I Don't Need an Acting Class

A question was asked our script analysis class about the idea of stillness in film acting, which led to a conversation about the proliferation of acting “tricks” that are espoused by so many actors who may be brilliant, but don’t always have a clear idea about their own process or what makes them great. “Stillness” is a result or “effect direction” while active listening is something you can actua...

WANT MORE? Become a subscriber for bonus content! https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/actingclass/subscribe The episode discusses the importance of seeing the character you’re playing as a separate entity. You, as the actor, get the opportunity to build a human being. After allowing your mind to wander and wonder what it would be like to be *this* person in *this* specific circumstance, you ca...

WANT MORE? Become a subscriber for bonus content! https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/actingclass/subscribe This week’s episode is about the difference between the actor’s contribution to the creative process, versus the writer’s. Whereas the writer’s job is to put into words what they have to say, the actor’s contribution to the art form is bringing the text to life, which they do by experien...

WANT MORE? Become a subscriber for bonus content! https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/actingclass/subscribe This week, we’re swinging back to an important idea. Which is knowing what the idea is! Getting to the idea doesn’t happen in an instant. It is a process in which you keep coming back to the piece, whether it’s a play, a film, a monologue, a radio show or a speech, and asking yourself: w...

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 * Interviews * Videos * Access to the IDNAAC Archives * Newsletters including articles, acting exercises, and chapter’s of Milton’s next book In this episode, Milton wanders around and takes questions while avoiding Stri...

WANT MORE? Become a subscriber for bonus content! ⁠https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/actingclass/subscribe⁠ Here's what you get: Expanded and unedited episodes • No ads • Interviews • Videos • Full access to the IDNAAC Archives • And newsletters including articles, quotes, acting exercises, and chapter’s of Milton’s next book. For more info or if you have an acting question for Milton, e...

WANT MORE? Become a subscriber for bonus content! https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/actingclass/subscribe Even if we’re not working on a Strindberg play, we can learn so much from the playwright about how to bring depth to a character. One distinction about Strindberg is that he showed us real people, not only in external conflict in their relationships with one another, but internal conflic...

WANT MORE? Become a subscriber for bonus content! https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/actingclass/subscribe So many of us know what it feels like to doubt ourselves, to ask ourselves: am I doing this right? This week, Milton talks about what it takes to own a play or piece of text with confidence when striving for greatness. The time, the work, the patience is endless, as is the fortitude requ...

WANT MORE? Become a subscriber for bonus content! https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/actingclass/subscribe This week, Milton introduces us to the playwright August Strindberg, and how Stella Adler’s teaching contributed to the way actors approach his writing. While Chekov and Ibsen signified the beginning of realism, Strindberg marked the beginning of what we think of as the modern theater, d...

WANT MORE? Become a subscriber for bonus content! https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/actingclass/subscribe In this episode, Milton recalls one of Stella’s exercises which he teaches to this day. The purpose of the exercise is to invest ourselves fully in an action. One way we can do this is by understanding the “why” behind the action. We can play the action “to teach,” but understanding the...

WANT MORE? Become a subscriber for bonus content! https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/actingclass/subscribe This episode starts out with a simple “action” exercise but becomes about something much larger: how we go about creating (or talking out) the circumstances so that by the time we get to the words, they are filled with life and believable. As Milton has repeated time and again: “Just bec...

WANT MORE? Become a subscriber for bonus content! https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/actingclass/subscribe As actors, Doing research is important, but it’s only useful if we’re able to turn it into something actable. There is nothing useful about the knowledge that comes from research if all we do is know it. This is where the imagination comes in. We have to take the time to let the new info...

WANT MORE? Become a subscriber for bonus content! https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/actingclass/subscribe As we approach our new Script Analysis Class beginning March 8th, (if you’re interested in taking it, email us at: questionsformilton@gmail.com ), this episode begins with a quote about “the more you know.” Not only does loving your choices free you, but so does knowing the circumstances...

WANT MORE? Become a subscriber for bonus content! https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/actingclass/subscribe This week, Milton talks about how essential it is to be in love with our choices. If we, as actors, don’t LOVE the choices we make, we won’t commit to them 1000%. We will end up pushing a performance and feeling stuck. But if we are relentless about finding choices that personally excite...

WANT MORE? Become a subscriber for bonus content! ⁠⁠https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/actingclass/subscribe⁠⁠ This episode features Milton's conversation with his longtime friend, character actress Margo Martindale. Mostly recently, you might know her from The Watcher on Netflix, Bojack Horseman, Sneaky Pete and for her portrayal of Bella Abzug on the limited FX series Mrs. America. Marg...

WANT MORE? Become a subscriber for bonus content! ⁠⁠https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/actingclass/subscribe⁠ This episode continues the discussion of how to build character. Specifically— how to avoid cliches by remembering that no person is just one thing. Using the tenants of script analysis, finding clues (or facts) in the text about your character is the first step. As you allow these fa...

WANT MORE? Become a subscriber for bonus content! ⁠⁠https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/actingclass/subscribe⁠⁠ Happy New Year everyone! As we begin 2023, we thought it would be helpful to circle back and address some fundamental ideas about character. Like everything else in acting, this is not a cut and dry, fill-in-the-banks process. Sometimes a large piece of a character is their backgroun...

WANT MORE? Become a subscriber for bonus content! ⁠⁠⁠https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/actingclass/subscribe⁠⁠⁠ This week, Milton takes us on a journey through the significance of the “place,” the objects (or props) that live there and our relationship to all of it. He shares an improvisation that JP did for The Glass Menagerie. He wanted to explore Tom’s relationship to his sister Laura’s v...

WANT MORE? Become a subscriber for bonus content! ⁠⁠⁠https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/actingclass/subscribe⁠⁠⁠ Do you ever look around at our world today and think: nothing means anything anymore. So many of us are (understandably) cut off emotionally, desensitized, and this has affected acting today. All too often, we think that arriving at a big idea is where our work ends. In fact, it’s...

WANT MORE? Become a subscriber for bonus content! https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/actingclass/subscribe This episode is a five minute rant from Milton about how we don’t find our lives interesting, which is why we often discourage the approach of “using our own lives” for a part. We fail to see the greatness in our own lives and the universal themes that run through them. We tell our own s...

You can avoid deciding in advance how to play something and marrying yourself to that performance by talking out immediately. But if the first thing you do is go to the words, you’ll be stuck with the words, and nothing but your initial interpretation of the words. Even if your instincts are right on, you run the risk of cementing yourself in a performance, and once that happens, it’s very difficu...

In this episode, Milton coaches Guilherme as he prepares the role of Portuguese Vampire from the 17th Century. He begins by suggesting specific images that will help his development of the character’s physicality and point of view. This eventually leads to a conversation about “objectives” and how using that word can actually get in the way of what’s really going on in the scene and the essence of...

One of Stella Adler’s fundamental exercises was a visualization exercise. This is something we can do anytime and anywhere— walking down the street, driving down the highway, standing in the shower. The more you train yourself how to see, the more specific your work will become, and the more the images will feed you emotionally. But this is not work you can do intellectually, deciding beforehand w...

This episode, an excerpt from Milton’s Script Analysis class, examines the importance’s of understanding the deeply human struggle of the playwright and how those struggles are infused into their characters. Using The Glass Menagerie, Milton talks about letting the “active facts” about a character seep into the actor’s consciousness over time, keeping in mind the enormity of the theme that the cha...

WANT MORE? Become a subscriber for bonus content! https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/actingclass/subscribe One of the cornerstones of being believable is the ability to connect to the material. And we have to know what it feels like to be connected, so that when we’re not, we do more work to get there. But being believable is just one prerequisite. We also have to be interesting to watch and...