Whether we are acting professionally
or as an amateur, our goal is the same.
We all step onto the stage, or in front of the camera, wanting to give as good a performance as we can.

Aristotle believed actors had to be divinely inspired.
Others, perhaps more realistically have advocated that study and hard work are the only way for us to achieve our best performance.
What form this study should take is of course a question of personal choice.

The theories acting by Konstantin Stanislavski, Bertolt Brecht and Lee Strasberg amongst others have inspired and influenced generations of actors. Stanislavski believed that each artist should develop their own approach, their own way of working, their own method.

The control and mastery of voice, movement, concentration, Imagination, observation and relaxation all have to be attained. The use of Emotional Recall and Sense memory has to be addressed.. But how we do it is down to us.

We have to learn as much as we can about acting from as many sources as we can, and take what works for us. There is not "one way". Audiences are not concerned with where and what we've studied. Performance is what matters.
How we arrive at that great acting performance is something only we can decide.

"An actor must work all his life, cultivate his mind, train his talents systematically, develop his character; he may never despair and never relinquish this main purpose - to love his art with all his strength and love it unselfishly"