Acting Is Everything: An Actor's Guidebook For A Successful Career

by Judy Kerr

• A favorite seems to be, “Doing My Job.” While driving, make that activity the center of your awareness. When your mind wanders, refocus. When you find yourself thinking about what you will do when you get to your destination or replaying past events, gently redirect your attention to this moment—to what is happening right now. Pay attention to the cars around you, the feel of your car, everything happening on the road and exactly how it relates to you. Use variations of this exercise anytime during the day—while reading, eating, talking to a friend, or washing dishes. • Joel Asher, well-respected acting coach and director of film and television. Q: What acting techniques do you teach? • I use many techniques. Just as a carpenter wouldn’t go to a job carrying only one tool, an actor can’t do that either. If an actor uses the same technique to audition for a soap opera as a situation comedy, it’s not going to work. So, I give actors different scenes with different styles, different challenges, so they can constantly be expanding their techniques. I teach weekly technique, professional and master scene study classes. We do exercises and improvisations that grow out of the scene work. These are improvisations that are done to isolate a specific skill and work on that issue.