Terms Actors Should Know

As with every profession there is another language that most other people outside the profession don't understand. Acting is no exception. Actors aren't completely aware of it all the time but the more you get into the entertainment industry you will hear terms from agents, managers and on set. Understanding what these terms mean will help you communicate more effectively with your key people as well as give you a leg up on the competition.

When you begin your training and working with an agent or manager you may begin to hear these words; cold reading, scene study, improvisation and green. Green means you come off as new to the industry (which you probably are - but you don't want them to know that) and need some training and refining. Improvisation is making things up on the spot without preparation of any sort. You will be asked to improvise numerous times throughout your career so if you're not naturally good at it you should get into some classes.

Scene study refers to a type of class in which you analyze the story aspects and structure of a scene so that you can get it right when you are only given two pages out of a one hundred and ten page screenplay. Scene study helps you break down "beats" for both comedy and drama, although it is much more important for comedy because in comedy timing is everything. Scene study basically teaches you to read deeper into an individual scene of literary material. Cold reading refers to the horribly difficult times when you must perform scripted material without having rehearsed it. Sometimes you will walk into an office be given a scene and in a matter of two minutes be in the casting office. So, you better know how to pick up any piece of material, read it quickly pulling out the important factors necessary to give it your best and walk in the room confident that you can shine. Cold reading is very difficult and really does require training to become good at it.