​There’s a great little meme for actors circulating Facebook called ‘The Actor’s Iceberg’ shared by the Performer Stuff page. It’s a reminder that acting is not always what it seems. The image shows an iceberg, with the tip of the iceberg surrounded by social media, Oscars and awards, online references, money, cameras flashing and so on… but below sea-level are things like “study and training”, “patience”, “rejection”, “sacrifice”, “building relationships”, and ”determination”.

 A number of our students and graduates have responded warmly to this little graphic – simple though it is, it does capture the life of the actor. What the public sees – the end result, the play or film and its publicity machine – is not the half of it. Acting professionally is work – and requires a high degree of self-motivation, personal preparation and stamina to get to that end point.

Several actors have chimed in on social media with things they’d add to the picture, or noted that rejection appeared four times below the surface. Several others emphasised “therapy” and its importance to the actor.

So why would an actor need therapy? Here are a number of ways counselling can offer help to actors:

• Help with shifting to a “success” mindset
• Help with career planning or coaching
• Help with “stage fright”
• Help with depression or anxiety
• Help with managing feelings around a difficult, emotional role or character
• Help dealing with career discouragement, or feelings of rejection after a failed audition experience
• Help with problems faced in the workplace
• Help with past traumas raised by the content of a play or screenplay you’re working on
• Help with the common problems of life
• Help with family relationships

Did you know Perform Australia offers actors coaching and counselling, with a specific empathy for their particular concerns?

But more than that, sometimes an actor needs some one-on-one attention in other areas. Auditions coaching, to build confidence and prepare for an important opportunity. Accents tuition, for your next role. Or perhaps some private singing training to improve your voice.  Perform Australia can offer you assistance.  Find out more here. 

Theatre Games offers exercises & activities that can be enjoyed by broad range of ages & abilities.​At Perform Australia, we practice these high-energy & fun-filled games to encourage clarity of thought, remain calm under pressure & connect  emotionally & physically to the spoken world. These activities act as a warm-up to train  performers to get ready to unleash their imagination & performance.
Students of Perform Australia
1. 1-10
A simple yet effective exercise to bring everyone's focus at the beginning of every session. 
The group stands in a circle and is asked to call out one number at a time. Sounds easy? Well, if two players call out a number at the same time, the exercise is stopped and needs to start over.

2. Spaghetti
A fun-filled, physical activity that helps performers to connect their emotions with their character. It easily creates a drama lesson plan that will  inspire each performing arts student.
The group forms a circle and each player gets a  chance to play an emotion by coming in the center. The group gives the chosen player a specific emotion, that needs to be played by saying the word 'Spaghetti'.

Emotion/character-traits are as such:
Excited-spaghetti, Intelligent spaghetti, rock star spaghetti, cool spaghetti

3. Wink Murder
This activity focuses on promoting concentration and group awareness of all the performers.
The group sits in a circle facing each other and a volunteer is asked to become a detective. This selected detective is then asked to step outside the circle. Meanwhile, the group chooses a murderer from the group that the detective is unaware of. The task for the murderer is to kill the other players (victims), while the detective finds who the villain is.