True actors are not created in one day. Training with acting coaches or participation in acting classes can help actors to acquire much needed skills to aid them in improving in their craft. One of the most necessary and yet difficult components of great acting is learning to rip past the facade that covers the actors themselves and the characters they create to reveal the true identities within.

Every character that an actor creates is multi-dimensional as are the actors themselves. These dimensions consist of the individual or character\’s public persona, his or her deep-seated fears and vulnerabilities, and the tragic flaw. An acting coach can not only help an actor uncover his own dimensions but can also aid him or her in using these traits to create dimensional and relatable characters.

Carl Jung espoused the belief that the human person creates a public persona as a means of protecting his true self from others and conveying an image of strength and security as a means for survival. This created persona presents itself in numerous ways throughout our lives. Similar to actual persons, characters develop public personas that must be unraveled and good acting workshops are designed to teach students how to accomplish just this.

Although the public persona is the dimension that is the most easily recognizable and obvious in a character, it is only an exterior facade and not the core of the individual. The root of a person\’s character is grounded in their growth and development from childhood. Acting classes are designed to instruct actors in identifying these difficulties in themselves so as to form multi-dimensional characters that audiences can relate to on a personal level.

That which affects us in childhood remains a part of our lives until the day we die, whether we allow it to surface or not. Characters on stage or on film are no different. Covering up these vulnerabilities under a shield of stability is our means of appearing strong rather than helpless to others.

The mark of a great actor is his or her ability to dig past both their own and their character\’s public persona to the actual person within. It is in this way the actor can relate to the audience.

Every audience member, whether he knows it or not, has both a deeper identity based in past life situations and issues as well as public persona that he has created to combat these weaknesses. Although many audience members may not be aware of the fact, creating multi-faceted characters is guaranteed to form a relationship between viewer and character. All great actors must learn to succeed in this form of character creation.