Acting has always been a skill that was worked on with others. Whether it was an improv troupe, an acting class, a show with castmates and a director, a performance in front of an audience, it was something that was done with others in person.

Now, in the midst of a pandemic, we’re forced to hone our skills in other ways. I’ve found that it’s definitely possible to achieve this at home. Although the input and criticism of others is important and helpful, your own opinion is great too.

Over the past month or so, I’ve practiced exercises at home, recorded myself and watched it back, and I even made a little skit and uploaded it to TikTok. I’ve learned that I can practice and improve from my own bedroom, without a director. All I need is my imagination, the silly video ideas I come up with, and a camera.

It was a huge goal of mine to be able to post a video on social media in the form of a skit. I’m glad I got to do this, but being the perfectionist I am, I already want to do better. I hope to continue doing exercises at home. I want to make more skits, with better and funnier stories, as well as higher quality sound and audio.

Some great next steps would be to constantly write down ideas. Whenever I think of a funny story or video idea, it typically just comes and goes. I’d love to get in the habit of making these ideas a reality, and I would recommend this to anyone looking to act at home.

I can’t wait for the acting world to come back to life, but one of the silver linings of this pandemic was that we were able to keep things going from home. I hope we can all take something great away from this terrible, historical event. We’ll be back on stage eventually, but until then, let’s make the best of acting at home!