How To Begin
Before you make the decision to study at Los Angeles Acting School, you'll need firsthand experience of the training.
So, your first week of class is free.
Training at Los Angeles Acting School is rigorous. After a week of class and practice you should have a feel for what is demanded of you, and what to expect, in the way of training to act.
Study at Los Angeles Acting School is month-to-month. That first week allows you to determine if you’re up to the task.
The only commitment you are asked to make is with yourself. Once you've made the commitment to be an actor all your choices become clearer.
Meeting the demands of your classes at Los Angeles Acting School will make clear to you that you're prepared to meet the demands of being a career in acting.
Your first week is FREE, to see if LAACTTM is right for you. You will work in every classes you audit. After your first FREE week, if you find the work compelling, then talk to Mr. Coburn about beginning your training in earnest.
You don't need an appointment and we never cancel class.
One may start anytime. You will join the class in-progress.
Thank you.
|
Los Angeles Acting School
-- Reading Program --
"Good writing, essentially, is clear thinking made visible."
-- Ambrose Bierce
The volume of volumes on acting is staggering. There are entire bookstores in Los Angeles dedicated to acting; you could not and you should not read them all.
What you should read are the classics. I know you won't but you should.
The single most effective way to stretch your imagination is by reading. The simplest way to do research on a part is by reading. To become an expert on acting (or any subject) you have to read and understand everything of merit that has been written on it. More than any other thing you will do in your life as an actor, that will affect you positively, is read.
As a professional actor, in a typical year, you may work once or twice, for three to six months, and the remainder of your year is spent reading scripts and auditioning. You have to know a good script when you read it. You should be able to tell a bad script at a glance. You have to learn how to read a script and make those distinctions in Acting School.
There are entire bookstores in Los Angeles that carry nothing but scripts; you could not read them all so start with the best.
In class, at Los Angeles Acting School, we tear apart scripts to find (a) the acting, and (b) the structure, theme and mood of the story. Understanding these elements in a script aid enormously in doing your job. Movies are not shot in sequence. You need to know where you are in the story when you show up for each days' shoot. By knowing the 'armature' or 'spine', the arc of the story, a scene, or your role, and where you are in that arc, aids you in every way in knowing what you have to act today.
Preface your reading program with "How To Read A Book" by Mortimer Jerome Adler and Charles Van Doren.
The titles below are about training and the people whose work is worthy of aspiration.
- The Collected Works of Harold Clurman
by Harold Clurman
This book includes the approach to script analysis that we employ at Los Angeles Acting School. You can also find it in "Harold Clurman on Directing." I must warn you, the experience of breaking down a script is completely different from reading about the process.
- Stella Adler on Ibsen, Strindberg and Chekhov
edited by Barry Paris
Miss Adler's lectures on script analysis are an excellent beginning in finding your way to a personal understanding of the text. If you know your American theater history you know that Miss Adler was married to Mr. Clurman and both were members of The Group Theater in New York during the 1930s. In preparation for reading this book you should read Ibsen, Strindberg and Chekhov.
-
Kazan The Master Director Discusses His Films
by Jeff Young
Of the all-time greatest films, Kazan's rank at the top of every list. Kazan was also a member of The Group Theater.
-
Man's Search For Meaning
by Viktor E. Frankl
Viktor Frankl, a holocaust survivor, tunes you in to what are genuinely decent and indecent in humanity. Humanity, another word for the talent of the actor, is what scripts (and art) are all about -- the human experience.
-
Instant Word Power
and
30 Days to a More Powerful Vocabulary
by Norman Lewis & Wilferd Funk
Irene Peter wrote,
"Ignorance is no excuse -- it's the real thing."
Words are not merely the tools of human utterance they are the tools of thought. The more words you understand the clearer your thinking and your communication.
-
When Do I Start?
by Karl Malden
and
It Would be So Nice If You Weren't Here
by Charles Grodin
A one-two punch of the realities of being a professional actor. It only takes ten or fifteen years to get started and twenty to complete your apprenticeship. One of the most admirable traits of Malden's was that he never took any jobs but acting jobs.
-
The Artist's Way
by Julia Cameron and Mark Bryan
Do your pages. You have to know yourself to understand what part of you goes into a role. You cannot act what you do not know yourself.
-
Zen and the Art of Archery
by Eugen Harrigel
A clear and substantial illustration of a serious approach to training. All the mistakes, the ego, and rationalizations that prevent the actor from learning his craft are illustrated along with their solutions.
If you intend to become an expert in your field you'll have to read every biography and autobiography of every achiever in acting and every book on the modern history of American theater beginning with:
Wendy Smith
Real Life Drama
Harold Clurman
The Fervent Years
Morris Carnovsky
An Actor's Eye
Robert Lewis
Advice to the Players
Elia Kazan
A Life
Sanford Meisner and Dennis Longwell
Sanford Meisner on Acting
With the above list as a foundation you'll quickly see, with each new title, that which holds the truth and that which is a waste of time.
Los Angeles Acting School
-- Recommended Playwrights --
For the benefit of our students, here is a list of recommended authors, as a source for scenes on which to work in Intermediate One.
Generally, read as many American plays as you can, from the 30’s through the middle 60’s (in no particular order).
To understand why these authors wrote the plays they wrote, and what these plays are about, you should read as many biographies on these authors as you can find.
Much of every day in an actor's life is spent reading scripts. By exposing yourself to these authors you will begin to get a sense for that which makes up a good story.
- Eugene O’Neill
- Tennessee Williams
- Arthur Miller
- Clifford Odets
- Maxwell Anderson
- Thornton Wilder
- William Saroyan
- Lorraine Hansberry
- Lillian Hellman
- William Inge
- David Mamet
- Robert E. Sherwood
- Sidney Kingsley
- Phillip Barry
- David Rabe
- Terrence McNally
- Clare Booth
- Archibald MacLeish
- George S. Kaufman
- Neil Simon
- Lanford Wilson
- Sidney Howard
- Marc Connelly
- Irwin Shaw
- Edward Albee
- Isreal Horovitz
- Elmer Rice
- Robert Anderson
NOTE: When you read a scene, and it hits you on an emotional level, that may be a good scene on which to practice your acting. Make three copies and file them away for future use in class. You will need one copy each for yourself, your partner, and for the teacher.
|
