The actor must learn and perfect many skills
before they will be successful at their
profession. Whether an actor works in
television, motion picture productions, or
theater, these skills are necessary. They may
come naturally to some of the top actors, but
most have to work hard through schooling and
practice. Very few can say they were born to
do this job.
The skills that actors must
master include speech rate, oral projection,
voice clarity, physical and vocal expression,
vocal pitch, physical stance and eye contact.
Many performers have worked for years to
perfect a technique. Some are good at one and
not another.
Others have a natural gift for all. Whether
they intend to perform in TV drama, movie or
film drama, voice acting, musicals or theater
productions, knowledge of each is necessary to
meet the requirements of an acting career.
These techniques will enable an actor to
portray him/herself as being confident and
ready to do the job.
Rate of speech is a skill that one can use
in acting. A character actor could speak very
slowly when portraying the part of someone
with physical or mental handicaps. If
portraying the part of an excited or agitated
character, an actor might speak very fast.
This is an effective way of getting the
emotions and feelings of a character across to
the audience.
However, many inexperienced actors and
actresses have no sense of timing and speak
either too slowly or too quickly. Vocal
projection and clarity are two more skills
that can be signs of experience, or lack of,
on the part of an actor or actress. Vocal
projection and clarity, especially in theater
productions are necessary to ensure that the
entire audience can both hear and understand
what the actor is saying.
The character actor must master the arts of
both vocal and physical expression. Body
language is a major factor in physical
expression as it is used to portray the
attitude and emotion of a character at any
given time. Vocal expression does the same
thing, but in a different way. It uses other
things like pitch ranges to show emotions and
feelings.
Pitch is the range of an actor's tone of
voice. Pitch ranges can be from very high to
very low, depending on the emotion being
portrayed. Physical stance is important
because poor posture and fidgeting indicates
nervousness and a lack of confidence. The
actor must always be concerned with eye
contact as well, not only with the audience
but also with the other cast members too.
