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TEA - The Everyday Actor - Performance Mastery

@theeverydayactor

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Hey Y’all it’s Jade! I help demystify the craft of acting for early career artists, while helping you master your authentic artistry onstage and off.

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One of the greatest gifts of our craft is embodiment.

We have the ability to portray another human being, fictional or nonfictional, for a captivated audience.

And that audience comes in trusting us.

They trust that we have done the work to, in effect, disappear and reimagine ourselves as the character we’re playing.

That means if your character lives in 1957, they shouldn’t automatically gesture, move, sit, stand, respond, or carry themselves like someone living in 2026.

This is character work.

And it’s also part of the dramaturgy you are responsible for as an actor.

What was happening in the world your character inhabited? How did people carry themselves? What were the social expectations of the time? What gestures were common—or uncommon? How might age, race, gender, class, geography, occupation, religion, or community have affected the way your particular character moved through that world?

Research gives you context.

Then your job as an actor is to take that information out of your head and physicalize it through informed physical choices that honor the given circumstances of the story.

And fortunately, so much of the information you need is right at your fingertips.

Go find it.

Happy researching! 🎭

And if you want some help knowing what to research when you’re building a character, comment GUIDE to grab my free Character Analysis Guide. Let it help you ask better questions, make more specific choices, and build a character from the inside out.

Observe. Believe. Take Action, Every Day.

#monologuemastery #actingcoach #acting #actingtips #actingclass by @theeverydayactor

You cannot build performance dexterity without REPS.

One of the biggest mistakes actors make is spending more time thinking about the work than actually doing the work.

That’s why I teach my actors the 10-80-10 Rule:

🧠 10% PLAN
🎭 80% PERFORM
🔍 10% ASSESS

If your monologue is two minutes long, 20 runs is only 40 minutes of actual performance time. Add your planning and assessment, and you’ve got a focused hour of training.

And yes, eventually I’d love for you to get to 40 reps.

Why?

Because repetition isn’t just about memorization. You’re building your instrument. You’re learning what happens when you change your tactic, tempo, focus, physicality, rhythm, or intention without losing command of the text.

That’s how you develop delivery dexterity.

You don’t become a master because you understand what to do.

You become a master because you’ve done it enough times that you can do something different.

📖 Want a system for doing the actual character work BEFORE you start putting in those reps?

Grab Monologue Mastery in Ten Steps: A Practical Playbook for Performance at monologuemastery.com.

Observe. Believe. Take Action. Every Day. #acting #actingcoach #actingclass #actingtips #monologuemastery by @theeverydayactor

Your preparation should give you the freedom to respond truthfully, not lock you into a predetermined performance.

One of the biggest mistakes actors make is believing they have to figure everything out in their heads.

Acting is experiential. The more opportunities you create to experience the circumstances of your character, the more resources you have to draw from in performance.

And remember, the goal isn’t to manufacture a feeling. It’s to create the conditions that allow you to be genuinely affected.

Train for responsiveness, not repetition.

🎭 What’s the TEA? Your imagination is a powerful tool, but it isn’t the only tool available to you.

🫖 Save this for your next audition prep session! Want to learn how to establish a stronger connection with your Person of Focus? Get your copy of Monologue Mastery in Ten Steps, where I break down this essential element of believable performance.

📖 Visit MonologueMastery.com to get your copy!
#acting #actingcoach #actingclass #actingtips #monologuemastery by @theeverydayactor

The ability to pursue a goal despite obstacles is a muscle that must be developed. And it’s not just a mindset. It’s a physical experience.

There is a sensory experience connected to determination. An urge to move forward. A drive to overcome resistance. A willingness to keep pursuing something even when the circumstances make it difficult.

Think about the last time you raced someone. There’s a difference between running a race just to participate and running a race with every intention of winning.

The activity may be the same, but the urgency, the drive, and the physical sensation of pursuing that goal are entirely different.

If your natural response to obstacles is to retreat, avoid, or give up, accessing that same driving force in your character work may be incredibly challenging.

Your lived experiences matter.

When you have experienced what it takes to persist despite resistance, you have a reference point that you can draw upon in your work.

And the more you exercise that muscle in your own life, the more accessible that sensation becomes in your artistry.

Your character’s desires must become an active pursuit, not simply an intellectual understanding of what they want.

🎭 ACTORS: Are you pursuing your character’s objectives with the intention of winning, or are you just participating? Tell me in the comments. 👇🏾

Observe. Believe. Take Action. Every Day. by @theeverydayactor

Your self-talk may be holding you back more than your lack of training.

I recently worked with a young actor who demonstrated the capacity to become a skilled practitioner. However, every time she made a mistake or struggled to apply a new technique, she immediately identified something she believed was wrong with her.

“I’m bad at memorizing.”
“I struggle with understanding ideas.”
“I don’t know how to do this.”

She was still in the beginning stages of learning, yet she was already defining herself by what she couldn’t do.

Here’s what I want you to understand:

There is a difference between not knowing how to do something and believing you are incapable of learning how to do it.

One is a temporary lack of knowledge. The other can become a barrier to acquiring it.

Developing proficiency requires repetition, practice, adjustment, and a willingness to be uncomfortable while you’re learning.

But if every mistake becomes evidence that you’re incapable, you may never give yourself the opportunity to develop the very skills you’re seeking.

Your technique matters. Your training matters. Your practice matters.

But your belief in your ability to grow is the foundation that allows you to embrace all three.

You can hire the best acting coach in the world, but no amount of money can substitute for your willingness to believe that you are capable of learning.

Stop using your current limitations to define your future capabilities.

You don’t have to know how to do it yet.

You have to believe you can learn.

Observe. Believe. Take Action. Every Day. #acting #actingcoach #actingclass #actingtips #selfbelief by @theeverydayactor

Your character’s objective is not simply something you identify during script analysis. It’s something you must actively pursue throughout your performance.

In this coaching session, my student thought his character’s objective was changing throughout the scene, but I challenged him to look deeper.

What was actually changing wasn’t his objective. It was his tactics.

Generally, a character pursues one overarching objective throughout a scene unless they discover that the objective is no longer achievable.

As we explored the character’s relationship with his younger brother, my student discovered that beneath his changing tactics was one consistent objective: to reassure his brother that he had his back.

But discovering the objective is only the beginning.

Knowing what your character wants and actively pursuing it are two different things.

Your objective identifies WHAT you want. Your tactics determine HOW you attempt to get it.

And as your character encounters obstacles, those tactics may change, even when the objective remains the same.

The work isn’t simply to identify your character’s objective. It’s to actively pursue it through deliberate, specific choices.

Want to strengthen your ability to identify and pursue your character’s objectives?

Get your copy of Monologue Mastery in Ten Steps at MonologueMastery.com or through the link in my bio.

Observe. Believe. Take Action. Every Day. by @theeverydayactor

I ask all of my students and clients to share their intentions for our session before we begin. This is one of the ways I ensure that I’m honoring their desires and what they hope to achieve, in addition to addressing the areas where I see opportunities for growth.

During this session, my client’s intention was to honestly portray their character.

One thing I believe is that the more you know about your character’s life, the more opportunities you have to portray them authentically.

ACTORS‼️ Your Character Has Lived an Entire Life Before the First Line of the Script. Get to Know It!

Here’s an exercise I encourage my actors to explore: Write your character’s autobiography, and keep adding to it!

Start with what you know from the script. Their given circumstances, relationships, experiences, environment, and history.

Then use your imagination to discover what else could have happened in their life.

What experiences shaped their beliefs? What memories influence their choices? What relationships changed them? What moments do they carry with them that the audience may never know about?

Every time you rehearse, make a new discovery. Add another page to their autobiography.

Read it before you rehearse. Revisit it before you go to sleep. If you have time, read it again in the morning.

The goal isn’t simply to memorize more information about your character. It’s to develop such a rich understanding of their life that their experiences begin to inform your instincts, choices, and responses.

Of course, your discoveries should always be grounded in the given circumstances of the script. Your imagination should support the playwright’s world, not contradict it.

Remember, your character’s life doesn’t begin when the scene starts.

Give them a past that helps you truthfully inhabit their present.

Want to deepen your character development and script analysis? Get your copy of Monologue Mastery in Ten Steps at MonologueMastery.com or through the link in my bio.

Observe. Believe. Take Action. Every Day.
#ActingTips #CharacterDevelopment #ActingTechnique #acting #actingcoach by @theeverydayactor

There is a beautiful moment in an actor’s process when the circumstances of the character begin to feel tangible. When the environment becomes real, the experiences become personal, and the actor begins to fully inhabit the world of the character.

I witnessed that moment during this coaching session.

As the actor worked, I could see something shift. Through breath, stillness, and connection to the given circumstances, they began to embody the character in a way that was distinctly different from what I had witnessed moments before.

It was as though they had breathed themselves into the character’s reality. And I wanted them to stay there. To name that feeling. To investigate it. To take a mental note of what they were experiencing so they could consciously reconnect with that discovery. This is the power of grounding yourself in your character’s given circumstances.

Where are you? What surrounds you? What can you see, smell, hear, and feel? What has happened immediately before this moment?

The more specifically you experience your character’s reality, the more opportunities you create for authentic responses within that reality.

And remember, we’re not necessarily searching for an emotion. We’re establishing a connection to the circumstances that inform the character’s experience.

Your Moment Before is an opportunity to enter the world of your character before you ever speak a word.

In Monologue Mastery in Ten Steps, I teach you how to explore your character’s Given Circumstances and Moment Before so you can build a specific, grounded, and authentic performance.

📖 Get your copy at MonologueMastery.com or through the link in my bio.

Observe. Believe. Take Action. Every Day.
#acting #actingcoach #actingclass #actingtips #monologuemastery by @theeverydayactor

Your character doesn’t enter a scene to show the audience how they feel. They enter because they WANT something.

And that distinction can change your entire performance.

When you’re so focused on demonstrating your character’s frustration, anger, sadness, or disappointment, you can lose sight of the very thing driving the scene: YOUR OBJECTIVE.

In this coaching session, the actor was so consumed with showing frustration toward the other character that they weren’t actively pursuing what they wanted from them.

The objective wasn’t to BE frustrated.

The objective was to GET THE TRUTH.

To get the other character to be honest. To make them reveal something they were withholding. To convince them that the truth was deserved.

Now THAT gives an actor something to DO!

Here’s what I want you to understand:

Emotions are the RESULT of pursuing your objective, not the objective itself.

When you actively pursue what you want, the emotional life of the character has an opportunity to emerge organically through the circumstances, obstacles, and tactics of the scene.

You don’t have to manufacture frustration. You have to fight for what you want.

And when your character encounters resistance? THAT’S where the dramatic tension begins!

🎭 Want to stop indicating emotions and start making intentional, actionable acting choices?

In my book, Monologue Mastery in Ten Steps, I teach you how to identify your character’s desires, establish clear objectives, recognize obstacles, and choose tactics that create compelling performances.

📖 Get your copy at MonologueMastery.com or click the link in my bio!

Stop showing us how your character feels. Show us what they’re willing to DO to get what they want.

Observe. Believe. Take Action. Every Day. 💜💛

#actingcoach MonologueMastery #actingtechnique #acting #actingclass by @theeverydayactor

This actor had four connected, successful runs before the fifth one didn’t go as well. We acknowledged it. But spending the next run thinking about how disappointing the last one felt would take attention away from the work happening NOW.

This is where my 10–80–10 rule comes in: 10% planning, 80% performing, 10% assessing. Give yourself time to identify what did and didn’t work. Then use that information to plan an adjustment and TRY IT.

Ask yourself: What happened? Where did I lose connection? What can I do differently on the next run? Let the assessment lead to an action.

And give just as much attention to what went WELL. Where were you connected? What choices helped you? What made those earlier runs successful, and how can you make that work repeatable?

You need to know how to repeat what’s working, too. That’s how you build consistency and keep growing.

The next repetition is an opportunity to apply what you’ve discovered. Give yourself permission to move forward.

Want a practical system to help you prepare, make specific choices, and assess your work? Get Monologue Mastery in Ten Steps at MonologueMastery.com or through the link in my bio.

Observe. Believe. Take Action. Every Day.
#acting #actingcoach #actingclass #actingtips #monologuemastery by @theeverydayactor

As the actor, you’ve read the script, so you know how the scene ends. Your character hasn’t lived through it yet. If you anticipate the rejection or disappointment before it happens, your tone, body language, and gestures can reveal the ending before your character discovers it.

In this coaching session, the character wants her parents to understand who she has become. She has some apprehension about how to communicate her new sense of self, but she wholeheartedly hopes and believes they will receive her with open arms.

She isn’t sharing her truth to expose their toxicity. She discovers their toxicity while trying to be understood. That discovery has to happen in the scene.

Apprehension and hope can exist together. Being nervous about how a conversation will go doesn’t mean you’ve already accepted that it will end badly.

Let us believe it can work out as much as your character believes it can. The fall is greater when we’ve experienced the hope that came before it.

Don’t let your knowledge of the ending rob your character of the possibility of winning.

This is dramatic progression: allowing each moment to affect what happens next. Your person or object of focus helps ground that progression. Stay connected to the person you’re trying to reach and let their responses affect you.

In Monologue Mastery in Ten Steps, I walk you through both so you can build a performance that unfolds through discovery. Get your copy at MyWalkMastery.com or through the link in bio.

Observe. Believe. Take Action. Every Day.
#acting #actingcoach #actingclass #actingtips #monologuemastery by @theeverydayactor

The technique should serve the actor. The actor should never have to sacrifice their well-being to serve the technique.

There is always an opportunity to grow as a coach and as an actor. And It has become increasingly evident to me that we have to continue examining the processes and methods we use in actor training. Emotional recall, sense memory and substitution can ask an actor to pull from their own personal history in service of a character. And particularly when those memories are challenging or traumatic, I’m questioning whether continually recalling and replaying those experiences is necessary to get to truthful emotional behavior.

In this coaching session, I noticed something. As this actor tried to end the piece and come back into their own body, whatever they were pulling from their past still seemed to have a hold on them.

And I thought: I don’t think that’s fair to their nervous system or their well-being.

So instead of asking them to find another personal memory of betrayal, I started thinking about what else we could use.

What does betrayal physically feel like?

Does your heart beat faster? Does your face get hot? Does it feel like pins and needles? What happens in the body? Can we explore the physical manifestations of the experience and allow the imagination and body to do some of the work instead of continually asking the actor to revisit their own history?

This is new territory for me, too. One of the approaches I’m learning more about is Alba Emoting, developed from the research of Dr. Susana Bloch and her collaborators. Instead of requiring an actor to access personal memories to generate emotion, the work explores emotion through specific patterns of breath, posture and facial expression. It also includes a “Step-Out” process designed to help the performer leave the emotional state and return to neutrality.

As we evolve in our understanding of the process of acting, we also have to evolve the way we train actors.

Observe. Believe. Take Action, Everyday. #acting #actingcoach #actingclass actingtips #safespace by @theeverydayactor