Anyone ever take acting lessons?

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I have been considering taking some acting lessons to help with communicating more emotionally. Not that I think it would solve the problem of my somewhat wooden delivery, but that it might help exercise the atrophied muscles and neural pathways, and loosen me up a bit.

Anyone ever do any acting and find a benefit? I've never tried it, and in situations where I was (forced) to do role playing I was really uncomfortable, so I don't have high hopes that I would be able to come far out of my shell. But I have long had the desire to act, though again, I've never dared to try.

I took acting classes when I was a kid, I was in the drama club at my high school and in a youth theater group outside of school after that.

I don't know that it improved my communication in any way but I had fun. (Well, I had fun with the acting bits and moreso in the drama club and youth theater....some things were not so fun, like following group discussions and sitting still for the talking bits of lessons.....and some things were just awful -- like the blinding, migraine-inducing stage lights).

I was a music nerd, not a theater nerd, played string bass in orchestra through high school, and played bass in a couple of bands. But I am comfortable on stage with a group.

Never had a solo though.

What does it mean to be a "music nerd" or a "theater nerd"?

If you're not comfortable with solos but really want to try acting....maybe you need to find an acting class with minimal or no monologues (I'm not sure, but I would guess they probably do exist)? A lot of the stuff I remember doing in acting classes was interaction between characters and improv, not so much monologuing.

I saw actors practicing deportment, in front of a mirror, and watched myself as I thought of certain things.

In some philosophies, it is considered unnatural, not to deal with life as it comes.

Others cultivate decorum in the face of fear.

I'm NT...and I haven't had acting classes (beyond the high school stuff in a very minor way, so not sure that counts).

BUT this is something that I think has tremendous value if you have particular communication needs and communication deficits. My old boss (NT) is a quiet, introverted, unassuming sort of guy. But incredibly knowledgeable! He took acting classes to help him with public speaking and workshop facilitation and found them really helpful. And this is something that I've wanted to do as well since I took an advanced speaking class that was taught by an actor. He talked about things like body language, posture and working with your natural personality to be an engaging public speaker. I was a good public speaker anyway, but it helped me get better and even though it was years ago I still remind myself of some of the personal advice on my style he gave me.

I would think that this would be well worth investigating.

I also don't think that this is 'faking' because it's about enhancing your own style to communicate more effectively with others.

It can help some. I was in a middle school play and high school drama class. The kids who join the school play are ridiculously non-judgmental, and they teach you how to show emotion very clearly, which helps even if it is exaggerated. It's also good for getting used to public speaking.

it could help, but not in the way you might think.
i have had sevarl trainings, both straight-up social skills training and acting lessons.

those lessons didn't directly improve my social skills (they were aimed at NTs afterall), but they did provide valuable insight in how NTs expect you to communicate and how body language is supposed to work (in the case of the acting, where you are tought to exaggerate body language); after which i was able to create my own techniques

Yes to that, my goal is not to be more outgoing and socialize, I like being an introvert. My goal would be to learn to be more socially acceptable, maybe get some of that insight into how expressions and body language are supposed to work.

What I mean by "music nerd" is that when I was in school that is where I felt more at ease, with other quirky students who were interested in more than whatever it is that the normal, popular kids were into.