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

E-mail received at tron7ft@abwag.com

Holland USA

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.

          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, a lecturer, you have to control the audience.

          Characters don't go around showing what's really inside of them, they wear a mask for protection.

          When re-doing a scene, don't repeat what you just did, but go back to cause of it (the emotion and the objective,) then hoping your talent will even make it better.

          Never do anything without a plan.

          Not reality, but creditability. Principle is "that its got to be completely creditable" otherwise it can't work, it's not possible. What is the story?

          A scene is not a duplication of life, if it does you have monotony, but a reflection of life. Audience says, 'yes, I know I felt that way.'

..... Hot Tips .....

          Know the perimeter of what you can do, so you aren't miscast. Perimeters of what you are right for, what you suggest to the audience, otherwise, it's work, work and it still doesn't work.

            Performance is like a strip tease. The whole thing is foreplay, just maybe, not yes.

          If the behavior is correct, even a deaf audience will understand it.

            Just the most important note:          

Learn how to juggle only three things when acting:

                                                1. feel::::::::::emotion

                                                2. think:::::::objective

                                                3. the~~~~~~~wire

           An actor can only control their conscience for acting purposes, they can not control their sub-conscience. What the sub-conscience does is it does things to the actor.

          This is make believe (you're the cop, I'm the robber), just walk into it. You are just in this dream. There is no you the actor.

          In acting get yourself where you don't know what is coming next.

          Don't get ready to do anything, your body will do it.

          Trust your talent, don't instruct yourself.

          If you teach the body how to act, it will act.

          Character out of control, but actor has to be in control.

          Knowledge when to do nothing is a powerful weapon.         

The Art of Directing
Director is the pilot of the story in a lighthouse to keep the actors off the rocks.
Actor and director's work is storytelling.      In the house of entertainment the actor and director have to serve the audience and work for the author.      An actor or a director should definitely follow and learn the list on scene analysis.       Actor thinks of causes. Director thinks of results.      Actor has to make the right choices. For director it is casting.      Just have a general idea of scene. Ammo given to actors is the emotion and objective. Director then let's the actors go.
Director favors the one who can act when filming.

          Purpose of film today: play each moment fully. Don't over simplify in just dealing with plot.

          Don't make bad choices. If the choices are wrong, scene won't work.

          In making choices, it is where you are in the story and how much the audience should know.

          Recognize traps of scenes when they are there, so you know how to avoid them.

            Acting is the only art you cannot be caught doing.

No awareness of self is good acting.

          If actors go back in their past, they are aware of self. Total abandon must come from an actor while his/her instrument (body) is vibrating with feeling.

            Understanding Discipline of Acting - Actor must give up self-thoughts.

          Audience doesn't care about the actor's problems, only the character.

          An actor must turn their body over to the character, if they can't do that, they can't act.

          When you act you have to act not just with your will, not just with your thoughts and feelings, you have to act with your whole body.

          Act with your whole body, the feelings are going, and use your voice without burying dialogue trying to be natural. Use color and don't mumble.

          An actor must have a good vocal instrument, but not fall in love with it.

          The more inventive you are, the better actor you are.

          Overall effect in movies is seeing. We are a watching creature.

            Behavior tells the story.

The dialogue is the ornament on the garment of the actor.

Click Here for NEWSFLASH about acting

             Secrets of drama: what is recognizable to audience.

          Who is doing what to whom? That is the rubber band stretched in a scene.

          Audience like to watch people try to save themselves.

          Recall things in life that the audience has forgotten.

          Modern acting has a ragged edge to it.

          For a scene to resemble reality, it has to be conspired reality. A planned reality is not organized, it has a ragged edge, it is not smooth. That is the human dilemma. Do everything organized, but in life nothing is organized.     

           Turn on all your lights: bigger than you are and still look real.

Actor's Wit

It is possible you can learn more from animals than humans in life.
The actor starts with a clean canvas -- you are the material in creating another person with the character's who am I, what do I feel, what do I want, attitude and mask.
The character is asking these questions, not the actor:
Exercises to do.		who am I?
		what do I feel?
		and what do I want?
Also, find the personal character's attitude toward others, because every character must have an attitude to make their individual self. Then give the character a mask... always remember people wear a mask.
Reading a part, don't believe everything character says: natural behavior of lying everyday.	The face they put on to the world.	What is really going on inside the person is what you choose. What they pretend is only their mask.
However, if you succeed too well in your mask, there is no drama.

Know what to do with a character even without lines.

          Actors must make choices from what scene should do to audience.

          From the emotion comes the imagination and from the objective comes the staging.

          Emotion (feelings) are separate from objectives (thoughts).

          The biggest principle of them all:

         An actor's job is to create people in an imaginary world.

Theatrical sense, not psychological conclusions.

Don't think up clever things.

Do all acting on impulse.
Use your sensitivity from your heart.
Body vibrating with feeling.
Brain to brain acting.

         When you are a star you have to be aware of certain things. If a moment is important, take your time. Clock in your head.

          Lead with your feelings, not your brain.

            Invention on invention.

          Turn your acting into something to watch. Recognize the moments, they are the lifeblood of drama.

          Each moment must be played with a beginning, middle and end.

          Scene isn't worth anything unless there is conflict.

          Conversation is not a scene, no matter how witty: a confrontation is a scene.

          You have to explore every moment with all your energy. Play all the values. To turn on your lights also means to turn on all your awareness. Every moment is brand new. Nothing has been rehearsed.

Acting is the work of imagination.

          Enjoy acting in the world of imagination. Remember you are putting on an entertainment.

          World of imagination is also known as having the actor stay inside the imaginary fourth wall of illusion.

            Feel, think, do technique is the way the actor wants to act in the imaginary world.

          Learn to do things with your imagination, that's what sense memory is. Dialogue is least important.

            Mesmerizing yourself with your character's objective.

          Story telling, don't take up time with things that don't matter, art of compression.

          Never yell in acting unless it is the only thing.

          Modern acting is talking with your body before you talk with voice.         

          Certainty is wrong. Do all your planning, work it out, learn the words and then step off into space.

          When the characters have goals that are easy to attain or if they give up trying, the audience loses interest in the character. The greater the struggle; the more the excitement. The larger the risk; the greater the suspense.

          Principle: Never allow it to be over, until it's over.

            Know everything for the first time, as if there was no rehearsal.

            Rehearsal can't be organized, it has to be spontaneous.

          To appear spontaneous, you must learn technique, technique, and then technique to cover the technique.

          You don't have to work at what you are. You are all ready good at it.

          The actor's brain is limited, their impulse is unlimited.

Stay with the truth of story.

            The answer is you have to make everything that happens meaningful; an attention getter. You have to keep the audience awake. Your first job is to keep them interested. You're not teaching them about humanity, you're entertaining them. You must keep them interested. So, if the director says to you, O.K., sit down over there and you sit down over there and there is nothing going on... make something go on that is important to the story and the character. That is your creative job.  That is what you get hired for. If I'm a director and I hire De Niro, I know that he isn't just going to bog down.  He is going to do something interesting. That is why he is worth all that money. That is why they hire him, they don't like him. Nobody likes anybody in this industry. They hire you because you are necessary, because you do something that is interesting that will sell tickets. Do you know why your basketball player makes so much money? People pay a lot of money to see him. That is why he makes more money than a brain surgeon. Brain surgeon only has one client that needs him at a time.  Right? But a basketball player has a multitude that need him at a time, that's why he makes more money. And the Stars that make more money are the ones who can do something interesting. The way to be interesting is to find out what is going on in the story, who is your character, what does he want, what does he feel and dramatize it. Don't just think about it, but do it. Your objective is not just what you think, it's what you do.  And you have to do it physically. It is not just a question of finding a place to settle yourself where you are the least target. An actor doesn't sit down because a character sits down, an actor sits down because he is half the target seated than he is standing. You fight your heart out to get in front of the camera, you want to be hidden when you get up there? It doesn't make sense, it is illogical. Why be an ostrich?

Don Richardson's Acting and Directing Workshop

     This particular critique in Don's workshop was all technical stuff with hardly any story suggestions, however, I do find the principles used here interesting.

     Officer and a Gentleman     Drama

     Director, an actor and an actress.       Sept. 6, 1990

     Scene: He is coming to propose to her.

                       __________her__________|_______him________

     Objective:   to make everybody jealous       to save myself

                       to save my face                       

     Emotion:     greed                                     hope

                       contempt

• Leave something for the audience's imagination.
• Back of mind understand camera.
• Story being told in images.
• The unusual is what it's about, not just beautiful.
• Vanity not beauty.
• Think camera. Think motion picture.
• Always simple.
• Do a thing once, then progress. All of it is revelation.
• Think of your objective.
• Director thinks in results: clinch mouth, etc.
• Actor thinks in causes; emotion and objective.
• Have to be precise - director says something, do it.
• Physical requirements - changes.
• Must make physical what's important. Otherwise, audience won't know it.
• Any change - be precise - always be actor when listening to director.
• Be aware of what is being seen. Where is the camera, what is it doing.
• Plan to be a big actor - be in charge - what to wear, etc.
• Give the audience time to focus, do one painting at a time.
• Good art achieves it overtime.
• Many years to become an absolute.
• Precision - comedians must learn precision.
• Good art is never muddled always focused.
• Study play, scenes, emotion, objective and who am I?
• Throw yourself into rehearsal.
• Your talent will work. How advanced you are, it will show.
• Get rid of everything that doesn't have meaning.
• Strip down to only the essentials.
• Dispense with everything that is dispensable.

If acting was easy, everybody would be doing it.

          Actors are born with the aptitude. A person has to have the aptitude to act. If it is not there, you cannot teach somebody to be an actor.

          Actors have a will. Adequate actors do their thing, even the triumph of no talent.         

            American actors are hung-up on a search for truth.

          Acting has nothing to do with actuality. This is where Lee Strasberg was totally wrong, you don't have to experience something to be able to act it.

            How to play insanity in an easy and simple way.

          An actor's choice of material can be unusual and startling, but then they go at the acting obeying all the best principles of acting.

          Avoid becoming a great thinker. The trouble with people who are talented is, they become great thinkers.

          Don't do mental acting, allow the body to do what it knows. Don't make pictures, be the character.

          You learn the words and forget that you know them.

           Be real people, don't be all over the place.

          As an actor you must reveal everything about the character.

          Learn how to play your instrument.

          Serve the author's intention.           

          The answer is the actor has to give a scene: meaning, be specific and make a point.

          Antidotes of life to apply to scenes.    

          Acting is being other people, not recital.

          Don't act with intelligent, but emotion. Audience is effected by emotion, not intelligent. Audience is caught up in emotions, not ideas. Bernard Shaw wrote ideas and it was dull, but he did add political bites in it. Audience moved by the emotion, dialogue is nothing, they are not moved by dialogue.

          The incomplete gesture is today's acting, not the complete gesture.

           WRONG way to act.

AUDIENCE Audience looking for the bizarre. Beyond their own lives. Arrange and entertainment, interesting and spectacular.  People feel at movies, they don't think.         Understand the audience out there. Major part of actor's work. Don't think each person individual. Audience is a herd reaction; unified, one unit, and one group. They are a mass of people reacting. They want uniform morality, such as... we are all against bad.         Give audience time for important pauses, to let their imagination work, so they can relate to their own experiences.         Audiences imagine more in their head than you can ever act out. Audience will do it for you, their imagination is great.       People go to the theatre to live other life's. Audience wants to see suffering. "Yes, I have been there". A world for audience to come into.        The whole secret, the audience has to get involved. They don't just sit and watch or listen. They have to get into the situation of the character. They have to identify with them. An actor has to serve the audience and work for the author. People will give up illusion for reality. Lead the audience to the unknown. Audience needs to be trained. Pictures have meaning. Click on marquee. You have to see this.

REMEMBER: Everything you learn about acting should become subliminal.

Did you learn anything? Acting Quiz

           Learn to use the tools I've given you. I won't always be there to hold your hand.

Be delighted: you're learning your art.            ABSOLUTELY ABWAG
Tiny Ron on May 28, 1998 created this ABWAG web site in order for all actors and directors around the world to learn the principles of acting.

                                                                             myspace.com/abwag

How to Act: is in the memory of my acting teacher Don Richardson.

Listen to the one who knows.

Please feel, think, do when acting.

We're here to study acting, and in the end, it can't look like acting.

	As an actor be enjoyable to have around, do not question the directors ability all the time.	Good art comes out of happiness.

tinyron@abwag.com    Check out the e-mail comments I have received.

  Copyright © 1998-2009  by Tiny Ron. All Rights Reserve.