If you
are taking an acting class, you may find that your instructors often use acting
exercises to help you learn. There are a variety of great exercises out there
that can be used to teach you about various types of acting.
Whether you are wondering what types of exercises
are out there or you are interested in finding some exercises that you can
enjoy on your own or with some actor friends, here are several fun and top
quality exercises to try.
Using Props Exercise
The using props exercise is one of the best acting exercises for you if you need to work better
with props. What you do is have one person take a certain prop, whatever you
choose, and then come up with 15-20 different positions or poses that can be
done using that prop. It teaches innovation and helps you learn more about how
you can effectively work with the props that you are using when acting.
Miming Emotions Exercise
Another of the many great acting exercises is the
miming emotions exercise. Each person participating should be given a piece of
paper that gives a certain emotion, such as anger, sadness, happiness, love, or
hatred. Then they have to take their emotion that they have been given and mime
it to the other participants. They then have to try and figure out what emotion
the person is trying to mime. Each person should be given a chance to mime an
emotion.
Finding
Scene Locations Exercise Finding scene locations is a wonderful exercise to try
out as well for actors. Essentially each person in the class reads the same
script through. Then suggestions should be given for locations where the
various scenes throughout the script should take place. If you are able to,
visiting the locations to see if they will really work is a great idea.
Casting Exercise
Last of all, when it comes to acting exercises, a casting
exercise can be helpful and educational as well. Essentially the people
participating are divided into two groups. There is a group that is the casting
crew and the group that are the applicants. Give both groups a certain role
that they are trying to fill. They should think of things to have the
candidates do to figure out what their abilities are. On the other hand, the
applicants will also know what type of role they are going to need to fill.
They should work to act in such a way that they land the role. This is a
wonderful way to get acting students used to going through auditions and it
gives them an inside look at what casting directors are looking for as well.