One of the best ways to hone our craft as performers is to find a great teacher who helps us take our next step forward. Teachers come in all shapes, styles, price tags, and sizes. And you only have so much time and so much money. How to pick one that's right for you?
1. What's your budget?
Decide ahead of time how much money you are willing to spend in any given month toward classes and skills improvement. Divide it by four and you have a weekly class rate. Stick to that rate and go out and find teachers who are offering classes within your budget.
2. Does this teacher teach for a living?
Does this person spend the bulk of her time in the studio or in the classroom teaching? Or does this person take the odd student on the side? No matter how brilliant an actor/singer/musician/director the individual is, her performance or directing abilities do not necessarily make her a good teacher. This is especially true in Community Theatre. If the person in question is a desk jockey and has been for the last ten years, that's what she does best. This is not to say that she might not have something to offer or that she might not be passionate but, still, I would opt for a pro as they tend to have more to offer in the long run.
3. Is this teacher one of the most experienced around?
As a corollary to the second point, hire the best. Always the best. Well, the best you can afford. It's a proven fact that surgeons with the most experience make the least mistakes on the table. So, get out there and use word of mouth, industry reviews, and research. Find out who's available and hire the teacher who is considered the best - who is most in demand and always working. AND look for someone who's been teaching for at least ten years. That should give her her ten thousand hours - the estimated time it takes to really get good at something. Always, always choose the best you can afford.
4. Does this person primarily teach in your discipline?
Good teachers can jump disciplines but it's wise to go to an acting teacher for acting and a dance instructor for dancing, and a guitar teacher for guitar....
5. What kind of teaching style does this teacher employ?
Don't be shy. Go to a few trial classes. Or give it a good go and try him out for six weeks. What kind of teacher is he? Is he the kind who admonishes or is he the kind of teacher who calmly corrects errors? Is this person mean?
Remember this teacher's voice is going to sit in your head. You are going to hear this teacher's voice in your head at auditions, while you are standing in the wings, and even while you are performing. So, so. What voice do you want to hear? Would you like the voice that belittles? Or the voice that raises you up? Do you want to be reminded of how flawed you are? Or do you want that voice to focus on your strengths? It's a common belief that the meaner the teacher, the better the performer does. This does not appear to be the case. The brain flowers when it's ready.
Further, it is a basic psychological premise that a person who believes they can succeed - someone who is confident - will, statistically speaking, do better at whatever task is in front them. And significantly better than a person who believes they are not worthy or ready. So, I would choose a positive voice. Not only is that voice more pleasant, it might help you win more roles just because it makes you feel more confident, or helps you feel strong enough to perform really well.
This is not to say that, at times, your teacher might not make you feel very uncomfortable. A good teacher sees our flaws, all of them -- especially those that we think we are getting away with. But there are ways and ways of teaching. Why not find someone who is good, who is also kind?
6. Do you like this person?
Again, try out a few classes. Do you feel comfortable and open? Choosing a teacher is similar to choosing a therapist. It's much easier if you get along well with her. I am not saying you have to be soul mates, two peas in a pod. You can be as different as chalk and cheese -- in fact, that might spur your creativity -- but still get along well. You know when you feel confortable.
7. Who does the teacher blame for your success?
This might be a sort of corollary to point 5. Does this teacher believe that you won't get anywhere without him? Or
does this teacher want help you along the way? Does the teacher believe
he can make a difference? Or does he believe that you can make a
difference?
And it might help to take a moment to let you know how we learn. Scientists have started to refer to the learning process as The Flowering of the Brain. And the process is similar to titration - the process in which we slowly add one chemical solution to another. We have a solution in a beaker and the other solution that we are adding slowly, drop by drop. Drip, drip, drip. Nothing happens. Drip, drip, drip. Nothing happens. Drip, drip, drip. Still nothing. Then, finally, the last drip falls into the beaker and the whole solution changes.
This is how we learn. We struggle to take our acting to another level. It seems so hard. And, along the way, we have multiple experiences. On stage experiences, rehearsal experiences, in class experiences, life experiences. Each exoerience is one more drip. But still it is hard; still we don't get it. Then, all of a sudden, we have a breakthrough. Our brain flowers. And suddenly, what was once hard is now easy. We know it. In our bones. We even wonder what we thought was so hard for us before! By the way, age does not affect the flowering. We can (and should!) continue to learn all of our lives.
So, really, the person doing the hard work, putting together all the pieces, and allowing it to stew in their head is you -- not your teacher. There are teachers out there who, out of ignorance, seem to have this process the wrong way around. (They can be forgiven because the research is relatively new and, especially in the arts, we like to deify.) Because a teacher happens to be present at a flowering, it makes him believe that his teaching was key to that flowering -- even though the student learns absolutely everywhere. This particular breakthrough might be the result of hundreds of drips over the last year. Any one teacher cannot take credit.
So, mistakenly, some teachers believe they can guarantee an improvement in a person's performance in, say, six weeks. This is not true. Each person flowers at different rates. We know that intelligence is part of the process and we think it speeds up flowering but we are not sure.
At any rate, be wary of teachers who are arrogant in their craft. Their assumption is they are the source of a performer's development -- and that if you, as a student, can't flower during that six weeks, the problem is you. Nothing can be further from the truth and nothing can damage your confidence as a performer more than having your teacher take credit for your success and blame you for your failure.
In the end, you want to be around someone who knows that you own your performance. After all, you're going to be the one giving it.
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Jacqui Burke is a freelance director, writer, and theatrical teacher living in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. She is currently directing Wrong for Each Other for Encore Productions (www.encoreshows.com) opening in April, Kidsplay 2012: The Mayan Prediction opening in June, and The Last Five Years for TOKL Productions opening in July. She is, also, serializing The Pretender, her first novel, online at http://thepretender-amarcienoelnovel.blogspot.ca/.
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