![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.dailyactor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/online-acting-classes.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
What exactly can you or should you expect from a good online acting class?<\/strong> Let me start by saying that I\u2019ve been having this conversation with a number of acting teachers that I know, not to mention more than a few acting students.<\/p>\n We\u2019ve been talking about this for a while for the obvious reason that online acting classes are not exactly the standard, though they have become the norm<\/strong> in the last year. As with anything, there are pluses and minuses to working remotely, so let\u2019s start with those.<\/p>\n On the \u201cminus side\u201d: <\/strong><\/p>\n On the \u201cplus side\u201d:<\/strong><\/p>\n Now let\u2019s unpack those just a little so that we\u2019re all on the same page. Yes, face time is a key component in the business of acting, whether you\u2019re onstage or on camera, there\u2019s no denying that. Doesn\u2019t matter if you\u2019re Method or Meisner, the human connection plays a big role but so does technique<\/strong>. Even when you\u2019re onstage and dealing with actors and a live audience, there\u2019s always a part of you that\u2019s removed, <\/strong>that\u2019s holding for laughs, that\u2019s mindful of cues and the unexpected. An actor\u2019s technique encompasses many things<\/strong> and not all of those things are dependent on the human connection.<\/p>\n Sure, I think working remotely presents unique challenges for students working with Meisner technique but those can be overcome as well. Any actor that\u2019s done enough camera work knows that acting with technology requires a deeper level of concentration<\/strong>, both to overcome the camera\u2019s intrusion but also to make complex emotions read on a smaller, interior scale. In that respect, working remotely is great training for that particular task,<\/u> which is the drawing in of your audience that happens to be a lens and not another human being.<\/p>\n There\u2019s been a lot written on the differences between stage acting and film acting but for me it comes to down to one critical thing. In moments of crisis, the stage actor tries to reveal things and in similar moments the film actor tries to hide those very same things. <\/strong>In either case, how successful those actors are in their revealing\/hiding moments depends on how well they deliver them to whoever is watching. Delivering those moments is one the actors primarily jobs and it doesn\u2019t matter if I\u2019m “reaching out or drawing in.”<\/em> What matters is my ability to do that, which is, in fact, a technical thing.<\/strong> <\/u><\/p>\n So I think that studying acting remotely<\/u> may complicate the general process but in certain respects it also simplifies <\/strong>some of the actor\u2019s tasks<\/u>. On the flip side, remote learning can also make some of the students overall problems a bit easier. Every year, loads of young kids come to the Big Apple<\/u> with a small wad of cash in their pocket and the same dream. However, before they<\/strong> can really get started<\/strong>, they have to deal with finding \u201caffordable\u201d housing, survival jobs and creating a personal network in order to function. All for the sake of getting into an acting class and (maybe) getting an agent.<\/p>\n An online acting class<\/u> takes away a lot that geographic pain by making it largely unnecessary.<\/u> Instead of going through all that, what if you just got into a class and found out if acting is really for you or just a passing fancy? Or, what if you signed up for a remote class, found out that acting really is your forte and by the time you arrived in the Big Apple, you already had a network of friends from class, a place to stay and leads on that elusive survival job?<\/em> And you weren\u2019t paying an arm and a leg for those classes? What about that?<\/p>\n So what about the \u201ctraining in a remote class versus a live one\u201d question? What exactly can you expect in an online acting class and what should you expect? Well, the training itself shouldn\u2019t be all that different, other than the fact that you\u2019re working remotely. As we\u2019ve already discussed, some of that will be to your advantage and some a bit less so.<\/u> But the training itself should not be diminished in any significant way and nothing that would normally be in the program should be left out.<\/strong> Now I can\u2019t speak for everybody in this, I can only speak for myself but like I said, I do communicate with other acting teachers, so I have a decent sense of how its working.<\/p>\n\n
\n