Can You Be Taught To Be An Actor?

Can acting be taught?

Some people say no. Just follow your instincts. Everybody can act.

Yes, everybody can act because that is what we do all day long. Everybody does act. Acting is behaving, feeling, thinking…

But how does acting come alive in a play or film?

An actor needs to replicate human experience on all levels—not just the outer behavior but the unseen—tapping the mysterious place from where authentic behavior originates.

The committed actor strives to become fluid and responsive, to fine-tune their instrument so that it performs on command.

So that you can reliably “hit your mark.”

But there is more…

You must get clear, believe in what you do… and reach higher.

Training and skill are essential to reliably command your instrument—not hit or miss. How many times can you wing it and do reliable work?

Once in a while you can pull a prank… do something offbeat in your acting to capture attention, but don’t get cocky. You’re dangerously close to realizing you’re out on the water, but don’t know how to navigate.

Learn to stay on course first, and then plunge into the inner vastness of your character.

A new energy will take over as you travel into a world within a world, trusting the journey. This is the mystery. Some of the ride is explainable scientifically and some is spiritual practice. Both are real.

How do I get there?

Acting teachers who don’t know how to reliably access the inner world teach the outer shell of acting... and sometimes shame their students who sense there is more.

I have witnessed a variety of responses to the good honest question… “How do I do that?” “Can you teach me to access authentic emotion, to really tap in, to take flight…?”

I’ve heard, “Only the greats can do it.” As if that level of becoming an actor is a gift available to only a select few.

With sound technique and belief in yourself, you have what you need to launch. Not only to command your acting but go to the outer edges of your art, and beyond.

You must feel support and belief in you.

I taught skiing when I was 22 at Killington mountain in Vermont. During that time the only person I couldn’t teach was a professional football player. Everybody else could ski the mountain by the end of the week: big, tall, short, old, young, scared or ballsy.

What was going on with the football player? He was on new ground. Slippery ground. He tensed up from his toes to the top of his forehead and seemed to abandon his body—his shame was so great he was debilitated.

Many skiers came for lessons because of a previous experience that derailed their confidence… stories like, first time on skis, a friend brought me to the top of the mountain and let me go crashing and burning, thought I’d die, petrified!

Just as with skiing, acting can be taught.

If you have been abandoned or shamed, beware. Nothing is more destructive in this sacred process than such emotional abuse. It steals your freedom and closes off the avenues to fully release—causing the actor to lose belief in the very core of where acting is born...

Regaining trust by learning and practicing sound acting technique recharges and renews your ability to reach higher.

This potential is alive in you right now.

Study with us.