From Stanislavski, to Method, to Meisner, acting techniques are theories on how actors can effectively engage with a character. For actors wondering how to choose an acting technique, it is best to remember that no one singular technique will suit a person entirely. Usually, a mixture of ideas and tools from different practices and practitioners helps create a rounded acting process for the individual performer.

I can’t, and won’t, tell you which technique you should use—that’s something you’ll have to road test along your acting journey. Hopefully, with this article, I can help you make an informed decision when it comes to preparing for your next role, and nudge you towards a system of acting that suits you best.

Technique vs Practice

Before we begin, let’s clear something up. Acting technique and your personal practice are not the same thing. One is a system developed by an individual or school, with methodologies to support an actor. The other is your daily routine as an actor, as well as how you might prepare for a role. If you decide that Method Acting is your cup of tea, it should not replace your wider practice.

A good actor’s practise might look something like this:

1. Daily vocal warm-up.
2. Daily physical exercise.
3. Read a play a week.
4. Prepare two monologues each month.

You can apply your newly-found chosen technique to your monologue prep. But you should still be maintaining good vocal and physical health, regardless of the technique you’re using. Having a strong personal practice will ensure you are open and capable of trying out different techniques.

The Three Pillars of Technique

If you’ve ever had even a mild interest in acting, you’ve likely come across three techniques already: Stanislavski Method, Meisner Method and Method Acting. They form the foundation of modern acting technique and theory, so here’s a quick primer for each of them.

Stanislavski: Emotional Authenticity

Konstantin Stanislavski was a Russian actor and practitioner who emphasized the importance of finding emotional truth and authenticity in performance. The Stanislavski system involves delving into one’s own experiences to connect with a character and help generate their “given circumstances” (e.g. where is the scene taking place, who is in the scene, what do they mean to the character, why are they there) to create an authentic performance. It should be noted that Stanislavski changed his tune towards the end of his life and believed in a more imaginative approach to acting, rather than a deeply personal one.

As the man who introduced naturalism to American theatre, Stanislavski’s teachings have influenced countless other practitioners who have either continued his teachings or challenged an aspect of them. Lee Strasberg, Stella Adler, Uta Hagen and our next pillar: Sandford Meisner.

Meisner: Imagined Circumstances

Sanford Meisner was an American actor and teacher whose work revolves around the idea of living truthfully in imagined circumstances. There is a strong emphasis on active listening, spontaneity and truthful reactions. You may have heard of the repetition exercise where two actors make observations about each other and repeat them, over and over, to help develop the heightened state of awareness required of an actor when they are in a scene.

Method: Full Immersion

Method acting is one of the most recent techniques that has emerged in modern acting. It is also one of the most controversial. Popularised by practitioners such as Lee Strasberg and his students (among them James Dean, Marylin Monroe and Marlon Brando), Method Acting encourages actors to understand the emotion and psychology of their characters. By drawing deeply on their own experiences, they can explore a technique known as emotional recall. When an actor remembers a time they were sad/happy/angry in their life, they can try to replicate the sensation in their body to engage with a character feeling sad/happy/angry. The main controversy around Method Acting is whether or not it is a safe way for people to engage with characters, as it potentially means digging up personal trauma for the sake of an authentic performance. It remains a controversial—if often misunderstood—field of study.

How to Make a Decision

You’ll be able to recognise the influence of these three foundational theories on just about every western, modern acting technique. That should hopefully be of assistance when deciding about whether or not a particular technique is right for you. It’s important to develop a foundation for yourself when it comes to trying and testing acting theories, and here’s how you do that.

Know Thyself

When I’m trying to impress my friends, I tell them that acting is the active study of the human condition. As pretentious as that sounds, it’s true. When drama schools turn away young, bright-eyed high-school graduates and tell them that they need more life experience, what they’re actually saying is: “Go figure out what kind of human you are.” As painful as it is to hear, it’s good advice.

Knowing your strengths and weaknesses as an actor will be a huge help to identifying which techniques you’re better suited for. Are you drawn to emotional depth and exploration? Do you have a strong imagination? Are you spontaneous? Do you find a character through transforming your body and voice? Aligning your natural tendencies with a technique is a great place to start.

Educational Advantage

Have you trained? Drama schools and short courses are some of the best ways to expose yourself to new techniques. Often, they will establish an entire pedagogy based around a specific technique. If you’ve done your three years in drama school, consider the techniques you already know and which ones you were drawn to. It’s always a good idea to build on your educational foundation and branch out from there, rather than throwing away what you’ve learned in favour of a shiny new technique. If you haven’t trained, you have the advantage of malleability. Go out and rent some books on acting from your library and start building up your knowledge of different techniques. See which ones appeal to you most and build on them.

Your Vision

Every actor has a unique understanding of what a fulfilling career looks like to them. My heart lies in theatre, so I’m more likely to gravitate towards techniques inspired by Meisner and perhaps Stanislavski–techniques that support larger than life performances that emphasize the body and voice. My partner, on the other hand, is an excellent film actor and wants to have a career mostly in film. Techniques that draw from Method Acting, that encourage deep emotional engagement but also allow for subtlety, are more suitable. Consider your goals as an actor and then consider which techniques support your particular style.

Collaboration

You will rarely be working in isolation as an actor. Directors and other actors you meet on set will usually have their own personal style that aligns better with specific techniques, so it’s important to stay open. You don’t have to set yourself on one technique and one technique only, and you really shouldn’t. Develop your personal toolkit and be open to having a few extra screwdrivers thrown in, when you work with a director who obsesses over Suzuki.

Examples of Acting Techniques

Now that we’ve looked at some foundational theories, and you’ve done some honest introspection to figure out your style, here’s a few examples of some more advanced acting theories that are in practice today.

Viewpoints and Suzuki

Developed first by Mary Overlie, later Anne Bogart and many other acting theorists; Viewpoints emphasizes the importance of space and movement when it comes to developing a character or a scene. The practice combines gesture, movement and vocalization to emphasize the non-verbal component of theatre – and in some cases, film. Similarly, Tadashi Suzuki developed the Suzuki Method which places great emphasis on physical training to strengthen an actor’s connection with their body. Both of these methods are commonly used in a theatre setting.

Grotowski

Jerzy Grotowski coined ‘Poor Theatre’, a style of theatre that rejects elaborate sets and lights; stripping theatre back to the raw essence of an actor, attempting to connect with audiences on a primal and visceral level. Grotowski’s Cat is a popular physical warmup and a signpost for much of his techniques–highly physical and vocal, aiming to create a direct connection between the actor and the audience.

Commedia dell’arte

What began as a style of theatre in 16th century Italy is still used in many training institutions around the world today. Commedia dell’arte gives a set list of archetypal characters that are extremely versatile and, as such, can be applied to a wide range of characters. The technique encourages actors to embrace spontaneity, physicality and a deep exploration of archetypal characters which can then be adapted to just about any genre. Commedia dell’arte is often explored using techniques such as mask work and clowning.

Continual Growth

It should go without saying that no actor is bound to any single technique. Acting is a lifelong journey of growth and self-discovery. The more work you do, the more theories and techniques you’re exposed to. Therefore: the more your artistic preferences are likely to change. Whilst you may resonate with one particular theory in your early career, this may completely change later on and that’s a good thing. It’s a sign that you’re evolving and adapting with the ever-changing landscape of acting and all of the weird and wonderful parts of it. 

Conclusion

My acting teacher used to describe actors at the early stages of their career as a being stuck inside a circle. They could only extend their imagination and their bodies as far as this circle allowed. The more that they learned and worked, the more the circle started to break apart and the further they could stretch themselves. There will always be blocks that they run into but the more broken the circle is, the more likely they are to rebound off a blockage and find something new.

The more acting techniques you expose yourself to, the greater your range of potential becomes. There will be some techniques that you click with and others that you won’t, and others that you will come to love over time. Stick with the ones you enjoy but stay open to having that changed the more you grow as an actor. 

Hope this helped. See you around the traps!

The post How to Choose an Acting Technique appeared first on StageMilk.

Mask for actors primarily functions as a tool for developing characters. Masks used for performance can mimic popular archetypes that encourage a very specific way of moving and vocalising or they can be completely neutral, serving as a foundation upon which to build an entirely new character.

In this article, I’ll talk about the historical significance of masks for actors in performance, then look more deeply into specific kinds of masks and their application in a training and performance environment. Whether you’ve had formal training or not, mask for actors can be an invaluable addition to your actor’s toolkit!

A Brief History

Masks have been around for at least 9,000 years. They have been used in many different cultures for a variety of reasons including protection, ceremony and performance. There is a huge range of masks used specifically for performance from all over the world with characters and applications unique to the culture.

I recently returned from Bali where I was fortunate enough to live and train with Balinese artists. I learned about many traditional art forms, including Balinese mask. Balinese masks are exceptionally transformative and are generally paired with traditional dance or movement to tell stories or entertain audiences.

You might already be familiar with the theatre masks of Ancient Greece, which were used to transform actors into any gender, creature or deity they desired. What you may not know is that masks were also a way of amplifying a performer’s natural voice. The Greeks knew certainly knew a thing or two about performing, so it’s no surprise that mask has remained a popular training tool for actors throughout history.

The Evolution of Mask in Acting

When you think of acting, what kind of images come to mind? Could it perhaps be a pair of masks? Is one smiling and the other one frowning? I knew it. 

These two famous masks were invented a very long time ago by the Athenians who popularized theatre and mask-use all across central Europe. The masks were initially used in performances that celebrated the gods—especially fan favourite Dionysus, the god of fertility, wine and theatre. As the masks became popularised in Europe, their use extended to religious ceremonies, including funerals where professional actors would wear masks and re-create the deeds of the deceased (which is exactly how I want my funeral to go.)

Masks evolved over time and became more specialised for performance. Japanese Noh theatre came about in the 14th Century and is still performed today, using a staggering 450 different models of mask for various roles.

Fast forward to the Renaissance. Everyone from the royals to the commoners were using masks in one way or another. Masquerade emerged around this time and is still used today as a party theme by unimaginative people. The roots of ballet and clowning come from artforms then known as ballet de cour and commedia dell’arte, with masks being integral to both. 

In modern times, masks are more intricate than ever and are in use on the stage and the screen. Think of all the films that use practical effects like Alien, Predator, Friday the 13th and just about every horror movie ever that have actors sitting in chairs for six hours getting a prosthetic face put on. It all comes from the roots of mask.

Full and Partial Mask

Broadly speaking, there are two kinds of mask when it comes to acting for stage or screen: full and partial mask. Full masks cover the whole face, creating a very specific kind of character, whereas partial masks might reveal the mouth and eyes, allowing a more open interpretation. 

Full mask coaxes the body into weird, wonderful and highly exaggerated shapes. It’s very difficult to speak articulately with your lips pressed up against a full mask, which is perhaps why many traditional practices don’t allow speaking (Balinese Mask, Larval Mask, Neutral Mask.) Full mask forces you to communicate exclusively with your body.

Partial mask is a little less restrictive, and has quite a profound effect on the voice as well as the body. In many partial mask performance traditions, you are usually expected to vocalise which is why these masks are typically used in comedic performances so that actors can have an audible dialogue with each other or the audience. These masks can stretch an actor’s voice into incredible places.

The most fascinating thing about both of these mask-types is the transformative potential they have. It’s very difficult to put on a well-made mask and still behave exactly like you normally do.

The Energy of Mask

When I was studying mask in drama school (and more recently in Bali) I noticed some interesting phenomena that occurred every time I put on a mask. 

The first was that I felt safer in the mask. Every actor I know has some level of anxiety when they get up to perform, and I’m no exception. Whether I’m in the wings at a show or sitting on a plastic chair in an audition waiting room, my heart-rate goes up and my stomach floods with butterflies, no matter how many times I do it.

Putting on a mask seems to alleviate this. Not completely, mind you, but definitely a significant amount. I don’t have any scientific reasoning for why this happens, but my personal theory is that wearing a mask gives me total permission to be someone or something else. Suddenly, I’m not myself: so therefore I can’t get self-conscious. Weird, right? 

The second thing that happens is that the mask itself shows me how it wants to play.  I don’t need to invent or intellectualise anything because it’s already there in the shape of the mask’s nose and eyes and the energy that it exudes. In Bali, before we wore the mask we were working with, we would hold it up and look at it, imagining that it was looking straight back at us. As we stared lovingly into each others’ eyes, my posture and my expression started to shift and I started to imagine what the mask would sound like if it had a voice. This all happened really quickly. Before I knew it, I had a fully embodied character to play with.

The Applications of Mask

Perhaps the most obvious benefits of training in different kinds of masks are the physical ones. Much like animal work, they help you to create shapes and sensations in your body that you aren’t typically used to. This is hugely beneficial for any kind of acting: stage, screen, even voiceover. Mask encourages a boldness of expression that few other methodologies can.

The practice also introduces you to a variety of different archetypes, depending on the mask. It might be tempting to dismiss archetypes as uninspired cliches, but I believe they are a great starting point for character generation. Cliches and archetypes and stereotypes are the way that we paint broad strokes as actors. You can’t create detail without them.

After a particularly fulfilling mask class, I approached my tutor and told her that I felt so much freer and embodied when I’m wearing a mask. She replied: “All acting is a mask.” It’s advice that I will hold and pass on to others for the rest of my life. Regardless of whether or not we are wearing a physical mask, we are always someone or something else when we act.

The beauty of this philosophy is that it gives you full permission to be someone other than yourself. You can put on a mask when you’re ready to play and take it off when you’re finished. It doesn’t need to come with you into your day-to-day life.

Conclusion

Mask has been around for thousands of years. It continues to serve as one of the most transformative performance practices in the world. Even if you don’t own a mask, next time you’re making faces at yourself in the mirror, imagine that you’re creating one for yourself and see what kind of characters you can come up with.

When you find one that really shocks you, explore their voice and their posture and remind yourself that this is the essence of a practice that has informed theatre and acting as we know it today. Experiment. Play. Have fun!

See you around the traps!

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Animal work in acting refers to exercises in which performers study animals in an attempt to mimic the creature. Often, animal work begins outside of the classroom—in nature, at a zoo or a similar enclosure—although it can be undertaken through the watching of documentaries. Animal work can subsequently inform physicality of a character, and even the character’s personality and behaviour.

Just about every drama school I’m aware of teaches animal work to some extent. This is heartening for those of us who paid money to act like a mouse or a bee for a week straight. So let’s talk about what animal work in acting is, how to go about the process and how it can help with developing and complexifying a character.

Animal Work in Acting

Before we get our Dolittle on, let’s cover  some acting theory. For animal work at drama school, my studies were centred on Laban Movement Efforts.

Laban Movement Efforts are a sub-category of Laban Movement Analysis (LMA)—which is a terminology used to describe different qualities of movement. Its creator, Rudolf von Laban, was a dancer and choreographer. He laid the groundwork for LMA, which was extended and developed by practitioners such as Lisa Ullman, Irmgard Bartenief, Warren Lamb and many other talented folks.  The Laban Movement Efforts are a way of understanding and interpreting subtle movement characteristics and can be applied to anything and anyone:

The Four Laban Movement Efforts

• SPACE which can be DIRECT or INDIRECT. If you saw someone on the street moving with direct space, they would know exactly where they were going and would be moving directly towards it. Someone with indirect space could be lost and spinning around in circles trying to find the right street.
• WEIGHT which can be STRONG or LIGHT. Someone with strong weight could be moving with very heavy footsteps whereas someone with light weight could be moving silently.
• TIME which can be SUDDEN or SUSTAINED. Someone moving with sudden time could be moving slowly in one moment, then quickly in the next: stopping and starting a lot with no rhyme nor reason. Someone moving with sustained time could be moving at one single pace with very deliberate and calculated starts and stops.
• FLOW which can be BOUND or FREE. Someone moving with bound flow could appear rigid or upright whereas someone moving with free flow could appear loose and wavy.

Each of these efforts combine to create all kinds of weird and wonderful ways of understanding movement, but that’s a whole other article in itself. The reason Laban Movement Efforts are so commonly used in acting and dance is because they serve as a shared language for understanding movement and can be easily replicated later on.

Homework: See if you can assign these movement efforts to people on the street and note what efforts come up the most. 

A Trip to the Zoo

Back in drama school, Animal Week rolled around and we went on excursion to the zoo. (It’s amazing how similar drama school is to primary school, at times.) Our task for the day was to watch the animals we had been given to study and assign Laban Movement Efforts to them. 

My animal was the kangaroo rat, which I decided had the following efforts: Direct Space, Light Weight, Sudden Time and Bound Flow. The following days in the studio were spent replicating these efforts to embody each of our animals.

Where the practice got interesting and started to make more sense for me was when we introduced a sliding scale from 0 to 100. When we were at 100, we were 100% animal; moving like them, breathing like them, behaving like them. As we moved down the scale, we became more human whilst retaining qualities from the animal which started to develop some really interesting and embodied characters that we hadn’t seen before.

To Animal, or not to Animal

Human move quite similarly to one another. The movement of our bodies reflects a lot of things, including culture, societal expectations and more personal reasons such as long-term injuries or familial influence.

I think the reason animal work in acting is such a common practice is because it helps to break us out of our learned structures of movement so that we can explore the possibilities and limits of our own bodies. But when is this most useful in acting? Let’s return to the sliding scale and how it can be applied to different styles of acting:

Animal to Stage to Screen

At 100% of the scale, you’re playing an animal. Now that might sound far-fetched that you’d ever be playing a role that is 100% an animal. But think about motion capture, video games, the technology that can turn human bodies into just about anything. I always think of this scene from Ruben Östlund’s The Square featuring an incredible performance from Terry Notary. He is primarily a stunt performer and motion capture artist, but watch the clip below and tell me this isn’t a committed performance…

70% – 100%: Motion Capture

If you’re doing any kind of motion capture or voice-over work, you’ll most likely be working somewhere between 70% to 100% animal. These mediums demand actors who can stretch their voices and bodies into subhuman or inhuman characters, and I think strong animal work in acting is one of the most effective ways you can achieve such feats.

60%: Stage Acting

As we move down the scale to 60%, this is most likely the realm of stage acting. Characters on stage need to be somewhat larger than life to reach the audience members in the back row. If you’re playing a character who is loud, proud and takes up a lot of space, you could look at animals like lions, tigers and bears (oh my). There are plenty of plays like Rhinoceros by Eugene Ionesco and Animal Farm by George Orwell where the characters turn into or are already animals. And let’s not forget poor Bottom in A Midsummer Nights’ Dream. I’d argue that for such productions, animal work is essential. 

<60%: Screen Acting

The further down the scale we move, the closer we get to screen acting. It might sound bizarre that you’d ever need animal work for the characters you’d play in front of a camera. But there are still some undeniable benefits. Remember that what animal work is ultimately trying to do is to break you out of your personal movement patterns and show you other possibilities.

One of my tutors used to say there are generally two kinds of actors: the ones who bring their own personality to roles and the ones who develop entirely new characters for roles. Neither actor is necessarily better or worse than the other. But if you think you’re more of the latter, animal work is going to be a huge help to you.

Beyond the Body, Improving your Voice

Another great thing about animal work that I’ve yet to mention is its ability to influence the voice. Growing up, I learned that being loud was annoying and unlikeable. Wo without even realising it, I started to constrict my throat and change my posture so as not to let the full power of my voice come through.

Try this: tuck your chin in towards your neck and try to keep your neck straight and your eyes level, without straining. Now say “Hello, how are you today?” Next, stick your neck out as far forward as you can and say that again. Notice the difference in how your voice sounds? The way we move and stand has a huge impact on our voices because our voice and our bodies are not separate things.

Thankfully, for us poor conditioned humans, animals are blissfully unaware of how loud or quiet they’re being or what they look like. They don’t change the way they hold themselves, which means their voices are exactly as they should sound. By embodying different animals and making sounds in these weird and wonderful shapes, we can start to explore not only the possibilities and limits of our bodies but our voices as well. Maybe we can even rediscover what we’re actually supposed to sound like. Doesn’t that sound cool?

Conclusion

Whether or not you’re a drama school graduate who spent a week of their lives imagining they were a rat, animal work in acting can unlock some really interesting potential. I also think it does a lot for our egos as we tap into a more primal, unique way of moving and being. I’m a firm believer that we already have everything we need to be great actors in the world around us. Animals can serve as a good reminder of what we’re really capable of outside of polite society. So do yourself a favour: pick an animal, plan a daytrip to the zoo and pretend you’re a hippopotamus for a while; see what you discover.

Hope this helped. See you around the traps!

The post Animal Work in Acting appeared first on StageMilk.

Clowning is the study and practice of a form of comedic performance. Clowns are usually characterised by loud make-up, bright clothing and acts that utilise slapstick—usually in ridicule of the clown themselves. Despite the ‘low brow’ comedy and the open, simplistic nature of most clown personas, the study of clowning is extremely rigorous and requires great physical and mental focus on the part of the actor.

Most actors will do some form of clowning in drama school, or at the very least some kind of training in physical theatre. And while you can sell all your possessions and move to France to study the art of clowning, there are plenty of things you can incorporate into your actor’s toolkit that don’t require buying red noses in bulk.

Keen to discover more about clowning? Read Discovering the Clown by Christopher Bayes. Many of the ideas I talk in this article about come from Mr Bayes, who is one of the modern masters of clowning.

Clowning: The Fact of Joy

The stereotypical iteration of the clown (think Pennywise without the teeth) is a fairly modern iteration. Turns out clowning has been around since 2400 BCE in Egypt, and has popped up in almost every culture since. To me, this suggests that it’s an innate part of the human condition—speaking a lot to do with our desire for joy and play. Everyone looks for joy in some capacity throughout life, and the one of the earliest forms of joy we experience is playing as children. Play is at the heart of clowning. But while it sounds simple enough, it can throw up some big obstacles when we take classes in the art as adults.

We’re generally taught, as we grow up, that making mistakes is bad. The mistakes we make when we’re children often occur when we follow our emotional impulse. “I feel so angry right now; I’m going to throw this stone at that window!” Smash. We learn that being impulsive or emotional leads to scary reactions from parents and teachers, so we train ourselves not to be. Clowning wants to us to unlearn this behaviour: to express it in a safe and controlled way.

Perhaps this is the reason why some people are afraid of clowns? It’s genuinely strange to watch an adult behave impulsively and openly. When we practice clowning, what we’re really doing is unlearning this highly restrictive way of being. This teaches us how to be more magnetic performers.

The Little Driver

Inside all of us, there’s something Christopher Bayes calls the Little Driver. It’s like your inner child, the one who I talked about in my Morning Pages article, who looks at everything with awe and wonder and says things like: “What if we climbed that tree all the way to the top and howled at the moon like a wolf then grew wings and flew to Jupiter?” The Little Driver is always looking for ways to have the most fun and the practice of clowning is all about letting the Little Driver go crazy.

It’s a little tricky to explain just how amazing it is to watch someone let their Little Driver take over. If someone is following their Little Driver with joyous abandon, it is impossible to take your eyes off them. Isn’t that exactly what we’re all trying to achieve when we perform?

Clowning is about Letting Go

I started clowning classes in my second year of drama school. It was terrifying. Every class, we took turns to get up by ourselves and try to make everyone laugh. For the first few classes, I sat there hoping I wouldn’t be the first to have to go up so that I could plan my attack. I sat in my chair racking my brain for things that I could say or do that I thought everyone else would find funny. When it was finally my turn to get up, I felt sure that I had it in the bag. I took a deep breath, got up and delivered. Nothing. Not a peep from my tutor or my classmates. It was nightmarish. 

I eventually learned a very important lesson about clowning. We all know what it feels like when we’re home alone and doing weird stuff to entertain ourselves like strutting around, making faces, singing at the top of our lungs and making terrible jokes. We do that because it’s fun and it feels good. Well, that’s what clowning wants you to do.

It’s not about being a comedic genius and having a full stand-up routine planned out and ready to go, it’s about following whatever you find funny in the moment. Human beings are pack animals. And whether we list it on our Hinge profiles our not, we’re very empathetic creatures. If we see someone enjoying themselves and laughing, then we’ll feel inclined to do the same. But the same is true of the opposite, too. If we see someone feeling uncomfortable, then we find ourselves cringing. “Is that a party you’d want to be at?” is what our tutor used to ask when someone was trying too hard. Watching someone experience a childlike joy and being brave enough to share it with everyone is incredibly special.

Why do Clowns wear Red Noses?

Ever asked yourself this question? There are a few ideas, many of which are related to the famous, influential clown Albert Fratellini (who was associated with the appendage.) Some say it symbolises the red, swollen nose of a drunkard—perhaps explaining the loose behaviour of the clown character. But many believe it’s more to do with mask work.

Like clowning, mask work is something you tend to encounter once in drama school. If you’re unfamiliar, mask technique is a style of acting informed by the wearing of masks. Much like clowning, mask technique has cropped up across many cultures over human history. Modern mask technique is informed by Commedia dell’arte—a sixteenth century Italian form with instantly recognisable character archetypes.

Masking and clowning is often taught hand-in-hand, because the two are so closely related and informed. Whether you’re opening your mind up in a clowning exercise, or donning a mask to shed your everyday persona, such techniques are about letting go of the person you are and giving over to impulse.

You’re So Impulsive

What I realised, after three years at drama school, was that every single one of our classes was ultimately trying to hone our impulses. The paradox of acting is that you’re rehearsing for a performance that shouldn’t look rehearsed. You need to know your lines back to front but say them as if you’re speaking them for the first time. It’s hard. Acting is hard. But the key to good acting, I believe, is to have razor sharp impulses and not be afraid of following them. 

Clowning is one of the most effective practices for honing your impulses because it’s the most tangible way to test them. If people are laughing and cheering, you’re following your impulses! If they’re not, then chances are you aren’t. The more you do it, the better you get at identifying your impulses and following them. And you can take that skill into any acting you do, whether it be dramatic or comedic.

Taking a Class in Clowning

You’ve probably gathered from all of this that clowning makes you vulnerable. Therefore, it’s super important to find a teacher who knows the craft well and who will maintain supportive and safe space for people to work in. I can personally recommend my two teachers, Budi Miller and Fabio Motta at The Clowning Workshop. They operate out of Melbourne, Australia and run a handful of great workshops throughout the year. Whilst I haven’t trained with him personally, Giovanni Fusetti is very highly regarded amongst my peers who have taken his workshops and he runs them all over the world. 

If you want to go for the white whale of clowning, there is the great Philippe Gaulier in France, whose teaching and reputation marks him a living legend. But no matter where you hail from, there’s no shame in looking close to home first. Wherever you end up, I can guarantee you’ll learn something and challenge yourself.

Clowning Exercises

Finally, there are plenty of clowning exercises and techniques you can discover on your own actor’s journey. I’m going to include a couple of favourites below, but there are hundreds out there you can learn. Much like a good physical or vocal warm-up, seek out your fellow actors for inspiration.

• Exaggeration exercise. Start with one actor walking around the rehearsal space. Then have another person follow them and exaggerate their movements. Be as precise as possible: do they swing their arms, move their head, have a particular expression? If you have a third actor, have them exaggerate these movements again behind the second. You can do simple tasks, emotions, even performances of other scenes!
• Mystery object. Put an object in the centre of the space between the actors. Each performer has a turn stepping into the circle and announcing “This object is not an [OBJECT] … it’s a-” and declare it to be something totally different to what it actually is. Chair? Snail shell. Pencil? Tiny submarine. Egg-beater? Mic for karaoke. You can extend this exercise by using the new object as the inspiration for an improvised scene.
• The chair. This is a fairly famous clowning exercise: put a chair in the centre of the room. Your character has to interact with it, without touching it. Eventually, you are allowed to touch the chair but you mustn’t use it as a chair. Take your time with this exercise. Enjoy the build-up of tension in the room before you finally get to interact!

Conclusion

Clowning is hard work. It takes a lot of practice to un-polite your adult brain and get used to embarrassment (something our self-obsessed selves fear above all else!) But clowning attempts to train this bias out of us. It reminds us that within this fear of being embarrassed or failing, is a joyous state of play that resonates with every single human being. 

So: go learn how to trust your impulses by being an idiot for a few hours a week. Pop on that red nose and play.

See you around the traps!

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Writing Morning Pages is an exercise from Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way. As a daily ritual, it helps you connect with your inner artist and quiet any voices within that might shout you down in your acting career. Given the sheer amount of uncertainty and rejection faced by actors every day, addressing negativity and building resilience are important parts of any actor’s skillset.

Firstly, if you haven’t already encountered it, put The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron at the top of your reading list. The method I’m going to  tell you about comes straight out of this brilliant book, which is a must-read for any would-be artist. And this technique is just one of many you might want to fold into your own acting process.

That Annoying Little Voice 

When I came out of drama school, I was pretty disillusioned about just how much of a stamina game being an actor really is; I learned very quickly that most of the time the biggest threat to your  endurance is yourself. We all know the voice in our head that loves to tell us nasty little things about  ourselves as actors:

“You’re not talented/good-looking/smart/funny enough to be an actor, why are you even trying?” 

Horrible. And the more auditions we get that end with a no or radio-silence, the louder the voice  becomes:

“You didn’t even get a call-back. Sally got a call-back, and she didn’t even do acting in high school.  Why are you even trying?” 

Firstly, good for Sally—I hope she got that role! But not so good for us. This annoying little voice is hard to ignore and even harder to shut up, but there is a way. Let’s start by learning this voice’s name. 

The Censor 

In The Artist’s Way, Julia Cameron calls this little voice ‘The Censor’. It lives in the left side of our brains. This is our analytical, logical half that helps us solve problems and it usually does this by recognising patterns. If we are auditioning for projects and getting knocked back repeatedly, as is  typically the case, our brain starts to pick up on the emotional response we are having to being  knocked back and tries to find solutions. The brain’s simplest solution for most things is to tell us to  stop doing the thing that is making us feel bad.

That’s why The Censor starts talking: to try to make us stop. But The Censor ends up doing more harm than good because, hopefully, we don’t want to  stop being an actor and going for roles. So when we resist, The Censor really can get nastier and nastier for the sake of achieving its goal.  

The Artist Brain 

The antithesis to The Censor is ‘The Artist Brain’. This is the part of our brain that might look at a tree and imagine that it’s an alien lifeform that sprung forth from the bowels of the earth and those  branches aren’t branches but long, winding tendrils that are reading the thoughts of anyone within a  five-kilometre radius. It’s the part of our brain that is most active when we are children. Sadly, it becomes increasingly repressed as we grow older. A key part of acting well and without inhibition is  to reconnect with your Artist Brain so you can better imagine what the shoes of the character you’re  playing might feel like. 

As you might expect, The Censor is out to get The Artist Brain, and The Censor also talks a lot louder. All its angry, spiteful thoughts drown own out our Artist Brain unless we do something about it. Thankfully, Julia Cameron knows exactly what that something is. 

Morning Pages 

The truth is you can’t stop The Censor. Not completely. What you can do is quieten it down by  giving it a chance to yell and kick and scream and have a tantrum so that it tires itself out for the day  and lets The Artist Brain have its fun. You can do this with a practice called Morning Pages. Here’s how it works:

Each morning, when you wake up and get out bed, sit somewhere where you won’t be interrupted and write three A4 sized pages of whatever you can think of. Anything that comes into your mind. Angry thoughts, jealous thoughts, happy thoughts, sad thoughts; all of it belongs on the page. It could be what you did the day before, what you’re planning on doing today, anything. If you can’t  think of anything to write, write that down, over and over if you have to. You’ll be surprised at what  kind of things emerge from “I don’t know what to write, I don’t know what to write” after a few  lines. The pages don’t have to make sense and they probably won’t. They should be ugly, disjointed, bizarre and nonsensical because they are for you and you alone. No one else will ever  see your Morning Pages, so go wild!

Why it’s Awesome 

Julia Cameron spent some years living in Taos, New Mexico. Multiple screenwriting projects of  hers had fallen through and she was left feeling down about her career and the industry in general.  She lived in a small adobe home next to Taos Mountain and every morning she would wake up, sit at  her desk near the window facing the mountain and write three pages without stopping. After writing  like this for a while, she gradually started to ask the mountain questions in her pages. She didn’t get  any answers until a character called Johnny waltzed into her pages and became a sort of guide,  helping her puzzle out the mysteries of the mountain and suddenly she was writing a novel. 

She has continued this practice for over 20 years now. 

While you may not pen your magnum opus, what Morning Pages will do is help you reconnect with  your creativity by calming The Censor and letting The Artist Brain pipe up. The practice will also help chart a map of your mind’s landscape and lead you towards a greater sense of self, which is imperative for any artist. It will also lead you towards constructive action instead of leaving you  dwelling in the difficulties you are facing, showing you solutions that you hadn’t even considered.

And if you do fancy giving writing a go (which we always recommend here at StageMilk), then this is the perfect place to start!

Conclusion 

Long story short: do your Morning Pages. The more skeptical of them you are, the better. You’ll be  even more surprised when they start working their magic. Do them every morning, don’t skip them  or skimp on them. And remember that there is no right or wrong, and that it may take time before  you start to notice something happening. But trust that it is happening.  

I hope this was helpful, see you around the traps!

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In this article I will explain what is meant by neutral and how it helps an actor build on themselves, reset and be present. 

What is Neutral?

Understanding neutral is a useful concept for actors. Exploring neutral can really heighten your listening as well as enabling yourself to be present on stage or screen. It is through neutrality that you can perceive nuances and shifts in your mind and body. It provides a base layer to build a character on or a pathway and a way to minimise unhelpful idiosyncrasies. It can also help us shed difficult work or scenes and reset for the next run or take. 

The first response most people have (including myself when I first started) is that neutral is the absolute opposite of what an actor should be doing. However, once it is understood, it can be a very useful tool. 

Simply put: it is just being, now in the moment. Our minds, bodies and voices are constantly in response to the outside world. They are constantly shifting and changing in response to external stimulus. While it is of utmost importance for an actor to shift and change in response to external stimulus, we want to make sure all of that stimulus is coming from the scene we are playing and the story we are in. Working through neutral gives us a starting point for any sort of acting work, making sure that we haven’t brought our world into the world of the story, and that we can leave the world of the play, scene or film at work. 

Neutral Body, Neutral Voice

As stated above, neutral is your base level. It is not quite a resting state, but instead the way you would view a car’s neutral. The engine is on, but we are not moving. Although anything can happen, right now nothing is. We are neutral. Another way to view it is like we are a marionette with the strings taught but not moving. Again anything can happen, but right now nothing is. 

The two neutrals spoken about in acting is neutral body/being and neutral voice. 

Neutral Body

Neutral body is your body, in balance, unlocked and standing in the most economical form. This does not mean most comfortable, or idiosyncratic, but most mechanically economic. Through our lives we have picked up habits and physical ticks, which inform how we move and stand in front of people or in certain situations regardless of how economical it is. Neutral aims to move beyond all external stimulus new or old so we can just be. 

Although this inevitably involves the mind, neutrality starts from the body. If we were to stack our skeleton so it does most of the work keeping us up, how would you stand? That is neutral. Of course, different bodies will have different neutrals. We are all asymmetrical, and different skeletons stack different ways. It is the essence that is important.

Neutral Voice

Neutral voice is your standard pitch, tempo and resonance. It is the voice as unaffected by external or internal stimulus. It is not conveying thought or emotion, it just is.

Neutral, in both cases, is used as a check-in and a starting point. It is a way of seeing where your voice and body is sitting before you begin work, but also a reference point for you for a character or a state of being. Your neutral becomes a foundation to build any physicality or vocal qualities from. It allows you to be fully present, unaffected by anything outside what you chose to focus on. Having this check-in point, or base level, means that when doing emotional or physically demanding scenes, or a work which requires extensive vocal work like accents or screaming, coming back through neutral can return your body and voice back to the way it was at the end of working to how you began.

Neutral Is Not No Energy

The biggest misconception about being neutral is that you have no energy, or you are somehow de-energised. That is not the case. Neutrality, rather than being a descriptor of nothing happening, should instead be looked at as a form of infinite potential. 

I like to think of neutral less in terms of myself doing nothing, and instead that nothing is happening to me. By blocking out external stimulus, or my body’s response to it I am able to bring my body, mind and voice to its most free state of being. I am not burdened by what happened to me today or yesterday, or who is in front of me. I just am. Once I choose to accept a stimulus, like a scene, a motivation, interaction or a set of given circumstances, my body, mind and voice can commit to that fully, because it has come from a point of nothing. 

Another way you could view it is a spring. A spring, by itself, does nothing: without external stimulus, nothing can happen. However, if you move it in any direction, it will now have tension. It will want to spring back to place. If you push it down, it will push back. Stretch it out, and it will pull back in. Although the spring itself isn’t holding energy, it has the potential to immediately engage.

Finding Neutral

Everyone’s body is different, so everyone’s neutral is different. What’s most important is the essence of it. Different people have different methods of finding their neutral and when you get familiar with it, you can find it simply with breath. Here is how I like to find neutral. If you need to adjust for yourself, hopefully you can find some approximations. 

1. Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart, making sure your feet are pointing forwards and your knees are unlocked. Imagine two straight lines being drawn, starting with your shoulders and passing through your hips, knees and feet. Feel the balance and solidity that this stance gives you.
2. Breath down into your stomach so your belly moves (not your shoulders) and draw yourself to your full height—again, without knees locked or any strain. In through the nose and out through the mouth, in a slow cycle.
3. Take yourself slowly through a spinal roll. This means allowing the head to drop down and with its weight drawing you down, visualise stacking each vertebra on top of each other until your torso is upside down hinging from the hips.
4. Let your knees be unlocked and as bent as you need in this position. Let the arms and head hang freely. Take some breaths.
5. Reverse the spinal roll by tucking your tail bone under and stacking your vertebra on top of each other, again with the knees unlocked. Roll the shoulders back then bring the head up last, stacking vertebra by drawing back and up until your eyes are at your horizon.
6. Block out anything in your mind and draw attention to your body. Gaze past anything in your eyeline as if you were focusing on the horizon and breath.
7. Do not adjust anything! Hold this position and breath. This is your neutral.

At first, it might be uncomfortable, but the more you practice the easier it gets. The first sensation you have is to try and ‘fix’ yourself. You will want to shift your shoulders or readjust your feet. Don’t, it’s fine. Your body is just not used to standing like this. Once you have done this a few times, you will notice the calm that comes over you, and the ability to just ‘be’ and breathe will become easier. You will also notice that there is nothing sleepy or lax about this stance—you’ll be calm, but aware.

From here, you can let out a vocalised sigh. Extend it out. If you repeat this you will find that you tend to pass through the same pitch and resonance again and again. Once you believe you have found your neutral tone, bring it onto a vocalised count of ten. This is neutral voice.

Practicing Neutral

So now we know how to find it, how do we use it? What does it do? So many schools of thought on acting talk about neutral. Stanislavski made people sit in a chair on stage for hours at a time to become comfortable just … being. Mamet talks about just standing there with a neutral body and resonant voice just saying the line. Strasberg and Meisner talk about starting from and returning to neutral. So why do they all talk about this? What does it prevent?

#1 Neutral For Holding Emotion

One of the big notes I give to emerging actors is don’t hold onto emotion, instead let it pass through you. An actor in training doing a scene will get a burst of emotion. Pleased with the outcome of their effort, they then hold the body and hold the breath in an attempt to hold onto the emotion for all to see. 

Unfortunately, the very act of holding the emotion dissipates it immediately, and an actor holding onto an emotion just so they can feel something has the opposite effect of what they intend for the audience. Instead of holding the emotion, it instead looks like they are forcing the emotion out, or they are fixed in a state (rather than reacting openly.)

Emotions move through the body like a ripple. They are elusive, sometimes fleeting, but always moving. Holding onto an emotion blocks us from reacting to the next moment and closes us off from the scene because we have shifted our focus internally. 

Instead, you should keep breathing and pursue your objective. Practicing neutral and allowing the body to just be means our body is ready to experience any emotion that appears as it appears, for as long as it appears. It doesn’t try to hold onto them, it just reacts freely, for as long as it lasts and then returns to its natural state. Of course, in a scene, this neutral will not last because the body will freely react to the next moment, and the next moment, and the next moment. What is important, though, is that it is moving and reacting moment to moment, not holding onto anything. 

Practicing neutral, and particularly practicing returning to neutral helps us stay fluid and responsive, rather than fixed or stagnant.  

#2 Neutral For Infectious Tension

Tension in the body is a big barrier for actors to experience emotion or pursue objectives, because the body and breath is incapable of allowing things to flow. We have all developed different tension in the body throughout our lives and it is good to rid our bodies of that if possible. What I am talking about in this instance, is the tension that creeps in while we are performing. It can be habitual tension, nerves or an attempt to hold emotion or a fixed way we hold our body when trying to perform a ‘state’ (which you shouldn’t do anyway.) 

For a quick demonstration, I want you to freely swing your arm around. Easy, huh? Now clench your fist as tight as you can or make your hand as rigid as possible and try again. Doesn’t swing as easily now does it? 

Infectious tension is exactly that: infectious. When parts of our body get tense, that tension effects everything else. Tight jaw can affect our throat which in turn effects the vocal cords. Tense shoulders can make our neck and chest tight. Whilst it might not seem hugely important, any tension that is infectious is placing barriers for our body to allow emotion and expression. 

Practicing neutral allows us to gain a heightened awareness of this tension. Knowing our neutral means we can breathe out this tension and free up the body ready for the next moment. 

#3 Neutral For Dropping Masks

Performance masks are any physical or facial posture that dictate a state of being through body language regardless of the stimulus we are reacting to. Common masks include the smile mask, frown mask, hands in pockets and arms crossed. 

For all these masks, this is the actor’s discomfort expressing itself in the body and often works counter to the character objective. They don’t know where to place their hands, so they become self-conscious and place them in their pockets. This exudes complacency or apathy, regardless of what else you do. You may feel uncomfortable about how ruthless your character is being, so you smile, undercutting the truth of the line and making you sarcastic. 

Although they may feel active, these masks only serve to make the actor feel more comfortable. Almost without exception, they dilute the actions of the character. More often than not it’s an actor’s discomfort at just being. Practicing neutral and being comfortable in this state allows you to be comfortable listening, thinking and reacting without needing to adjust the body for superfluous reasons. Allowing your body to just stop the need for this habitual posturing means you can fully invest in how the character should react. In turn, you can get out of the way for your body to respond how it would naturally. 

#4 Neutral For Stopping Character Bleed

This isn’t spoken about much in acting circles, but it is a big problem for the mental health of actors. Character bleed is when the action in the scene or the way a character behaves starts infecting your life outside of the rehearsal room or shoot. Essentially, it is the actor bringing home their work with them. If it’s a fun, light-hearted script this isn’t a huge problem. If it is highly emotional, traumatic or the character you have embodied is problematic, character bleed can be really detrimental. Even though its make-believe, the better you are, the more accurately or authentically you have put yourself through something that is very similar to the real thing. 

During my Masters research on performing violence, I found that the best way to prevent character bleed was to ritualise the rehearsal room by starting and finishing in neutral. This had huge benefits for the actors and meant we were able to go deeper into the work because the actors felt safe that it was compartmentalised from the rest of their day. The returning to neutral ritual meant that their breath, emotions and bodies were reset before they left. 

System of Movement

If you are curious about this, or you are aware your body gets in the way, or you get self-conscious and make superfluous movement, a great way to practice neutral or extend your practice is through some form of system of movement. Yoga, pilates, martial arts and most dance will have a form of neutral. For actors, our neutral is perhaps more “neutral” than a ballet dancer at the bar, or a fighter in a kata; but experiencing what that zone is meant to feel like can be beneficial to the actor. It reiterates the importance of potential rather then nothingness and demonstrates how the neutral body is energised and capable, not sleepy and blank. 

Good Luck!

It seems strange thinking that the pursuit of nothing can lead to results in a profession where something is always happening. However, focusing on a state which has limitless potential and getting the actor out of the way of the character will really help you in your performance. It is for this reason that so many acting theorists talk about it, and hopefully you now have a better understanding of what they are talking about and why they do.  

The post Neutral: A Tool for Actors appeared first on StageMilk.

In this article, I will address some of the misconceptions of ‘inside out’ acting and why it shouldn’t be your only route to character or truth. Additionally, I will introduce elements of the outside-in approach and why it’s an important tool to have. Lastly, I will point you in the direction of some theorists that can help you in your journey. 

Inside-Out vs Outside-in Acting Techniques

Most of every emerging actor’s training is based entirely on an ‘inside-out’ approach: a technique which is instigated internally and then allowed or encouraged by the performer to affect the external body and voice in a way which illuminates or expresses their internal state to the audience. Although you may not have heard it put this way before, you are probably already quite practiced in inside-out acting. It is, after all, the most popular approach.

An actor may focus their attention on a particular set of given circumstances, employ the magic if and replicate how they imagine the character would act in that situation. Alternatively, an actor might ‘target’ a particular image or memory, and through investing it feel their emotion building and rippling through their body, affecting their posture and voice. Or an actor might imagine themselves as the character, tricking themselves into experiencing everything that happens to this fictional persona.

All these processes start from the internal (psychological) being roused to emotion or action, in the belief that this emotion or action will then be expressed by the body and voice and received by the audience. ‘Outside-in’ flips this idea on its head. It is the idea that external choreography of the voice and body can influence our internal workings in the exact same way our internal workings effect our body. More importantly, when done well, it can provide a clear and accurate expression of internal state to the audience independent of whether we are ‘feeling it’ or not. 

The Misconception of ‘Feeling It’

“Really feeling it” seems to be the great indicator of a job well done for an emerging actor. Whilst really feeling it does quite often lead to a great performance, it is not actually an indication of whether performance was good. I have seen terrible performances from people claiming they really felt it, and I have seen incredible performances from people who said they felt nothing. Whether you are feeling it or not, focusing on what you are feeling very rarely produces a good performance.

In this pursuit of feeling, something often gets forgotten: The only person that needs to feel a thing is the audience. I can’t continue without sharing my favourite acting quote from David Mamet in his book “True and False”:

“The actor on the stage, looking for or striving to create a “state” in himself can think only one of two things: (a) I have not yet reached the required state yet; I am deficient and must try harder; or (b) I have reached the required state, how proficient I am! (at which point the mind, ever jealous of its prerogatives, will reduce the actor to (a)…”

“If one were truly able to command ones conscious thoughts, to summon emotion at will, there would be no neurosis, no psychosis, no psychoanalysis, no sadness.”

While Mamet can be a little obtuse, it is true that the burden that we place on ourselves as actors to “really feel it” can take us out of it completely. This, combined with a toolkit which is only inside-out, means sometimes we can exert a great deal of internal, psychological or mental energy for little or no result. 

Technique Over Instinct

If you are still thinking, “Yes, but I WANT to feel it. I know if I feel it, the audience will too!” well … that’s fine. Maybe not true, but fine. But let me ask you this: what if you’re not feeling it? 

It may be fine for a self-test, a rehearsal or an acting class where you can wait and do it again later when you are in the mood. But you cannot hold up a production or do a bad show because you’re not in the zone to give a good performance. What if your climactic scene is meant to be shot on a day when you’re exhausted or distracted? In a long theatre run, are you going to still be feeling the ‘To be or not to be’ speech at show 150? I doubt it. 

We all have good days and bad days. For any of you that work out or run or ride, you will know some days are easier than others. For those of you with intellectually demanding jobs or hobbies, you will find the same thing: some days we have it, some days it’s a struggle. When acting becomes work, rather than a hobby, it doesn’t matter whether you are having a good day or a bad day. You still need to perform, and well. No one cares if you are feeling it or not: you have a show to perform or a scene to shoot. This is where technique triumphs over instinct.

Outside-in approaches to acting are very technique-based, and rely a lot on physical choreography, breath and gesture. Although there are many schools of thought, broadly speaking, an outside-in approach is more interested on the external representation of internal state reaching the audience then it is about making you the actor feel something, even though you often will. 

Although initially it does not seem as sexy as the mystical transcendence of feeling like you were really in the scene, outside-in approaches can provide the complete appearance of a fully embodied scene. If done right, the technique can even activate very real emotion within you in a way that can be replicated again and again without draining the imagination or relying only on instinct.

Where Are Emotions?

I can still feel your hesitation, so before I continue, I want to ask you “Where are your emotions?” Emotions are felt and expressed through the body, not in the mind.  Almost without exception, emotions surprise us in life, instigated by external stimulus, independent of what we are thinking or doing. Quite often, the onset of an emotion causes us frustration in real life, as it gets in our way of achieving what we came to do. Emotions also ripple through our body, changing constantly bouncing from one to the next, rarely in a fixed state. 

So if they are, as stated above, experienced and expressed through the body, why do we try and start them with our mind?

We know instinctively just by looking at someone if they are happy or depressed, stressed or relaxed, laughing or crying. How do we know this? Through their body language, facial mask and breathing patterns. We know that the physical act of smiling can heighten our mood, and that slowing our breathing can reduce stress. 

Outside-in approaches acknowledge the role of the body in the experience and reception of emotion. Outside-in schools of thought focus on gestures made or signals our bodies naturally emits while in emotional states and teaches them as choreography. When executed well, this emotional choreography is indistinguishable from the real thing. At the core of this thinking is the understanding of a bi-directional relationship between body and mind: in the same way a thought which triggers an emotion causes the body to behave in a particular way, moving the body in a particular way can produce internal experience of emotions. 

Below are three of the big players in outside-in thinking, although most theorists incorporate elements of this when it comes to repeating moments or performances. Whole articles could be written—and in fact countless books have been penned about these theorists—so allow this to be a brief introduction as to where to look if you want to know more. 

Acting Technique #1: Laban

Rudolph Laban was probably the most prolific of the outside-in theorists. It helps that his teachings and way of thinking was developing at a time when performance in general was going through a massive soul search. The first half of the 20th century was an extraordinary time for the philosophy of performance and during this period the walls between dance, music and acting were coming down. While we are quite fixed with naturalism because Stanislavski-style inside-out approaches took dominance, it is important to remember that at the time this was just one revolutionary idea in a sea of exploration to have performance reflect life. Although Laban first started in dance and physical theatre, the techniques later became adopted by actors. 

Laban’s method is interested in categorising types and qualities of movement and gesture to externally represent internal energy. It asks that actors experiment with or try to observe the qualities of movement in real people to decide what combination of movements and qualities best represent an internal state. 

Although there is too much to report on in this quick introduction, as his work is all about categories I can briefly introduce you to the two main ones: 

Movement can be divided into four categories:

• Direction (direct or indirect)
• Weight (light or heavy)
• Speed (fast or slow)
• Flow (bound or free)

Then by combining these there are 8 gestures or ‘efforts’

• Wring
• Press
• Flick
• Dab
• Glide
• Float
• Punch
• Slash

By thinking about your movement in these categories, you can be deliberate about what you are wanting to depict. Alternatively, focusing on an effort or gesture can replace the need to inspire emotions internally. For example, rather than trying to make yourself ‘anxious’ you could instead focus on physicalising/internalising the WRING gesture/effort (Indirect, heavy, sustained and bound) which will have the outward manifestation of anxiety and may in fact induce this emotion. 

If you are curious about this, there is plenty to find online or in his book: The Mastery of Movement. 

Acting Technique #2: PEMS

The Perdekamp Emotional Method or PEM is a recent technique developed by Stephan Perdekamp—a writer, performer and director based out of Austria. 

What makes PEM really interesting is that it addresses the potentially problematic elements of substitution or self-psychological manipulation which underpins most other acting techniques. It gives a genuine alternative to playing trauma, heightened states or emotionally demanding material, without an actor having to relive trauma in their own lives or traumatise themselves through constantly placing themselves in the minds of a character. They claim that “PEM provides performers with a direct, effortless and guidable access to authentic emotions on a purely physical basis, without recourse to personal experiences or emotional memory.” 

As it is a full, comprehensive method involving many steps and elements much like Stanislavski’s method or Meisner, there is too much to explain in this article alone. In basic terms, this technique relies on identifying and learning ‘emotional patterns’ with the body rather than the mind. Emotional states (which are themselves combinations of ‘true’ emotions) are broken down into a combination of posture, facial mask and breathing which when done accurately allows for a strong emotional response in the mind and body regardless of thought pattern. Unlike mental stimulus, this choreography can be repeated consistently, provoking the same response in the body repeatedly.

Another fantastic element of this method is that it works in parallel with other acting methods, so it is complimentary, rather than a replacement for any school of thought you currently adhere too. It is also a ‘complete’ method, in that it addresses all elements of performance. This means that whether you have a method you prefer already, or you are entirely new to acting, PEM will have benefit for you. 

Click here if you’re keen to read more about PEMS.

Acting Technique #3: ALBA Emoting

ALBA emoting is a very similar technique to PEM. Although PEM is a full acting technique which covers all elements of performance in its scope and looks to provide solutions for all acting problems, ALBA is a little more specific and science-based. 

A relatively new technique developed by neuroscientist Susan Bloch, ALBA emoting is a psycho-physical technique which essentially reverse engineers emotional expression through physical choreography. ALBA emoting choreographs the external expression of the emotional state based on breath, posture and facial expression. The findings of Bloch were that not only did the accurate execution of the choreography induce an emotional state into the actor, it also was obviously and accurately perceivable by an audience member.

The foundation of ALBA emoting is the breath patterns of these six base emotions. Our empathetic response to breath as an audience member is very powerful. Take for instance when you watch a movie and the protagonist jumps underwater. We unconsciously limit or hold our breath in empathy with that character. This manipulation of breath has the same effect on the audience and gives the actor something concrete to focus on and execute during the performance, taking away the need to “reach a state’ or ‘go there’ emotionally. 

Unlike other acting techniques which can be playfully explored without prior exposure, ALBA emoting theorists warn against use without prior training by experts in the field. Developed by a neuroscientist, rather than a performer, its dissemination amongst performers, directors, training institutes and companies has likely been held up because of the need to train in this technique to use it effectively. 

That being said, understanding the core components can give us insight into the importance of breath and can inspire us to think of emotion in terms of breath rather then feeling, even if you haven’t gotten trained in this method specifically. 

Conclusion

I am a big believer in the actor’s toolkit, where you have access to a bunch of different solutions to the same problem. You wont need every tool all the time, and you will definitely have favourites, but you’re better off having it and not needing it, then needing it and not having it. 

Most emerging actors have no outside-in tools, so it is worth brushing up on a few. Who knows, it might just save you the next time you aren’t ‘feeling it’!

The post The Outside In Acting Technique appeared first on StageMilk.

Updated 7th December, 2022.

This can make finding an acting method that works for you very difficult, because at the professional level the end result looks exactly the same. Whether someone is using Meisner’s philosophy, Practical Aesthetics or Strasberg’s Method, they can really only be noticed during role preparation and rehearsals. While different schools of thought will prioritise different things during the process, the final performance will always lead to a fully embodied character that is existing truthfully in the world of the story. It is precisely because of this that sifting through the plethora techniques and methodologies  of can be so difficult.

This article outlines 10 acting techniques every actor should explore. They cover a range of skill areas, from script analysis to physical preparation to character development. While you might not resonate with all of them, these are ten techniques worth understanding and trying out in your own acting work, as they will help enrich your understanding of your craft.

For all the talk of specific schools of thought, I don’t know a single actor that is a purist—and by that I mean an actor that follows only one technique or method in its entirety, utilising nothing else. Most actors will have a preference, and dominant method they fall back on, but each work you perform, or character you portray, will have its own challenges. These challenges may require different approaches, and not any one acting philosophy covers all angles.

The Toolbox

As a result, actors usually have what I like to call a ‘Frankenstein’ technique. This is a system they have developed that works for them, which blends multiple schools of thought together. I often hear this referred to at drama schools as the ‘toolbox’.

Throughout your training (either through an institution or through your own self edification), you will acquire all the tools necessary to perform a part by being exposed to multiple acting methods and philosophies. Although you don’t always need every tool, having access to them means you’re better equipped to do whatever job comes along. I encourage you to read as many different acting theorists and techniques as you can. 

Finally: although they may differ in name, in my experience there is a great deal of crossover within the realm of acting theory. Acknowledging these common ground techniques will allow you to communicate effectively with other actors, regardless of their chosen school of thought.

10 Acting Techniques Every Actor Should Explore

Rather than list ten separate philosophies or schools of thought, I instead want to focus on specific techniques that I see echoed by multiple theorists.

Skip to:

1. Objectives
2. Actioning
3. Imagination – the big ‘IF’
4. Targeting
5. Developing an Inner Life
6. Being Present
7. Units/Beats
8. Outside In
9. Mastering Breath
10. Neutral Body

I should admit this is partly because it feels reductive attempting to give a short form summary of the works by the great theorists like Stanislavski, Strasberg, Meisner, or Chekov (Michael or Anton). But irrespective of where you study or who you read, mastering these commonly echoed techniques will set you up to be a great actor. This article will illuminate what these techniques are, why they are important and where to go if you want to know more. 

#1 Objectives

One of my favourite acting teachers used to run a scene class. People would come up, do a scene. His first question was always “What do you want?”. If you didn’t have an answer, you had to sit down. Lesson over. 

And why? Because this question drives everything. Your objective is what you want from your scene partner. When you know that, you fight for it. And when you fight against another actor—with their own objective involving you—you create the conflict that is the essence of all drama.

People are driven by desire: wants or needs that push us into action and make us do something. You desired to learn about acting techniques, so you searched the term in your preferred search engine, and you started to read this article. Your desire pushed you into action and that action led you here.  

Although, in life, our wants and needs can often be mundane or uninteresting, stories are built on desires which create conflict, quests, revelations or redemption. The characters desires are the reason for the story to exist:

• Romeo wants Juliet, Juliet wants Romeo. Chaos ensues.
• Macbeth wants to be King, but there are people in the way. Macbeth starts killing these people, chaos ensues.
• Thanos wants to destroy half the life in the universe, a few movies and some spin-offs ensue.

In the acting world, this desire is called an objective. It is what you character wants in any given moment. You can have big wants which occupy a whole character arc (a super-objective) or little wants which might only last for a line or two. But you must always have one. Being able to identify and then pursue your objective in any given moment is probably the most important technique you can learn. 

If you want to know more about objectives, check out some of our other articles: What Is An Objective?, How to Find Your Character’s Objective and Objectives not Emotions. 

#2 Actioning

If objectives are what you want, actions are how you are going to get it. They are the tactics that you use to achieve your desire.

In life, we are always trying different tactics to achieve our desire. This notion can make us seem like sociopaths, but it’s true. If, for instance, I wanted money from someone, I could ask politely, I could plead, or I could bargain. On the other end of the spectrum, I could bully, I could threaten, or I could even flirt. If I try one and it doesn’t work and I still need the money, I will try another approach. Exploring different actions can lead to multiple ways to say the same line. 

By identifying our action/tactic/approach, we are not only pursuing an objective, we are making a choice as to how to pursue it, and how an audience can come to know and understand our character. By exploring our actions, we can bring variety to a scene by trying multiple approaches to achieve the same objectives. 

If you want to know more about actions check out Plotting Actions for Objectives and Actions: The Actor’s Thesaurus (Book Review).

#3 Imagination – the big ‘IF’

While Stanislavski is all over this page and the techniques it details, this one is directly attributed to him. That said, every acting theorist addresses the imagination. It is a crucial part of the acting skillset, and developing your imagination is a key component of becoming a good actor. And what word engages the imagination the most?

IF.

Two letters make a big impact: what if…? Would it be different if…? If I were you I would…

IF is the great instigator of the hypothetical and the hypothetical is where actors thrive!

What this comes down to really is being able to put yourself in the characters position. ‘The magic if’ is an important part of Stanislavski’s teaching, but it also appears in Practical Aesthetics (a supposed departure from Stanislavski) as ‘Its as if I…’. Even those who have never read an acting book visualise characters actions in this way:

“If I were married to her, how would I hold her hand?”

“How would I feel if they did that?”

IF is the key to the imagination. Asking yourself how you would act/feel/behave/react if you were in the situation of the character is the first step of fully embodying a character and their surroundings.

If you want to know more about Stanislavski Method: “The Magic If” or How to Develop Your Imagination as an Actor.

#4 Targeting

There is a very clear book about this called The Actor and the Target. The author, Declan Donnellan, penned this idea beautifully, but it was something that had been inherently understood by other theorists. Although not everyone has read this book, most of the best actors I know do this technique instinctively. 

Let’s do a short exercise:

What did you have for breakfast? 

You just targeted! Very simply, and in a non-active way, but it’s the same principle. I can guarantee (unless you are one of the 2%-5% of population who are without a mind’s eye) you quickly conjured an image of your breakfast. Maybe even a remanence of taste or smell, and perhaps even a small flash of emotion? My coffee machine broke this morning, so when I remember breakfast I also remember a strange grinding sound and I relive the frustration and disappointment of my morning meal. 

The long and the short of it is this: think about what you are speaking about. 

We are doing this all the time when we speak in life, but this is easy and second nature because we have real world experiences that come to mind. When we are acting, we have to deliberately populate these images in our mind. We need to consciously drag up the images and experiences of the character. If they are talking about a tree in a childhood home, we need to conjure an image of that specific tree. If the character is sharing the experience of a horrible car crash, we need to conjure a collection of images. We need to target something as we are speaking about it. 

If you want to know more about the Practical Application of The Actor and The Target, check it out!  

#5 Developing an Inner Life

The inner life of a character is a very important part of being ‘real’ on stage or screen. It is the acknowledgement that the mind is active beyond the words being spoken out loud. It is the performance of the inner workings or inner turmoil of the character you are playing. 

Whether or not it is said out loud, we need to know our characters opinions of everyone and everything around them. We need to witness them chose to say the words they do, understanding that there are even more words they decided not to say. It is the inner life which compels a character to speak and react to the world. 

I have heard of a few different techniques which deal with creating a fully embodied inner life:

• Inner monologuing is the practice of developing a stream of consciousness monologue that continues in your mind whilst performing a scene. It should be populated by opinions and character truths, but is always in direct relationship to what is happening in the scene. 
• Emotional memory or emotional recall is about understanding and portraying the emotions the character may experience when in particular situations.
• Strasberg’s Method deals with full and sustained embodiment of character to first understand how they react to the world before finding out how they react in a scene.
• Active analysis uses improvisations to pursue the inner motivations of the character without the confines of the script.

More recently, a focus on a character’s opinions (opinions = thoughts + feelings, irrelevant of facts) has been used to help develop the inner life of the character. First imposing, and then allowing your character to have opinions about the people, places and events of their story allows for a strong inner life. 

Whatever process you choose to investigate is up to you, but an understanding and investment in techniques which increase inner life is crucial. 

Look here if you are interested in Strasberg’s Method, Emotional memory or emotional recall.

#6 Being Present

This is an ever-elusive problem for actors that numerous theorists deal with. How to be perfectly present: playing moment to moment, responding to new information all whilst knowing when and how the scene or story ends. When we first read a script, we have an immediate impulse of how it is to be played. As we read the lines for the first time out loud they inevitably fall flat and not how we imagined, because the information is no longer new and we know how the scene progresses. Tricking ourselves out of this is of utmost importance to a fully embodied performance. 

I am sure you have received the note “You aren’t listening.” I am sure you have also heard the phrase “acting is reacting,” or “keep it fresh.” All of these notes are dealing with the same problem: Being present. 

While there are again a number of different exercises for this problem and many theorists are dedicated to it (Sanford Meisner, Ed Asner and Larry Moss to name a few), for me this is more a case of what not to do, rather then what to do. 

Most actors drill their lines into the ground, rote learning not just the lines, but how they are going to perform them. Everything is decided before you play the scene, regardless of how the actor is feeling on the day or the input of the scene partner. This makes it IMPOSSIBLE to be present, because you are no longer reacting to anything, you are playing a predetermined set of responses closer to a computer program than an actor. 

Learn your lines, but not your performance. Keep yourself open to play and adjust on the day, as your scene partner and director will have just as many provocations to throw at you as you’ve prepared at home. The more options you play consider, the more you will be ready to take on whatever your collaborators throw at you. Trust your instincts and allow yourself to be surprised. This may seem scary, but is exactly what is meant by ‘being bold’ or ‘brave choices’. Nothing is gained by playing it safe. 

#7 Units/Beats

Script and scene analysis is essential to making good choices as an actor. Anyone that has sat in on a development, written a script or studied literature know how important structure is for a story. In fact, story structure is one of the few universal similarities between cultures worldwide, even if the telling may differ. We often forget as actors that that is exactly what we are a part of – a story. Not paying attention to the structure of it can mean we not only miss opportunities to demonstrate range, but we risk missing the point or flow of the scene entirely. 

Using beats or units (the terms are interchangeable) to divide the script into moments of action, topics or energy is a great way to make sure we are serving the characters journey in the scene. Marking beat/unit changes in our script can help identify when new information appears in the scene. It can stop us from ‘one noting’ (playing the same objective, action or emotion for the whole scene.) It also allows us to permission to our self to take ‘shifts’ (when new information changes the characters energy, mood or action). 

Learn more about: Units or Beats, Script Analysis and How to Break Down a Scene.

#8 Outside In

Acting is equal parts art and craft. Ignoring the craft component is something I see a lot of less-experienced actors fall victim to, and it is a problem because their work becomes completely dependent on whether they are ‘feeling it’ or not.  

Sometimes, you are fuelled fully by creative impulses; your imagination is allowing you to be fully embodied and present. You don’t have to worry about a thing because your artistic side is handling all of it. 

But then some days, the juices aren’t flowing and everything feels flat. That motivation that was bringing you to tears has stopped working, and you are now a wooden lump waiting for some sort of divine creative intervention. Unfortunately, you will have another show, or another scene, or another setup and you MUST deliver. And with nothing to fall back on, it will be bad work: full of forced and contrived emotion. 

‘Inside-out’ acting (acting where the physical and vocal energy is influenced by internal psychological stimulus) is great, but sometimes won’t get you there. Luckily, there are a stack of techniques regarding the ‘Outside-in’ approach. Learning a few will mean that whether you are ‘feeling it’ internally or not, the external result will still appear embodied, truthful and real. 

At the end of the day, the only person who has to actually feel anything is the audience. 

Laban has some great work on psychological gestures, movements which convey and sometimes induce a particular state of being, as did Russian practitioner Vsevolod Meyerhold. Stanislavski talked about moving the body and the mind will follow—in fact, the latter half of his career was dedicated to such practice, as if to balance out his inside-out methodologies that brought him fame and recognition. ALBA emoting and PEMS deals with posture, facial mask and breath patterns which can be learned as choreography to convey and sometimes induce internal emotion or energy! 

#9 Mastering Breath

When I first heard breath is key to performing, I completely disregarded it as some woo-woo BS. As I have started directing and coaching, I realised it is one of the single most important divides between good actors and bad actors. 

Good actors allow the performance to affect their breath, or their breath to affect their performance. Bad actors ignore or don’t investigate how the scene would affect their breath, or they hold their breath to try and hold onto any emotion passing through. 

Emotion is breath. Laugh is disrupted breath, in the same way a cry is. When we are shocked, we breathe in sharply. When we are panicked, our rate of breath increases. When in pain, we are told to breathe through it. We deliberately slow our breath to try and calm ourselves. When we see something or experience something incredible, we call it ‘breath-taking’. 

A lot of the ‘outside-in’ approaches deal with breathing patterns, but EVERY voice coach—and almost every theorist—talks about the importance of breathing in the moment. 

It is a difficult thing to master, because it is largely subconscious. But that is exactly what all acting is: a conscious pursuit of everything that usually sits in the subconscious, in order to replicate or reproduce real life. 

There are a stack of exercises to investigate and I encourage you to find the one that works for you. Even yoga or singing classes can be useful for control, even ifthey are not specific to the craft of acting. Patsy Rodenberg and Cecilly Berry have great resources about breath.  ALBA emoting or the Perdekamp emotional method deals with breath in their ‘outside-in’ approaches. 

Learn more about how to Breathe as Your Character. 

#10 Neutral Body

“Suit the action to the word, the word to the action.” The importance of the physical body and how it acts and reacts with text has been known for a very long time. Enhancing your body’s ability to do this will bring immediate gains to your acting. 

I am sure a lot of you have gotten the note “stop acting on tension”. “But the moment is tense!” I hear you reply. This is a misconception. While you might be tense when witnessing a moment, during the experience, one is not tense: the actor’s body is not representing the characters body. The actor is responding to the situation as an observer, not as a participant. The actors body is not neutral. 

When I say the term neutral body, the immediate response from actors is that neutral is bad! Neutral is void of anything! That is not what I mean. 

Think of it as a blank canvas. From here, anything is possible. As soon as we put a mark on it, it is becoming a picture. We can explore that (and we should) but if we want to paint something else, no matter what we draw it will have the backdrop of that mark. However, if you paint it all white, that picture disappears. Now anything is possible again. 

Neutral body is about making sure your body is free to react in the moment without the actor’s physical insecurities, habits or unhelpful idiosyncrasies getting in the way. It is making sure that your body is in a constant state of flux and allowed to continually react freely to the outside world. 

Allowing your body to return to neutral is an important part of this. It is a skill which must be developed. Practising returning to neutral (keep in mind I am talking about YOUR neutral, you are yourself, after all) allows your body to be free to engage with the next moment. When we aren’t in neutral, or we don’t return to neutral, we allow previous moments to infect our body subconsciously, and often these physical elements aren’t in sync with what we are saying and what we are wanting to convey. A smile lingers longer than is truthful. Arms are crossed because the actor doesn’t know what to do with their hands even when the character is trying to be friendly. Heightened tension during a ‘rant’ monologue, even though the character is releasing.

Laban, Stanislavski, Michael Chekov, Strasberg and pretty much every theorist talks about building character or emotion from the neutral body. 

Look here for more about Physicality For the Actor.

Conclusion

I trust this list has been helpful. One of the most difficult things about developing a new skill is that there is a whole lot of information to sift through. What makes this hard to navigate is that a lot of the time, you don’t even know how much you don’t know. 

This list of techniques will set you off armed with the right language to exist in a room of fellow actors, with an ability to communicate the process of acting. While just a brief intro, I trust you now know where to start, what techniques you need to develop and where to look should you need more info. Good luck!

The post 10 Acting Techniques Every Actor Should Explore appeared first on StageMilk.

Watching two actors repeating the same line back and forth may have you wondering, “What exactly is the point of this?”

“You’re wearing a blue suit.”
“I’m wearing a blue suit.”
“You’re wearing a blue suit.”
“I’m wearing a blue suit…”

And on and on. While the lines remain the same and it may seem as though not much is happening, the outwardly simple Meisner repetition exercise holds vast benefits for actors looking to hone their presence and focus.

Sanford Meisner held the belief that actors have two main problems:

1. Self consciousness
2. Not listening

The foundation of the Meisner technique holds that “acting is the reality of doing.” Thus, Meisner created the repetition exercise as the primary practice of getting actors into the habit of doing.

As Meisner introduces the repetition exercise to two students in the book Sanford Meisner on Acting, he tells them: 

“This probably seems unbelievably silly, doesn’t it? But it’s the beginning of something. Are you listening to each other? Are you repeating what you hear? You are.”

To another student repeating later on, Meisner elaborates.

“To take the heat off yourself…to transfer the point of concentration outside of yourself, is a big battle won.”

Though repetition was initially created to help actors with the two main issues of self consciousness and lack of listening, the exercise yields a slew of benefits beyond these. Repetition can even become a tool that not only helps us in our acting, but also our daily social interactions.

1. Repetition Helps Us Manage Anxiety

Truly.

When we’re experiencing anxiety in an unknown situation like being onstage or repeating with a stranger, our brains are prone to lose their abilities to take in details about the person in front of us – the shape of their face, the color of their hair, and so on. Not only this, but anxiety can trigger our brains to go into a fight or flight response, turning our awareness away from our partners and being in the present moment and onto ourselves and how we can escape the present moment.

In the therapeutic practice of anxiety management, there are several “grounding techniques’ suggested by therapists and practitioners. One of the most common ones:

Putting all of your focus on something outside of yourself and describing it in great detail…

…the very basis of repetition.

Commonly used in cognitive behavioral therapy, this grounding practice of asking ourselves, “What do I see? What are its intricacies? What does it make me feel?” helps us counteract the brain’s anxious responses twofold:

1. It sets us in the present moment
2. and it helps our brain to logically assess danger (which, as we’re acting, is usually pretty low.)

2. Repetition Aids in Calming Our Nervous Systems

Humans have an innate need to be heard and understood. When we’re in anxiety-inducing situations such as being onstage, our sympathetic nervous systems prepare us for danger – our fight or flight responses kick in, we have trouble focusing, our heart rates spike, and our blood pressures increase. Not a great recipe for present, in-the-moment acting. However, repetition help can circumvent this. 

Mirroring is the act of repeating back to a person what we’ve just heard them say and even imitating their body language, which is one of the key components to the Meisner repetition exercise. Research shows that when we are mirrored by someone else, whether in hearing our words repeated back to us or seeing our body movements in theirs, the rewards center of our brains lights up. The mirroring that occurs through repetition signals a connectedness to another human being, which in turn regulates our nervous system’s response to fear.

Repetition is not only a practice for listening but also a fulfilment of our innate human need to feel heard and understood, setting our entire nervous systems in motion for focused presence.

3. Repetition Empowers Us to Take Up Space

In looking closer at the parameters of the exercise, we find that repetition helps actors to embody and claim their space in three ways:

• We must be specific about our opinions.

Meisner asserted that the greatest gift we can give is our specific opinions. In repetition, we’re encouraged to be as pointed as possible about what we’re observing. Instead of generalizing and playing it safe, repetition strengthens us to be honest about exactly what we’re perceiving in the other person, thus deepening our confidence in our own opinions.

• We don’t apologize or explain ourselves.

Perhaps the most difficult aspect of the exercise, when we repeat, we are emboldened to avoid apologizing or making excuses for what we’ve done in a past moment. We can feel badly about how we’ve affected someone, but we don’t turn it into a conversation that includes explanations and “I’m sorrys”, which can be incredibly liberating.

• There’s no room for social niceties.

In the outside world, we are rewarded for being polite, putting others first, and stepping lightly around touchy subjects. In repetition, all of that is discouraged, which leads us to the fourth benefit of repetition:

4. Repetition Relieves Pressure Off of Ourselves

One of the most crippling things we can do in our art is put all of the pressure on ourselves to come up with how we feel. Not in Meisner. The repetition exercise teaches us that

If we’re getting everything off of our partner,
then we can only assume that what we’re feeling is because of them.

Let me explain. I might come into a Meisner class pissed because my car got towed. However, I might also believe that anger is unattractive and shouldn’t be expressed outwardly. Outside of repetition, I might edit my impulses because they feel too tied to my “Self,” whom I want to be perceived as pleasant. But in repetition, if anger truthfully arises, I’m encouraged to say, “You’re making me so angry!” to my partner, putting all of the responsibility on them instead of myself.

Was my partner really the reason for my anger? No, the car towing probably was. However, inside of the exercise, if we’re:

• focused solely on our partners,
• taking them seriously,
• and responding truthfully off of them

Emotions that would otherwise be suppressed then feel allowed to emerge because the exercise encourages us to make our partners the reason for everything we feel.

5. Repetition Forces Us to Be in the Present Moment

Finally, the nature of the exercise leaves no room for us to be anywhere but the present moment. Repetition is quick in every sense of the word. Some of the guidelines of the exercise include:

• There is no time for pauses, they signal that you’re in your head. When in doubt, repeat!
• No referring back to a moment that happened a few moments before. If you’re referring to the past, your entire focus is not in the present.
• Avoid referencing anything outside of what’s happening in this moment. For example, your partner says, “You’re adorable” and you respond with, “My mom always says that.” You’ve referred to something outside of that moment. You’re allowed to say how it makes you feel based on the fact that your mom always says that, but you want to keep the repetition about this moment, not something happening outside of it.

Repetition is like the ultimate game of ping pong.

Conclusion

The mechanics of the exercise eliminate any time to think, any room to belabor, or any efforts to thwart our immediate impulses. As the great Meisner teacher Bill Esper said, “We don’t seek to develop our minds with repetition; rather we seek to develop our instincts.” Though it’s seemingly simple, repetition could be the start of opening up a complex emotional world inside of you, impacting not only how you interact with others onstage, but how open your heart is with others off.

The post 5 Benefits of the Meisner Repetition Exercise (That May Surprise You) appeared first on StageMilk.

A Unique Opportunity: Remounting Hamlet after Covid

I find myself in a privileged position in the aftermath of the pandemic. Having suffered significant heartbreak after our production of Hamlet closed a week after opening in March 2020, I am now a few months away from the remounting of that same show. I have a rather unique opportunity: I get to start again. I get to take the knowledge, rehearsal and experience from our ‘trial run’ last year, then examine that experience with the aim of fortifying my performance this time around. I’d like to share this process with you. 

A week of shows may not sound like a lot, but there is a goldmine of lessons in that little week for me to debrief on. The role I played was Laertes, the son of Polonius and brother of Ophelia, and (towards the end of the play) the adversary of Hamlet. This role challenged me deeply. It demanded detailed text work, complex relationships, emotional release and the ability to jump from one high-stakes scene to the next before diving into a (fantastically choreographed and physically demanding) fencing match at the end of the show resulting in my character’s death. (Spoilers. Sorry. Read the play.) My role is nothing in comparison to the demands of playing Hamlet, but it’s my role with my challenges to explore. I know that it’s possible to take my performance to new level of depth and truth and energetic sustainability.

There are many methods, acting teachers and processes out there for us to choose from, but for this exercise I’ve chosen the work of Irish director Declan Donnellan, and his book The Actor and the Target.

Declan Donnellan & The Actor and the Target 

I first came across Declan Donnellan’s The Actor and the Target in my second year of acting school in Sydney. The practicality and clarity of Donnellan’s writing and method was exhilarating for me, as I had often engaged with writing on acting which was unclear and esoteric. 

Declan Donnellan is a writer and co-artistic director of theatre company Cheek by Jowl. With his company he has staged over 40 productions, reaching over 400 cities across six continents. His directing credits span over many theatre companies and he has also directed for film. It’s fair to say he has a wealth of experience when it comes to theatre, directing and acting technique. His book, The Actor and the Target was first published in Russian in 1999 and has since been released in over 14 other languages. 

The Actor and the Target tackles many aspects and challenges of the craft of acting from fear, stakes, mask work and the space, to commonly asked questions by actors, such as “I don’t know what I’m doing”, “I don’t know what I want” and “I don’t know who I am”. The primary thesis of the book is about the ‘Target’ – a specific and active focal point outside the actor to direct their performance towards. Having these challenges and questions acknowledged and explored by such a prolific director is truly a gift to the acting community. Engaging with it has deepened my craft and the tools I have access to drastically. 

A few years back we wrote a short summary of the book, which you can find here: The Actor and The Target | Book Review. 

Alternatively, Cheek by Jowl has made public the introduction to the book itself, which you can find here. For more information on Donnellan and his work, I’d recommend exploring Cheek by Jowl’s website.

The purpose of this article is not necessarily to give a full biography of Donnellan or summary of his book, so please head to the above links for more information. I’m more keen to dive into the practical application of his work!

Jack Crumlin and Harriet Gordon-Anderson. Photograph © Brett Boardman

My Experience: Best Thing, Ready For

Let me give you a little bit of background about my experience playing Laertes last year for context. 

I learnt early on in my career from my first acting teacher that the best way to debrief with oneself on a performance is with the framework ‘Best thing/ Ready for’. Put simply, I’ll ask myself what were some of the best things about my experience of that performance, and what are some things I am ready for the next time I perform. 

(Notice that I am not asking what was the best thing and what was the worst thing: focusing on the worst aspects of your performance is not conducive to being able to learn from your experience.)

Best Thing

Don’t worry I’m not about to give a soliloquy about how great I think my acting was. I just want to focus on what felt effective and sustainable within my performance so I can embrace those aspects the next time I play the role.  One of the things I felt most secure about in this production was the fencing match at the end of the play. With the actor playing Hamlet and the movement director we spent many hours training and rehearsing to ensure that this part of the production was an effective telling of the story whilst being safe and sustainable for us as performers. Part of my work in the next few months will be rebuilding that strength and comfortability with the choreography. 

Another joy of the production for me was my rapport with my fellow actors and how that enhanced my connection with them on stage. I was lucky enough to be surrounded by a group of tremendous humans, both on stage and off. Everyone was so wonderful to work with and passionate about the project, and that feeling of ensemble carried onto the stage and enhanced the production as a whole. We will have some cast changes in the remounted production, so welcoming our newcomers into the ensemble will be paramount to success. This rapport allowed me to feel free and playful in my performance.

There are many other things I am happy with, but for now let’s move on to what I’m ready for:

Reader For

As is often my primary focus when approaching Shakespeare, I spent much of my time in rehearsals ensuring I had understanding. I needed to ensure my understanding and delivery of the text was sound. I needed to understand the position or ‘function’ of my character within the story. I needed to understand the setting of the story. I needed to understand my characters background, history and relationships. What I’ve learnt from my week of performances was there was a depth to my performance which was missing. I often felt ‘in my head’ playing the role, unanchored in space and self conscious. I am ready for a deepening of my connection to the character.

One significant aspect I became aware of was the fact that, even a week into performances, the high stakes scenes in the story were starting to tax me energetically. I would need to do some work to ensure that I could give the same performance night after night for two months in the theatre. My character is required to process and respond to some BIG pieces of information during the play: The death of his Father resulting in his confrontation of the King, the news that his acquaintance, (and perhaps friend) Hamlet, the Prince, was the murderer, and the news that his beloved sister, Ophelia, has been driven mad and drowned in a nearby brook. 

Phwarr. Even listing those elements of the story makes me ask myself, ‘How the heck do I do that?’. I am ready for bravery and confidence that I can tackle those high stakes scenes!

From all these factors I have condensed the challenges I need solutions for into five questions we can pose to The Actor and the Target.

My Five Questions

Now we’re really getting scientific, folks. Let’s mine a performative experience and an acting text to see if we can solve some issues.

So, without further ado, here are five questions I need some guidance on to help me tackle the next season of Hamlet:

1. How do I feel more present and free as the character within the scene?
2. How do I incite an emotional response to the given circumstances night after night as Laertes?
3. How do I personalise and deepen my character’s relationship to the other characters in the story?
4. How to I feel more connected to the World of the play?
5. How do I deepen and clarify what my character needs and wants in the story?

Applying The Actor and the Target 

1. How do I feel more present and free as the character within the scene? 

“The more energy the actor can locate in the target, the greater the actor’s freedom.” – Page 25

Donnellan writes of the Target. The Target is the primary tool he has created for an actors’ use. The Target is the thing outside the actor which thoughts, intentions, objectives and actions are directed towards. The target is the source of the actor’s energy and freedom. The Target is just that: a target which all of the actors’ internal impulses should be directed towards. This concept will be incredibly useful for me. Reading about the target reminds me of the nature of my experience when I felt un-present and constricted: I was in my head. My focus was inwards and not on the target; the people, world, ideas, fears and constraints surrounding Laertes. I felt that my experience, given the high-stakes and emotional nature of the story, needed to be generated from within. I felt that it was my responsibility as the actor to provide these feelings myself. 

Donnellan provides more council on this concept:

“You can never know what you are doing until you first know what you are doing it to.” – Page 17

“We cannot struggle to be present. We can only discover that we are present. Being present is given to us, like a gift, like a present.”  – Page 35

he work I must now do is as follows: invest more in the target, then trust that work and it’s ability to allow me to be present. Laertes’ primary concern is with his family, so those are the targets which I must be most clear about. There are a number of rules about the target which will assist me greatly, including the following:

• There is always a Target
• The target always exists outside, and at a measurable distance
• The target is always specific
• The target is always transforming

These factors offer structure, and within that structure I may find freedom. My relationships to my family need to be detailed and specific, so I will be able to trust in that work and simply let it be once I am on the stage. All I then must do is place my attention on the target. Ophelia, as a target of mine, transforms drastically throughout the story of Hamlet. These transformations are devastating for Laertes, and in that devastation I, the actor, can find tremendous energy and freedom. 

One final note which I find really useful on the issue of remaining present within the role:

“In reality we are present, we can do absolutely nothing to alter that. But we can fantasise that we are somewhere else. In fact we have evolved such ingenious devices to delude ourselves that we are absent that it is extremely difficult to switch them off. But certain principles can always help. First: as I am already present, I cannot actually become present. When I try to be present, it is a brilliant scam of Fear. For trying to do anything makes us concentrate and sends us home. Fear often uses this particular trick to confuse us, by getting us to struggle to become . . . what, in fact, we already are.” – Page 22

I am already present. Great comfort may be taken from that fact.

2. How do I incite an emotional response to the given circumstances night after night as Laertes?

“It is the actor’s challenge to believe, more than his partner’s problem to convince him.” – Page 37

This is the challenge which I face. The story requires me to dive into challenging circumstances: the death of my Father, the demise and death of my sister, the rise of my adversary. I must process the news of the death of my sister in front of an audience. As per the quote above, it is my responsibility to believe, not any other actor’s problem to convince me. I already am able to rely on the Target for energy and inspiration, so let’s see what other solutions Donnellan has to offer.

“At every moment there is something I stand to lose and something I stand to gain. There is something I need and something I must avoid.” – Page 74

Donnellan writes at length about the Stakes of a scene which a character faces. He explains how to concept of stakes is often misrepresented by actors leading to block, (Note – Donnellan refers to Irina a lot in his book. Irina is a hypothetical actor he is personifying to demonstrate his techniques for the reader. Irina is rehearsing the role of Juliet):

“It is a sad irony that a lot of blocked acting results from the actor being all too aware that the stakes are low. So the actor tries to ‘play higher stakes’. If Irina feels that what she is doing isn’t sufficiently exciting, compelling, fascinating, important, then she may try to make her words, her actions seem more exciting, compelling, fascinating, important. And an actor may feel that the best way to do this is to disconnect from the outside world and press harder on the pedal.” – Page 33

I can certainly attest to this experience. At times in performance I was all too aware of my lack of feeling the stakes: whilst I was supposed to be absorbed by the desperate situation of my character I was instead listening to the voice in the back of my head poking me, saying, “I’m not really feeling this. Are you? Uh-oh, if we’re not feeling it, we’re not doing a good job. I wonder if the audience knows we feel like a fake right now. uh-oh…” And so the downward spiral continues. Donnellan goes on to offer a solution:

“The actor can actually reduce the stakes for herself by increasing the stakes for her character” – Page 33

He explains further:

“First, the actor needs to transfer all that is at stake from what the actor sees, into what the character sees. Because the stakes for Juliet do not live inside Juliet. Instead, the stakes for Juliet are in what Juliet sees. So Irina needs to travel through Juliet to see what Juliet sees in the outside world. Irina must not stop in the character. Instead Irina must see through a transparent Juliet to see on the other side what matters to Juliet. What matters to Juliet is Romeo. So Irina needs to see through Juliet and see what is at stake for Juliet in Romeo. Irina must stop looking into Juliet, for all that Irina will find in Juliet is what is at stake for Irina! The actor must not see into the character but instead sees through the character.” – Page 33

Boom. Big revelations happening for me here. My experience was largely one of seeing into Laertes, not through him. I assumed that once I had been delivered the news of Ophelia’s death by Gertrude, then I was alone and I, the actor, was solely responsible for an emotional response and release. This clearly is not so. 

I might instead invest time and work into seeing what Laertes sees. By doing this I am able to build the stakes for him in the earlier scenes of the play: what he stands to gain and what he stands to lose. 

Through his eyes I will see the world and the characters and my relationships with them more clearly. With this clarity I, the actor, will be more free and sensitive to the slings and arrows sent towards Laertes. With this heightened sensitivity I may put my attention on the target and simply allow the emotion to flow from me as I see through the Laertes’ eyes.

One final thought on this subject from Donnellan: 

“We can either show or see, but we can never do both, for the one must destroy the other. Seeing is about the target, showing is about me. As soon as we show, we pretend. And pretending is not acting.”  – Page 81

3. How do I personalise and deepen my character’s relationship to the other characters in the story?

“Irina must abandon all hope of ever being able to transform herself into Juliet, or show us Juliet, and instead set about the miraculous but realisable task of seeing and moving through the space that Juliet sees and inhabits.” – Page 83

The answer to this question lies heavily in the solutions for question two: the Stakes and seeing through the character. 

“Indeed a better question than ‘What is at stake here?’ is ‘What do I stand to gain and what do I stand to lose?’ “ – Page 52

Laertes has a desire to be (or at least appear) dutiful and loyal to his Father. This ‘want’ for Laertes left me feeling under-energised by the time we closed our first week of performances, suggesting to me that a deeper connection with Polonius, (Laertes’ father) was necessary for me. 

In an early scene of Hamlet, Polonius delivers to Laertes several precepts – words of advice – to take with him on his travels. This scene was challenging for me simply because it required me to sit and listen to my Father silently for some time. I need to see more through Laertes’ eyes. How does he see his Father? What does he stand to gain and lose in obeying or disobeying his orders? How has his upbringing influenced the way he sees his Father? Next comes to mind the question of Laertes’ Mother – why is she not represented in the play or mentioned at all? Is she still alive? I can only assume not, given the tight-knit dynamic of the Polonius family.

Already, with the simple act of seeing through Laertes’ eyes and asking what he stands to gain and lose I am deepening my understanding of his situation and the relationship to the other characters in the play. 

4. How do I feel more connected to the World of the play?

“Preparation takes many forms; whatever ignites the imagination is useful. Whatever deadens the imagination is to be avoided.” – Page 89

One of the gifts of theatre is it’s freedom. Often we play in an otherwise empty space filled only by our imaginations. Sometimes I find this fact more of a curse than a gift. 

For our remounted production of Hamlet I’d like to feel more connected to the space; energised by its structure. 

“The artist finds, rather than creates and controls.” – Page 130 

Ok; good to note. That’s an important distinction to make at the outset: striving to create the world around me – imaginatively placing objects and references in specific places around the theatre – may further block my experience. Let’s look at further notes regarding the space:

“Irina has one space and Juliet has another. Irina must not be a victim of the space, but Juliet must be the space’s victim. Irina needs to discover what liberties and constraints the space permits and imposes upon Juliet.” – Page 65 

“Irina may be able to do what she likes in the space, but Juliet may not. These targets restrict, constrict, mould, limit and impede all that Juliet wants to do. And out of this conflict is born the energy of the performance. Taken together all these targets constitute Juliet’s space, whether these elements are the balcony or the image of Montague. Irina must let Juliet’s body depend upon the balcony, the night, the image of Montague, before Irina can be free to move as Juliet. ” – Page 66 

Bingo. Again, the space/ the world in which Laertes lives is a collation of targets. I just need to acknowledge these targets and allow them to influence me through Laertes. Some of these targets include:

• The vastness of the Castle in Denmark which the play takes place.
• The cold in the air.
• The contrast of my home with the palace.
• The snow falling on our heads.

All of these targets are once again outside of me, and through Laertes’ eyes I will see them in a certain light and be influenced by them. This is exciting to realise and I’m eager to put this into practise in rehearsal

5. How do I deepen and clarify what my character wants in the story?

“‘Need’ makes it clear that the target has something that we cannot do without, whereas ‘want’ can imply that we can start and stop wanting with a concentrated effort of will. ‘Want’ I can turn on and off like a tap, ‘need’ turns me on and off at its will. ‘Need’ more usefully reminds us that we do not control our feelings.” – Page 35

‘Pursuing an objective’ is an often cited phrase and technique first termed by Stanislavski. My experience with objectives is that they are not always clear and energising for me.

In the example of Hamlet, it seems that Laertes wants many things – at the outset he perhaps wants freedom and independence. He wants to go to Paris. He wants to live his life. All of these ‘wants’ are useful to note, as they influence Laertes’ character. But for me to act, these ‘wants’ are not specific or exciting enough for me. 

How Donnellan phrases the above paragraph is useful. What I need to explore is beneath the surface of Laertes’ modus operandi. What is the fire deep within him which drives him? What is the resource he was starved of as a child, (affection, validation, challenge ect) which he now strives to obtain? 

“The central danger in asking ‘What do I want?’ is that it demotes the target. The question implies that I can create and control my desire within some sort of concentrated centre.” – Page 36 

Upon hearing the news of the death of his Father, Laertes is fuelled by revenge. A ‘want’ seems to diminish his experience. Vengeance has consumed him completely – in a way that is specific to Laertes himself. This specificity is driven by his need. If Laertes’ need is “To make my Father proud” – the news of his Father’s death in his absence would be catastrophic to him. 

Need, rather than want, is the key for me.

Conclusion

Right, microscopes away, and don’t forget to wash your petri-dishes. (Is it clear I’ve never set foot in a laboratory?) Thank you for conducting this experiment with me. I find it useful to dissect texts about acting and practically apply them to a role. All too often acting texts are left in isolation untested – I hope in this article is some inspiration for you to seek the answers to your questions in acting theory, whether it be The Actor and the Target or another text which inspires you.

Acting doesn’t work unless it works, (for you!) There are many practitioners of acting in the world, many people who have put down their two cents on the craft in words. These books should absolutely be engaged with, but you should also feel the right to pick and choose the elements of these texts that resonate with you. Declan Donnellan’s The Actor and the Target resonates with me for its practicality and phrasing. It tackles challenges I’ve faced in a clear and actionable way, and I hope this article has been interesting and inspiring for you to conduct your own experiments in performance! 

The post ‘The Actor and the Target’: My Practical Application appeared first on StageMilk.