There's no one way to act, and every actor has his own method of how he gets into character and work. There are some standard techniques that most actors study at one point or another by which they base all their acting on. If you want to be an actor, you'll need to try several different techniques until you find the one you're most comfortable with and that is most effective for you.
Method Acting
Based on the teachings of Lee Strasberg, method acting concentrates on the principles of sense memory, substitution and emotional memory. It encourages actors to take on the roles of their characters entirely and to remain in character beyond the term of the performance. In essence, the actor becomes the character and lives the day-to-day life as this other person, so the actor's reactions and actions begin to become natural and arise entirely from that character's motivations instead of written directions.
Meisner Technique
An offshoot of method acting, the Meisner technique is based on a series of exercises that teach actors to access an emotional life of a character so they can improvise a response (their lines). The biggest part of the technique and training involves repetition.
Cold Reading
Cold reading is a class that teaches an actor act from a script he has never read or had a chance to study. It focuses on being in the moment, using reactions, looking down at the page to grab a line then looking up to deliver it and find the emotional beats quickly. This is essential for film and television actors who will often get last minute auditions and only have 5 or 10 minutes to read a script before having to perform a role.
Improvisation
Improvisation teaches you think quickly on your feet. You will develop a sense of confidence and work on your reaction skills, so no matter what happens when you have a script in hand, you'll be able to keep going even if it means just making things up.
