I’m Ihrig. Who, or what is an Alba? Indian cuisine? A species of wetland bird? A new kid’s toy? Get yourself a’googling the term ‘Alba’, and the search will turn up an organic skin care product, multiple pictures of Jessica Alba in bikinis, and a Wikipedia entry […]
Read more →“What basic skills are needed to become an actor?” This is the title of a post on yahoo answers. The author, whose screen name is Anchwa, went on to ask one of the best questions I’ve heard in my twenty-five years of teaching acting. Anchwa wrote, […]
Read more →Reverse engineering nature has created some of the greatest technological advances in history. Man has studied, and then mimicked nature’s mechanisms in order to create machines that fly, walk and compute. Could reverse engineering bear fruit for the arts as well? Can actors learn anything of […]
Read more →I am an acting teacher. After graduate school, I embarked on a personal journey to better understand human behavior. Like many artists, I dabbled in the ancillary art forms of my craft, and found I really enjoyed writing and story structure. Many academic acting programs require actors […]
Read more →“Can acting be taught, or are some people just born with talent?” It helps to define talent before answering the question. Merriam‑Webster says that talent is a “special ability that allows someone to do something well.” This demands a closer look at the word ability, […]
Read more →I was thinking about what makes a great acting teacher, and the old cliché popped into my head, ‘Those who can’t do, teach.” For fun, I will disprove this statement using the Milton Model. What’s fun about this is I’ll be using an awesome teaching tool in […]
Read more →IS THERE A BETTER WAY? “Everything happens to everybody sooner or later if there is time enough.” – Playwright, George Bernard Shaw “We have not the time to take our time.” – Playwright, Eugene Ionesco At some point, you will be called […]
Read more →I was checking out the actor’s training books on Amazon. As I perused the book cover icons, I recognized most of the titles from my own bookshelf. I was looking for something new. I was looking for recent innovations in actor’s training. I came across a book […]
Read more →If you haven’t read Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s book on flow yet, you’re in the same boat as me. But, depending on your life interests, you can probably be forgiven. Me? I should be flogged. I’m reading it now. My life’s work focuses on using principles from science to […]
Read more →Here are three quick tips to consider so you won’t suck as an actor. Don’t just “say your lines.” Beginning actors and intermediate actors need to establish a new way of relating to words in a script. Most beginning actors read a script the same way […]
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