What Makes A Great Acting Coach

While self-control and personal restraint are crucial qualities of a great acting coach, this acting coach says that creative talent and interpersonal skills are needed to be a successful acting coach. These skills include a passion for the work, being accessible, time management, love for the assigned subject, and imaginative ability. 

What Does An Acting Coach Do? 

A theater coach or an acting instructor is a teacher tasked with training performers, including but not limited to movies, TV, music, and theatre performers. Additionally, they give advice and mentorship to actors to enhance their acting performances for auditions, onset, and other roles that they may find difficult. 

In some cases, an acting coach can sometimes alternate as an intimacy instructor. This involves employing different methods and techniques to ensure intimate scenes look realistic. They also ensure on-screen boundaries are maintained and protect the physical and emotional comfort of the actors.

How to Choose an Acting Coach

Questions that may arise when trying to hire an acting coach include the cost of the class, place of work, personality, techniques being practiced, rate of success, qualifications, and so on. While all these are important, they shouldn’t derail you from hiring a gifted coach— one that can inspire you to do exploits. Your coach does not need to be an Oscar winner or nominee; the most important is that they have the fundamental skills needed to develop your acting skills. 

Here are some tips you can follow when selecting an acting coach.

• Carry out your research.
• Proper planning of your audition.
• Attend a series of auditions.
• Avoid being led by the cost of coaching.
• Chemistry should be considered ahead of popularity.
• Ensure physical contact with a coach before committing to them.

Qualities of a Good Acting Coach

Time Management 

Some acting instructors are good at time management, while others are used to exceeding the time allotted to them. Employing the services of an instructor that understands the importance of time management is crucial. An acting coach should be able to deliver quality lectures within the stipulated time frame. 

Doesn’t Relish in Past Glory

Passionate instructors love their subjects, and they make the best acting coaches.  Unfortunately, most passionate acting coaches don’t know how to teach without seizing every opportunity to showcase their acting skills or boast about their past. So when selecting an acting coach, you must do everything possible to avoid coaches like this. 

Experience 

Outstanding acting coaches are individuals that have passed through different experiences. These experiences sometimes go beyond the acting world. As such, when selecting an acting coach, you should always go for the one with the most experience. 

Additionally, as a good actor, you must be able to draw emotions from different situations you’ve been through. This will help make the scenes you are acting realistic. So try as much as possible to engage yourself in different activities and immerse yourself in different lifestyles and cultures. 

Love for Subject

You can easily identify an instructor that loves the assigned subject with the way their classes are being conducted. Instructors that like acting will show considerable enthusiasm in the class. Also, coaches that love what they do are less concerned about the stress of the job. They are more interested in creating great experiences and impacting their students. Love for acting makes it easy to create a great learning experience.

Creativity

Creativity is the bedrock of acting. Therefore anyone who lacks creativity shouldn’t consider teaching acting to anyone. Not only that, but the coach should also be able to bring out the creativity in their students without putting too much pressure on them, especially when young actors are involved. 

Successful Former Students 

Another important quality to look for in an acting instructor is the success of their past clients. A successful past client is a major selling point for an acting coach, so they will most likely always have that information available even before you request it. They may post this on their website. Some might even have their past clients make a short video review.  Suppose your preferred acting coach doesn’t have this information readily available on their pages; you can always ask them. 

Without having a plan and a list of things to consider, selecting which acting coach to work with may seem a bit difficult. By following the tips stated above, making a decision of which acting coach to hire becomes easy.