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!
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 refering 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 refering 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