Acting Technique

During acting technique we studied many theatre practitioners and their methods. These corresponded over to 'Spring Awakening' and our character development which I found extremely useful because I could select which practitioners theory I liked best and then apply that to both Wendla and my other Common ground roles (such as Max in The Grinch). Tim also did more detailed workshops during our Spring Awakening rehearsals , focusing on Chekhov, Alfreds and Donnellan specifically. Here are some of the practitioners we studied during acting technique and how they helped develop my character and widen my theatre knowledge: 

Uta Hagen
Even though we didn't study Hagen in as much depth as the others, I liked her theories of excepting yourself and your character, so I researched her even further and discovered her book 'Respect for Acting'. The more and more I read it uncovered points and exercises which I've found extremely high in utility. Hagen teaches that you should 'aim for a cat's spontaneity; unanticipated involvement in the moment' and find 'your own identity and self knowledge' as they are the main sources for the possible futures characters one could portray. This also helps bring about a genuine life for your character. Another aspect from Hagen's theory is that 'you must adjust to tell the story' which I think is absolutely vital. As performers we have a responsibility to tell the journey of the characters we are portraying and bring to life the world of the play, while making this as clear as possible for our audience, who are experiencing Spring Awakening for the first time. Throughout rehearsals, Josh and I have struggled slightly with the Woodland 'Beating' scene, as neither of us want to hurt the other. Uta Hagen however notices this and states that 'truth in life is not truth on stage; you can't really hurt someone'. This applies to the woodland scene, as both Josh and I needed to realise that we weren't hurting each other and trust the staged push. As soon as I confirmed with Josh that I felt comfortable and secure within the scene, it massively improved. 

Mike Alfred
Over the course of Common Ground we have studied Mike Alfred's 'Different Every Night' extensively and I find his method's extremely useful. Both Tim and Jack did exercises with us from Alfred's book, the main ones being noting what our character says about themselves and what others say about them and then stripping back all the props and concentrating on the world of the play, seeing your character existing in different circumstances. Similar to Hagen, Alfred concentrates on storytelling and the importance of character work. I found his exercises very useful, especially viewing my character outside of the play; it deepened my understanding of Wendla and helped Devan and I find a 'common ground' with each other. Devan and I worked closely with Alfred's techniques and together we cultivated a deeper understanding of the shared character. 

Michael Chekhov
Chekhov focuses on experiencing the truth of the moment and finding the inner event which is an actual experience occurred in real time by the actor. Chekhov calls this the 'Creative Individuality' of the actor, not being tied to his/her personality. This then allows the actor to discover an internal emotion which will then be projected onto the audience. Chekhov's teachings are very similar to Stanislavsky's as both concentrate on imagination, feeling and atmosphere. He believed that inner and outward gestures were different so we did many exercises exploring how our charactrer was feeling verses what they were saying. Imagination is a massive part of Chekhov's teaching, so we did certain exercises focused on this, picturing our characters in moments just before a certain scene started. For example I portrayed Wendla picking Wood-ruff before Melchior came. I found this very useful because it enabled me again to picture my character outside of the words written by Wedekind and take control over what she did. This strengthened my impulsive choices which is also another factor Chekhov focused on.  

Declan Donnellan
Donnellan has similar theories again to Stanislavsky, but calls actions 'targets', being situations and aims that the actor should strive to in each scene. We did a lot of exercises concerning this, realizing what our character wanted and striving through to achieving that. We mainly focused on Blocks which we experience on stage. Donnellan concentrated mainly on the blocks an actor experiences while on stage and during rehearsals, as he believed that if you had these blocks in your mind, you could never fully commit yourself to your character, and therefore you wouldn't be immersed in the play. Donnellan wasn't a trained actor (as the other practitioners are) so noticed that some performers looked stiff and tense onstage. He put this down to mental and physical blocks, such as not knowing where to move on stage or not knowing what you are saying. Once you have overcome these blocks by working through them, then you can immerse yourself in your character. Dennellan also teaches that for each scene, the character has a want/a seeing, a gain and a loss with a suitable title. Jack did some work with us on these and we noted down what our character wanted in each scene. This helped me immensely because previously I had struggled with always knowing what Wendla really wanted, as her society was so suppressed it was hard to grasp what she knew and what she didn't. Concerning the actor and his/her target, Donnellan believed that there was always a target for each scene. Tim also developed this with us later on.

Sanford Meisner 
Not everyone likes Meisner's methods and guaranteed we have only skimmed on half of his methods, but personally I get along with the meisner exercises we have done so far. He teaches emotional recall and sense memory, creating acting from an internal source. In year twelve I did a Meisner workshop and loved the deep connection I felt from the other person. Jack then expanded on this in acting technique, first doing the standard exercises as ourselves (repeating what the other person stated about you) and then as our characters. This helped me get into my character internally which I haven't been able to do before. Doing this exercise with Devan helped us connect with each other on a deeper level and notice the change in our character. 

Having studied these practitioners in depth, I found myself applying their techniques to my other common ground roles. In The Grinch I played Max, the Grinch's dog, so I focused more on Uta Hagen's theory of imagining yourself as the character and then as yourself out of the character and seeing how you would change physically into them. Declan Donnellan helped me realise the blocks I had on stage when it came to Blue Skies, as I found getting out of my head extremely hard. Donnellan teaches that an actor can never be comfortable on stage if they have mental and physical blocks, which is something I defiantly had during the Blue Skies process. After noticing these blocks such as I don't know what I'm doing on stage, I was able to overcome these and live in the moment. Even though we didn't study Stanislavsky in as much detail as we did last year, I still applied his relaxation exercises before I went on stage for each performance throughout Common Ground. As my role in Spring Awakening was more naturalistic than my other roles, I noticed I was using more characteristic exercises for Wendla, (such as improvisations, imagining my character in different circumstances and detailed character questions) and then mainly relaxation and truth exercises for my more physical roles.

Acting Technique Workshop Plan

Acting Technique Workshop Plan

Stanislavsky: relaxation                                                          20 mins

Michael Chekhov: imagination

First Ten Minuets: Relaxation

·         Turned off lights and get the group to lie in semi-supine with their eyes shut
·         Then tense each part of their body, first isolating their feet then relaxing, continue up the body
·         Then the breathing exercise: get the group to breathe in through their nose for four and then out through their mouths for eight, then twelve and then sixteen, while lying on their backs in semi-supine
·         Shake off their body so their muscles were relaxed and open
·         Stanislavsky believed that being tense on stage affected the actors performance, and part of this reason was being too tight and not in the moment. We will then do a concentration exercise which the group could use before they go on stage to focus themselves: the finger and thumb exercise. This is where you alternate your thumb and little finger on each hand, so for example, you would have your right thumb out and your left little finger out and then switch. This focuses you and gets you out of your head
·         Plosive sounds exercise to warm up your lips and tongue ‘the tip of the tongue, the teeth and the lips’. This exercise warms up the lips and helps with articulation and breathe control.  

He taught that an actor’s voice could only be free if they were completely warmed up and had relaxed vocal chords. If not your voice can become wooden and strained, with no emotion. Stanislavsky believed an actor should be relaxed during rehearsals and before performing because it frees your imagination and enables you to except and embody your character with more ease.

Last Ten Minuets: Imagination

·         Circle of Concentration exercise. This helps open your objectives into a physical action and focus your attention to detail within a scene. Spilt the group into half, one half are the observers, the others the performers. The observers chose one performer to focus their attention on while the performers all stand at a ‘’bus stop’’ as themselves. We then add in one circle of attention:  a piece of gum. The performers have to think about the flavour and chewiness of the gum. Next we will ask them to add in another circle of attention: a backpack. Again they have to decide the weight of the bag, the style and position of the bag. They shouldn’t be focusing too much on either one of these circles. The observers then have to notice how their physicality changes and see which one they focus on more. Feedback time. Ask the observers who they were focusing on and which circle they thought the performer was paying more attention to. For example, if they were focusing more on the gum, hat would be their small circle of concentration and the backpack would be the large circle. Translate this over to Stanislavsky terms, the small circle is your objective for the scene and the large circle is your objective for the play.
·         The Fear exercise. This will be the last exercise before feedback from the workshop. Get the group to lie down and close their eyes imagining something they dislike or are afraid of for example a spider. Get them to think about how it makes them feel and think specifically about what it is which they don’t like. They then have to think how to describe this thing to the rest of the group without naming the main features and what it is, for example if it were a spider, they couldn’t say spins a web. This opens up the imagination and gets you thinking about the hidden details in more depth, deeply expressing how you feel about something and how an emotion affects you. Get a few people to say theirs and the others guess.

End of Workshop.