Acting, can or do you act?

She liked to be called an actor not an actress by the way 

I’ve lived with an actor for a few years. She took me to openings and production parties, she was in some quite big films and also cut from a few. Some people have a natural ability and or they start young. It’s without any luxury and you have to put yourself in some really uncomfortable positions emotionally and psychologically which can mess someone people up or lead them to drink or take drugs. Actors use their imagination a lot as much as artists like painters and illustrators do. 

I can in the right circumstances. e.g. With a script, and with rehearsing.

I had a brief attempt at playing the part of a racist in a short video a few years ago. This was difficult because there was no script, so it was difficult to make up racist abuse off the top of my head (and I was also a bit embarrassed doing it in a busy city centre). Had the exact words been scripted, and I'd had plenty of time to rehearse, I would have been fine.

Its a bit like when giving speeches/presentations/etc. I can do it confidently, but I have to know what I am talking about! If I don't, I can't.

I did enjoy drama in year 7 at school and we had a really good drama teacher (he left at the end of the year), but I got bullied by other people in the class so it was difficult to get on with some people which didn't help. I lost interest but in more recent years I have wondered whether it might be worth pursuing in some way.

I read much faster than I can convert what I am reading into spoken words, so reading aloud from a script is a non-starter. Reading and speaking would just get jumbled and I would skip words, get lost and grind to a halt. Reading aloud from books at school was a nightmare for me.

If I know what I'm talking about I don't mind public speaking, I do move around and engage in eye contact with some audience members, I've not done it for a long time now and all the tech stuff you have now would flummox me.

How did you all get into your various acting and singing roles and groups? My school had no plays, apart from nativity in primary school, no choir or ochestra.  Did your aprents take you or was it other groups such as churches or brownies etc that you found these other groups?

Interesting. Almost the exact opposite of how I coped with lectures: stand at lectern (hiding behind it); hold sides of lectern (obeying the command not to fidget that was drummed into me at school); do not ad lib; keep to the script (but perform it, don't merely read it); look at the audience (but studiously avoid eye contact). But I do recognize the after-effects you describe (my first stop after giving a presentation would be a nice quiet darkened room).

Perhaps I'm a masochist. Unlike you, I have applied for several lectureships over the years (without success; I couldn't manage the social communication skills needed to get past the interview stage).

Last year my daughter was playing some christmas songs on her keyboard for the school concert, and I let her in on a secret -that the audience were parents, and not only do they not mind mistakes, they actually find it more endearing. She quite liked that as it took the pressure off that it should be perfect, and just keep going no matter what.

I do love a picture upside down, funny noises and scenery falling over, it contributes to the experience and makes it more memorable.

No. The idea of performance makes me shudder. I could never be able to reliably learn lines. I managed to give the occasional conference presentation and seminar, but I had to evolve coping mechanisms: do not stand at a lecturn (rabbit in the headlights effect), move around (a moving target), do not read from a script, ad lib using cards with just headings on, do not look at the audience, just at the wall at the back or the steps in the aisles, use lots of visuals (deflect attention from me). After giving such a presentation I would be close to catatonic afterwards and be unable to work usefully for at least a day. This is the reason I could never even consider applying for lectureships.

TheCatWoman said:

I held my picture of a chicken upside down

I remember being a stoat in Toad of Toad Hall at Junior School and I fell against a plywood tree, sending it crashing down. Luckily there was such a crush of us on stage no one could tell it was me - and this is the first time I've confessed - 63 years later!

Iain said:

I guess is it just a form of masking

That's an interesting way of looking at it. 

Ah, you happily reminded me of Saturday morning drama lessons in Coventry Cathedral, when I was in my early teens. We were called 'The Porch Players' and performed on the steps between the old and new cathedrals. The lessons were run by drama students from Valparaiso [South America] over several years and were great fun. I learned how to run a props department. I wasn't any good as an actress but as a result of learning 'props', how to make/source them, I got a job in a large hospital running the Engineering stores, which I did for 8 years. That was one of the best jobs I had - very suitable decades before I knew I had autism. Thanks for triggering these memories, TheCatWoman!

I find it weird. Because I can and do mask all the time. I'm always putting on a front. But I can't actually or role play at all. I have no idea how. You'd think the skills would line up but they don't seem to. I'm so awkward if I try to act it's awful.

When I was an undergraduate I spent a lot of time involved in light opera: a nice mix of singing and acting. I found it liberating. I could be someone else entirely and behave in ways that would just not be possible in the everyday world. And I could be so much more articulate than in daily life because everything was carefully scripted.

Of course, with an opera (like theatre) there is a clear sequence. Having to do things out of sequence would be quite disturbing (though come to think of it, I was once involved in recording a choral piece with the RSNO and managed to survive repeat takes of sections of the work). 

This is not quite what you mean, but it's voice acting related.

I've discovered since having kids that I love to do the voices for the characters in books and I'm actually really good at it. I'm a bit sad I don't get to read to them as much now as they are reading themselves, though my daughter still enjoys a picture book now and again. I loved doing the 'Oi frog' series, and my peak was 'Oi duck-billed platypus', as I can do about 20 different voices for that. 

My daughter used to talk to the characters when she was little, in the middle of the book she'd just start telling them things, so I obviously kept in character with replies. It was sweet that she considered them real.

I was always too shy to act in school plays back in the day and would worry I looked a little clumsy the way I hold myself -I always look awkward in photos.

I agree that switcing modes like that is a form of acting and that it's exhausting, giving a talk to the local Womens Insistute was one of the hardest things I've ever had to to, they're like a bunch elderly naughty school girls gossiping and passing notes instead of listening.

But thats not the sort of acting I was meaning.

I was always so embarassed about being on stage, I never recovered from being the bleat in the school nativity play when I was about 7 or 8. I had to sit behind a screen and bleat during the shepherds scene. I was the best bleater in the class! I also had to be one of the french hens when singing the twelve days of xmas and I held my picture of a chicken upside down, so traumatic an experience I still want the ground to open up and swallow me when I look at a stage. That was about it for acting and drama in my school years, we just didn't do it, I'm always amazed at people who've done all this stuff when they were so young. and for many it's so normal!

I used to be able to switch into acting modes when I had to deal with groups of people, whether the board of directors in my company or a group of end users who were unable to do their job because of a failed IT system - being able to stop being tired / anxious or whatever and be a positive, caring and motivated face for the company could be done in seconds.

It was exhausting though. I guess is it just a form of masking which most autists do every day.

I actually did a lot of acting when I was a teen. I was even Harold Hill in a production of The Music Man.

I credit theater to how I learned a lot of things that I struggled with. Eye contact (just stare between the eyes), hugging (actually, I started hugging too much once they taught me it’s okay lol), and other little things like how far to stand from people were skills I learned from theater.