Learn to Act for FREE

I recently have learned that there are many people who wish to learn to act but can't afford to take acting classes. To help out my cash strapped friends I decided to compile a few ways to learn acting for free.

1. Movies

Movies are an actor’s best friend. You can watch them over and over again. Pay attention to expressions and tone of voice. Mimic their movements if you can do so safely. Try out different genera for more practice.

2. Pick up something Mr. Mime

Mimes are great at understanding movement and objects. To truly understand an object, look at, pick it up (a lot), and understand its weight. You can save this memory for reference. To understand movements, go people watch at a coffee shop or park. Look at how everyone interacts and how they move. Some people have unique movements like a limp or a hand gesture to illustrate what their talking about. Just be mindful of stereotypes and possible offenses when acting with certain quarks.

3. Monologues

To get better at acting you need to act. Look up free monologues online and start acting for your friends or in front of a mirror. Mirrors will help you understand movement and facial expressions. Be mindful of “wasted movement” or movement that serves no purpose to the performance.

4. Let's play a game

There are a bunch of acting/theater games online. Find some you like and go from there. It'll help trust me. It’s also a great way to have some fun with friends.

5. Hello, Youtube!

Youtube is a great source to learn from. What I recommend is learning the history of theater, history of film, acting classes, and there are dialect coaches on there. It never hurts to impress people with your knowledge of the industry while you show off your different voices. However, take one thing at a time. By understanding the history, it will help you understand stage directions better as well as understanding the other side of the camera. Once you know what they are looking for it’ll be a lot easier to show your skills and land the part. With dialects I recommend studying one at a time each for a few months at a time to have a really good grasp on it and how it differs from others before preforming with it. Dialects if used correctly can land the part incorrectly can be seen as offensive or amateurish.

6. Events in your neck of the woods

There are several websites that will help like-minded individuals come together (like the site meet up), but there's also Facebook groups for your city and hobby. Just stay safe. Always go with a friend or a group and make sure someone knows where you are. Just because it’s for business don’t mean something can’t happen (regardless of gender men get date raped too).

7. Research

A little research never hurt anyone. If you want to play a doctor learn their lingo and the instruments. It will help you get in the zone and feel more relaxed if you go audition for a part like that and it can help you with more unfamiliar terms that may be in the script.

8. Music

Personally, I use music to help me become a character. I figure out their personality and listen to music they would like for 15-30 minuets. For some reason it makes acting easier for me, but I did start out a singer; maybe that's why.

That's all the tips I have for now. Check out my other posts if you have the time. Thanks for reading .