The Great Acting Blog: “The Ambitious Actor”
Many lack basic professional disciplines even though they are so important. Time-keeping, learning lines, being focussed, energised and prepared creates trust among those we work with. It’s a question of treating our work and our colleagues with respect, and this in turn has a reassuring effect. We know that good professional disciplines are inspiring too because their absence has a demoralising effect. So in the end, how you operate is a question of what kind of effect you want to have on the people around you. After all, people may forget what you said to them, but they never forget how you made them feel.
Those colleagues who we respond to most strongly, those colleagues who inspire us, do so because of their ambition. They go further than simply implementing sound professional habits, and come with an ambitious intent towards the work itself. They want to make exciting, bold choices. They want to surprise us and themselves by finding the new, by being innovative, by stretching their creativity. Contrast that with the self-concerned actor who just shovels out their lines, clinging on to their turgid preparation. No, the ambitious actor comes with the intent to take everyone on a journey (their colleagues and the audience), a journey to somewhere new – after all, that’s why we came to the drama in the first place.
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.