Everything you need to know about Acting Without Agony: An Alternative to the Method is here.

LEARN TO ACT FOR THE MOVIES
Don't act, just feel and stay honest.
Being honest: absolute honest in feeling and objective.
How to Act: feel, think, do technique is the way the actor wants to act
Hot tip: all theatre is foreplay.		in the imaginary world.
Received e-mail:               "After reading the book I believe that I understand more about (ABWAG) web site and the motives behind its creation."        Modern acting begins with honesty.		Photo by Bob Karr
Leave reality outside acting workshop.		Don Richardson teaching his workshop.
Stir the imagination of audience with feeling and thought.

The principles of acting come from all the things you do in life.

Skills and talent.  

How to start with instant acting.

Young actors act carefully, they have to learn to make mistakes.

          An actor's mind and body rebel, they refuse to leave reality for illusion.

          Everything comes from your imagination. Don't do things that physically can hurt you.

Actors are trained in the world of illusion.

        ABWAG to learn acting is a place to learn acting with no pain to you mentally or physically.

Dress yourself in your imagination.

          An actor must be trained in the skill of acting. It is a craft with a toolkit full of tools. The individual tools are acquired through the learning of the art.

1. Becoming other people.
2. Approach your work with body relaxed so the emotion can take over.
3. Acting is not about talking, it is about behaving.
4. Think your objective, leave your body alone.
5. As an actor you must accept the world of illusion.
6. Entering a dream, you must stay in the dream.
7. An actor has to serve the audience and work for the author.
8. Director says, "show me what you've got."
9. Audience has to see body language, make everything physical.
10. Remember, half of your performance comes from the other person.
11. Tell your body to do something, that's acting.
12. Sharing an illusion.
13. Let go, don't act carefully.

14. Simple, simple, simple.

          The modern way to act is to learn all of the principles of acting, then forget that you know them.

          It comes down to the human face, not just special effects.

          The fundamentals of acting is to not flounder around, but look at the resources of principles. Principles never change. It's not, "I have a great idea".

            Staging from principles.

In a scene you must give it meaning, be specific and make a point.

Scene Analysis

Acting Gems

You're fools, guys and gals, trying to find the easier way.*

Don't love your performance, love...

In order to control an audience you must first learn to master yourself.

   You have talent, see what it can do!

To act we are talking about skills, you just don't throw yourself into it.

         When you are very good in a scene and you come off and you're not sure exactly where you were, that is when you are good. When you come off and say, "oh, was I terrible," you weren't in the scene. If you come off and you say, "boy, was I great," you weren't in the scene. If you can step off into space and not know where you are for a moment and trust your talent to take over and everything you have learned to date and allow that to propel you, then you come off in doubt, you come off like, "where was I?" That is when you are very good in the scene. That is what really acting has to feel like. It is like taking a trip. It is being somewhere else and being someone else. As long as you stay you, it is never going to happen. That is the trick you try to achieve.

Talent will take care of you, don't just perfect skills.

Act down to your finger tips.

The secret: Give up the controls, hardest thing to learn in acting.

            In acting in the movies a lot of big star actors are always there, they are a pain in the side. They are all over the place. But rich good acting, that is not what happens. The actor disappears, and that is what the actor should do, you work up closely to your character and then you step back, step back, step back and leave the character alone. You give the character your mind, your body and you buzz off. All you do is collect the check.

Storytelling and reveal character, that is what it is all about.

          We are storytellers. I'm not talking about logic, I am talking about the skill of telling a story. We all try to act with our intellect, you can't do it, acting is an emotional experience. It's only a partial mental experience. Don't look for psychological conclusion as an actor. A good actor knows when to do it, how to do it and make the right choices. Use all the resources you've learned from life and then you say, this can work in terms of the audience. You have to be theatrical. It won't work if you don't have no smarts. Consider the material in depth. What is the reading in it that will interest an audience. That is what they are looking for when they hire you.

          There is rarely anyone to help you out there. You have to know what to do to help yourself. Actor in this industry has to be ruthless, selfish, aware of everything that is going on. Actor has to be self-resilient, self-reliant and self-sufficient. Work-up a standard of excellence. Train your own instincts.

          The acting experience is what it feels like to act in the imaginary world.

          Acting is self-illusion, not just costume, has to come from inside.

            Buzz in actor.

            Naturalism is dull, you have to give the audience a circus. Every moment should be full. Take an emotion and make it big without strain.

Top ten items in acting a scene.

          First, get yourself into that emotional state where you have to get your body feeling the peak of exercise: you are out of breathe, the adrenalin is going through you and your heart is beating. Then the director yells action and don't recover.

          When you do things like feeling emotion and thinking objective you don't even have to think about doing it. It all becomes subliminal in your acting. Don't be conscious of all the principles of acting once you learn them. Trust your body, your body can do many things for you. Your body remembers.

The acting experience is not knowing how you acted.

           Character can be out of control, but you the actor must always be in control, keep your skills. You must have great feeling, but stay in control of your instrument (your body, an actor has to learn to play the violin, figuratively.)  It's all about emotion.

         Use the principles you learned to work with, those are the tools. Most people learn them, but don't apply them.

         When it is working for you, don't do anything, don't make it better. The hardest thing for an artist is when to know when to stop, when is it enough. Don't guck it up.

         Don't start acting, once you remind audience you're an actor it's over. Cannot take every big moment and turn it into radio, vocalize or make it loudly. The problem is to deal with big moments, they don't have to be loud.

ABWAG is an alternative to method acting.

          Joy of doing the work is ART, not from torment, forget armchair psychology used by many actors and directors. To the actor a director says, 'I want this result, do it however you do it', is a better way instead of all that psycho therapy stuff in Method acting.

Method acting is too cumbersome.

           Something methody: people will tell you they do not teach method acting, but be careful there are many different branches of method acting out there.

           No interest in neurasthenic acting.

             People who make so big a fuss about acting, should not be acting.

Writer give actors something to interpret.

           Biggest mistake made by actors doing a scene is "what is the story"?

           Actors must know what story they are telling to be able to use all their resources.

           The character isn't simply an extension of yourself.

Love the craft and principles, not the image. 

           Audience should never know actor is scared.

           An actor must:

                                    1. light up the screen,

                                    2. have a buzz in themselves,

                                    3. be on,

                                    4. use energy for entertainment,

                                    5. look into special interesting things of the character,

                                    6. love them self; I'm great and I'm amazing,

                                    7. leave their talent alone and

                                    8. learn instant acting.

          Actors never ask themselves, "what would I do," but need only to think "who am I", who the character thinks he/she is. Acting is being other people, the actor doesn't come into it.

          Be aware of what is going on in the inside and the outside of the character.

	Learning the camera			How to stand on stage.
theatron -- seeing place -- Greek
http://www.vtheatre.net/acting/audience.html

         Acting on the stage and for the camera are the same, the difference is proportions.

         Each actor has to develop their own study habits.

is difficulty, that's the secret.

         When you do a drama look for the things that are ingratiating, look for the fun in it, and most of all look for the humanity in it.

Humanity is the secret in all acting.

Read books on anthropology.

Art is a suggestion, art isn't thrown at you.

          Actor must know about humanity to make the character real. Humanity is the whole principle of theatre.

          What makes an important actor? Find what other people don't. Actor has to have a profound understanding of humans.

          In acting don't do the opposite to humanity.

          How to plan the scene from a showmanship point of view?

          Motion pictures require motion, not just emotion.

          If you can't tell story in behavior, it won't work with words

          How to make a scene special, how to illuminate it? As an actor be a chef, be decorative. Acting a scene is like a chef planning a meal. He doesn't serve you the same thing. If you start with a asparagus, is the main course asparagus, does he give you asparagus fruit, and does he end up with asparagus cake.

Learn to act and how to sell it to generate money. If you can generate money, they will pay you money.

            Acting is being other people. It has nothing to do with you -- the actor is not the character.

          Find yourself in the skin or world of your character.

            Actor can't pretend things, it has to be emotional experience.

How to find emotions? We know what words mean: anger, envy, horror, anxiety, joy, etc.

         The emotion like "anger" is all the times you had this emotion in life, not just one instance in your life.

         Here is THE EXERCISE to learn how to make the emotion big enough to act with.

         Acting is having the emotion that best fits the scene. An actor can not try to play effects of scene. If actor works without emotion, it will look like acting. An actor can't lie or do it without passion. It is about true feelings and true objectives: do not to be artificial, but be real.

         An emotion isn't a constant, an emotion goes up and down, it goes all different ways.

         The whole idea is to see how much emotion and inner life actors can give their characters. The actors must give themselves over to the moment, they must soak themselves to be real.

         Approach your work with body relaxed so the emotion can take over.

         Use all your resources, not just emotion.

         Avoid compassion or pity as your character's emotion."

Definition of an objective: Objective is in character's words.

         Objective should be simple, active phrase, starting with the word "to".

         The objective is the conscious intent of the character.

         Objective must always be in the language of the character, limited to his own background and education.

         There's no one correct answer when you're looking for the objective of the character. Pick the one that seems best for the character and one that 'turns you on' as the actor.

         The objective is the conscious intent of the character; (he needs a woman to give him trouble).

          Objectives must always be difficult to attain.

Difficulty is the fuel that lights our acting fires.

          Actor must think of character's objective over and over to be oblivious of everybody; crew, director, etc.

          When you act you should concentrate on your character's objective and nothing else. Your discipline has to be complete, that is how you stay in character.

          The discipline in your mind is not to think, how am I doing? Because you'll forget. Instead, it is to concentrate on the character's objective. Thinking just that is: controlled obsession.

          Objective is not just what you think, but what you do.

          Think objective - the body knows what to do!

          People tell you to focus, but never tell you what to focus on. Focus on your objective.

           Don't act without an emotion, more important than words, even the objective.

          Learning how to listen in a scene: you can't make your mind a blank, so you must keep thinking objective and stay with the emotion, you'll hear the way we do in life.

          Really see and hear other actor, you will react.

The only other acting book I recommend to read besides 'Acting Without Agony: An Alternative to the Method' is Michael Caine's acting book 'Acting in Film', which tells us "to occupy yourself while you listen, think of what you would say, but don't say it". This is an over-generalized objective.
Michael Caine Acting on Film Part 1 of 6

Fill the silences is actor's job.

           One of the cardinal rules is... stay with one emotion and one objective until something occurs to change it. (You don't drift off because of the dialogue.) You only change because of new information or a new event.

          Have an attitude for the character, then you would have their personality.

          Attitude without an emotion will never work, you must vibrate inside.

          Also, find another attitude for character from new information.

          Acting attitude can control audience. You are the performer