Below are links to articles and documents adapted mainly from Erik Sean McGiven’s book “The Rudimentary Elements of the Dramatic Performance.”  He taught acting workshops as well as coached privately and through the years developed a systematic approach based on analyzing the performances of award winning actors.   The list starts with the basic issues and progresses to the more complex skills and techniques.

  

An Approach to Acting
Actors are the storytellers, for it is through the characters they portray that the story comes to life. Misconceptions confuse this point, the role of the actor and paths to becoming an accomplished performer.

As an Acting Student, What Should I be Learning?
Acquiring the skills to be a professional actor can be overwhelming.  However, knowing which skills are the most instrumental will shorten the journey.

Eye Acting – The Key to Internalizations
Eye acting is rarely addressed in one’s training yet in film and television it’s the main focal point of the audience. Knowing simple eye behaviors can help clarify the character’s inner thoughts and feelings by placing them in recognizable focal zones.

Eye Behavior Focal Zones
This illustration depicts the focal zones commonly used in a face to face two-person scene 

Creating Believable Facial Expressions
Harnessing the range and power of facial expressions is a difficult task for the actor.  Yet there are ways to make them behave as the character and trick the brain into creating believable expressions.

The Six Basic Facial Expressions with examples of Degree.  Plus Exercise Scenarios for Facial Expressions

Dialogue Delivery
Dialogue delivery and memorization take up most of the actor’s preparation time. While vocal skills such as projection, articulation, and phasing are the obvious, the dramatic aspects of dialogue delivery center on pauses, tempo, emphasis, dynamics, and contrast. Gaining control of these areas allows more time to search out strong dramatic choices in other areas such as selecting the intention, emotion and acting style.

Gestures in Acting
Gestures are instrumental in expressing an idea or conveying a feeling.  Using them effectively can increase the credibility and sincerity of the character.

Movement in Acting
Inner thoughts, emotions, needs, and wants motivate movement.  Movement should be such that even a deaf man could comprehend what’s happening.

Selecting the Character’s Objective
The criterion for selecting the character’s objective relates to the story telling process.  These choices create conflict and drive the story forward.

Implementing the Character’s Objective
How one implements the character’s objective is as important as the objective itself.  Knowing the possibilities is a step in the right direction.

List of Intentions (Objectives) Compiled from Various Workshop Scenes (Listed according to worthiness)     List provides examples and proper format for stating the intention of the character.

Selecting the Character’s Emotion
Emotions are the forces that move the characters through the story.  They are instrumental in leading the audience in the desired story direction.

Implementing the Character’s Emotion
Generating readable emotions is a process for which every actor strives.   Various methods such as remembering past events , the physiological sensations, as well as mechanical means can be used.

Root Emotions
List and Discussions of Root Emotions.  Document discusses the delineation, characteristics, and physiologically of 37 root emotions.

Selecting the Motivation
Behind the character’s objective is a reason, a motivation justifying the intention. It’s the answer to the question, why?  The motivation aids in developing subtle shadings that give the audience a sense of what drives and guides the character through the story.

Motivation Selection Examples
These motivation examples are labeled by their originating component, i.e., biological (B), learned (L), cognitive (C), and intervention (I), along with further clarification of sub-justifications.  They answer the why question behind the motivation and place it into an actable format.

Story Structure
By studying storytelling principles, the actor can make choices that support the dramatic equations, propel the story to its optimum potential and create the desired illusion within the mind of the audience.  Knowing the essential ingredients of a good story along with its structure can greatly improve one’s artistic contributions.

Blocking and Movement
Blocking is the positioning and movement of the characters to tell the story in visual terms. It is a comparative portrayal of strong and weak movements, and their relative positions.  Today’s hurried productions demand understanding blocking terminologies and its principles.

Styles of Acting
This article reflects how acting elements such as reality, dramatic flow, pace and timing help define the performance style. Primary attention is given to the differences between drama and comedy.

Style Generalizations
This article covers style generalizations for acting  drama and comedy.  Acting elements are addressed for each style in abbreviated form and reflect key differences.

Dramatic Style Generalizations
These charts cover the acting elements for the more prominent styles.  Listed on same page are style examples from film, television, and plays.  Other acting styles and hybrid styles are also listed.

Comedy Acting
Comedy acting is seldom given the attention it deserves.  Being much more disciplined, stylized, and precise, its complexities make it difficult to fully comprehend, perform, and likewise, teach.

Implementing Humor
To implement humor one must understand the style parameters and the wide range of skills required, the foremost being agility.  Comedy acting is pointalistic in flow with edges that promotes quick turns, derailment of thought, and surprises.

Considerations in Playing Comedy
This illustration depicts the progression of a joke and the factors in portraying comedy.  These building blocks, with their edges and sharp corners, defines the clarity and simplicity of humor as well as the potential for quick changes, sudden drops in dignity, and unexpected surprises.

Character Development I
This article explores the process of character development from heroes to villains and those in between. It discusses methods, character elements, and their hierarchy.

Character Development II
This article looks at the character’s function and how it affects the portrayal. Does the function hinder or assist the protagonist? Article also looks at the development of protagonist, antagonist, heroes, villains, and mythic characters.

Character Development III
In further developing a character, we must also look at personality or temperament types, abnormal tendencies, learning and social disabilities, plus character relationships. How to find actable qualities that embody the character and serve its function within the story.

Putting It All Together – Improving and Marketing One’s Acting Skills
How does one put it all together, use the information in these articles to improve ones performance, and market ones acting skills? This article addresses how knowledge, application, and marketing skills are essential to working as a professional actor and the various steps required in reaching this goal.

Scene Study Workshops are a Bad Investment
Article questions the validity of scene study workshops by weighing the acquired skills against invested time and expenditures.  Also provide insights to better venues.