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Notes from the field: Casting Directors Bob Mason, Lauren Port, Nick Bowling, Nik Whitcomb, Carey Cannon & Catherine Miller weigh in. I was fortunate enough to attend a 2-hour discussion with 6, yeah that’s right, 6 Casting Directors in Nicole Ricciardi’s Audition class at The Theatre School/DePaul. The panel was both informative and reassuring. I’m excited they agreed to let me share my takeaways about self-tapes from this refreshing conversation….

Acting is doing.  This is one of the first lessons every actor will learn. It may very well be the fundamental tenement of acting performance. “To act means to do, so you must always have something specific to do… or you will immediately stop acting.” A Practical Handbook for the Actor Acting is also about overcoming obstacles in order to get what you want on stage and off. With the…

See what the Pros at ASC advise for creating a top-notch Virtual Audition!

The VO Pros at ASC have some advice for recording from home. Whether it’s what system to use or which microphone is the best, they have the answers!

By Sarafina Vecchio How did I begin my journey studying Shakespeare? More than a few years ago, when I was a senior in high school, I was sitting in English class staring at the test I had to take on Shakespeare’s ‘King Lear’. I hadn’t read a page of it. I didn’t understand it, didn’t want to understand it, and was completely unmotivated to force myself to study it. I…

A key component of our job as actors has always been overcoming obstacles. In the 1600s, Shakespearean actors overcame so many obstacles: the bubonic plague, rehearsing without the entire script, and trying to connect with each other while groundlings heckled in the audience. Now, more than 400 years later, 2020 actors are still facing similar obstacles: Covid-19, rehearsing with barking dogs and screaming kids in our home workspace and trying…

#1 Audiobook narration is all about acting. Audiobook narration is about acting. Acting training and experience is fundamental. Having a gorgeous voice is great, but without the essentials of experience and training, you won’t have the skill to narrate with the grounded emotions that all authors want to get across. There are typically several characters that you alone will need to narrate and express as real, tangible people. It’s important…

…A Conversation with Cole Doman by Noah Glaser In my interview with Cole Doman, I asked if – either during his time in school or at any point throughout his acting career – he had encountered a phrase that had stuck with him. A mantra or piece of advice that he finds himself repeating every so often, be it: on stage, on set, at an audition, or at home. Cole…

With the present state of the COVID 19 pandemic, while we are safe-at-home, one of the things actors can do… is read plays!  Reading plays is a fundamental skill for the actor. I spoke with Acting Studio Chicago Faculty Member Adrianne Cury and she advised, “There is something we can do with all this time; that is to further educate ourselves.” As an actor and playwright in training, I asked…

By Donna Simon Dunn Imagine your mind is a garden. You get to choose which seeds to plant. So why not plant seeds of positivity, joy, opportunity and success? Why not have a giant patch of dirt, void of nutrients, where your bad seeds: rejection, self-doubt, worry, go to die?  What’s stopping you from waking up every day and stepping into your purpose? Your initial response to this might be,…