ACTING TEACHER CALLS ON STUDENTS' PAST EXPERIENCES

A common misconception of young actors is that acting is becoming somebody else and disregarding who you are, says Tim Daly.

"I'm teaching the students that acting is not becoming somebody else," said Daly. "It's using all your past and present experiences to really give life to a character."

In an exercise used to demonstrate the concept, Daly had students walk past a chair that represented a bum on a street corner. Each of the 16 students walked past in a different way due to the uniqueness of each student's past.

"I'm teaching them to be more in touch with their experiences and bring that to the stage," Daly said.

Daly, a 26-year-old Californian, is teaching a fundamentals of acting class to a group of young people at the Family Life Center of Centenary United Methodist Church. The class, which meets three days a week from July 7 through Aug. 1, is sponsored by the Arts Council of Southeast Missouri.

Daly, who has a bachelor's degree in theater, is keeping busy while waiting to start graduate school in theater, probably at Florida State, one of several universities that has offered him an assistantship. He spent four months studying theater in Europe in 1993, and in 1995 he spent five months studying arts and culture in Brazil.

Daly said he wants to bring the students along slowly because some of them aren't used to performing in front of a group.

Thus, the first performing activity Daly has them do is to read selections from a book in front of the group. Having the book in their hands gives them confidence.

At the end of the first week, the students will progress to performing a memorized piece in front of the group. After that, on-stage work will begin.

The goal of the class, said Daly, is for each individual to become a better actor. To achieve that goal, he said, the class focuses on fundamentals such as stage vocabulary, character analysis, scene study and stage movement.

"We focus on things leading up to acting, as opposed to focusing on a production," Daly said. "And we'll have a good time doing it."

And the students do appear to be having a good time. They enthusiastically perform the exercises Daly involves them in, and they express their satisfaction with Daly.

"I think I'm going to really enjoy this class," said Champ Friend, 14, of Cape Girardeau. "I sensed from the start I'd enjoy it. Mr. Daly is very interesting. He has a lot to say, but we do a lot of things."

Friend said that Daly is trying to give the students experience that will allow them to perform.

"He's giving us experience through exercises that help us find the talker within us and show us that it takes some work to harness what acting ability we have."

Maggie Clark, 15, of Cape Girardeau, said she also enjoys the class.

"Mr. Daly is good," Clark said, "because he gets everybody involved and he lets us have fun with it."