Name: Actors Insight: How Not to Play the Effect
Uploaded: 2024-06-19T07:01:35.156Z
Duration: 1 min 37 s
Description: Sometimes, there is a tendency to get to the impending emotional reaction at the end of a scene, as if it was already expected, rather than allowing whatever new information you receive be the catalyst for action or dialogue.

Sometimes, there is a tendency to get to the impending emotional reaction at the end of a scene, as if it was already expected, rather than allowing whatever new information you receive be the catalyst for action or dialogue.

Acting

As a professional actor for over 30 years, I love teaching what I 've learned.

In Acting coaching, I try to inspire students to discover, explore and express their unique selves through their chosen passion.

In Acting, I work with students on:
1. Connecting with and trusting impulses and emotions
2. Scene Study/Monologues
3. On-camera technique
4. Audition Technique

I can work one-on-one with students in the Los Angeles, CA area.
I can work via Skype/Computer for remote students.

Actors Insight: How Not to Play the Effect

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Beginner

Intermediate

Advanced

Actors' Equity Association, founded in 1913, is the labor union that represents more than 49,000 Actors and Stage Managers in the United States. Equity seeks to advance, promote and foster the art of live theatre as an essential component of our society.

SAG-AFTRA represents approximately 160,000 actors, announcers, broadcast journalists, dancers, DJs, news writers, news editors, program hosts, puppeteers, recording artists, singers, stunt performers, voiceover artists and other media professionals. SAG-AFTRA members are the faces and voices that entertain and inform America and the world. With national offices in Los Angeles and New York, and local offices nationwide, SAG-AFTRA members work together to secure the strongest protections for media artists into the 21st century and beyond.

Best Ensemble

I taught students from4th through 8th grade the basics of acting via improvisation games and acting exercises geared toward spontaneity.

Drama Coach

Donn Swaby is a professional  actor in film, television, theater and radio. 

Feature film credits: Ridley Scott’s G.I. Jane, Raw Nerve, Nora's Hair, Open Window, Bud's For Life, Nora's Hair Salon II.

Television credits: NBC’s Passions, The Sopranos, Judging Amy, Crossing Jordan, The Parkers, Vaughn, Half & Half, Surface, Charmed, Gigantic, Monk, Happily Divorced and How to Get Away With Murder.



Professional Actor

English

I am a 20 year professional in the acting business, having worked extensively in film, television, theatre and radio. I can be found on imdb.com. I work with students using improv games, and a myriad of effective sensory and acting exercises that will encourage their spontaneity and increase their confidence while I teach them the basic mechanics of acting. 

My resume/bio is as follows:

Born and raised in Queens, New York, Donn graduated from the Boston University School of Theatre Arts with a BFA in acting. He is best known for the role of Chad Harris, the intense, aspiring music producer on NBC’s hit soap opera, Passions, which can now be seen in numerous countries around the world, from Australia to South Africa, making Donn an international star.
Donn has been nominated for two Soap Opera Digest Awards (Outstanding Male Newcomer and Outstanding Younger Lead Actor) and one TV Soap Golden Boomerang Award (Most Popular Supporting Male Star.) 
Donn’s film credits include the Ridley Scott film G.I. Jane with Demi Moore, Raw Nerve with Mario Van Peebles, Nora's Hair Salon with Jenifer Lewis, Tamala Jones, Tatiana Ali, Bobby Brown, and Li’l Kim, and Li'l J, Open Window with Robin Tunney and Joel Edgerton, Nora‘s Hair Salon II with Bobby Brown, Stacey Dash, Ananda Lewis, Mekhi Pfeiffer, and Tatyana Ali and Bud's For Life with Eugene Bird and former Passions co-star Chrystee Pharris , for which he wrote the screenplay. 
Donn’s television credits include The Sopranos, Judging Amy with Amy Brennehman, The Parkers with , Half & Half, Crossing Jordan with Jill Hennesey, Surface with Lake Bell, Charmed with Alyssa Milano, Rose McGowan and , Monk, Happily Divorced with Fran Drescher, and Gigantic with Jolene Purdy and Grace Gummer. 
Donn’s theatre credits include Seeking the Genesis at the Manhattan Theatre Club (Off-Broadway), A Raisin in the Sun (Williamstown Theatre Festival), A Preface to the Alien Garden (Trinity Rep), Fear Itself (Crossroads Theatre), two productions of Romeo and Juliet (Mermaid Theatre and the Colonial Theatre), A View From the Bridge (Source Theatre), My Children! My Africa! (New Rep Theatre), The Colored Museum (Strand Theatre), The Offering (Rip Rap Studios), Searching for Willie Lynch (Los Angeles African-American Repertory Theater Co.), WEBEIME (National Black Theater Festival), Black Angels Over Tuskegee (Black Gents of Hollywood, winner of the N.A.A.C.P. Theater Award for Best Ensemble), Stop and Frisk (Strand Theater), Take Me Out (Celebration Theatre). 
Donn produced and directed Fallen Angels and Savage in Limbo while at Boston University. He made his directorial debut in Los Angeles with Sam Shepard’s Fool for Love, which he also produced. He produced and starred in William Hanley’s three-act play Slow Dance on the Killing Ground, for which he and his cast received an N.A.A.C.P. Theatre Award nomination for Best Ensemble. He produced and directed a one act of six short plays he’d written over the course of ten years, collectively titled The Lost and Found.

It was apparent from the very beginning that Donn really care about his students. He really works with you on a personal level and goes out of his way to instruct you on your goals and needs. His passion for acting is contagious. I highly recommend.

A theater, a television studio sound stage and a feature film each are their own mediums that require different skill sets as an actor.

Actors Insight: Acting for Stage, Film and Television

We've all been nervous as actors at one time or another. Stage fright is a real thing and can be potentially crippling unless you find ways to overcome it.

Actoes insight: how to Alleviate Nervousness

In this video, I explore the trap actors can fall into in projecting or forcing an emotion, such as crying, rather than allowing the emotion to simply exist while your intention is focused on communication.

Actors insight: Real People Try Not to Cry

In this video I go through some Acting 101:  knowing what your character wants, what stands in your way (both inner and outer obstacles) and all the various ways you will try to overcoe your obstacles to get what you want.

Actors insight: Objectives, Obstacles and Tactics

In this video, I explore the concepts of being fully present to the moment in order to allow yourself to be affected by what's happening around you and the concept of allowing yourself the freedom to be truthful and genuine without having to be forceful or project an emotional condition.

Actors Insight" Being Present and Being Enough

Waiting for another actor to finish his or her lines so you may speaks yours is not the same as truly listening to what the other person in the scene is saying. 

Donn S.

Actors Insight: How Not to Play the Effect

Donn's Acting videos

Actors Insight: Acting for Stage, Film and Television

Actoes insight: how to Alleviate Nervousness

Actors insight: Real People Try Not to Cry