The One and Only True Masterclass

by Mario A. Campanaro

The One and Only True Masterclass

by Mario A. Campanaro

Life may not be all about acting, but acting is all about life, and life is the greatest teacher there is.

If you truly want to learn this craft, how to listen, understand needs, overcome obstacles, explore relationships, points of view, environment, objects, sensorial conditions, and most importantly, behavior, you must turn to life. Observe it. Be a detective. Investigate it. Interrogate it. Dissect it.

Life is the ultimate masterclass, holding all the answers you will ever need about acting. Every lesson you learn from life is completely applicable, and these lessons will help you grow, but it is your responsibility to engage fully and bring them into your work.

You want the honest truth?

Life will teach you more than any acting book, mentor, teacher, or coach ever could. I say that confidently, unapologetically, and with utter humility, because I bow to life as my greatest acting teacher. It is the very reason I teach the way I do. Because it works.

But you must not sleepwalk through life. You must engage in it. Acting is not about being taught as much as it is about learning through experience. You must not sit on the sidelines. It is about getting in there, living fully, being aware, and taking in the world around you, and then doing something with all that life has infused into your soul.

Take life’s masterclass seriously, and apply those observations to your craft. In doing so, you will learn more about how people function in the world, within environments, relationships, and circumstances, the use of objects, and not least, what truly lives within you and why you do what you do based on the circumstances you face.

Studying great performances from stage or screen is valuable and essential, but the ideal source is still life itself. The curriculum life offers is far richer than any classroom. But you must have the discipline, commitment, and consistency to learn from what life presents through the lens of acting.

Most do not maintain that actor discipline, or they are simply too distracted. They scrutinize or even criticize all the carefully filtered lives on social media rather than engaging with the true source of those platforms, which is real life. Well, actually, that may be debatable these days.

Too many people only sometimes dive into studying acting through life, but sometimes does not cut it. You must always, almost to the point of obsession, be looking, observing, witnessing, and essentially stealing from life, because life is always in flux, and so will you be as an actor and artist.

That is how you get better. That is how you get good, as I am often asked. How do I get good? Really good?

First, you have to want to do the work, and then actually do the work. That is the only way. You must commit. You must invest.

My job is to help you take those life lessons and apply them to your work, building a craft that allows for consistency, circumstantial truth, and freedom within the work.

You must learn to use these lessons within given circumstances and bring a real human being in action to life, with the necessary relaxation, living moment to unknown moment, under the circumstances the writer has created.

The goal is to tap into the vast energies within you so you can respond truthfully as the circumstances unfold.

As we study life, we must also study ourselves, understand ourselves, and learn ourselves, while not taking ourselves too seriously.

If you cannot be you, the real you, how will you find the truth of a character? You have to reach a place of truly asking, Who am I, and why am I the person I am? What serves me, and what does not?

But we must also accept that we will never fully know ourselves because we are always different versions of ourselves as new circumstances flow into our lives.

And within that comes the admission that there will also be much unlearning, what was once learned, or perhaps taught. This is when the work truly begins.

When you reach your core and are willing to live that private essence publicly, without unnecessary tension, you begin to explore and discover what truly lives within you, and be able to reveal it.

This includes exploring your imagination and where it can take you, and how you transform behaviorally and emotionally based on circumstances. This is when you must get real and vulnerable, let go, take risks, and truly explore.

You will break through the barriers that keep you trapped in the small routines of everyday civilian life. There will be ups and downs in that process.

You must have a safe space for that, and that is where the classroom becomes essential. It is the place where you put all these things together without being constrained by social norms, but instead go beyond them for the sake of the story.

But you must commit to it, and you must be willing to fall on your face.

You are human. Mistakes, failures, and messiness are part of being human. And here is the truth: Your desire for perfection is what is keeping you from doing the work you want to do. Honor your mistakes. Celebrate them. Allow yourself to be human.

A true actor embraces human imperfection, including their own, and understands that being human is messy, painful, complicated, and real. Do not fear that. Embrace it. Honor it.

True greatness comes from the willingness to take a journey within and then share it with the world. It is about understanding who you are deeply and deciding you will no longer sacrifice your truth to make others comfortable.

It is about refusing to fit into the box of what you think the world expects from you.

Your truth is the key to everything you want and more. Use your truth as your brand, your vehicle, and your marketability. Allow that truth to be mutable under the vast world of imaginary circumstances.

When you reveal both the light and dark aspects of the human condition that exist within the masterclass of life, and do so in alignment with the tone of the piece, you serve the writer, the director, the audience, and most importantly, humanity.

You bring awareness to areas of the human experience that still need to evolve, and you honor the artist within you. As an actor, you are an instrument of change, bringing light to the hidden parts of humanity.

Art is ultimately service to humankind. By cultivating your craft, you breathe life into the material you are given, infusing it with your own experiences married to your imagination.

The life discovery and self-discovery you undergo in this process will surprise you and open you to far more than you could ever imagine.

There is more. There is always more as long as you are breathing.

What you are seeking is already there. You just need to become awake, aware, and conscious, because you are alive, full of potential, and a human being living within the masterclass of life.