando that cost just a couple hundred dollars, and I paid up and went. Unfortunately, I didn't think about auditing a class first. I was given articles that I had already read online, defnitions of words that I already knew from reading An Actor Prepares. We did a neutral scene, which was new to me, but it wasn't worth the money I spent on the class. I was very disappointed, and afterwards- leery of other schools near me.
My next play was Christmas Belles. I was cast as the youngest of the Futrelle sisters, Twink. This play was different. I wasn't the only one with books anymore. I wasn't the only one writing backstories and journals. Other girls in the cast started talking about Meisner, about different acting techniques, different exercises that I had never heard of, and I had to know where they had learned all of this. Laura Law and Maya Angel told me about Truthful Acting Studios in Orlando. A small acting school that was working on becoming a 2 year acting conservatory. The owner of the studio came to see the play and support Laura and Maya (as it turned out, Maya is his step-daughter). I immediately found him after the show and asked him about the school. He recommended that I come to one of their seminars for free and check out what the classes are like before I enroll, so I did. One of my best decisions.
I showed up, attended the seminar, and was thrilled that their approach and respect for acting as an art form was so like what my coach had been teaching me. Their teaching style and techniques were different, but their appreciation of the history, of theatre, of the art of acting struck me. I asked about class pricing and payment plans and signed up with my next paycheck!
---
That's the story up until my training at TA, so I'll leave it there. That's how I jumped in, that's how I got started.
I want this blog to inform and inspire. In future entries, I'll share my journey through acting classes and various projects, through coaching, auditioning, and curveballs that life throws your way. I will also be sharing resources that have helped me.
If anything strikes you, or if you have any questions or comments- please leave a comment or send me a message on Facebook , I would love to hear from you! I am also working on creating a Vlog series, so if you would rather check me out on YouTube (I'll be talking about the same things over there in video form), I'll post a link once I start that up.
Thank you so much for reading!
Much love!
-Kat
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