“Break the ‘Handcuffs’”
A. Dean Irby offers advice to acting students in Backstage.
“Break the ‘handcuffs.’”
“A good place for the student actor to begin character development is to bring yourself to the event, the circumstances of the character. It takes patience, imagination, and risks. Fear of failing handcuffs the actor to play the quality, not the experience and needs of the character. Student actors must feel free to fail, without failing out.”
—A. Dean Irby, associate professor of acting and co-coordinator of acting board of study
From What 15 College Professors + Directors Want Actors to Know on backstage.com.