Talent vs Ability
Many people are afraid to act, even if they want to; they say “How do I know if I really have any talent??!”
“What if I have been thinking that I am all that, and then I have an opportunity to show it…only to discover that ______?”
Acting Skill + Practice
There’s two reasons, that I can think of, right off the bat, as to why you should, constantly, be upping-the-bar of your acting skill abilities.
1. Obviously: because you want to be good. You want to look like you know what you are doing, and you DO want to be able to know what you are doing…right?
…On cue, that is, when required by whatever script you are working on. You want to have the facility to call on your “acting chops”, at will, and when needed. You want such skills, that when you have an audition and are working a script… you are able to do whatever is required.
Right then and there; on stage or in front of an enormous camera right in your face with a hundred crew members all quiet and staring at you, and a big star feeding you your lines because it is your close-up…etc.
2. You want to do it, also, because solid skill-building is something you can gage. You can keep track, and assess, with an accuracy that isn’t based on a feeling or hope…as you work, especially in a class, you can really start to see how well you improve on doing what is required in the parts you work on.
Then, when life serves up the “logic vs art” argument; and being an actor starts to lose sense (!), or depression and doubt overtake. Separately, or in tandem, with life’s general struggles…With skills, you’ve got a inner core–something existant and solid, that doesn’t get diminished by all that harsh stuff.
Acting Skill Mastery
Skill-building, in acting, is like playing an instrument. But the instrument isn’t something you touch or hold in your hands, it’s inside. Same principal, though. Continual work, continual practice makes mastery.
That mastery is what you take to performance. And that mastery is what keeps you feeling adequate, and more. Just the continual building and working on, toward the mastery, is what you: not only take to performance; but something that gives you, yourself, the credibility you may need to keep the faith, in your art, in your place in it.
Even if your teeth are chattering from fear, and you doubt whether what you thought was talent, before, was actually insanity…you will be able to still play like a maestro.
That is, if you have been practicing and working on your skill level, all along.
Best,
:-Dana
