How would you prepare for a part in a play? - by. Hyunmin Lee

What makes good acting? Maybe lots of people think that the answer is natural-born ability. Then what is natural born ability? appealing voice and appearance, or sense of understanding character are considered as that ability. Everyone want to get these gift. So do I. But, actually, I know that I don't have it. So, instead of relying on my ordinary ability, I made my own strategy. That is spending more time on analyzing script and practicing. The more practicing is th better. If you are not a natural born actor like me, consider adopting following three steps. First of all, read script as many times as possible, Before you start to analyze your character, you have to understand script first. Without full understanding of script, analyzing character is meaningless. That's because the character is a part of story and their thinking and behavior are totally based on the story. So, try to read the script many times, more than 4, and questioning when, where, why for every event in it. As you do so, you can find what that character is meaning for in entire story, and you can also find the background of appearing the character in that story. Now, second step that you have to do is analyze character itself. The good acting that I think is to get rid of barrier between character and actor. And to do so actor should analyze character in detail. To begin with, analyze from external factor to internal factor. How the author describes that character's appearance? And how is their fashion and hair style? Those external factors can be good hint to understand the character, Furthermore, you should examine dialogues and behavior, which show character's personality. Last but not least, you should consider their way of talking, language use, voice tone and emotion. As you analyze more detail, you can express the character better. Finally, the last step is practicing. "Practice makes perfect" is the saying that you should keep in mind, when you prepare. Through last two steps, you may know how to express that character. But that is not all. Actually what you should do in the stage is to express that character naturally. Reading aloud the dialogues is good for making natural acting .Because it helps you to be able to do conversation like acting. And practicing in a real stage is also needed not to be nervous in a real performance. If you can control nervous, you can do better in a stage. Preparing a part in a play is not difficult at all. Reading the script several times, analyzing character and practicing are all you need. I'm not talented actor. But even I can do well, as I follow these steps. If you want to do well in your play, try to follow these magical three steps.