Master Classes

The purpose of a master class is to educate an audience of students on a specific subject, usually one of the arts such as music or drama. Rather than a workshop in which all students actively take part in the space, a master class is based further on demonstration and explanation for note taking.

I have written down a few thoughts on some of the master classes presented in the lesson.

Response to the Meisner Master Class

Positives

- Very clear demonstration, allowing students to see the technique in use as well as its effect.

- There was lots of detail in the explanation of Meisner’s background and concepts.

Negatives

- The scene presented was very long – a shorter one with further developed repetition may have been more appropriate to demonstrate the technique in detail.

Response to Laban Efforts Master Class

Positives

- There was a clear justification of the pros and cons of each effort when they were suggested by students in the audience.

- Audience participation and input meant that we were drawn in to the presentation and were encouraged to engage with it.

- The group gave a control example of the speech before applying efforts, allowing the audience to see the complete effects of the efforts.

Negatives

- Initially there wasn’t any background information/recap of Laban or the process.

Understanding why certain aspects of the master classes did or didn’t work will help me when planning workshops in the future. It has become clear to me that comprehensible demonstrations and detailed background information are vital in the presentation of an effective master class.

A memorable quote from the lesson for me was “practitioners highlight aspects of your process that already exist”. I remembered this because it defines why we have acting technique classes: I can now employ so many more techniques when exploring a text or devising process. This is because each practitioner approaches a different area of acting, creating a variety of ways to help actors grow and develop.

 

Michael Chekhov

The playwright Anton Chekhov's nephew, Michael Chekhov was born in 1891 in Russia. He was a director, author, practitioner and actor in America as well as Russia and his acting technique has been employed by many actors including Clint Eastwood and Marilyn Monroe. 28 years younger than Konstantin Stanislavsky, Chekhov worked with him at the Moscow Art Theatre as an actor from 1912.

One of his most notable works is To The Actor (1953) in which he invites the reader to experiment on their own, rather than providing them with a set of exercises within a narrative like Stanislavsky in An Actor Prepares.

His practice is based on the use of imagination, rather than linking a character to the actor's own attributes. He believed actors should have an objective point of view on the whole piece and their character, the same as a director would, rather than a subjective look at themselves using techniques such as emotional memory.

This means that instead of searching for a character's similarities to yourself you look at the differences. Therefore, Chekhov's technique is unlike naturalism in the way it is presented by Stanislavsky because it focuses on detachment instead of links.

Relaxation and finding character

1. We sat in a space in the room and closed our eyes in order to picture our character completing an everyday task. I visualised Ruby sat on her bed, reading a book. Her hair was blonde and in bunches. A concentrated facial expression, in her own world.

2. We then imagined our character in a new space. I pictured Ruby chopping vegetables with her mother in the kitchen but I couldn't concentrate properly and she kept blurring out of view. I think this was my own personal concentration block rather than an actor's block.

3. Going back to my original image, I realised, through asking Ruby how she felt, that although it is never seen in the play, Ruby's place of true serenity is in fact when she is alone with a book; away from Sarah.

Seeing Ruby as a separate person helped me notice more about her such as the way she looks and sits and moves. We think about the character in the third person because:

The character is not you. You are not the character.

The importance of Ruby in 13

She establishes the conflict between atheism and religion which is apparent across the world, not just in America and the UK. Ruby and Sarah are representations of the two sides and how arguably this conflict ultimately ends in death, that may come out of war for example. The Harrison family are also a representation of different groups of people in America: the provider (Dennis), the Christian fundamentalist (Sarah), the youth (Ruby). Ruby's views show how some young people in America have more radical views now than previous generations did. Without the scenes with the Harrison family, these themes are not established.

Creating and atmosphere

When creating the atmosphere of a library we are working as an ensemble; considering the whole space and nit just our own characters. We almost take on a directional role; which allows us to be objective.

Meisner Technique (taken from '13' rehearsal)

Sanford Meisner (1905-1997), an actor and theatre practitioner, developed the method acting technique known as the Meisner technique based on Stanislavsky’s system. The goal of the method is to eliminate the actor to reveal a real character onstage.

What is the difference between acting and role play?

Acting: conscious connection with character

Role play: unconscious connection with characte

In order to transcend from simply pretending to be a character to becoming a role, actors should focus on living and breathing that person onstage. In order to act, one might partake in conscious exercises, but for a character to become truly real actors should focus on: COMMITMENT to the role and the given circumstances, SENSITIVITY to the behavior other actors/characters around them and responding to them accordingly in an instinctive way and HONESTY in the portrayal of character and making offers. We are aiming to release our ideas and unconsciously become someone else.

Quotes

“Acting is the ability to live truthfully under imaginary circumstances”

“An ounce of behavior is worth more than a pound of words”

“Silence is an absence of words, but never an absence of meaning”

Stage One

Face a partner, sat or stood in an open position, allowing for energy and connection to flow smoothly between you.

Making observations of each other about things such as clothing, hairstyle or behavior, repeat these observations to each other, accepting and acknowledging everything your partner says about you. An idea is repeated until one of you instinctively moves on to another thing they have observed.

For example, the dialogue could resemble something like this:

A: You’re wearing Doc Martins

B: I’m wearing Doc Martins

A: You’re wearing Doc Martins

B: I’m wearing Doc Martins

This first stage of Meisner’s exercise helps establish honesty between two actors but is not any type of therapy. It will only work if actors live on their instincts and think about INTELLIGENCE of response and BODY AND VOICE FLEXIBILITY.

 Nina and I were successful in this stage because we listened and spoke in to each other with full commitment and engagement, aiming for our own and each other’s emotional core. Whenever one of us was speaking, the other took a breath and emotionally prepared for the next response. Areas we could have improved on were our discipline and focus when the repetition became more trivial. Furthermore, when more personal observations were beginning to be explored, we found ourselves in the dangerous territory of manipulation and began voicing opinions instead of facts.

Stage Two

This stage is about making emotional offers and developing the ideas based on fact, to create more opinionated and rounded ideas about character. This way, the opinions are entirely based on fact and come from the root of what is given, rather than being made up ideas inside the actor’s head. Actors must stay physically open and have an emotional connection to every observation.

In this stage the dialogue may resemble something like this:

A: You’re wearing Doc Martins

B: I’m wearing Doc Martins

A: You’re wearing Doc Martins

B: I’m wearing Doc Martins

A: You’re wearing red Doc Martins

B: I’m wearing red Doc Martins

A: You like the colour red

B: I like the colour red

A: The colour red reflects your personality

B: The colour red reflects my personality

A: You’re an angry person

B: I’m an angry person

Etc.

Stage Three

Now it is possible to work a scene through the Meisner technique. We combined objectives with Meisner repetition to begin to bring a scene to life. Repeating lines to each other within a duologue until the next line feels instinctual and natural. This way the plethora of ways in which lines can be delivered and relationships can develop is revealed.

Molly and I had the chance to play out one of our duologue scenes using the Meisner technique and it helped immensely in making our relationship more natural. It was a challenge at first to fully connect with each other when attempting to play our objective and emotionally invest in our responses, but balancing these out made it much easier and more effective.

Evaluation

At the beginning of the lesson I felt that the exercise didn't achieve very much. From my previous experience of it in year 12 I have found it quite superfluous and I felt there were more productive exercises around. However, this morning showed me that Meisner's concept of scene development works not only as a rehearsal technique but also as a focusing warm up to aid actors in becoming more instinctual.

Working with Molly on one of our scenes was incredibly useful. In Acting Technique class we had also worked on this scene, applying Laban forces to the dialogue. At first it had felt very wooden and unnatural. In the few hours since that lesson, the scene has begun to come alive and breath in a human way. Combining an objective with the repetition of the Meisner technique opened up the plethora of opportunities for us to create real characters in the given circumstances. Each performance is fresh, allowing us actors to let innate, natural energy flow between characters and all silences feel natural and real.

Declan Donnelan

- Donnelan was partnered with Nick Ormerod and they created the theatre company Cheek By Jowl

- The company did lots of work at the Barbican

- He was associate director at the National Theatre on projects including Angels in America and Sweeney Todd.

- He has directed for the English National Opera (ENO), Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) and Bolshoi Ballet.

THEREFORE one can see he is associated with musicals, opera, ballet, Shakespeare, contemporary performance and many other genres of theatre.

- Works in Russian and English

- Good book for extra knowledge: The Actor and the Target

Actors' Blocks

In partners we explored some of the blocks actors face during rehearsal regarding creation of character, preparation and natural skill.  Then, we had to think about how we would convey these blocks to a director. Initially, Amaya and I came up with these...

1.Natural physicality - "At this moment in time I am struggling to convey my character's movement"

2.Confidence - "I am not completely  comfortable "

3.Struggle to learn lines - "I don't know what I'm saying"

4.Disagreement with direction - "As a result of your direction I am struggling to commit to my character"

Then, as a class we shared Donnelan's version of these blocks, stated in the simplest way possible. These are the following:

1. "I don't know what I'm doing"

2. "I don't know what I want"

3. "I don't know who I am"

4. "I don't know where I am"

5. "I don't know how I should move"

6. "I don't know how I should feel"

7. "I don't know what I'm saying"

8. "I don't know what I'm playing"

The formula for these questions includes two "I"s and a single "know" which makes them feel very internal, the response being from inside the actor.

Next, we analysed our partners whilst they told us about what they had done the previous day. Amaya was very calm and clear in the way she narrated. Some things she dictated in a lot of detail, such as items she bought from the shop, and others she skimmed over, like class events. When sharing these observations we established some of the things all humans do that we often forget about such as blinking and eye contact (or lack of it).

In a split second of conversation it can often be seen that someone looks to the right when they're thinking. This is an indication of their target, the person is seeing what they are talking about, or they are searching for a supporting image, real or imagined, for their thought process and speech. An example might be that when discussing their birthday, someone might imagine the present they are expecting to get or the people at the party they are planning to have. 

Targets

Establishing targets and eye contact allows actors to play honest and truthful scenes/moments. Targets are only possible to do to someone or something else.

In Romeo and Juliet some of the targets might be "I tease the nurse" or "I open the window".

An example of a bad target might be "I die". This is impossible to play truthfully, whereas "I accept death" or "I fight death" are playable and also convey character and given circumstances.

Our partner is the audience and they have to believe. This can only be achieved through having strong targets, according to Donnelan.

Double Takes

The formula of the double take:

Look à Look away à Look again

See à See again in head à Confirm

This flow chart demonstrates the action on top of the mental journey. We think about seeing and initial target and then seeing something else unintentionally once looking away. Afterwards there is a desire to confirm it, so we look again with a different target in mind.

This process is like a little microcosm of the general targeting method because it demonstrates the transition from image to image (or target to target).

For me, targeting seems reasonably useful however it does feel like yet another version of Stanislavsky’s objectives or method of physical actions. It is almost a given that an actor should picture their character’s target and goal as a form of super objective, or smaller objectives from moment to moment, and although Declan Donnelan’s method solidifies this fact, I don’t think it makes it that much easier to put in to practice. However, I did find it interesting to think closely about targets from a psychological-analysis point of view for a character. It helped break down the barriers between mind and speech, making performance more natural and truthful, with clear thought (and target) changes.

Laban Efforts

In order to experiment with ways in which lines can be said and characters can be physicalised, we spent two hours developing our understanding of the Laban efforts. When all of the efforts are put together they “together make up the complete human potential of ways in which we function”.

Method

Stand in a space and use your body to trace out the edges of a three-dimensional rectangular box, in which you are, supposedly, standing.

Keep exploring this box and as each force is altered, adapt your movements accordingly.

Here are the eight main forces that should be explored, the main ideas being weight, space and time:

Light/Flexible/Sustained: FLOATING

Light/Flexible/Broken: FLICKING

Light/Direct/Sustained: GLIDING

Light/Direct/Broken: DABBING

Strong/Flexbile/Sustained: WRINGING

Strong/Flexible/Broken: SLASHING

Strong/Direct/Sustained: PRESSING

Strong/Direct/Broken: THRUSTING/PUNCHING

 

Break down of the efforts
Weight
When an actor is moving in a light way they move effortlessly, without any obstacles, as if they were being lifted lightly through the air. Positive imagery often helps with this effort.
Strong implies a larger amount of intensity, useful imagery perhaps being something like moving through syrup.

Space

Moving directly means that a character has complete focus and attention on achieving a goal. They make things happen, they deliver.

On the other hand, being flexible may suggest a lack of purpose and yet also the presence of being accessible and vulnerable. The character is easily distracted or moved by impulses around them.

Time

It is implied by sustained that the character moves in a smooth, consistent way which is unbroken. The movements are usually rounded and soft, and often slower than broken ones.

When an actor is playing broken their character’s energy is constantly renewed with a sharper, more angular quality to sustained movement.

Text

After exploring all of the efforts, we applied them to dialogue when working through monologues and scenes together. Trying to say the same line in so many different ways is a real challenge, and sometimes I found it easy to spot and at other times I had problems identifying which efforts worked best. We evaluated and analysed each other’s work, indentifying the efforts we sensed and making suggestions about qualities actors might want to incorporate. This was useful because it allowed me to pick up on elements of my voice and body that I had never before noticed.

 

For me, the Laban efforts are most useful when applying them to the general force of a character. For example, my character in 13, Ruby, may be a Dab with the occasional Punch. However, using the efforts line by line is less helpful, in my opinion, because I do not believe it lets actors ride on instinct and innate response to a moment or a piece of text. It is handy but also limiting, as you are always trying to categorize a character, instead of letting them live and breathe.

Mike Alfreds

Alfreds, an English theatre director born in 1934, founded the story-telling company Shared Experience and uses actioning and improvisation as his primary methods of direction for naturalistic work. This quote that I found in an article about him establishes some of his method and technique.

...he and his actors create a complete infrastructure and framework, breaking texts down into simple actions and then connecting the actors back to it once they have made all sorts of discoveries about character and motivation. "They do an awful lot of work on the environment and space, their relationships, style and what the play's actually about, hopefully embodied in a very organic way through the very long and elaborate rehearsal process. Then, whatever they choose to play will be right, because it's true to that particular moment. They have to give up getting, say, a laugh on a specific line. You must be absolutely in the moment, playing whatever the moment demands."

The whole article can be found at:

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/alfreds-way-more-method-less-madness-1349648.html

In lesson, we focused on the aspect of improvisation and responding actively to the situation and given circumstances, as well as leading with the body and physicality. First of all we were put in to pairs and then given the following circumstances:

 

Relationship: step-siblings

Setting: train platform

Obstacle: the train is delayed

Using only these, we began to improvise a scene. Through accepting what other actors offer to you, detail about character and objective begin to arise. For example, when Nina and I were sat on the ‘train platform’ we began discussing a family barbeque, and although the energy felt quite awkward (which in itself suggested that we had not been step-siblings for very long) our relationship seemed friendly and civil, if not a little reserved. Thus, this demonstrated to me how lots of detail can come out of rather basic given circumstances and how all of the material we created came out of spontaneity of the moment, making it truthful and raw. However, the downside to this is that sometimes I felt myself forcing me or Nina to come up with something to say or do. Often we were sat in silence, which is perfectly acceptable except after some time it suggests that the improvisation has died and the energy is lost and we disengage.

The second improvisation exercise we tried was difficult despite its simplicity. The main instruction was: change position in your partners whenever you hear a click and, once instructed, begin a scene from this new image. I found this technique awkward and uncomfortable. I was not relaxed enough to find natural positions and I kept worrying and controlling my potential ideas for scenes; therefore manipulating the process. Although it is true that we created scenes from just a visual position – one of which consisted of my character laid on the floor with a supposedly broken leg and Nina’s character mocking me – I didn’t feel they had much substance, and it was a lot more challenging to present a scene without humour embedded within it. I can see why Alfreds might work with this exercise, but it wasn’t for me.

Following this, we partook in an interesting exercise in which I had to drip feed Nina aspects of a situation and character through improvisation and immersion in the scene. This meant that I had to work particularly delicately to keep the energy of the scene moving as well as give away little parts of information. I established the setting by saying something along the lines of “Thanks for meeting me today; I am really looking forward to this little interview. Would you like a coffee? It’s on me, well, it’s on TeenMag actually!” Through this, I suggested that it was an interview situation and I was an overexcited journalist talking to someone of interest in a coffee shop. This exercise was useful to a point, however I can imagine it was more tricky and rewarding for Nina, as she had to fine tune her performance in order to discover aspects of her character and given circumstances. I was reasonably successful because Nina managed to guess most of the facts, however if I had maybe developed the scene in a clearer way, then I may have got more information over to her more concisely.

Finally, we developed our skills of creating character and place through silent mime and belief in a simple action. Individually, with our partners observing, we had to act out the action of doing something for them. For example, this could be something along the lines of wrapping a present, making sandwiches or writing a song. Through precision and display of true intention, our partners had to guess our character, our relationship to them and the situation of the mime. I was successful in this process as Nina guessed completely that I was lovingly making her a smoothie (with lots of bananas in). What made this exercise particularly useful from a general directing and acting point of view was how extra information scanned to the audience other than the initial intentions. This showed how just a repetitive movement is enough to convey a character’s finely detailed personality and their relationships with others.

Overall, it was interesting to see how improvisation is used by directors such as Alfreds in order to create natural, human performance. The spontaneity and energy required to be successful is extremely great; however it helps the actor learn to think in a more instinctual way. The main problem I experienced with these exercises was that initially they do involve a lot of thought which is not in the context of a specific play, character or scene that has been previously studied, such as 13. This meant that although I understood how the exercises are useful in a general sense, I struggled to see how they might be adapted to fit individual rehearsal processes.

What is this blog for?

On this blog, I have included information from not only Acting Technique lessons, in which we explore different practitioners and their concepts, but also other techniques that have interested me from other workshops in and around college. Therefore, I aim to have a blog that I can always reference which has concise information about sessions I have partaken in, so that perhaps I may utilize them in the future myself. This may be for a quick reminder of some of the practitioner information or even for a lesson plan if I needed.