Acting Masterclass
With Stephen Lance
Before this class I hadn’t done a lot of directing actors in drama and I was excited and confident that it would be an easy exercise. Prior to the class I was anticipating that we would have to work with experienced actors and was felling reassured that even if I struggled to direct well the actors would carry the performance well. Even though I hadn’t directed a lot, I have been in a couple of director roles and know three main rules that apply for both directing and life;
- Never tell someone how to feel.
- Listen.
- Alway be open to others idea’s.

Acting is essentially responding to a stimulus, it may be as life changing as hearing about your mother being sick in hospital or as small as being given some gum, but if the performance isn’t authentic you cant fool anyone. So I went into this class with this knowledge and was ready to put my full effort in.
In these two masterclasses run by experienced Writer and Director Stephen Lance we were able to watch him work with actors and ask them questions about what directing styles they like and what to do and what not to do when directing. In our first masterclass we got an insight into the minds of both the director and two experienced actor’s.
In the beginning we talked about the theory of drama, Stephen Explain the use of action wordsAnd the concept of saying “As if”. Both of these are examples of positive directing styles, both avoid telling the actor how to feel; also known as result directing.
Result direction being the negative type of directing where instead of allowing the actor to find their own reaction you tell them how to feel; be happier, get sad on this line and cry after he says this. Contrary to the other directing styles in result directing you can actually alienate the actor from the character, telling them to be sadder will most likely take the actor our of the character head space and into their own insecurities; its no longer ‘Sam’ its Karen acting as ‘Sam’.
Watching Stephen director to actors was very refreshing, it was a perfect example of a good, open, healthy relationship between director and actor. We all watched as he observed the actors; he never discouraged them from their idea’s, he always asked how the felt about to scene, or if they wanted to change it up. Stephen is directing style was very similar to how you treat a friend, he gave advice but never told theme what to do, letting them make their own natural decisions on how to feel in the scene and he made sure that they were doing the best performance they could by building on the strengths.
After the session concluded, feeling confident, I was ready to give it ago myself, reassured that I'd be able to keep a positive relationship with the actors that I choose and avoid result directing. But before we got to go to lunch Stephen gave us all copies of a script from a scene featured in ‘Sex In The City’ and informed us that we would be the actors for the next part of the workshop. Undoubtably this was the most daunting part of the workshop, but overall it was the most rewarding.
Back in class I was chosen to several roles, This gave me a really interesting insight to what it's like being in front of the camera, also getting to work with a director. I was the last director to go and by that time I’d had the opportunity to see the acting abilities of my classmates. I decided to start thinking of them as actors; imagining if I was a casting director what type of roles what I give them. I thought back to the beginning of the workshop when Stephen had talked about the importance of typecasting and making sure your actor will fill the role. With this in mind I chose two girls that I thought could have an interesting energy on between one another. This is probably the biggest brainwave for me, as I was able to find the right dynamic between my two characters that we both give the creative energy going and keep the audience entertained. The contrast between the two girls along with the use of some interesting preselected action words and a lot of “It’s as if”.
The main piece of advice that away from this class was that “You are enough” this fits the both the actor and director; if you've been put in one of these roles it's up to you to determine how well you go. After this class I've been inspired to try and move towards some more directing roles in the future, as it is not only enjoyable but challenging for me and I had a great time. In the future I’d love to try working more in depth with some real actor’s and see what we can do. With the techniques that I've learnt during this masterclass I'd love to take my knowledge and move into more practical space, getting some future possible onset experience as a director.
