Posts by author

Rob Richardson

23 posts
Rob Richardson is an actor, trainer, blogger, husband, and father. Your basic superhero. He spent a good part of 2017 sailing the Caribbean as the Broadway Guest Artist on the Disney Fantasy, appearing in Aladdin: A Musical Spectacular and Disney's Believe. Broadway/Off-Broadway: Jekyll & Hyde, A Tale of Two Cities, Clinton the Musical, and The Fantasticks. Follow Rob on Twitter @traininghumanT, and read his other musings on health and wellness at www.traininghumanity.blogspot.com.
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  • 6 min

Understudy, Standby, Swing!

Should you be an understudy, a standby, a swing? It’s kind of a vague question, but usually the undercurrent there is that once you become known as a reliable cover, you’ll be an understudy forever. You could ask Shirley MacLaine, Anthony Hopkins, Bernadette Peters, Taye Diggs, Matthew Morrison, or Lea Michelle; they all started out as understudies and moved on to exceptional careers. But let’s backtrack a little, what’s the actual difference in these special stage roles? Each of these positions holds its own unique advantages and challenges.
Scene script
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  • 5 min

Scene Study: A Practical Guide

Scene study, the preparation of a scene from a play or other acting medium, is an extremely common and effective part of an actor’s training.  You may encounter it in high school (or summer theatre camp if you are so lucky), but if you are a theatre major in college, you will certainly spend a lot of time on scene work.  Your teacher may assign a scene to you, or you may be allowed to choose for yourself and your partner. Today we’re going to talk about the real nuts and bolts of putting your scene together.
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  • 4 min

Using a Smartphone to Prep a Monologue or Song

You’d be hard-pressed to find an actor that hasn’t practiced (mugged) in the mirror when prepping a role, monologue, or song. And while the mirror is a perfectly natural choice, the problem with the mirror is in the user. It’s human nature for all of us to look ‘where we want to look.’ We look at our hair, our waistline, our arms—we look at the thing we want others to see and appreciate. While in private moments we may look at what we perceive are flaws or imperfections, overall, we are looking in the mirror to find validation.

Enter the camera phone, now capable of greater video and photographic ability than ever before.

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