Theatrical Acting

Many actors consider theatrical acting to be the purest form of acting because you're forced to create and sustain a character for an hour or more, in front of an audience, telling a story from start to finish. As soon as the play begins, there's no turning back. If an actor forgets a line, there's no stopping the play and starting over again. If the scenery falls down in the middle of a scene, the actors are forced to remain in character and improvise the best they can. With this type of pressure, you're practically forced to learn and grown as an actor, whether you like it or not.

Unline commercials, television, and, to some degree, film, actors in theater can't get by on their good looks alone. (If you're the type of actor looking to parlay your looks into an acting career, you may have better success in commercial acting instead.) To survive live performances night after night, on a consistent basis, you actually need talent - and not just acting talent but sometimes singing and dancing talent, too.

Because theatrical acting relies less on realism, theatrical acting offers actors more free rein to play different age ranges, from little children to senior citizens. With a little makeup and the proper costume, an actor can appear 18 years old in one scene and 65 in the next.

Theatrical acting also gives actors a chance to study and learn from their different roles. Because you play the same character over and over again, you can view each performance as another chance to experiment and fine-tune your acting until you learn what works best for you.

From an actor's point of view, theater is truly an actor's medium because the actor is in control of his performance, unlike film and television where the director can selectively choose which scenes to use. That's why many film and television actors often appear in theatrical productions from time to time, so that they can hone their acting skills in theater and control their performances themselves.