First: sorry not to clarify exactly what I wanted from you today/tonight. Please read the introduction and chapter 11, and prepare your basic object exercises - bringing two minutes of your life to the stage and making them look like they are happening for the first time. Hagen specifies precision and actual physical rehearsal - we can spend time on that in class, but the written history you should work on tonight (answering the Basic Object Exercise questions). I am very excited to work with you tomorrow!!
To read more about Uta Hagen, I encourage you to do some web research. You might also look up Sanford Meisner, Stainslavski, and The Actor's Studio. All will give you an idea of where we're heading for our acting intensive.
After reading and beginning work on Uta Hagen's Basic Object Exercises, predict whether you think you will benefit from this type of work, and how/why.
If you don't think it will be helpful, why not? What are some of the techniques you've successfully used to build character and authenticity?
Give me substance and honest answers!
Being able to identify and embody every characteristic of your characters--whether big or small--is an invaluable skill to an actor. Mastering those mannerisms sells the performance to an audience; it makes the experience more believable to whoever is watching your performance. Becoming completely aware of your environment immerses you even deeper into the experience. In that vein, I think this exercise will help a lot with obtaining a better understanding of my roles and will be a useful tool in my delivery of text.
ReplyDeleteI like what you're saying here, Randy. I'm about to pick on two things you said even though I think you don't mean them exactly like they might be interpreted. First, let's not use the term "mannerism" because we aren't mastering mannerisms - we're being truthful because we are in the moment, and our physical selves/actions will be a part of that. And we're not "delivering text" (I know you don't mean it that way but I encourage precision :) ) - the text is just a means of getting our objective.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Randy. I think that this is going to be an incredibly helpful exercise. By "repeating" a two minute moment from our life, we are learning to make every onstage moment as natural as if we have already lived it.
ReplyDeleteI think it will be helpful because it will be an exercise of a moment we might have done a million times before and having no text would make it easier to stay inside your own mind (you won't be worried about having to "act").
ReplyDeleteAlthough I am slightly skeptical about these exercises, I see that they have the potential to help us a lot. Being real is a huge part of acting. It is acting, really. We need to take something and make it completely believable to an audience; make them think it is the first time it has ever happened. The realness of these exercises could be a very valuable lesson to learn.
ReplyDeleteAshley C.
Nice, Ashley - I encourage a discussion about the skepticism from everyone, and also am happy to see everyone is embracing them regardless!
ReplyDeleteI second Ashley in the manner of skepticism. However I can also understand the benefits. By doing a mundane activity, one is forced to think about and analyze their owns movements. You take activities for granted without meaning to. By highlighting, say, doing the laundry, you must evaluate what movements are important to the task. I can see how this can be applied to character work, I am just not sure how effective this method will be for my personal preparation of a role.
ReplyDeleteWhen developing a character, I try to have habits and rituals incorporated into their smallest actions. By doing this exercise, where we are forced to be ourselves, not someone we've created in our minds, we pay attention to the little things that makes us human. There are certain things we do as actors that make our performances fake or empty, but when we are asked to be ourselves, we are shown that the most natural things make a good performance. Instead of being what we think the audience will want to see, we will become embodied in our characters and give the audience a real performance.
ReplyDeletePersonally, i dislike this assignment. I feel like i should be learning to portray characters, not myself. Also, i feel like i spend too much time doing writing assignments that don't help.
ReplyDelete--Kaitlin B
Bailey, you are definitely hitting closest to home on the reason we are doing this and other exercises. You are learning to be truthful under imaginary circumstances, and part of that is you being truthful under real circumstances. It's about making sure you don't get up there and "act" your two minutes. You just are. Turns out, that's enough!
ReplyDeleteI think it is a helpful exercise because it does help you act and help you visual how something can be when you're not actually there(acting it elsewhere), which I think can help lead to visualizing other scenarios that would portray someone or something else
ReplyDelete