Learn Acting your way with a TakeLessons expert

Whether you’re the parent of a budding actor, or a drama enthusiast hoping to ignite a stage spark in your child, there are plenty of cool acting games you can play at home! These interactive, improvisational activities are used in many top drama classes and workshops because they’re really handy for developing key performance skills in a fun way. Another cool thing about improv for kids is that it costs nothing but time and creativity, yet yields educational and personal development as well

Children are natural born performers! In fact, they do instinctually what acting teachers try desperately to pull out of their adult students — they live truthfully in imaginary circumstances ALL THE TIME!  Kids have such wonderful and vivid imaginations, that it makes them the perfect candidates for acting class. And we are now realizing just have valuable theater education can be for children. Research from UCLA’s Graduate School of Education by Dr. James Catterall shows that students

Actors, your voice is one of the most powerful tools you have to make a character come to life. Next time you're getting into a character, use these tips from Baltimore, MD acting teacher Larry P. for improving your stage presence... Remember when your mother used to remind you to “use your indoor voice”? You have all sorts of indoor voices, and in order to best portray any character and improve your stage presence, be it in an audition, a rehearsal, or a production, you have to decide w

Emotions are at the heart of the craft of acting. But how do you tap into your emotions as an actor? How do actors laugh, cry, and respond truthfully in the moment, using real emotions that aren’t just fabricated? What are some tips on emotional acting and emotional acting techniques that will help you tap into those real emotions, so your performance is believable to audiences? In this article, we’ll look at some of the best, tried and true emotional acting techniques used by perform

If you're an aspiring Broadway performer, the steps you take during high school play a significant role in your success on the stages of New York shows in the future. Sure, you sometimes hear stories of people who book amazing lead roles in shows after a single audition, but that’s not a realistic view of how it all happens - for most actors, at least. Ask any working Broadway performer – New York is not a city that hands you success simply because you’ve just moved there. Hard work, disc

You’re a theater enthusiast. Maybe an actor, director, or just someone that is an active theater goer. Perhaps you have found yourself wondering what it takes to write a play, and even entertained the idea of writing one yourself! But what if you don’t know where to even start, or wonder why to try it in the first place?  I’m here to get you inspired by offering you tips on how to put your ideas together to write your own play; in other words, create something wonderful. Start by Brainst

Monologues are an essential part of a stage actor’s career, and that includes actors from ALL walks of life! It doesn’t matter what sort of actor you are - comedic, dramatic, classical or contemporary...you will need a variety of short funny monologues to have ready if you’re auditioning for acting work. Professional actors certainly know this, but it is advantageous for those that are active in community theater or school theater, too! Theater in recent years has exploded. It seems lik

Emotions are choices.  I know the title sounds odd. We have heard most of our lives that you can’t help how you feel. As Actors, that couldn’t be farther from the truth. Our entire industry is built upon our ability to manipulate how we feel to fit a given situation. Huge names like Strasburg, Hagen, Adler, Yakim, Spolin, Meisner and countless others have gifted us with tools to make emotions happen. They all are based on the same concept. Actors make choices. Emotions are choices. Ev

Betsie Van der Meer / Stone / Getty Images You’ve studied Stanislavski, Meisner, Adler, and Suzuki. You’ve learned the Circle of Fifths and mastered your second turns. But are you ready for the real world? Here are a few golden tidbits to help any recent grad transition from the acting school environment into the working world, written by actor and teacher Jasmine B.: Acting school can provide aspiring actors with a wealth of knowledge and experience, but there are some things tha

Struggling to find that perfect audition monologue? It can take some time, so be prepared to be patient! Read on as Courtney P., one of our acting teachers in the Orlando area, offers her advice: Let's face it, most actors HATE monologues. They are tedious, and most of the time, it's ridiculously hard to find the right one. Monologues are, however, necessary in the entertainment Industry, and many times your monologue can make or break an audition. The process of perfecting your monologue