Acting For Beginners

Outcomes:

• Unlock imagination and creativity
• Develop basic acting technique
• Learn presence and connection with fellow actors
• Develop spontaneity and reacting to the present moment
• Connect with voice and body
• Learn textual analysis

NOTE: This is PAC’s foundation adult course and must be completed before moving onto the other adult courses on offer. Exception will be made to those students who come to PAC with prior acting experience.

Course overview:

Too often, actors jump into monologue and scene work without first understanding the basic foundations of acting.

The secret behind a compelling and above-all truthful performance is awareness of one’s voice, body, emotions and those of their fellow actors. By learning to ground yourself in the present moment, and believing yourself into an imagined circumstance, you have the power to then communicate the thoughts and emotions of a character.

This Acting for Beginners course, open to adults 17+ with little to no acting experience, will teach students to be present, connect with their fellow actors and use the power of improvisation to create dynamic and engaging scenes. The course can also be used by intermediate to advanced actors who want to get back to basics and refresh their acting technique.

For the first four weeks, students will be guided step-by-step toward becoming more instinctual and brave actors. Through practical exercises, they will understand and apply the basic rules of acting – presence, connection, vulnerability – and most importantly, they will become generous actors who react to, and support their fellow actors every step of the way. In the second half of the course, students will then put this learning into practice through monologue and scene work.

Benefits:

By the end of this course, whether you’re aware of it or not, you will have built up lifelong skills that will seep into your everyday lives. You will:

• Deliver more confident presentations at work.
• Become better listeners.
• Become more open to, and tolerant of differing views.
• Become acutely aware of your breathing and emotions.
• Develop a more positive self-image.
• Become more comfortable with self-evaluation and constructive feedback.

The Teacher

Nisrine Amine is an actor and writer from Western Sydney. She recently featured in the Australian feature film Slam and will appear in the upcoming ABC series Frayed as well as FX’s Mr Inbetween and Channel 7’s Australian Gangster. Here other screen credits include Deadly Women, Here Come The Habibs, and Janet King as well as the short films Amir (2018), Candlelight (2017), The Woman on the Top Floor (2012), Broken Time (2013), and The Parisian (2013), the web series I Luv u But (2014) and TAFEWSI’s, Rob’s Campaign (2016). Nisrine received an Outstanding Actor nomination at the 2017 Sydney Film School Award night for her lead role in the short film Maya. Her stage credits include Lady Tabouli (Green Door/Apocalypse/Griffin Theatre Company, 2019), The Girl/The Woman (NTOP/Riverside Theatre 2018), Alex and Eve: The Complete Story (Factory Theatre, 2013) where she played the title role of Eve, The Colour Blind Project (Tap Gallery, 2011), and Arabian Nights (New Theatre, 2012) and has acted in countless playwriting development workshops.

Her short film Apricot received funding by Screen NSW as part of their SEED: Regional Funding initiative and premiered at Flickerfest 2018 and will air on ABC IView in early 2018. In 2012, Nisrine produced and co-directed The Young Creatives Festival of Shorts, a short-play festival for young people from Western Sydney as well as The Wizard of Oz (Our Lady of Mercy College, 2002), Check Please! (Catherine Mcauley, 2010), Evil Shall Not Triumph (Catherine McAuley, 2010) and The Wiz (Ave Maria College, 2015). She also wrote, produced and starred in a web series pilot Whatever After (2013).

Nisrine has worked with a range of national and international acting coaches including Anthony Skuse, Kevin Jackson, Anthony Brandon Wong, Natela Dzuliashvili, Serhat Caradee, Robert Marchand and Doris Younane, and studied at leading institutions including the Stella Adler School of Acting NYC, NIDA, Actors Centre and The Hub Studio.

Nisrine is the co-founder and Creative Director of Parramatta Actors Centre.

Important information:

• Please read our Centre Policies.
• Please wear comfortable loose clothing and appropriate footwear.