With showbiz becoming a global industry, there is a constant demand for actors. Obviously, demand for child actors has also increased considerably. They seem to give the producers a good run for their money. In such scenario, it is absolutely necessary for aspiring child actors to learn some important tips and tricks to help them improve their talent.
Acting is a great career for those who are interested, and of course talented. People aspiring to be successful actors start nurturing their talent from childhood itself. With rising demand for child actors in different media of the showbiz, including theater, television, cinema and advertisements, nurturing this young talent has become even more essential.
As children are not much aware of how the acting world works, it becomes the responsibility of the parents and mentors to train the child to act. Though some kids are experts in mimicking other actors as well as people they meet in their daily life, acting professionally is totally different.
There are numerous pros and cons of making children act at a very young age. Acting on stage (and other media) firstly cultivates a positive attitude within a child. Frequent stage appearances and acting before a big audience helps the child shed his or her premonitions and overcome any weaknesses.
A child, at a very early age, learns the importance of teamwork and sharing. Most importantly, it makes the child more confident and optimistic. However, a child might lose interest in his studies and other important things in the long run, and so the parents need to encourage their kids in such a way that they do not lose out on any of the fronts.
● Observe and Learn: Make your child see various popular movies and dramas. Make them observe and understand for themselves how a renowned actor portrays a particular character, how he displays a particular emotion, and what response he gets for the same from his audience.
The quality and quantity of knowledge that a child would grasp just by observing others will be of a much greater degree than whatever he will learn from plain literature. Every minute observation helps to a large extent in the long run.
● Attend Workshops: There are a number of acting workshops which are held throughout the year by reputed theater groups or senior people working in the field of showbiz.
Such workshops actually give children an opportunity to work with the people of repute, as well as help them to get first-hand acting experience in the form of short skits, which are often a part of such workshops. Children attending such workshops become familiar with the basics of acting, and this actually gives them a cutting-edge over the others.
● Rehearse: Rehearsal is a very important aspect of acting. There is no actor in the world who has achieved name and fame without doing rehearsals repeatedly and religiously. Make the kids learn their dialogs properly, and make them understand the demand of the character they are playing.
If they succeed in understanding the character, only then would they be able to do justice to the role they are playing. For instance, if your child's role in a play is that of a salesperson in a store, make up a story where he plays the storekeeper and you play the role of the customer visiting the shop.
Create certain dialogs for the character of the shopkeeper as well as the customers. Practicing in this way will help your kid understand the way he has to act for his role. Rehearsal, both individually and along with the rest of the cast, plays an important role.
Individually, a child can be asked to rehearse before a mirror so that he himself can critically examine his work and make the necessary improvements. He can then rehearse with the rest of the cast so that the play becomes a well-coordinated whole.
● Voice Projection: If your kid has got a part to play in a drama, it is important that he learns to speak loudly so that the audience can hear him clearly. You can make him practice with the help of some exercises.
One such exercise is where you have to keep some kind of object near your kid and ask him to say the dialogs to that object, as if it is a person listening to him. After a few lines, move the object a little behind and tell him to say the dialogs to it again.
When you move the object behind, your child will have to speak louder so that the object is able to hear him. This exercise will surely help him in saying his dialogs loudly as well as clearly on stage.
● Understand the Stage: In-depth understanding of the stage on which the play is going to be enacted, constitutes a major part in the play's success. Stages are of different kinds, and each demand different types of entry and exit structures, empty spaces, lighting effects, and so on.
Also, different stages require different kinds of voice modulations, which have to be worked out well in advance before the play begins. These things can be imbibed in a child through serious acting and experience.
● Understand the Audience: The audience forms an unavoidable part in a play's success. Understanding and abiding by the needs and demands of the audience is extremely necessary, not only for the playwrights and directors but also for the actors. It is very difficult for a child to understand the audience at an early age.
But, as he goes on doing stage performances and gaining more and more experience, he will learn to portray things the way audience wish to see them. However, parents can make a child keep simple things in mind, such as never speaking with his back to the audience or using gestures for a more dramatized look, so that audience can enjoy the play even better.
Acting tends to get more and more refined with experience. An actor can learn a great deal of things through his or her mistakes, and it is these mistakes which make the person more and more profound each day.
For kids who are talented actors, starting their careers with stage/theater performances can provide a great boost. This is because, stage performances not only makes the actor more confident but also adds spontaneity to his work, which further helps him in other media as well.