Yvette-Janine: What is the difference between teaching adults and young people?
Maegan McConnell: To be honest, I don’t think that there’s much of a difference. I teach adults the same way that I teach kids, or vice versa. I believe kids are a lot more capable than people give them credit for. I may explain things differently, but the way I treat them is the same.
Yvette-Janine: What makes acting for TV, commercials, and film different from acting for theatre?
Maegan McConnell: The main difference is how much you show; the camera just picks up so much more information than it does on a stage or in a big house. For the theatre, you want to project it and make sure that people can see it. Things will just be larger. For TV and film, you want to hold that in. Your face is so close up that people can see what you’re thinking without as much movement. In theater you have to know where the audience is, and in TV and film you have to know where the camera is and be aware of your angles. Those things are very similar; I would say that it’s mainly keeping it a secret for film and television, and letting it out for stage.
Yvette-Janine: What would be some of the first exercises you would begin with in a beginner’s class?
Maegan McConnell: The first exercises are used to break down the barriers so that students don’t feel like they can’t do something silly or stupid in the class. They need to feel like it’s a trusting environment. The first thing is to do silly things that might not even have much to do with acting, to break the ice and get the kids comfortable in their surroundings. I always cover things like respect and what it means; basic things so that they know what to expect from themselves and each other.
After that, I go into some basic concepts. I try not to cover too much at once, so we do one thing at a time and then move at the pace that the class is going at.
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