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What the acting craft can teach writers about the writing craft: Part 4

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Today is Part 4 of a 5-part series on what we as writers can learn about our craft from the craft of acting. In particular, I’m hopeful that between what gets posted here and what gets posted in comments — especially by those GITS readers who are actors or have taken acting classes — we can all learn something about the mind of an actor. How do they approach a part? What are they looking for? What do they think makes a great character? And so forth.

I’ve asked two professionals with acting backgrounds to provide their take on a series of questions, one each day. They are Joshua James and Shea Vitartis (their bios are at the end of this post).

Today’s question: What resources are available to writers to learn about the craft of acting?

Shea Vitartis:

Videos and DVD series

This is the only one I can think of:

“Sandy Meisner: Theater’s Best Kept Secret”


Uta Hagen has one, too:

“Uta Hagen Acting Class”

Give Samuel French a call for other leads/DVD series.

Books

“Building a Character”, by Constantin Stanislavski>

“On the Technique of Acting” by Michael Chekhov

For script breakdown:

“The Art of Acting” by Stella Adler

“The Power of the Actor” by Ivana Chubbuck

I have yet to read Larry Moss’s book on acting but hear great things about it:

“The Intent to Live: Achieving Your True Potential as an Actor” by Larry Moss

Acting classes

My three peices of advice are “Audit, Audit, Audit” Check out as many classes as you can in your area and auditing is free. Well, at least it is in LA and NY. If they want to charge you to audit, tell them to —- off. Doing that will give you a well-rounded look at the whole process. What works for one person accessing their craft may not work for another. After the countless hours I have spent wearing down sneakers, I found that simplicity works best.

After all if life were complex, we would all get it, right?

Josh James

You can probably take an acting class just about anywhere … you can take one at any University (usually they have a basic acting class for non-majors) or you can even audition for a part at a local theatre…

For film acting, Micheal Caine has a truly great DVD called ACTING ON FILM that is awesome … he explains how to work his moments and beats for a camera, and teaches students for the camera. It’s also a book, too.

“Acting in Film” [book]

“Acting in Film” [DVD]

There are a lot of books, but my favorite when I was an actor was AUDITION by Micheal Shurtleff … he was a casting director (just passed away a few years ago) who wrote about acting for auditions, and myself I found his insights to be extremely illuminating. It’s a short, fast read and I recommend it for everyone.

“Audition”

About Shea Vitartis:

Shea Patrick Vitartas was born and raised in Los Angeles. The son of a set designer, he got a taste of the “business” at a very young age. At the age of 18, he joined the lighting union. Not long after his first day on the job, he caught the eye of an acting manager who took Shea on as a new client. It was at this time that Shea’s journey into the craft of acting began. He trained at various studios and learned from the top acting coaches in Los Angeles. Throughout his journey, Shea has met many unforgettable people who have inspired him. Two of the biggest influences on his acting career have been Peter Haskell and William Alderson, both of whom approach the technique of teaching acting from a place of imagination and truth. While he continues to pursue his passion for acting, Shea has also recently completed the UCLA Certificate in Feature Film Writing. Never one to let his creative mind rest, he continues to write and direct projects, some of which have been shown at various festivals throughout the U.S. Shea is currently working on his third script, which he plans to shoot in the latter part of 2010. He is also assembling a web series that he will be writing, producing, directing and acting in.

About Joshua James:

Josh James adapted Peter Biskind’s book Down and Dirty Pictures (2010) into a screenplay now in pre-production as is his dark comedy The Jones Party.

He also wrote the thriller Block Island for Adler-Gray Productions and did a production polish on Roadkill (2010) directed by John Stockwell, which completed principal photography in January 2010. In addition, his scripts A Natural High and Pound of Flesh, were optioned in 2009.

Josh has a blog on writing here.

Thanks to Josh and Shea. More from them on Day 5 of this 5-part series tomorrow at 4PM EST / 1PM PST (U.S.).

One thought on “What the acting craft can teach writers about the writing craft: Part 4”

  1. Both your actors have listed the best of the best as far as reading that might be helpful in understanding what the actor process is. I might add the Robert Lewis book, Method or Madness and Sonja Moore, who wrote about Stanislavsky in her paperback, The Stanislavsky Method. A later edition, The Stanislavsky System, expanded and modified, was published by Viking Press in 1965.

    At best, these are descriptions of a process, variations of a central theme which is to define the tools used by actors all over the world to aid them in reading the map the writer has presented them. A map that describes a physical, intellectual and emotional journey that the character they have been asked to play takes.

    To understand that journey in a way that might reflect back on the writer's craft, I think that the reading, while interesting if only to learn and define the vocabulary that describes the process, will not substitute for the attempt to take the journey themselves by actually participating in a scene study class. Why? Read a novel. Read a screen play. Wherein lies the greatest difference? Both describe physical attributes of characters, places, time, atmosphere. Both create an historical reference whether past present or future. But, when necessary, the novel can and often does create thought patterns that bubble with context that is associated with the external form of the story. That is almost always absent in the play and the screenplay. But it cannot be absent in the performance. There is rarely a moment in conscious life that a human being ceases to think completely.

    The street is wet, the car aquaplanes, the light turns red. One actress screams and thinks of her children, "Who will feed them." Another actress screams and thinks of her lover, "I'll never see him again!" A third screams and thinks about her face and body, "What will I look like!" Now, not much difference at that moment, the audience sees the peril, hears the scream and then we have the crash. But those different thoughts seen over a 100 minute film could add up to three very different interpretations of a single character. That is what the actor does, and while it is done with the obvious guide of an observant director who is facile enough to suggest adjustments that keep the actor en pointe with script, in the hands of three different and equally skilled performers, the net result to the film could be profound.

    The benefit for the writer in experiencing the actor process of building a back story and a mind set would, I think, prove invaluable in developing a character that shows that the writer has not ignored how his characters think and why they think that way. For it is that process of developing sub-text where actors nost clearly define where they have been and indicate the course they have chosen to take in the future.

    In a highly collabrative medium, the writer who ignores or does not understand the input reality of all the component share holders does so at her/his peril.

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