An acting coach or drama coach is a teacher who trains performers – typically film, television, theatre, and musical theatre actors – and gives them advice and

mentoring Mentorship is the influence, guidance, or direction given by a mentor. A mentor is someone who teaches or gives help and advice to a less experienced and often younger person. In an organizational setting, a mentor influences the personal and p ...

to enable them to improve their acting and dramatic performances, prepare for auditions and prepare better for roles.

Qualifications and roles

Acting coaches need to have a "talent...for reading people, all their utterances and

body language Body language is a type of communication in which physical behaviors, as opposed to words, are used to express or convey information. Such behavior includes facial expressions, body posture, gestures, eye movement, touch and the use of space. Th ...

."Eric Liu. "The People Whisperers:What a Hollywood acting coach taught me about teaching" in Slate. http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/teachings/2005/01/the_people_whisperers.html Acting coaches have been called "people whisperers", a reference to "

horse whisperer Natural horsemanship is a collective term for a variety of horse training techniques which have seen rapid growth in popularity since the 1980s. The techniques vary in their precise tenets but generally share principles of "a kinder and gentler ...

s" who help to train animals. Acting coach

Ivana Chubbuck Ivana Chubbuck is an American acting coach who heads a drama school in Los Angeles and also hosts acting workshops worldwide. She is the author of the best-selling book ''The Power of the Actor'', published by a division of Penguin Books Pen ...

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." Chubbuck works with actors to help them to connect with the emotion inside the character. Acting coaches also "...help

rama Rama (; ), Ram, Raman or Ramar, also known as Ramachandra (; , ), is a major deity in Hinduism. He is the seventh and one of the most popular '' avatars'' of Vishnu. In Rama-centric traditions of Hinduism, he is considered the Supreme Bein ...

students audition for college".Regan McMahon. "THEATER Acting coach preps drama students for college auditions" in ''The Chronicle'' Saturday, January 22, 2011 http://www.sfgate.com/performance/article/Acting-coaches-help-students-audition-for-college-2478509.php 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

he character He or HE may refer to: Language * He (pronoun), an English pronoun * He (kana), the romanization of the Japanese kana へ * He (letter), the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets * He (Cyrillic), a letter of the Cyrillic script called ''He'' ...

is and what she's feeling. It's got to be real. She provides

constructive criticism Criticism is the construction of a judgement about the negative qualities of someone or something. Criticism can range from impromptu comments to a written detailed response. , ''"the act of giving your opinion or judgment about the good or bad q ...

to students. Woodell-Mascall has helped students to get into drama programs at schools "...including NYU, Juilliard, Rutgers and UCLA". Some acting coaches use an "...approach and technique of acting training

hat A hat is a head covering which is worn for various reasons, including protection against weather conditions, ceremonial reasons such as university graduation, religious reasons, safety, or as a fashion accessory. Hats which incorporate mecha ...

are considered established, proven methods of creating the ramaticwork", such as using the "...methodology of

Constantin Stanislavski Konstantin Sergeyevich Stanislavski ( Alekseyev; russian: Константин Сергеевич Станиславский, p=kənstɐnʲˈtʲin sʲɪrˈgʲejɪvʲɪtɕ stənʲɪˈslafskʲɪj; 7 August 1938) was a seminal Soviet Russian ...

Stella Adler Stella Adler (February 10, 1901 – December 21, 1992) was an American actress and acting teacher.
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Uta Hagen Uta Thyra Hagen (12 June 1919 – 14 January 2004) was a German-American actress and theatre practitioner. She originated the role of Martha in the 1962 Broadway premiere of ''Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?'' by Edward Albee, who called her "a ...

Lee Strasberg Lee Strasberg (born Israel Strassberg; November 17, 1901 – February 17, 1982) was an American theatre director, actor and acting teacher. He co-founded, with theatre directors Harold Clurman and Cheryl Crawford, the Group Theatre in 1931 ...

, and Sanford Meisner." Some acting coaches provide students with a DVD or SD card recording of their acting, for the student to review their progress.

Notable individuals

Major acting coaches include: Larry Moss,

, Michelle Danner, Maggie Flanigan,

Terry Schreiber Terry Schreiber (born March 7, 1937) is an American theater director, acting teacher, and founder of the T. Schreiber Studio, in New York. Schreiber was born in Winona, Minnesota. He has directed theatre, principally in New York, since 1976, at ...

David Mamet David Alan Mamet (; born November 30, 1947) is an American playwright, filmmaker, and author. He won a Pulitzer Prize and received Tony nominations for his plays ''Glengarry Glen Ross'' (1984) and '' Speed-the-Plow'' (1988). He first gained cri ...

Michael Woolson Michael Woolson is an American acting coach, author, director, and founder of the Michael Woolson Studio in Los Angeles, California. Coaching career Michael Woolson began his career as an acting coach teaching at the Larry Moss Studio in 1999 a ...

Stella Adler Stella Adler (February 10, 1901 – December 21, 1992) was an American actress and acting teacher.
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Chambers Stevens Chambers Stevens (born June 10, 1964) is an American actor, playwright, author and acting coach An acting coach or drama coach is a teacher who trains performers – typically film, television, theatre, and musical theatre actors – and gives t ...

, Sanford Meisner,

Justin Trudeau Justin Pierre James Trudeau ( , ; born December 25, 1971) is a Canadian politician who is the 23rd and current prime minister of Canada. He has served as the prime minister of Canada since 2015 and as the leader of the Liberal Party since 2 ...

Paula Strasberg Paula Strasberg (born Pearl Miller; March 8, 1909 – April 29, 1966) was an American stage actress. She became actor and teacher Lee Strasberg's second wife and mother of actors John and Susan Strasberg, as well as Marilyn Monroe's acting coac ...

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 A production company, production house, production studio, or a production team is a studio that creates works in the fields of performing arts, new media art, film, television, radio, comics, interactive arts, video games, websites, music, and v ...

theatre company Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors or actresses, to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The perfor ...

. 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. Acting classes are often provided in person; however, with the widespread availability of high-speed Internet, some coaches offer mentoring online over

Skype Skype () is a proprietary telecommunications application operated by Skype Technologies, a division of Microsoft, best known for VoIP-based videotelephony, videoconferencing and voice calls. It also has instant messaging, file transfer, deb ...

or other video linkups. Acting coaches may offer private coaching, group sessions or a combination of both.

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 Amy Lynn Hartzler (; born December 13, 1981) is an American singer-songwriter and musician. She is the co-founder, lead vocalist, and lead songwriter of the rock band Evanescence. Alongside her contributions with the band, Lee has also particip ...

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. Sometimes CEOs and other leaders hire acting coaches to help them improve their performance of speeches and other general communications activities. While most acting coaches mentor actors, some also coach directors on how to improve their direction of actors. Some acting coaches offer introductions to the acting industry, to help new actors learn about auditions, the casting process, the role of agents, key acting terminology (e.g., "

callback Callback may refer to: * Callback (comedy), a joke which refers to one previously told * Callback (computer programming), executable code that is passed as a parameter to other code * Callback (telecommunications), the telecommunications event th ...

" auditions), and about important industry organizations.

Intimacy coordinator

In the television and film industry, in 2018, some production companies are hiring an "intimacy coordinator" to ensure that actors and actresses'

sexual consent Sexual consent is consent to engage in sexual activity. In many jurisdictions, sexual activity without consent is considered rape or other sexual assault. Academic discussion of consent In the late 1980s, academic Lois Pineau argued that societ ...

is obtained before shooting romantic scenes and simulated sex scenes. To address concerns about the "vulnerability...and the massive power balance that can happen when a powerful showrunner or director asks an actress or actor...to get naked and simulate sex for the camera", HBO hires an intimacy coordinator for these scenes. The intimacy coordinator is a mix of an acting coach (who makes sure that scenes look realistic) and an advocate for actors and actresses who ensures that the onscreen performers' boundaries are respected and that their physical and emotional comfort is protected.

References