Acting Methods
Monday 7-9pm
Hello Artists!
I am so thrilled to have you all in class. I hope the work we do together will be beneficial and help you on your acting journey.
Here I will post exercises, assignments and any videos we create. It is a place to use as a reference for the work we have done or a place to see what you have missed if you can't make it to class.
Here's to a great year!
I am so thrilled to have you all in class. I hope the work we do together will be beneficial and help you on your acting journey.
Here I will post exercises, assignments and any videos we create. It is a place to use as a reference for the work we have done or a place to see what you have missed if you can't make it to class.
Here's to a great year!
Showcase Scene Preparation
Below are different exercises we have focused on throughout the class. The ones here will help in preparation for the showcase. Work with as many as you can or have time for and give yourself lots of grace if you can't get to all of them.
SOAKING EXERCISE
Soaking a scene or monologue is a way to infuse the lines with your own associations and connections. This is deep work and the images/referents that arise may not make sense or have a logical connection to the script.. This is okay! It isn't about script analysis, it's about unconscious connections to language, referents and meaning, so go with whatever arises and trust it is what it needs to be.
It is best to have a partner read the other character's lines, however, you can also just soak your lines individually.
Scroll down this page to get more information about soaking... we covered it during week 3 and 4
It is best to have a partner read the other character's lines, however, you can also just soak your lines individually.
Scroll down this page to get more information about soaking... we covered it during week 3 and 4
Here is the written explanation by George Morrison:
| soaking_exercise__1_.pdf |
BEATS
Divide the scene into beats. The basic guideline for a change int he beat is when the action, emotion or plot shifts. This can be at one point for one character and perhaps a couple lines later for the other. For our purpose here, look through the lens of your character.
The following is a quote from An Actor Prepares by Konstantin Stanislavski. This may shed more light on the process of division and naming of the bits. The word Stanislavski used in the United States was “beats,” a mispronunciation of “bits.” In the English translation of his books, the word was translated as “units.”
In order to work out the score of the play...we had to break it up into small units... The technique of division is comparatively simple: What is the core [kernel] ...the thing without which it cannot exist?
Remember the division is temporary...It is only in preparation...that we use small units. During its [a play’s] actual creation they fuse into large units. The larger and fewer the divisions,...the easier for you to handle the whole role.
As you put on your make-up you will think of the first unit.... You play the first one and are carried along to the next and the next.
Have you any conception of what a really good name for a unit is? It stands for its essential quality. To obtain it you must subject the unit to a process of crystallization... The right name which crystallizes the essence of a unit, discovers its fundamental objective. – An Actor Prepares
In order to work out the score of the play...we had to break it up into small units... The technique of division is comparatively simple: What is the core [kernel] ...the thing without which it cannot exist?
Remember the division is temporary...It is only in preparation...that we use small units. During its [a play’s] actual creation they fuse into large units. The larger and fewer the divisions,...the easier for you to handle the whole role.
As you put on your make-up you will think of the first unit.... You play the first one and are carried along to the next and the next.
Have you any conception of what a really good name for a unit is? It stands for its essential quality. To obtain it you must subject the unit to a process of crystallization... The right name which crystallizes the essence of a unit, discovers its fundamental objective. – An Actor Prepares
GREATEST HOPE AND FEAR
In lieu of an "objective," which can sometimes be restricting in the work, identify your character's greatest hope and greatest fear in the scene. Using Noah's scene as an example: This can be symmetrical (my greatest hope is she will fall in love with me/ my greatest fear is that she will reject me) or they can be unrelated (my greatest hope is that she will confess her love for me, too/ my greatest fear is that we will be eaten by zombies). Once you have identified these two, personalize them. Getting eaten by zombies may not be something you have any connection to, but being afraid for your safety or the safety of someone you care about perhaps is. Just like in discovering the relationship dynamic, sometimes you have to let go of the details and go to the root of the issue to find the most powerful connections to activate.
RELATIONSHIP
Identify the dynamic of the relationship** with the primary person you are talking to in the scene. Once you have done that, pick a person in your life (preferably from the past) that best fits that dynamic. Then do the following exercise using this person as your focus. When you have finished, write down the "trigger" that was a result of the exercise.
Identify the dynamic of the relationship** with the primary person you are talking to in the scene. Once you have done that, pick a person in your life (preferably from the past) that best fits that dynamic. Then do the following exercise using this person as your focus. When you have finished, write down the "trigger" that was a result of the exercise.
| felt_sense_acting_exercise.m4a |
**Reminder: The dynamic of a relationship is not about the details of the relationship (boss, older sister, best friend), it is about how that relationship plays out in your interactions: you feel judged, you are excited to see them, you want them to love you, etc... When identifying the dynamic, we have to connect to the greatest hope and greatest fear of the character as well as what is happening. You can always include the details to help specify, but that should be secondary.
MOMENT BEFORE/ TIMEFRAME
| time_frame_basic.m4a |
Once you have listened to the exercise, you will have a good idea about where your character is (emotionally and physically) right before your scene begins. Remember you can also use the three feelings technique at the end of the recording. Identify three physical sensations you are experiencing right before the scene begins so you can activate them before the scene begins.
VOCAL VARIATIONS
Working through the monologue sentence by sentence, apply the vocal variations one "element" (pitch, staccato/legato, speed, etc.) at a time. Do the entire monologue focusing on one element, and then go through again focusing on a different element.
Here is the audio explanation:
Here is the audio explanation:
| vocal_variations.m4a |
Here is a visual guide:
| vocal_variations.pdf |
Week 1 - I am here...you are there
Exercises
The "Yes" Game (May I Take Your Place?)
"I am here...you are there"
Listening to music
The "Yes" Game (May I Take Your Place?)
"I am here...you are there"
Listening to music
Assignment- Find a Simple Monologue
MONOLOGUE CRITERIA
Throughout the class you will be learning a series of increasingly complex exercises using a monologue of your own choosing.
Choose a monologue based on the following criteria:
• runs no more than two minutes in length,
• does not require you to characterize, i.e. play out of your age range, do a dialect, assume mannerisms, etc., and
• your character is telling a story about something that happened in the past. This last requirement is an important one for teaching purposes.
If you wish, you may bring in more than one monologue, and you may change your monologue at any time during the class. Memorize your monologue so thoroughly that you can do it in your sleep
Throughout the class you will be learning a series of increasingly complex exercises using a monologue of your own choosing.
Choose a monologue based on the following criteria:
• runs no more than two minutes in length,
• does not require you to characterize, i.e. play out of your age range, do a dialect, assume mannerisms, etc., and
• your character is telling a story about something that happened in the past. This last requirement is an important one for teaching purposes.
If you wish, you may bring in more than one monologue, and you may change your monologue at any time during the class. Memorize your monologue so thoroughly that you can do it in your sleep
Monologue Resources
There are many places to find monologues and below are a couple links to some free websites that have monologues. Some of the titles are gender specific, but please take any monologue that works for you regardless of the gender named in the document.
There are many places to find monologues and below are a couple links to some free websites that have monologues. Some of the titles are gender specific, but please take any monologue that works for you regardless of the gender named in the document.
https://weareactors.com/one-minute-monologues-for-women/
https://mightyactor.com/20-comedic-monologues-for-women/
https://www.dailyactor.com/contemporary-monologues/
https://theatrenerds.com/17-dramatic-monologues-for-men/
https://mightyactor.com/20-comedic-monologues-for-women/
https://www.dailyactor.com/contemporary-monologues/
https://theatrenerds.com/17-dramatic-monologues-for-men/
| monologues-for-poc-1.pdf |
Week 2 - Get Into the Flow
“theory of optimal experience based on the concept of flow—the state in which people are so involved in an activity that nothing else seems to matter; the experience itself is so enjoyable that people will do it even at great cost, for the sheer sake of doing it.”
― Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience
― Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience
Exercises
"Whoosh- Whoa"
"Childhood Playtime" - getting into FLOW
"Playtime with an Audience"- exploring a private moment
"Telling Someone Else's Story"- monologue exchange
"Moving for Fun"
"Awarenesses"
"Childhood Playtime" - getting into FLOW
"Playtime with an Audience"- exploring a private moment
"Telling Someone Else's Story"- monologue exchange
"Moving for Fun"
"Awarenesses"
Week 3 - I am aware...
George Miller is the psychologist who presented the theory about 7+/- 2 bits of information and human awareness which is often referred to as "Miller's Law." If you want to read his original paper, here is the link:
The Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two: Some Limits on Our Capacity for Processing Information
This Wikipedia article is more accessible and includes recent insights into the theory:
The Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two
The Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two
Exercises
"Commonality Chairs"
"Awarenesses"
"Monologues - improvisational beats"
"Awarenesses"
"Monologues - improvisational beats"
Assignments:
Explore awareness throughout your day using the exercise below:
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AWARENESS CONTINUUM
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"Soak" your monologue
SOAKING (REFERENT)
A referent is a word in the text that refers to something not present. For instance, if I say to you , “Yesterday I went to the beach,” I’m referring to something in the past. One of the referents in my quote is beach. In order to understand me you create an image of the referent in your mind. As you read the word beach, what kind of an image do you make? Do you see the water, sand, and sun? Do you hear the waves roll in and out. Do you smell the salty, slightly fishy air? Do you taste the salt water in your mouth? Do you feel the sun on your face. All these are sensory images your mind makes to make a meaning out of a word, a referent.
When you soak the referents in the text, you pull from your own imagination and memory sensory images that are peculiar to you. This makes the text your own. George Morrison named the exercise “soaking,” because he imagined the text as a white cloth laid over the actors being. As the actor soaked the text his or her own unique colors soaked into the text, making that actors rendition of the character uniquely theirs.
1. Lie down or sit in a comfortable position.
2. Go through the entire text one phrase (that contains a referent) at a time.
3. Focus your mind on the phrase. Allow any sensory image to float into your waiting mind. Some images may be literal, some figurative, and some may seem completely unrelated. Entertain them all.
4. When one of the images stands out, seems interesting to you, affects you in some way, let the words of the phrase fall out of your mouth, with no effort to communicate. Be sure you use your voice without whispering. You do not have to speak loudly at all, just loud enough so that you can hear it.
A referent is a word in the text that refers to something not present. For instance, if I say to you , “Yesterday I went to the beach,” I’m referring to something in the past. One of the referents in my quote is beach. In order to understand me you create an image of the referent in your mind. As you read the word beach, what kind of an image do you make? Do you see the water, sand, and sun? Do you hear the waves roll in and out. Do you smell the salty, slightly fishy air? Do you taste the salt water in your mouth? Do you feel the sun on your face. All these are sensory images your mind makes to make a meaning out of a word, a referent.
When you soak the referents in the text, you pull from your own imagination and memory sensory images that are peculiar to you. This makes the text your own. George Morrison named the exercise “soaking,” because he imagined the text as a white cloth laid over the actors being. As the actor soaked the text his or her own unique colors soaked into the text, making that actors rendition of the character uniquely theirs.
1. Lie down or sit in a comfortable position.
2. Go through the entire text one phrase (that contains a referent) at a time.
3. Focus your mind on the phrase. Allow any sensory image to float into your waiting mind. Some images may be literal, some figurative, and some may seem completely unrelated. Entertain them all.
4. When one of the images stands out, seems interesting to you, affects you in some way, let the words of the phrase fall out of your mouth, with no effort to communicate. Be sure you use your voice without whispering. You do not have to speak loudly at all, just loud enough so that you can hear it.
Week 4 - Inside Out
This week, we turned inward to explore how a referent can inform our acting choices. We will continue exploring this relationship between internal association/ referents and the given circumstances of the script in the coming weeks.
Exercises
"Linklater" warm-up
Mirror Exercise
Character Explorations through physical embodiment
Help Desk (improvisational game for character work)
Referent Scene
Mirror Exercise
Character Explorations through physical embodiment
Help Desk (improvisational game for character work)
Referent Scene
Assignments
Continue working on monologue memorization. You do not need to be fully memorized until you are able to be, but it will be helpful to be familiar with it by the time I return in October. REMEMBER to be mindful about only memorizing the words without attaching a specific way of delivering the lines.
Soak the monologue (see explanation in week 3).
Continue exploring awarenesses and doing the awareness exercise
Continue exploring awarenesses and doing the awareness exercise