Being Realistic About Acting

By Ginger Howard Friedman, ACTORS’ AUDITION TRAINING INSTITUTE – TAAS

“Hey! I know what! I’ll be an actor!”

Acting teachers do not teach students how to act! We hone your innate, already-existing acting skills. We honour what you bring to us and assist you to build from there.
We push. We provoke. We encourage.
We cause you to think, to feel, to dream, to expand your world, both real and fantasy.
Eventually we want to see results, but not until you have experienced the process. The process leads to the result – a most rewarding and exhilarating place to be!

To begin the process you must bring the foundation. Passion! Awareness! A thirst for study and learning! Included in the mix are curiosity, flexibility, an open mind, a good ear for listening and an open heart for humanity. Most of all you should bring an overwhelming desire to act for the love of acting.

The more a student brings to me as a teacher, the more I can contribute to the student.

An actor must be curious. If you are not interested, you will not be interesting. Great actors observe, study, listen and probe into the patterns of people and animals, their behaviors and experiences. The finest actors are those who can empathize with the human condition, its frailties and its strengths.

Keep your mind open. Develop your skills as an essential part of the process of being an actor.

Your goal, as an actor, is to make the agents auditors, casting directors, writers, directors, producers and finally, audience members believe every word you speak.

The great actor is the sum of his parts.

Ginger Howard Friedman is the author of The Perfect Monologue, Callback & Casting Director’s Secrets. A transplanted New Yorker, she lives in Toronto where she teaches acting and is a guest teacher at colleges and universities across Canada.
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