Adventures In Acting - Planning!
- Tom Sawyer
- Jul 1
- 7 min read
Updated: Aug 4
This Month's Collection of Acting-Related Thoughts and Feelings
“Plan for the future, because that is where you are going to spend the rest of your life.”
Mark Twain - Writer of "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer"
Planning in Acting:
Traditionally, actors are not the most organised or forward-thinking individuals. This may be a sweeping generalisation, but if you don’t see how planning is vital to the craft of acting, then read on.
How you manage your time may determine whether you know your lines. Planning an alternative option to showcase in the audition room or on tape might impress the director enough to secure the role. Giving yourself reminders to connect with industry professionals could pay off over time if you remain focused and consistent.
Career Planning: Should You Make Plans? (Yes, You Should)
Planning isn’t just for the moments before a performance—it’s essential for your career too.
Ask yourself:
What kinds of roles do you want to play?
Where do you want to be in one year? Five? Ten?
What steps can I take this month to move toward those goals?
Spoiler alert: These don’t have to be monumental. Perhaps it’s signing up for a class, filming a scene for your reel, or sending a message to someone whose work you admire. Small actions add up.
Planning Isn’t the Opposite of Spontaneity
Some argue that planning stifles creativity. This isn’t necessarily true! Think of planning as a safety net or foundation that allows you to take more significant risks. If you’ve done your homework, you can immerse yourself in the moment without fear. The best improvisers, the most compelling scene partners, and the actors who light up the screen—they’ve all planned. They’ve just made it look effortless.
Planning provides a solid foundation and can instil confidence in your creative process. Script preparation, for instance. By outlining your objectives, tools, tactics, and potential wants, you prepare yourself to explore deeper insights during scene work when you feel free to play.
Sidenote: Any planning before a performance does not serve you once action is called or the curtain is up. Plan to drop any ideas or smart new plans while in performance mode if possible.
Planning for Performance
Show up with a plan, but hold it loosely. This means doing the prep, understanding the scene, and coming with ideas—but be ready to discard it all if something better happens in the moment. Directors appreciate actors who are both prepared and flexible.
Bring your script and commit to your choices, knowing that there’s no one way to play the scene. Experiment with a pre-performance routine that helps you get in the zone and perhaps a post-performance treat or wind-down tradition. Know what you need to feel grounded in a rehearsal room or on set. Whether it’s breath work, movement, or just a good playlist, planning how you land in the space can make all the difference.
Self-Tapes and Showcase Planning
What makes a killer self-tape? A plan. Know your frame. Understand your eye line. Have your lighting sorted. Avoid waiting until 2 a.m. the night before the deadline to start filming. Planning gives you time to experiment, adjust, and shine.
The same goes for showcases. Choose material that showcases your range and is right for YOU. Be strategic about how you select your scene based on what a casting director might want to see. Rehearse it with someone you trust. Plan your entrance emotion and exit emotion. Then, of course, allow for new moments that arise during the work.
Your Life Outside Acting
Yes, planning helps here too. Budget your time and energy. If you’re rushing to multiple auditions or filming several tapes in a week while also working three side jobs, plan some actual rest. Schedule time for play, creativity, and being human. Burnout makes it harder to book jobs.
Final Plan
As you embark on your next adventure, remember that a sprinkle of spontaneity can enhance your meticulously crafted plans. Embrace the unexpected, dance with the detours, and let your imagination run wild. After all, the best journeys are often those we never quite planned for!
Happy planning, and may your path be filled with joy and surprises!
Stay Plentiful!
Stay Planful!
Stay Playful!
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Let's Play!
The ABC of Acting
Acting Book Club:
Blending psychology, Stoic philosophy, and wit sharper than a magician’s card trick, Brown explores what it really means to live a contented life. He challenges the pursuit of constant happiness and instead encourages us to embrace uncertainty, reframe failure, and focus on what we can control.
It’s deep, thoughtful, and occasionally disarming—but in the best way. This book doesn’t promise quick fixes. Instead, it provides tools to think more clearly, live more intentionally, and suffer a little less when life throws you curveballs (as it tends to do).
Enjoy!
Send me your best acting book recommendations.
What's My Motivation?
The scene for this month's analysis is chosen by Kris Seppala.
Kristofer Seppälä is a Finnish/American writer, director, and actor. He received his MFA in Writing from the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD). His most recent work, a short film called "We Duel at Dawn!" is currently on the festival circuit. He lives in Helsinki.
Kris says about the scene:
"This is the first time Jeff Bridges' and Chris Pine's characters have met, with Bridges' lawman character having chased after Pine's outlaw character throughout the film.
It's a modern Wild West tale, and this is the penultimate showdown. By this point, you as the viewer understand and appreciate both characters' goals and viewpoints, wanting somehow for both to win. Toward the end of this scene, you really don't know if Bridges is going to actually try to go for the gun or not.
His gaze alone has you on the edge of your seat, thinking he might. Bridges' performance is masterful in that the entire time you can feel the restraint his character is holding back. Bridges was the only actor to receive an Oscar nomination for this film—this scene alone shows why he got it."
Some context on the film:
Hell or High Water (2016) is a modern Western crime drama set in rural Texas. It follows two brothers—Toby, a quiet, divorced father, and Tanner, an impulsive ex-con—who rob a series of banks to save their family farm. Hot on their trail is a gruff Texas Ranger nearing retirement. As the chase unfolds, the film explores themes of poverty, justice, and the lengths people go to for survival in a broken system. It’s tense, gritty, and unexpectedly heartfelt.
Click on the video link below and then check my short interpretation underneath:*
The final scene of Hell or High Water is a masterclass in restraint on a sun-baked Texas porch, delivered by two actors at the absolute top of their game.
Let’s give them the boyish schoolyard nicknames they deserve:
Chris Pine is from now on: PINEY
And Jeff Bridges becomes: BRIDGEY
You have to love the role that the setting plays in this scene! The sprawling landscape and towering, creaking machinery give the actors a sense of insignificance, which seems to only add to the danger and intensity here.
As we jump into this scene, there are a few things to keep in mind:
Notice how Bridgey is seated the whole time (lowering his status) while sipping on a beer, even though his life is in danger.
How calm Piney is makes the situation eerily more unpredictable.
The fact that Piney is holding a shotgun is the only sign that he is the antagonist in this scene.
From Bridgey's demeanour, it's hard to tell if he's happy to see Piney or if he's just playing a smart game (maybe both are true).
There is something sweet and vulnerable about how Bridgey behaves here; his soft lilting tones and shortness of breath resemble an elder grandparent reading a bedtime story to his grandchild, and yet we know that's not the case.
Piney listens to everything Bridgey says without interruption for what seems like a lifetime in an intimate exchange between them. It would be so easy to make this scene aggressive given the context, but it works beautifully to see the humanity between them.
How can we as actors justify the actions of these men?
You could focus on the fact that they are discussing death so freely and make negative judgments about the kind of people they are. Yet, if you really delve into their motivations, you might find clues that help us understand their life circumstances.
You might conclude that Bridgey will protect justice at all costs, justifying all his actions. You could also assume that Piney will protect his family at all costs, leading him into this very questionable predicament.
As we near the end of this scene and the tension rises along with the sound of the oil drilling pumps, we become more invested in the outcome. Will Piney pull the trigger, or will Bridgey manage to strike a deal and stay alive a while longer?
The very end plays out in silence, leaving us uncertain whether the outcome is deadly or not.
The takeaway here might be how powerful it is on film to simply commit to listening and trusting that the story will tell itself if you remain present with your partner and the surroundings.
Stay Deadly
Stay Playful
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Thanks for your attention—stay playful, people.
Tom
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