This week, Milton continues the conversation of expanding the characters we play far beyond ourselves. While it’s true that our choices must feed us as actors, our choices must also feed our characters (who don’t know they are living out our choices— they’re just living their lives— and will respond to our choices differently than we will.) In this episode Milton uses the example of Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman, and how even though he may instinctively understand different aspects Willy’s ...
Jan 25, 2022•13 min•Season 4Ep. 82
Welcome back to the podcast and Happy New Year! Milton begins Season 4 of I Don’t Need an Acting Class responding to the misconception that as actors, “all we have is ourselves”— a statement that sounds logical but couldn’t be further from the truth. Only using ourselves as actors can limit us and lock us into choices that come out of our feelings, judgements and perspectives on our characters. In the end, your work is a result of multiple factors: you and your choices, your knowledge of the pla...
Jan 18, 2022•17 min•Season 4Ep. 81
Milton will be teaching a six-week sᴄʀɪᴘᴛ ᴀɴᴀʟʏsɪs ᴡᴏʀᴋsʜᴏᴘ beginning on Wednesday, January 12th, 2022. I know many of you have expressed interest in taking his class since the beginning of the podcast— and this is your chance! 😄 Class is limited to 20 students— first come, first serve. $500 for the six weeks, BUT— the first 5 people to register before the new year can take advantage of this workshop for the promo rate of $400. Email Walker at questionsformilton@gmail.com if interested!
Dec 09, 2021•4 min•Season 3Ep. 82
It's the end of Season 3! Thank you all so much for being a part of this podclass. We're gonna take a short break and will be back in 2022 with a season of script analysis! In the meantime, feel free to email Milton with any questions, confusions or comments at: questionsformilton@gmail.com Order the book and stay tuned for the latest news at idontneedanactingclass.com
Nov 30, 2021•6 min•Season 3Ep. 81
WANT MORE? Become a subscriber for bonus content! https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/actingclass/subscribe We have so many tools and techniques as actors that we can easily forget what the missing link is. Or what might help us when we find ourselves stuck. So it’s helpful to step back and ask ourselves: what are the things that I know? What are the acting tools that I have? One of those tools that is often forgotten is the idea. The idea of the play/film, or looking at our character ...
Nov 23, 2021•14 min•Season 3Ep. 80
So many actors feel the need to deliver a performance in rehearsal. And yet, rehearsal is not a performance, nor should we expect what we do in rehearsal to be “the final performance”, but a work in progress, a building of the elements that will eventually lead to performance. Rehearsal is an opportunity to try new things, dig deeper, make sure that we have a specific relationship with everything we talk about. That means giving ourselves permission to *be* in rehearsal. It means *slowing down* ...
Nov 16, 2021•12 min•Season 3Ep. 79
There comes a point, especially when doing a long run that your choices dry up and no longer have the emotional effect on you they once did. But part of being an actor is never allowing our relationship to anything dissipate. Therefore, we don’t ever want to try and recreate what we did last time, or “bring in our homework.” Instead, we have to keep finding new things that activate our talent, making sure our choices keep feeding us. Your creative process must be an endless pursuit where you’re ...
Nov 09, 2021•14 min•Season 3Ep. 78
Ok. It's a creepy sounding episode title but it's not what it sounds like. In this episode, we learn more about the power of everyday-observations and how to integrate them into our creative process. Four people from class tell us about characters they’d crossed paths with over the last week, proving that it’s the details we notice about character traits, behavior, and circumstances that make the story good theater. But how do we translate our observations into our work? If we find something spe...
Nov 02, 2021•17 min•Season 3Ep. 77
As actors, we are the musician, instrument, composer and conductor. Therefore, there are certain technicalities we have to be aware of that have little or nothing to do with being truthful. Since real life is often boring, it’s not enough for our work to be truthful, it also has to be interesting. Brought to you by weaudition.com and anchor.fm I Don’t an Acting Class- the book is out November 1st. Pre-order at idontneedanactingclass.com...
Oct 26, 2021•14 min•Season 3Ep. 76
This week’s episode can be applied to any part of the process. You always want to give yourself permission to let your mind wander through, make discoveries and absorb information, be it about a character trait, their relationship to a certain fact, what is going on for them, or what the play is about. It’s okay not to know. In fact, “knowing” anything too quickly can be a hindrance to the creative process, the millions of possibilities that exist and the depth necessary to dig when building a h...
Oct 19, 2021•12 min•Season 3Ep. 75
When working on a role, we will inevitably come face-to-face with adjectives that describe our characters. We find these adjectives in the script itself, or if auditioning, in the breakdown. But if those adjectives don’t do anything for us, as actors, we need to find ones that do. Just as we have to translate an “effect direction” into something active that brings us to life, we also have to take descriptors we don’t connect with, and translate them into words that affect us and free us up, word...
Oct 12, 2021•14 min•Season 3Ep. 74
If you want to create characters that have depth, that is work that you have to do. The script won’t give it to you, and the director definitely won’t give it to you. This requires asking the question: what kind of person would do this/say this? And then, really slowing down as we explore. We must be careful not to jump too fast to a conclusion or make an assumption based on a cliche, or our own limited experience. And, we must spend time digging deep to understand the complexity of the person. ...
Oct 05, 2021•15 min•Season 3Ep. 73
This week, we celebrate the return of Broadway by looking at how the joy of acting, and and the joy of being part of its tradition and community is a huge part of what the actor gives and what the audience receives. “That’s what you get for free when actors are so happy to be acting, and acting together,” Milton says in this episode. “If we can connect to that and bring it to our work, it adds an element that is part of the actor’s contribution.” Have a question for Milton? Email him at question...
Sep 28, 2021•8 min•Season 3Ep. 72
One of the problems we face as actors, is that, without even knowing it, our limited experience and points of view as human beings naturally affects the way we approach characters that are different from us. Obviously we cannot stop having our own opinions or world views, nor would we want to. But it’s something to start becoming conscious of: how are my personal feelings about the character affecting my ability to play the fullest scope of the character’s humanity? Have a question for Milton? E...
Sep 21, 2021•14 min•Season 3Ep. 71
Visualization is such an enormous part of what we have to do as actors and it requires exercising our imagination on a regular basis. If we’re not consistently building worlds that are not our own, we will limit ourselves and end up creating cliches as opposed to something specific that we love, that feeds us and grounds us in the scene. Have a question for Milton? Email him at questionsformilton@gmail.com Brought to you by weaudition.com...
Sep 14, 2021•15 min•Season 3Ep. 70
WANT MORE? Become a subscriber for bonus content! https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/actingclass/subscribe Blocking should always come out of what is really going on in each scene. And as your emotional understanding of what’s happening becomes clearer and more profound, the blocking with naturally change. Unless the director is hugely conceptual, (and therefore “setting” stage pictures, they will welcome this. It comes back to the idea that while very few directors understand the acting pr...
Sep 07, 2021•12 min•Season 3Ep. 69
“Raising the stakes” is an expression we hear a lot in the world of acting technique. In this episode, Milton gives you very practical ideas and exercises that will help you raise the stakes. These are practices you can apply to any project you’re working on that will help to turn the dial. “The reason practical techniques like this are so useful,” says Milton, “is that, without artificially raising the stakes and playing an effect, it allows you to be more active.” Have a question for Milton? E...
Aug 31, 2021•12 min•Season 3Ep. 68
Have you ever felt like you’re playing two actions at once in a scene and therefore not committing 100% to anything at all? In this episode, Milton addresses a problem that Greg had while shooting a short film in which he felt torn between two different actions and ended up feeling confused as to what he was doing. It raised the question of whether it’s possible to play two actions at once, or if the disconnect is a result of “playing your homework” and not be clear enough on what the scene is a...
Aug 24, 2021•14 min•Season 3Ep. 67
WANT MORE? Become a subscriber for bonus content! https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/actingclass/subscribe In this episode, as the Ice Cream Man relentlessly plays his song on the streets of Hamilton Heights— (are they trying to make us go crazy?)— Milton talks about developing the ability to know when your work isn’t working. This is about trusting yourself. If it feels like it’s not working, it’s not. Then we have to trust that we can figure out what tools or techniques will help us. Have...
Aug 17, 2021•14 min•Season 3Ep. 66
WANT MORE? Become a subscriber for bonus content! https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/actingclass/subscribe Like the many other tools we have at our disposal, working on a character trait can give you something to hold onto, something that is “playable.” Here’s what’s important to keep in mind: a character trait is not a plot. It has to be something we can “get” about the character, without the need for dialogue. This is an example of how working internally produces external results. Have a ...
Aug 10, 2021•14 min•Season 3Ep. 65
When creating a character, it’s important to take yourself out of the mix. If you don’t, you’ll bring the character down to you, falling back on how you would react to the given circumstances, as opposed to taking stock of what you know about the character, and building a human being based on those facts. If you know where the character ends up— being a success— then you can further examine the nature of that fact: what is the makeup of a successful person? How do they operate in the world? What...
Aug 03, 2021•17 min•Season 3Ep. 64
WANT MORE? Become a subscriber for bonus content! https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/actingclass/subscribe In this episode, Milton muses on the Stella Adler quote: "Your talent is in your choices,” realizing the ways this statement has been widely misinterpreted and misunderstood. The idea has crippled actors because we’re so busy trying to come up with brilliant choices, it paralyzes us. We want the opposite. We want to be freed up when we are acting. What makes a good choice? It isn...
Jul 27, 2021•13 min•Season 3Ep. 63
There’s a difference between getting the job and getting the part. And if we want to elevate ourselves to doing great work and truly “get the part,” then we have to understand that the key lies in discerning a plot problem from a soul problem. Your character’s soul problem is what runs deep. It’s what’s really going on, underneath the plot. This is not about getting the answer right, it’s an exploration that begins when you start rehearsal and in some ways, never ends. We must keep asking: what ...
Jul 20, 2021•10 min•Season 3Ep. 62
One of our listeners recently began work as a series regular on a new show, and found herself a little lost because of the lack of information she’s been given about her character. When you don’t know where your character came from or is headed, how do you create a three-dimensional human being? How do you approach material when you’ve been given so few facts and there is so much unknown? Do you just make it up? What if you get the character all wrong? In this special episode, Milton invites act...
Jul 13, 2021•18 min•Season 3Ep. 61
In this episode Milton shares how his “Talking Out” technique was born in order to clarify how it can best work for us as actors. We talk out in order to take ownership of what we are talking about, little by little. Instead of feeling the pressure to deliver a “performance,” we start where we are, even if it means we are not as connected as we want to be, or will eventually be. This is what Stella Adler meant when she said: “I can believe this much today.” We start small, just with what we, our...
Jul 06, 2021•14 min•Season 3Ep. 60
We all know the importance of doing research when creating a role, but even more important is what you do with that research. If you can’t turn it into something actable, it’s useless. This is a skill that we have to develop through practice: the ability to take a dry piece of information and determine what it means from an actor’s point of view. The facts should lead you to thinking; thinking leads you to understanding how you turn the facts into something active; and that leads you to experien...
Jun 29, 2021•18 min•Season 3Ep. 59
As an actor, you want to be so much more than just “accurate.” You must have something going on inside of you that makes you alive on the outside. An exercise we can employ that helps us connect to the life inside of us is talking out something you love or something you hate. “You can do this if you will begin to be observers in life and not an audience in life,” Milton says in this episode. “Look at life, observe it and respond to it. You have to become involved with it.” Have a question for Mi...
Jun 22, 2021•18 min•Season 3Ep. 58
There was a period where you took the time and energy to communicate, either writing a letter or speaking. We’re now living in a world where language has become truncated into a shorthand of images and soundbites and yes, emojis. This episode is a rant about that. In may not be consequential for most people, but for actors, it’s important that we utilize the muscle of outward self-expression, lest it become atrophied. We must be in the habit of expressing what we’re feeling in our lives because ...
Jun 15, 2021•10 min•Season 3Ep. 57
The ability to identify what’s going on in any given scene from an actor’s perspective is very important. Instead of getting bogged down in all the elements of the scene— specifically the plot and what your character is going through emotionally— we have to be able to take those facts and translate them into a clear action that activates us. If the action does not bring us to life, we have to find another one that does. This is like a gateway to freedom for the actor, a key that will free you up...
Jun 08, 2021•16 min•Season 3Ep. 56
Because of the pandemic, the nature of the business of acting has changed, and most likely there’s no going back. Working remotely has become so pervasive that even when theater reopens, self-tape auditions and Zoom readings will remain a vital part of what we do everyday. Because of that, imaginatively *building the place* is that much more essential. We may be in our bedrooms sitting in front of a green screen, but to be believable, we have to be living off of the place we’re in. In this episo...
Jun 01, 2021•14 min•Season 3Ep. 55
