London Acting Classes

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London Acting Classes
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INTENSIVE METHOD ACTING UNITS

• These are the heart of the acting training
  program. Each unit runs for an intensive
  four-week period specifically designed to engage
  and challenge your acting, building the muscles
  and techniques that bring real depth to your
  work. The month-long session will give you a
  proper understanding of Method as an approach to
  the actors craft, the ability to take away and
  practice the tools and techniques in a foundation
  form, and give you the means to take your acting
  further. Method is about living from your
  thoughts impulses and emotions creatively, the
  intensity of the month is specifically designed
  to engage a real practical journey.
• With an in-depth introduction and repetition in
  both the TECHNIQUE and SCENE CLASS classes, you
  can truly acquire and assess the validity of this
  process and how it fits in with your journey as
  an actor. There are many acting courses London
  provides. However many focus on results, which
  means how to develop a career, before you can
  really develop your craft. The focus and
  philosophy of method acting are centred around
  the actors instrument, or to put it another way
  your creative muscles.
• The most important creative muscle being the
  unconscious, which fuels each thing you do as an
  actor. How you say a line, how you react. All the
  creative detail that informs the quality of your
  work, is motivated by the flow of your thoughts
  impulses and emotions. In practical terms, the
  unconscious is quicker than the conscious mind.
• If youre only working from conscious ideas, it
  reads to an audience. However, when you work more
  intuitively, instinctively, organically,
  authentically, this comes across in the quality
  of your acting. Therefore over the last 18 years,
  Method acting has developed a robust programme of
  acting units which truly grows and strengthens
  these creative muscles.

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ACTING CRAFT UNITS

• Once a proper understanding and engagement with
  the actors craft has been enabled, we can then
  effectively bring in the focus and endgame of an
  actors career. Much of what you will do as an
  actor is not based upon what you should do, but
  what you choose to do. The acting craft units
  such as, AUDITION TECHNIQUE or BUILDING A
  CHARACTER are designed to develop your ability to
  understand the material that the actor works with
  in the industry.
• More importantly to present a imaginative and
  more truthful interpretation of the material. In
  each of our London acting classes you can focus
  upon the script text you are working with, as
  well as constructing and building the character
  within that text. That way when you come into the
  audition, or you are working in front of the
  camera, you have a clear sense of what it is that
  you need to do as well as what you want to do.

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AUDITION TECH/SCRIPT WORK UNIT

• Apart from developing a proper methodology for
  auditioning, the auditioning technique unit will
  look at the important components of textual work.
  How to put ACTIONS into the text, this is where
  you add a verb to each line to inform its
  dramatic expression, more importantly consider
  what is alive sub textually in the script. Also
  how to understand the scripts dramatic construct
  by the use of breaking the text into small units,
  known as uniting. It also develops the important
  context of the Given Circumstances. Therefore the
  audition technique class develops your script
  analysis skills as well.

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VOICE MOVEMENT UNITS

• In our London acting classes, another important
  component is the use of your voice and body in
  your work. The voice and movement units bring
  alive a much more expressive and creative way to
  uses these core acting muscles. Apart from the
  important connection your thought impulses and
  emotions have to your voice, as well as the flow
  of your movements.
• There are some very important character skills
  that you require. Otherwise each character will
  walk and talk just like you. However interesting
  you may be that is limiting. Success on both the
  creative and professional level is strongly
  connected to how flexible you are as an actor.
  Therefore your voice and body and how
  professionally you can use them can be the
  difference between success and failure in this
  industry.

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CORE CREATIVE MUSCLES

• Your ability to establish, develop, and prosper
  professionally will rest primarily on how much
  you developed the core muscles covered in the
  available acting craft units. As you grow the
  more powerful and creative muscles of your
  thoughts impulses and emotions in the Main Method
  Acting unit. You can bring this more developed
  acting ability into the other acting units. That
  way we are truly developing your acting craft. A
  craft which you can then really use in the
  industry. That way you have a true Method, i.e.
  methodology. You will have both the technical and
  craft skills required to unlock and prosper with
  your greater potential. Each acting class in
  London is designed to take that potential into
  your acting career.
• Acting is a misunderstood craft, the whole job is
  to make it look easy. The framework of the job is
  not complicated in comparison to brain surgery or
  sending a rocket to the moon. The true complexity
  is how much work you have put into your creative
  muscles groups. The creative and professional
  rewards are in proportion to how much you have
  invested in your training. The acting courses in
  London we provide our structure as units so that
  you can specifically focus on each component.
  That way you are truly working each muscle. As
  would a professional athlete focus on the
  specific muscles, to develop each component
  required. The true fun and creative inspiration
  of acting is having trained yourself to such a
  degree that its no longer a struggle but an
  inspiring challenge. Each unit challenges you in
  such a way that you can inevitably become
  inspired from the amount of work you have put in.

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INTENSIVE METHOD MONTH

• All the craft needs an acting instrument that can
  bring life to the craft. So under specific
  guidance in the acting courses in London, each
  month intensively develops your capacity to relax
  and, then by various means, turns your creative
  thoughts into an acting reality, whether on Stage
  or in front of the camera. It improves, expands,
  and strengthens your ability, by developing your
  talents in working with approach, technique, and
  acting skills. Given the intense nature of the
  industry in the 21st century, this facility is
  designed to offer the space where you deepen your
  mastery of the craft and develop your career.

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RELAXATION

• Central to any fulfilled ability, is the ability
  to relax. Acting has been scientifically likened
  to experiencing a car crash every time you work
  professionally. On a psychological level the
  conflicts and contradictions between you the
  human being and you the creative and professional
  entity as actor, at times are quite profound.
  Firstly as human beings we like to stay private
  when things become emotional or embarrassing. The
  drama we hope to get professionally paid for will
  present us with challenging characters and
  material that is both emotional and at times
  embarrassing. So our natural human instinct when
  we start to work with this material, on an
  unconscious level, is to stay safe. In simple
  terms when your conscious brain is trying to do
  the task your unconscious brain is trying to do
  the opposite. It sees no productive value to
  exposing yourself to public examination.
• Another important component to consider is that
  we are so pathologically wired as human beings to
  be social. These are primary needs which are very
  important and very normal, but again they are
  conflictual to the risks we need to take
  creatively when were working as actors. Both of
  these psychological truths affect the amount of
  irrational tension that comes alive when we are
  trying to be creative and playful with the
  material. The central TOOLS and techniques of Lee
  Strasberg are designed to address these
  fundamental challenges. Without them you are
  simply trying to swim upstream. Each exercise,
  known as tools, are designed to bring the
  psychological components of ourselves into our
  work. The time you take in the relaxation
  exercise transcends the powerful feelings which
  are first overwhelm you, into a rich sensitive
  and intuitive flow of thought impulses and
  emotions which you can work with. This is one of
  the specific and unique components that we train
  you in, which separates Method Acting from most
  of the acting classes in London.

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SENSE MEMORY

• Sense memory is the expansion from the relaxation
  work. To translate our interpretation of the
  material into a living breathing truth in front
  of the camera or on stage. The actor needs to
  find a psychological connection that can turn
  what is fiction, into a truth. As much as we
  would want to believe in the material we are
  working with, the reality that we are actors and
  that our careers and success depend upon the
  quality of our work. These dominant truths make
  it very hard to escape the reality of the camera
  or the stage. Sense memory however can unlock and
  shift the actors sense of relationship in the
  imaginary given circumstances of the material.
  That way we find a bridge or key that shifts our
  sense of relationship. In such a way the material
  becomes more truthful to us and we no longer have
  two perform or pretend. You unlock spontaneous
  thought impulses and emotions which are logical
  to the character and the material we are working
  with.
• It is this creative inspiration which is the fuel
  that truly brings alive great acting. Without it
  the actor can only work from a limited resource
  of the conscious intellect. In practical terms
  the conscious mind is much smaller and slower
  than the unconscious. Just like an athlete cannot
  perform to their best when having to overthink
  things. An actor can only truly create within the
  imaginary world of the character, if they
  truthfully believe in the material they are
  working with. Both sense memory and basic
  relaxation work have a very simple and repeatable
  structure. This is vital for your ability to
  apply it in your work. If it was too complicated
  or too conceptual it simply would be ineffectual
  to unlock the creative flow of your acting. The
  power and creative potential of these two tools,
  along with its technical application, blossom
  with practice.

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PROCESS AND TECHNIQUE

• It is important to consider that in both the
  relaxation and sense memory work, the repetition
  and application of these TOOLS and TECHNIQUES are
  much more than making our auditions work better.
  By the continued practice on an ongoing basis.
  Just as we would work muscles as an athlete in
  the gym. Your acting ability can be effectively
  unlocked. That way in the pressure of the
  professional environment instead of being
  predominately overwhelmed and only working from a
  limited amount of your ability. The greater
  capacity of your acting comes alive in the text
  and the character. This is what we call a body of
  work. Your practice that grows the greatest asset
  which you work from as your career grows.

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STUDIO TRAINING

• Finally the whole focus on the acting classes in
  London at Method Acting, is based around a studio
  training. Unlike an acting training in London, in
  a drama school, the focus of each unit is to work
  the core craft components of acting to a greater
  detail. A drama training, is by definition a
  training where the demands of the industry are
  increasingly set out in a linear path.
• Very much like training to be a soldier which
  replicates the demands of combat. Studio training
  the other hand takes the time to really develop
  the core craft components which enable much more
  creative relationship with the demands of the
  industry, both creatively and professionally.
  Without a proper path where the actor can really
  grow, the actor will fundamentally be crushed or
  limited in their true potential.
• The evolutionary nature by the repetition builds
  up a much more substantial actor with an
  instrument capable of taking on the greater
  professional challenges while developing your
  authentic creative vision. The other greater
  benefit of the studio system is that you can
  repeatedly come as you grow industry to find tune
  and deepen your relationship with acting as a
  profession.
• Like world-class athletes who continue to train
  as they reached the pinnacle of their abilities.
  The studio system in Method Acting is
  specifically structured to enable you to grow
  completely the creative abilities which leads to
  a greater professional career.

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• Learn more about our acting classes in London.
  Visit methodacting.co.uk for more information.