#acting instructor

#9 on my Best of 2020 roundup was the time I got to teach my acting workshop via Zoom to students in Perth, Australia. Thank you to Scarlet Bell Burlesque for inviting me to return, albeit virtually, to my Australian home away from home. I had a glorious time.

Conan O’Brien visits a commercial acting school in Hollywood, where a guy named Killian prepares him for a TV commercial audition…

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via teamcoco

This weekend I stayed in Richmond to do Josh Chenard's final workshop in Virginia, his Character Blueprinting technique. He'll be putting his PHENOMENAL work into a book one day and you ALL should read it then. He is brilliant.

He taught me a lot about myself this weekend. Well, more so he opened me up to a lot of things about myself that I hide or that I don't think effect my work but actually make all the difference.

I am used to being the funny girl. The comedic actress. That's who I am and what I do. 

But for this workshop he wanted a dramatic piece. So I brought in a monologue from Neil LaBute's Fat Pig. And when it was my turn to go up there and present I got up there and before I started I made a little joke and did my usual sassy shake out. He stopped me before I started and joined me on stage.

And then he said: "You're used to being the funny girl, Danielle, that is your habit. But you're better than that now. You're good enough now to show us more than your funny side. You couldn't be more loved than you are right here, right now. You don't have to prove anything to us. You're good enough."

I don't know if it is the fact that I respect and admire Josh more than just about anyone else or if it was a feeling of validation in that moment that did it - but when I performed my monologue after that I have never felt more proud of a performance in my life.

That is what an acting coach should do. Inspire. Create. Motivate. and Teach.