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Diane Christiansen Kids & Teens

Fall in Love With the Process of Becoming Great

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By Master Acting Teacher ~ Diane Christiansen

Why did you become an actor?  This is the all-important question.  It is a question worth revisiting from time to time in order to remind ourselves of our purpose as actors.  We do not do this for fame or fortune, for acknowledgment or accolades, or for other people.  We just want to be great actors.  Of course we all know great acting when we see it, but what does it mean to be a great actor?  And no, you’re not allowed to just shout out, “Meryl Streep,” without thinking about it!  A great teacher and casting director once told me that the best performances boil down to two simple questions: “Do I believe this person?” and “Do I care?”  Be sincere and be committed.  That’s it.  Simple enough to understand, but not so easy to deliver.  In order to deliver greatness, we must dedicate ourselves to the process of accomplishing sincerity and commitment in every performance, as well as in every day of our lives.  One without the other will invariably fall short of the mark.  Imagine believing an actor’s performance, but not being moved in any way.  Perhaps the level of commitment to a chosen action is not strong enough to stir your emotion.  Alternately, imagine it’s not for lack of a strong or committed choice that the performance falls flat, but rather lack of sincerity in that choice.  Perhaps the action is forced and contrived instead of occurring organically in the moment. 

Naturally, it’s easy to talk about the importance of sincerity and commitment in our work, but these tasks become especially difficult to accomplish given the fabricated worlds we live in on a set or on a stage.  Well my friends, here is the Holy Grail: We want to do great work and to be great actors, but focusing solely on being great is missing the mark.  The process is the prize. Greatness is merely the product of faithful dedication to process.  Falling in love with the process is like choosing to do long division over rote memorization or using a calculator.  It’s more challenging, but you can clearly tell whether a person really knows what they’re doing.  Like watching Meryl Streep.  So if you want to be great, then forget about greatness and dedicate yourself to the process of being sincere and committed in every role.  Do the work it takes to get you there.  Research.  Train.  Feel.  Observe.  Study.  Practice.  Recall.  Experience.  Develop a process that works for you so that you may fall in love with it, and in so doing, discover your own greatness.  

When is the Best Time to Come to LA for Pilot Season?

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Every weekend Agents and Managers are traveling to some city scouting for new kids and teens for pilot season. The top kids Agents will look at from 100 to 300 kids every week from now through the end of January. These are the brightest kids from around the country with parents who can afford expensive weekend jaunts to L.A. They are ready to come to Hollywood for early Pilot Season, meaning October, November and December. The green lighted projects begin casting these pilots early because they want the best actors – first! Every single top kids Agent and Manager will meet wonderful, cute kids with parents who will do what it takes to make it in Hollywood! The competition is fierce, so what can you do if you are not able to travel to Hollywood? Or, what can you do to compete with the kids and teens coming in if you are already an L.A. actor?

What can you do to help your child or teen compete?

  1. Encourage your child to build skills on a regular basis by staying in acting classes and private coaching. On-going training is the foundation for a successful Acting career. It essential to be on top of your game so you are ready to shine when you get those big auditions.
  2. Make sure your child is known to as many casting offices as possible by bringing your child to our Casting Director workshops to develop relationships with casting directors. This also includes sending postcards and booking announcements. Make sure Casting Directors know you are in the game! Developing and nurturing relationships with Casting Directors is vital for success in this industry.
  3. With early pilot season here and your Agent has over 1000 kids to represent; it is up to you to make sure that you don’t let them forget your child. It is vital to take proactive action by keeping your child on the top of the Agents list. This does not mean that you bombard your representation with unnecessary calls and emails; but keep in touch with them. If there’s a part that you feel you are right for, make sure they are sending you out for it. Don’t get lost in the shuffle.
  4. Surround yourself with a strong team! This includes your reps, coaches, and family. Without a strong team, you are a lone ranger and not the professional team player it takes to succeed.
To enroll in a class with Diane call 818.523.8283 or email actupdi@gmail.com
www.DianeChristiansen.com
www.ScenesforTeensBook.com
Diane Christiansen Kids & Teens

Actors Must Always Be True to Your Impulses

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By Diane Christiansen

When we were kids, we acted on our impulses all the time. We wanted what we wanted and we wanted it NOW! Anyone or anything that got in the way had better be ready for a temper tantrum. But the grown-ups didn’t like that at all. They told us we had to behave ourselves, to sit down, don’t touch, be quiet, just wait, and a litany of other clipped commands. And so we were socialized (or brainwashed) to control our impulses. We were made to think that maturity under the guise of ‘being a big girl or boy’ was the prize. But what the adults didn’t tell us was that impulse control also came at a cost. Controlling our impulses meant becoming further removed from our emotions, our intuition, our gut, and the core part of our humanity that connects us to every other human in the world. So far removed, that as adults we must re-learn to listen to our intuition, to go with our gut, and to follow our instincts. This re-education is necessary because our basic inclination to act on impulse has been suppressed by early childhood socialization. Suppressed, but not extinguished. That’s the good news. Fortunately, the diligent actor can re-connect with her or his impulses, thereby tapping into the human condition. The actor’s courage to act on impulse is our gain because through that action we are reminded of what it means to feel, rather than stifle heart-wrenching sadness, crippling fear, boundless joy, and the full gamut of human emotion. It’s ironic that being authentic to our own wants, urges, desires–our impulses is considered a courageous undertaking, at least for us adults. We grown-ups are supposed to be objective, rational, and responsible. We have to manage impressions and gauge the needs of others after all. Showing emotion? Acting on impulse? Why, that’s taboo! Unless of course, you’re an actor.

As actors, we have license to throw caution to the wind, to wear our hearts on our sleeves, to act on impulse, and basically, to go there. There is where the other adults cannot or will not go, at least not on purpose. And who can blame them? It’s scary to be true to our impulses because doing so requires us to be vulnerable to others’ judgment. But we actors know the secret. We know that when we are truly vulnerable to our impulses is when we connect most strongly to those that might otherwise seek to judge us. Instead, we disarm them with our vulnerability and with our courage to expose ourselves to their judgment, because we know that in seeing our true wants, urges, desires–our impulses on display, they will relate to a similar truth in themselves. Though we are 7 billion unique personalities in a vast multicultural world, our impulses connect us all so that we are never isolated from one another. The actor is the lens through which our infinite connections may be brought clearly into focus. So actors, be impulsive!

Diane Christiansen Kids & Teens

How to Clarify Your Acting Niche

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By Diane Christiansen

Finding your “niche” or your “brand” or your “type” seems to be daunting for most actors, including kids and teens. Yet it really can be a fun process. Possibly the reason for any difficulty is because actors have this idea that they can play anything. However, Agents and Managers have to market you, to them you are a commodity. Our intention is to make it easy for them to do.

Here is a great exercise that we do in our classes to help you know how to market yourself before you showcase your work and/or interview with Agents and Managers.

You can do this with any group of 5 or 6 people. Try this; have 5 or 6 people watch you walk into the room, the more objective they are, the better. Ask each one of them to tell you what kind of role you look like you can play. Each of us carries ourselves a certain way, and each of us give off a certain “vibe”. They are going to say things like “The Jock, the Nerd, the Cheerleader, the boy next door, the Prom Queen, the smarty girl, the Best friend, the leading lady, the Social Worker, the Cop, the Detective, the Urban Professional, a Gang member, the Politician, the Doctor, the Lawyer, the blue collar worker, and on and on. Once you’ve collected those five or six ideas, you should be on track with your obvious “Type.”

At that point, you can package yourself that way to Reps and if they are seeking that type, bingo! You’ve hit the mark. I know you don’t want to be type cast, but that’s how careers get jump-started. You have to get your foot in the door. Once you’ve been the Nerd fifteen times, you can expand your range and convince your Reps to try a new look or photo. But in the meantime, go for what you are, it’s the perfect way to start your career!

Kids & Teens: How to Dress for an Audition

How to Dress for an Audition

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Today we’re going to discuss a big topic of concern all actors face. The number one question we hear when actors come in for private acting coaching or to our acting school in Los Angeles is, “What do I wear?!”

The best way to answer this question is by first focusing on what NOT to wear. The casting director doesn’t want to come into a waiting area that looks like a Halloween store exploded! If an 8 to 10 year old girl is called in to audition for the role of a fairy, there’s no need to go full Tinkerbell. Leave the wands and the wings at home, little ladies. What the casting director wants is far simpler and much less expensive than going to a costume shop every time you have an audition.

Here’s what you need to know about audition ensembles: whenever you go into a character specific audition (i.e. fairy, space camp kid, soccer player, etc.) all you need is a HINT of the character. Little fairies wear sparkly shirts; space camp kids have jackets with a spacey looking patch; and soccer players wear jerseys (leave the cleats on the field!). I think you get the picture.

One thing we tell our students in our kids acting classes and acting classes for teens, is that casting directors have already seen your headshots, so they know what you look like even before you step into their office. Don’t distract him or her with complex costumes or over the top outfits.

As for non-character specific auditions, always wear a color that compliments your skin tone, hair shade, and eye color. If you don’t know what colors look good on you, ask a friend, a parent, a sibling. Also, a great way to boost your confidence is to wear a color that makes you feel good! Just make sure to stay away from the following colors: black, white, grey or red. These colors don’t translate well on camera. Black makes everything look dull, white can blow out the camera lighting, no one ever remembers grey and red tends to do funny things to skin tones and camera settings.

Now that you know how to look your best, go out there and break a leg!

Diane Christiansen Kids & Teens

Hidden Factors of Relaxation for the Actor

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By: Diane Christiansen

When practicing your Relaxation Exercises, including identifying tension in the muscles and breathing deeply into the lower stomach and exhaling through the mouth very slowly, the actor may find unusually strong feelings welling up within. Tension may re-manifest itself throughout the body even after a deep relaxation is used, and especially in the neck and throat, resulting in a “choked” sensation in the vocal chords. The actor is encouraged at this point to help release the tension by vocalizing a long, sustained “ahhhhh” sound, or a short, staccato “HAH!” to help release both the tension and the emotion.

After practicing this exercise faithfully every day for fifteen minutes to a half hour, the actor develops a “sixth sense” for identifying tension in his body, and this new awareness is especially useful on camera or on stage, where, when the actor feels tension for one reason or another, he simply “identifies where it is, and releases it”.

This relaxation exercise, when mastered, helps the actor identify the tension as it becomes apparent, then release the tension in a manner invisible to the audience. This unwanted tension must be released, or it will block the pure expression of the actor’s instrument.

But learning to properly relax is only a part of the benefit of the Relaxation Exercise. While the actor is learning to relax by identifying tension in individual muscles, he is also learning to develop and strengthen the powers of concentration needed to create the life of the person, animal or “thing” he is representing in the story the author has invented. Remember, to be concentrated, you must be properly relaxed, and to be properly relaxed you must be concentrated.

The extreme degree of concentration the actor applies to identifying tension in the body and mind during the Relaxation Exercise will make the exercise itself very tedious. Human beings don’t seem to enjoy concentrating for extended periods of time unless the object of their attention has some immediate gratification for them.
But the actor, not unlike the painter, the musician or the physician, must find a way to practice the more mundane elements of the art in ways that are stimulating, exciting and fun.

Diane Christiansen Kids & Teens

How to Dress for an Audition

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By Master Acting Teacher ~ Diane Christiansen

There are really no hard and fast rules about how to dress for an audition.  For a long while, I thought the one absolute was to never arrive to an audition dressed in costume.  Then I received a note from casting to come dressed as much like a voodoo gypsy as possible.  Another audition notice I received instructed me to wear scrubs for the role of a nurse.  Then of course, there are all of those stories of how celebrities landed some of their most memorable roles by “looking the part.”  Katey Sagal created her signature look as Peggy Bundy in Married With Children by wearing her own red bouffant wig to the audition.  Dorothy Dandridge had to shed her sophisticated image in order to convince Otto Preminger to cast her in the Oscar-nominated role of Carmen Jones by arriving to the audition oozing sex appeal in a brand new getup fit for a “hussy.”  And just this past March, Eva Mendes was featured on the cover of Backstage magazine discussing how she is “breaking out of the bombshell box” in an upcoming drama.  For her audition, she wore a baggy t-shirt and jeans, no make-up, and unkempt hair in order to look like her gritty, no frills character. Even young Jennifer Lawrence was told, at 16, that she was too pretty for an early film role, so after her audition in L.A., she and a parent flew all night to N.Y., to follow the Casting Director and arrived with no make up, uncombed hair and unkept. She convinced them. (Bold Parents!!) I guess that means the rule about looking your best for every audition is up in smoke too.

So in the absence of any absolute rules about how to dress for an audition or any explicit direction from casting, the best advice is to look to the script for clues.  As you are preparing your role, you should begin to get a sense of who your character is, including how he/she dresses.  As with any choices we make in acting, the choice of dress should be a strong one.  Your style of dress may not rise to the level of costume, but it should definitely suggest who this character is, even before you speak your first line.  Neglecting to make a character choice about what to wear may cloud the picture of you in the role, particularly if your personal style contradicts that of the character.  Or worse, dressing haphazardly may inadvertently send an altogether negative message about your level of professionalism.  Right or wrong, making a strong choice for your character, in style of dress or otherwise, will at least convey commitment to the role and possibly pique the interest of casting.  So dress for success!