New Acting Tools By Brianna Chicha

John Jacobsen's passion is infectious. In addition to a wealth of knowledge and experience, he's just plain inspiring. Every day I left class with a renewed commitment to myself as an artist. John believes and teaches that if we work hard enough we can reach our goals. And I believe him.

Until last fall when I came to Freehold, my only training had been Meisner training. I love Meisner training and believe it has been instrumental in the formation of my technique. However, my question has always been "how do I show up ready to work without the benefit of rehearsal?" Acting for the Camera not only answered that question, it gave me ample chance to practice. I'm a diligent note taker, and I wrote down all of John's suggestions on the first night of class, yet they didn't show up in my first scene. By seeing the mistakes and jumping right into another scene, I was able to apply the lesson while it was fresh. A chance to practice new methods several times made them present enough in my experience to draw on in the future. What was awkward at the beginning of the class became easier.

I also gained a better understanding of scene structure which helped tremendously with determining the subtext and the rhythm of the scenes. One of the tools that I had never used before was journaling my thoughts through the whole scene. This was the tool I missed on my first scene. Fortunately for me, I got to use the embarrassment of not liking my performance to do better the next time. For the next three scenes I journaled my thoughts, and in doing so discovered where I didn't understand things I had thought I did. I much prefer seeing that while I'm preparing, than later when I'm looking at tape. Because I got a chance to reinforce new habits, they are now part of my process and I don't have to reference my notes to remember them.

I couldn't have asked for a better way to spend the summer!

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If you want to check out our Acting for the Camera class (or our Intro to Acting, Voice or Playwriting classes), come to Freehold's Open House on Thursday, September 8 from 6:00 - 8:00 pm. Sample several of our classes including John Jacobsen's Acting for the Camera. FREE event but reserve a space at Brown Paper Tickets.
Freehold's Fall Classes are now open for registration. Check out the diverse line-up of classes at Freehold.