Get Into Acting

The Actors Centre is a renowned advanced professional development centre dedicated to supporting professional actors. Our course ‘Get Into Acting’ offers training of the highest calibre for people interested in experiencing actor training or looking to enter the profession.

This course is aimed at those currently outside the industry, but will provide a similar level of training as is given to our members. All workshops will be taught by tutors from the Actors Centre's regular programme for professional actors. The course will cover several of the key elements of acting training including:

Text and Scene Work

Regular sessions working with a variety of different texts, from classical to modern, exploring ways of approaching plays and developing character, motive and compelling performance. These will be intense sessions rooted in close focus on your potential as an actor. Text and scene work will arm you with a wide knowledge of plays and playwrights and build your confidence in approaching text, developing character and communicating with fellow actors and the audience. You will be encouraged to explore emotion and your understanding of the world around you to aid your creative choices, and to inform your character development. We will also discuss how to pick the right audition piece for you and cover general audition technique including delivery, attitude and focus.

ImprovisationImprovisation can be used as a rehearsal tool as well as a path to spontaneous and imaginative acting. You will grow in confidence, learn to trust others and gain skills that can be applied to rehearsal, audition and performance.

Shakespeare We will explore Shakespeare's verse, unravel the clues in his text and discover how the rhythms and structures of the language inform meaning and enable the character to shine through. A great opportunity for those who are baffled or intimidated by the plays to become familiar with classical text and handle the verse with ease.

Voice You will discover how to develop a vocal technique that is free to serve the demands of your text and give you exercises that will further develop your voice and its emotional range. You will also be given advice on vocal health and keeping the voice free and expressive.

MovementThis session will combine technical work - to release tension, drop the breath and promote freedom of movement - with physical improvisation and games to explore the actors' imagination, ability to play and to develop an understanding of how to work as part of an ensemble. At the end of the session participants will have developed some useful techniques for their own work and some insight on how to tackle movement sessions as part of the audition process.

Feedback This will be sent to you after the course has ended.

Please wear suitable loose clothing for all sessions (stretchy jeans and trousers are not appropriate, as you will be lying down and rolling around on the floor), and be prepared to work in bare feet and move a lot during movement work. Please also bring along a short, prepared and memorised speech from a play, so that you can receive vocal feedback on how you are using your voice when acting.

Course Dates

Monday 12th August 10.30-5.30 Text and Scene work with Laurence Mitchell

Tuesday 13th August 10.30-5.30 Text and Scene work with Laurence Mitchell

Wednesday 14th August 10.30-5.30 Text and Scene work with Laurence Mitchell

Thursday 15th August 10.30-5.30 Movement with Sarah Perry

Monday 19th August 10.30-5.30 Voice with Frances Parkes

Tuesday 20th August 10.30-5.30 Text and Scene work with Michael Gilroy

Wednesday 21st August 10.30-5.30 Text and Scene work with Michael Gilroy

Thursday 22nd August 10.30-5.30 Text and Scene work with Michael Gilroy

TUTOR BIOGRAPHIES

Laurence Mitchell trained at Drama Centre London and has been working as an actor for over 16 years. Theatre work includes the National Theatre, Young Vic, Old Vic, Almeida, RSC, Soho Theatre, Lyric Hammersmith and Manchester Royal Exchange among others. He has taught at Central, Drama Centre, ALRA, Central St Martin’s and is a visiting tutor at the Copenhagen International School for the Performing Arts.

Michael Gilroy trained at The Drama Centre and has worked extensively as an actor for over 22 years. He now works as a writer and director, his first film ‘Dance For Eternity’ was purchased by Channel 4 and his 2 films to date have collectively won 11 awards and received 24 official selections at film festivals worldwide

Frances Parkes has worked extensively in film, TV and radio. She lectures at the University of London and continues to coach actors here and in California in vocal development and dialects. She has been working with vocal techniques first outlined by Grotowski for the last 10 years and his insights influence all of her work.

Sarah Perry is an actor, movement coach, director and tutor working in a multitude of industries. She spent three months researching and movement coaching on Jupiter Ascending directed by The Wachowskis, and coached one of the lead actors in Guardians of the Galaxy. She has coached many actors and performers in film, TV and live performance. Sarah is a visiting lecturer and workshop leader at numerous UK Universities and educational institutions, including Norwich University of the Arts, University of West London, University of Hertfordshire, University of Kent, Ravensbourne and Met Film School. Sarah is a Yoga Therapist, and teaches Movement for Actors and Acting & Character Movement for Animators. Sarah has worked with the animators working on Harry Potter, Chronicles of Narnia - Voyage of the Dawn Treader, John Carter, World War Z and Guardians of the Galaxy.

PARTICIPANT JOURNAL FORMS

On arrival you will receive journal forms which are in a simple diary type format with brief guidance on filling them out. There is no right or wrong way to record your sessions – just include as little or as much as you feel is necessary to document your progress. At the end of the course, you will also be requested to fill out a participant feedback form, to help us improve and develop this course in the future.

PROFESSIONAL CONDUCT

We expect that you will adhere to the same professional codes of conduct and behaviour that we expect of our members. Please read and practice the following codes of conduct during your time here. When professional conduct is jeopardised, the Actors Centre reserves the right to refuse or remove participants from the course.

1. Please arrive 10 minutes before class begins. There is no excuse for lateness, and the tutor has the right to refuse entry to the class.

2. Please read through the course structure and content and prepare any scenes or coursework that has been assigned. It is your responsibility to ensure you are fully prepared for each session.

3. If you will be late or cannot attend a class, please contact the membership department in advance or reception on the day on 020 3841 6601 so that the tutor can be informed and adjust their lesson accordingly.

4. Do remember that there are other workshops going on in the Actors Centre and there will often be a performance happening in the Tristan Bates Theatre during your course. Please be considerate when moving around the building during break times and keep noise levels to a minimum.

5. Please do not eat food in the studios or rehearsal rooms.

6. No violence, abuse, or harassment of any form will be tolerated on the premises.

7. The Actors Centre takes no responsibility for any items brought to, or left on the premises.

8. All participants must sign in and out at reception.

9. Participants attend workshops at their own risk.

10. The course is taught in a way that aims to replicate closely the professional rehearsal room and the self-discipline, creative risk-taking and professional work ethic involved in being a professional actor. As such, we ask participants to treat these sessions with professionalism, and respect the other participants and tutor. At the discretion of the tutor or any other Actors Centre representative, participants whose behaviour is deemed to be detrimental to the quality of the session for the majority may be asked to leave a session. Under these circumstances no refund will be given.

Thank you for your interest in participating in our ‘Get Into Acting’ course at The Actors Centre. If you have any questions please do not hesitate to call reception on 020 3841 6601 or you can email us at:

reception@actorscentre.co.uk