Terry Fox Theatre

In my search to discover and share great theatre and performing arts related blogs, I have often been surprised at the lack of well maintained resources out there. This is especially true of sites that focus on techniques and other tips, as opposed to the more common show-review sites. I was pleasantly surprised, then, when I discovered Mark Westbrook's The Acting Blog.

Mark Westbrook is a professional acting coach who works out of Glasgow, Scotland. To paraphrase his bio on his site, he has been educated at the universities of Kent, Urecht, and Nottingham, did his post grad at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, trained at the Atlantic Theatre Company Acting School in New York. He's been around for a while now, working in the Netherlands and Britain as a director, as well as teaching at a Scottish conservatory as Head of Acting and a University Lecturer in Drama, Acting, and Playwrighting. He also writes professionally – he wrote The Emotional Life of Furniture (here’s a review, should you care to read it), among others – for both theatre and television, and is he Artistic Director of SPARTAN, an independent theatre company in Glasgow. In short: he knows his stuff.

The Acting Blog has been regularly producing acting tips and opinions on the craft since late 2008, starting with a post on 10 Things Actors Should Know. Mark isn't shy when it comes to his feelings on the his craft, and is very direct in his approach. According to the page Praise for the Acting Blog, he has received some criticism, but that just means he is doing the blogging thing right -- for the most part, at least. If I were to criticize The Acting Blog for anything, it would be that Mark limits conversation by regularly turning comments off. This is too bad, but most comments I have seen are positive in nature.

The greatest thing about The Acting Blog is the content, with posts like You Are Not a Creative Artist, Don't Sh*t On Your Performance, and 10 Warning Signs About Your Acting Teacher. However, Mark is one of the few acting bloggers that I've seen at least attempt to embrace the modern web, employing a straightforward and easy to navigate theme to his site and even including (at least intermittent) nods to social sharing. There could be more in that last regard, but I’ll take the well-written, informative, and easy to read and find content any day.

If you are looking for some good tips on the craft, check out The Acting Blog.

For more examples of our quest to become one of the best theatre and performance resources out there, check out other Theatre Blog Profiles, as well as our tags Theatre Tips and Theatre in Life. Happy reading!