Elliot Bratton

Over 3 years, I taught close to 300 acting students at the John Casablancas Centers. Before that, I taught with and learned from Susan Batson, the “acting guru” who coaches Nicole Kidman, Forest Whitaker, and other A-listers. While working with her for over 2 years, I was immersed in a theatrical experience in which I was called on to consult in classes, and to write for and act in Off-Broadway plays produced at the Susan Batson Studio Theater in New York City. And before this, I acted in plays at Simon’s Rock of Bard College, and appeared in the TV drama Homicide: Life on the Street as well as Chris Kraus's cult film Gravity and Grace. I also wrote and performed in the multimedia, one-person show Exiles Within at BACA Downtown in Brooklyn, NY.

I believe in teaching students the three most important steps for character development–and how to get there. The three steps are: preparation, both mental and physical; character knowledge; and commitment. With preparation, the actor needs to be ready as a physical instrument, including in their enunciation, and needs to have both intellectual and psychological clarity for their performance. Knowledge of character entails understanding not just the lines but motivations and context. Commitment means the actor is fully able to give themselves to the character emotionally and spiritually so that the audience believes the character is alive and speaks to them on an intrinsic level. How to get there involves opening oneself creatively, knowing basic principles like movement and improvisation, and how to use one’s memory and imagination. While the latter is self-evident, memory takes different forms, including the affective memory used in Method Acting and what I call screen impression memory, or the recall of what you’ve seen other actors do onscreen that impressed you, and how to apply it to your performances.