Today, we’d like to introduce you to Daniel Ching. Daniel was introduced to us by the brilliant and talented Frank Krueger.
Daniel, thank you so much for joining us today. We’d love for you to bring our readers up to speed – can you introduce yourself and share your story?
I started getting interested in acting while in college studying to be a dancer. When my dance career got cut short from injury, I thought it was the right time to fully switch gears to acting. I had trained at the wonderful Michael Howard Studios in New York City prior to the pandemic, but when the pandemic hit, I had no option of in-person classes. That’s when I discovered Frank Krueger and Jessica Heath of The Annex Acting Studio and their absolutely amazing Zoom acting classes. Frank Krueger, the acting teacher and coach of the Annex, has helped me immensely to sink deeper into acting roles and feel more confident and prepared when auditioning for film, tv, and plays.
Alright, so we’d love to learn more about your acting career. What should we know?
I am most proud of some of the callbacks to auditions I’ve gotten over the pandemic. They were also great lessons of letting go of the outcome, not taking rejection personally, and enjoying the process and opportunity to get to act and be creative with the auditions I receive. I’m looking forward to getting to audition again, once auditions come back. This work pause has helped me refuel my passion for acting, so I’m excited to get back to it! A major milestone for me was booking a small recurring co-star last year which allowed me to act with a series regular actor and see what that level of working looks like. What I love most about acting is the process of bringing a character’s life experience from off the written page and into my body.
So, as we mentioned to our audience earlier, you were introduced to us by Frank Krueger and The Annex Acting Studio and we really admire them and what they’ve built. For folks who might not be as familiar, can you tell them a bit about your experience with The Annex Acting Studio.
Meeting Frank and studying at The Annex Acting Studio has completely changed the way I work. Prior to joining the Annex and working with Frank, I used to feel so pressured to memorize my lines perfectly, to such an intensity that I didn’t always seem like a fully fleshed out, three dimensional person when acting in a scene. Frank got me out of my head, with different Meisner exercises and exercises he further developed from his Meisner acting background and teaching, and more fully emotionally invested in the scenes I brought into class. I became less an actor who worried about forgetting his lines and more of an actor who could fully embody the character I was playing and interact with my scene partner in a free, dynamic way, while still having my lines memorized.
The Annex is very unique, in that Frank isn’t relying on one technique or one way to take your acting to the next level. He’s really tuned into what works for each individual actor, and he works in a way that allows you to strengthen your foundation as an actor, so that you’re not just getting lucky when you do good work, but so that you can trust yourself and your acting skills to consistently do good work no matter what the audition, scene, shooting environment, directorial style, etc.
My favorite thing Frank has taught me is how to put my character’s words, found in the script, into my own words, when starting to rehearse a scene. Working this way has allowed to keep freedom, spontaneity, and a sense of opening up to possibilities when acting.
Other: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm8689380/
Image Credits
Alyssa Kravitz photography (for headshot w/ blue shirt)
