Acting coach

An acting coach or drama coach is a teacher who trains performers–typically film, television, theatre, musical theatre actors–and gives them advice to enable them to improve their acting and dramatic performances.

Qualifications and roles

Acting coaches need to have a "talent is for reading people, all their utterances and body language." ^[1] Acting coaches have been called "people whisperers", a reference to "horse whisperers" who help to train animals.^[2] Acting coach Ivana Chubbuck states that one of her roles is to ensure that "every actor...must know what the character's objective is in a scene—to win someone's love, respect, sympathy, whatever—and then must have a ruthlessness about achieving the objective." ^[3] Chubbuck works with actors to help them to connect with the emotion inside the character.^[4] Acting coaches also "...help [drama] students audition for college".^[5]Acting coach and actor Woodell-Mascall is "...skilled at zeroing in on what young actors need to do to improve their performance." Woodell-Mascall tells one student actor to "...really think about who [the character] is and what she's feeling. It's got to be real." ^[6]She provides constructive criticism to students. Woodell-Mascall has helped students to get into drama programs at schools "...including NYU, Juilliard, Rutgers and UCLA". ^[7]Some acting coaches use an "...approach and technique of acting training [that] are considered established, proven methods of creating the [dramatic] work", such as using the "...methodology of Constantin Stanislavski, Stella Adler, Uta Hagen, Lee Strasberg, and Sanford Meisner." ^[8]

Notable individuals

Major acting coaches includej: Larry Moss, Ivana Chubbuck, Terry Schreiber, and David Mamet.

Working conditions

Acting coaches may be freelancers who are hired for an hourly or daily rate, or they may be hired on a longer-term basis by a film studio, production company or theatre company. Some acting coaches have developed their own unique methods and founded their own acting schools. Acting coaches' income varies a great deal from one coach to another. For example, an acting coach providing training to a community theatre troupe or a high school musical earns much less than an acting coach training top Hollywood celebrities.

Other roles

In some cases, acting coaches are hired to train singers in acting skills. Popular music singers may need to learn acting skills for their live concert shows, which sometimes include staged sequences, and for performing in music videos. For example, Goth-rocker Amy Lee was provided with an acting coach by her record label. In Classical music, singers performing staged operas may get help from an acting coach to prepare them for their roles.

References

See also

• Dialect coach