Take acting classes with a private coach in Bradford

Finding the Perfect Acting Tutor in Bradford

There's something about acting that draws a lot of people in. There's something incredible about film, television, and the theatre and the work they produce that inspires school students and adults alike to take up a career in the performing arts.

However, being able to act isn't necessarily an innate talent and even the most famous actors have had some formal education in acting or the performing arts. With that in mind, let's look at why it's important to study acting, the challenges aspiring and professional actors face, what we learn about acting in school, and how private tutors can help almost anyone improve their acting skills.

Why Studying Acting is Important

Acting is trickier than it may seem. Aside from needing to deliver a convincing performance, there are a lot of other skills actors need to learn about. For one, a good understanding of how theatre or film production works is important as everyone involved has a role to play, not just the actors.

Similarly, there are several skills that actors may need to learn. You may be required to sing or dance or even speak a few words in a foreign language. An education in acting and the performing arts will give you a good foundation but your training won't end once you've finished a given course, you should regularly be working on it.

Challenges in Acting

It's not easy being an actor, either. Before you become a professional actor, you need to find jobs in acting. Landing roles and getting noticed is difficult for both aspiring and professional actors and you mightn't earn a good enough salary from your acting jobs. There are far more actors than there are roles to be filled so you might have a hard time finding work.

When you do find an acting job, your performance has to be excellent, too. If you're in a stage production, you only get one chance to get it right and you may have to do so multiple times a week or even multiple times a day. A poor performance in a production may drastically reduce the chance of you working with the same director again. Similarly, you'll need to be professional as actors who are difficult to work with aren't at the top of any directors casting list unless they're incredibly good.

Actors need to be good at taking feedback, too. Everyone's a critic and every performance will be under the scrutiny of the production staff and the critics. You need to be good at using reviews and criticism to improve subsequent performances.

Areas of Acting Studied in School

Unless you've had a private acting teacher or tutor from a young age, your first real opportunity to study acting and the performing arts will be at GCSE when you get to choose the subjects to study. If the school offers a Drama GCSE, it's highly recommended that you choose to study it because while you may have the opportunity to study a theatre production or play during your English Literature GCSE, this will only be a small part of it.

Let's have a look at the AQA Drama GCSE. The other exams boards have similar courses but they mightn't be exactly the same as this one.

The Drama GCSE is about more than just acting and you'll learn about stage production, theatre roles, dramatic works, staging, and stage position. You'll also get to study set design, costume design, lighting design, sound design, and upper design.

You'll learn about the theory and practice behind a dramatic production as you cover genre, performance styles, rehearsing, refining, designing productions, and health and safety.

Aspiring actors will be most interested in the parts of the course that cover interpreting characters physically and vocally and while the drama GCSE is quite broad, it will provide a good foundation for students interested in the dramatic arts.

After GCSE, students can move onto A Level Drama before they apply to a university drama course. Of course, actors don't have to have any formal qualifications in acting or drama to land acting jobs but they can be important for learning about it if you can't get a private tutor or attend acting classes at a drama school.

Private Tuition in Acting

When it comes to acting classes, there's a lot to learn and a teacher in school rarely has the time or resources necessary to give every student the education they deserve. With a private tutor, lessons can be adapted to the student, what they want to learn, and how they want to learn it.

Students learn far more effectively when the teaching approach is adapted to them. However, is a class with several students, this can be almost impossible to achieve. A private tutor, on the other hand, will plan each class with the student in mind, ensuring that they focus on the acting skills or concepts they need to and not waste time on anything else.

Finding an Acting Tutor in Bradford

If you live in Bradford, Leeds, or West Yorkshire, you can easily find acting classes online from tutors on Superprof. After a quick search, you can view the profiles of potential tutors, see how much they charge for their lessons, read reviews left by their other students, and get in touch with them to arrange your classes.

While face-to-face tutorials are arguably the best for hands-on subjects like acting, there are also online tutors offering lessons via webcam. As they don't have to travel, have fewer outgoings, and can schedule more lessons each day, online tutors tend to charge less for their classes. For those on a tight budget, group classes are a good way to share the cost of the tutor's time amongst other actors. Of course, this does mean that you'll pay less per student per hour.

Many tutors on the platform offer the first class for free so make sure to try out a few different teachers before deciding on which one is right for you!