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Tuesday, 18 October 2011

Acting Workshops in Los Angeles- Creating Personas

By Kirk Baltz


True actors are not created in one day. Training with acting coaches or participation in acting classes can help actors to acquire much needed skills to aid them in improving in their craft. To reach this goal, an actor must delve into his soul and discover who he truly is as a person.

Each person and character alike is multi-faceted as opposed to being one-dimensional and static. These dimensions consist of the individual or character's public persona, his or her deep-seated fears and vulnerabilities, and the tragic flaw. Training with an acting coach can both aid the actor in discovering these dimensions in himself as well as allow him to utilize these personal traits to create very real characters.

According to the works of Carl Jung, humans form their exterior or public personas as a means of exuding a feeling of strength and stability to the world so as to conceal weaknesses buried within. This persona is exemplified in all areas of our lives, from how we move to the way we speak and interact with others. Similar to actual persons, characters develop public personas that must be unraveled and good acting workshops are designed to teach students how to accomplish just this.

There is no question that an individual's vulnerabilities are often buried deep beneath the surface, making the public persona seem like the dominant characteristic. However, the true identity of a person dwells within the difficulties, insecurities, and vulnerabilities that inevitably work to form each individual. Acting classes are designed to instruct actors in identifying these difficulties in themselves so as to form multi-dimensional characters that audiences can relate to on a personal level.

Our childhood challenges and situations mold us as adults and remain with us for the duration of our lifetime. Both actors and the characters they create form their public personas as a means of defending themselves from these insecurities. Covering up these vulnerabilities under a shield of stability is our means of appearing strong rather than helpless to others.

In order to become an exceptional actor, a student must learn to remove the superficial exterior of both his and his character's public persona in order to uncover the true self. This is key to producing real characters for the audience.

Every audience member, whether he knows it or not, has both a deeper identity based in past life situations and issues as well as public persona that he has created to combat these weaknesses. Although many audience members may not be aware of the fact, creating multi-faceted characters is guaranteed to form a relationship between viewer and character. The exceptional actor is one who is able to create such a character.




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