Playing Characters Beyond Your Experience

This acting class session focuses on the fundamental tension between allowing authentic moments to emerge versus forcing them through overthinking. The instructor addresses how students lose their natural instincts by getting trapped in intellectual analysis—particularly when trying to justify their emotional responses with logical explanations. Using examples from student work, including one student's fascination with construction sites and another's exploration of Stalin attending the ballet, the discussion emphasizes that specificity and genuine reaction matter more than elaborate backstories or explanations. The core lesson revolves around trusting initial instincts rather than explaining them away, with the instructor advocating for letting artistic discoveries "happen" organically rather than manufacturing them through mental effort. The session concludes with insights about building authentic attitudes toward scene partners without overcomplicating the process, drawing from Stella Adler's techniques about immediate, specific observations.

In this episode, Milton Justice explores the critical concept of matching your acting choices to the specific material you're working with. Using examples from his recent work with students, Milton demonstrates how actors often make the mistake of building relationships and emotions that don't serve the genre or tone of their project. He discusses a student working on a romantic comedy whose choices weren’t serving the genre, and another student writing a letter for "All My Sons" that was intellectually brilliant but wrong for the character. Milton emphasizes that while connection exercises are important for learning technique, actors must understand the form they're working in - whether it's a complex play like "All My Sons," a simple TV procedural, or a romantic comedy. He also shares insights about his upcoming acting studio in NYC and reflects on his experience directing "The Glass Menagerie."www.theactorlab.nycwww.idontneedanactingclass.com

In this episode, Milton Justice explores why actors struggle to make choices substantial enough to serve their material. He contextualizes modern acting within theater history, explaining how realistic theater emerged in the late 1800s with playwrights like Ibsen, Strindberg, and Chekhov. Milton discusses why Stanislavski's approach of having actors use their own lives fails - people don't relate to their experiences in theatrically useful ways, simply living without recognizing dramatic potential.Milton emphasizes that an actor's talent lies in making appropriate choices substantial enough to warrant emotional investment. Using student Grace's work as an example, he highlights how actors must understand the magnitude of their choices and earn them fully rather than throwing them away. Milton challenges students to see the extraordinary within ordinary things, to see that actors must become educators, philosophers, motivators, whose job it is to transform ideas meaningfully in order to remind us of our humanity. www.idontneedanactingclass.comwww.theactorlab.nyc

Milton and Kaleb explore how to authentically portray characters whose experiences are completely outside your own. They discuss the crucial role of script analysis in understanding what kind of person your character is within the specific world of the play. Kaleb shares his current challenge, balancing the playwright's thematic intentions with finding the character's personal motivations. They examine practical techniques like taking your character to imaginary places outside the play and how sometimes a single powerful image can unlock an entire performance without needing to experience every detail of the character's background.

Milton interviews student J.P. McCloskey about his off-Broadway experience in the Stephen Metcalfe play Strange Snow. J.P. identifies a major challenge: after months of rehearsals without set or props, he felt lost during tech rehearsal. The solution involves building specific relationships to the physical environment through "talking out" what you see and feel about the space.J.P. shares his character breakthrough: moving from himself to the character by giving the character activities outside the play - imagining him at a donut shop, playground, or going through morning routines. This progression from "seeing him in the world" to "thinking like him" to "being him" solved the common problem of character separation.The discussion covers building traumatic backstory by approaching it both from the character's present perspective and experiencing it as it happened, emphasizing the importance of knowing which elements require deeper investment.

Milton shares insights from a panel with top New York casting directors including Bernard Telsey and Billy Hopkins. The key revelation: casting directors are looking for "active listening" - actors who remain fully present and engaged even when not speaking. Many actors mistakenly think they only need to act when delivering lines, but casting directors immediately notice when an actor goes "dead" during listening moments.Milton advocates for his "telephone method" - talking out everything happening before and during scenes to ensure continuous engagement. The goal is experiencing circumstances rather than just reporting them, distinguishing between describing facts and experiencing those facts.Note: Casting directors confirmed that Instagram following has zero impact on casting decisions.

The Actor Lab is an acting studio founded by industry veterans Milton Justice and Patrick Quagliano, and producer Walker Vreeland. The studio aims to fill critical gaps in contemporary actor training by focusing exclusively on fundamental acting techniques, script analysis, and practical scene work in a supportive yet challenging environment. Unlike other acting programs, The Actor Lab emphasizes personalized guidance and honest feedback rather than vague instruction. We view acting as a lifelong pursuit where growth as an actor parallels growth as a human being, and strive to create a community of passionate, like-minded artists where professional actors can reconnect with their craft and receive individualized attention. Our classes provide a space for artists to rediscover their passion while developing concrete processes that build confidence in their work and meet high standards of traditional excellence.

In this bonus episode, Milton explores the fundamental challenges of theatrical performance. He begins by praising a student's vivid storytelling about a traumatic experience, noting how the clarity of images and emotional connection made it compelling theater. The rest of the episode centers on Arthur's struggle with a complex role as an 1858 French priest, emphasizing how plays demand deep character work rather than plot-driven performance, requiring actors to build and experience a character's entire past.This complex process is contrasted with simpler television work, using a student's French TV audition as an example of how different mediums require different approaches. The episode concludes with practical advice about making smart choices as an actor - identifying what specifically needs to be made believable in each piece and often finding that a clear, strong relationship with one's scene partner can anchor an entire performance.

Acting is not mathematical. You won’t always use the same tools, and what worked for you during one project may not work for you in another. There are so many different paths you can take when building something out of nothing, but here’s what is certain: you must dig deep into every aspect. If you just logically answer questions, thinking that if you have the answers your work is done, your performance will be a cliche. This takes a long time to get to, but eventually we come to realize that your character doesn’t have a plot problem, she has a conflict of the soul. We come to the theater to watch her live it out.*We'll be starting in-person classes on September 15th, 2025 at The Actor Lab in NYC. Register at: theactorlab.nyc

WANT MORE? Become a subscriber for bonus content!⁠⁠⁠https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/actingclass/subscribe⁠⁠⁠In this episode, Milton talks about how writing and thinking are great ways for actors to avoid acting, and offers a practical technique that allows us to fully own (and earn) our character’s reality, or in other words: make a complete lie sound like the truth. Email your questions to: [email protected]*We'll be starting in-person classes on September 15th, 2025 at The Actor Lab in NYC. Register at: theactorlab.nyc