Learn How to Embody Your Character to Land the Jobs That You Want!

Mini Embodied Process Digital Acting Course – The Beginning – by Tom O’Brien

You know, when I created the Embodied Process Digital Course two years ago now, the world was slightly different.

We were pretty much all in some sort of lockdown, actors were starting to audition, but the only types of auditions they were getting were self tapes, or Zoom auditions. And so much was being required of the actor, without any outside support than ever before, you know, usually or pre 2020, while self tapes were a thing and tapes were a way of auditioning, there was still that opportunity to get in a room, to prepare, to maybe even practice and develop your character for the audition or tape with someone else.

But when actors were kind of left on their own in 2020, I was thinking well, how are actors going to get a sense of play, a sense of detail and depth, and also inspiration in their work when they’re isolated and having to do everything themselves.

So I wanted to create the Embody Process Digital Course as a step by step guide, to help actors find more detail, more depth, more playfulness, and embodiment in their character work.

I’m really pleased to say for the last two years, actors have used this process and used this course to book jobs, to get numerous callbacks. Some of my clients who have worked with me one on one have also purchased this course as well, so that when our one on one coaching is finished, they still had something to dip in and dip out of.

You know, it can be really hard to do one on one coaching all the time, finances may not allow it. And I think with the economic shifts in the world, and everything that is happening around us, I wanted to create a way of actors being able to engage with my work.

And this is why I wanted to create this mini course, The Beginning of the process.

So what are you going to learn in this part of the course?

Well, we’re going to be starting with the foundations of the Embodied Process, a way for you to start to activate your imagination, stretch your imagination, and really slow down and regulate your nervous system at the start of your preparation.

This is so important for actors, you know. Tight turnarounds, 48 hours, 24 hours sometimes, trying to juggle your day job with auditions that are coming in, can create a sense of nervous system deregulation. And that isn’t great when you are approaching a character and wanting to be specific and also wanting to really do your best in auditions.

So the first exercise that I’m going to show you in this in this part of the course, is Thinking in Pictures and Impressions. And that’s going to really help you start to approach your text with a really slow and smooth way of working., and also a way of stretching your imagination, so that you can start to not only notice things in the text you may not have noticed before, but start to bake the work into the body.

You will also before that have an introduction to my work, where the teachings that I use in the Embodied Process Digital Course come from and how that lineage has impacted me. I do work and use many different types of practitioners in the work that I do, as well as developing my own practice over the last 20 years that I’ve been working in the industry. But I do use a later version of the Stanislavski system and I talk about that in the introduction video.

There is also an opportunity to find out more about the rest of the Embodied Process Digital Course once you’ve completed those two videos, you know, there is really no magic to being an actor. It’s just process.

It’s finding a process that works for you and I hope this part of the course is going to help you shift the way you audition, inspire you and keep you sharp and ready when more opportunities, more auditions and more tapes come through because really in this world where actors are being asked to bring so much of themselves, we want that to be a joyful and an exciting experience as well as a rigorous one.

 

What a brilliant course! Tom’s warm and engaging tone provides a safe space to develop practical and applicable techniques, to build an authentic character. I loved the ‘dip in and out’ accessibility of it all and the bonus checklist really helps recapitulate the core lesson (and return to for a reminder). As someone coming from a physical background, I found the linking of body and mind, to anchor the truth of a character really beneficial. Would definitely recommend this course to anyone wanting to boost confidence in their craft and up their game in a nourishing and motivating process! – Jasmine Kerr