Perhaps one of the best bits of acting advice there is: Breathe.
Breathe deep. Breathe often.
Breathe.
Breathing deeply relaxes us, on a cellular level. Inhaling deeply takes in oxygen to feed our energy. The oxygen enters our cells and flushes out the chemicals of fatigue and stress. Exhaling fully releases those chemicals and allows us to let go.
Relaxed and ready posture frees the breath to support the actor's voice and energy.
Both training the actor's body and training the actor's voice begin with posture and relaxation. Postural alignment puts the organs, bones and muscles of the body in optimal position to function well and easily. Relaxation frees body and voice to be flexible and responsive to the needs of the actor, the character, the moment.
I use deep breathing and deep relaxation exercises in teaching acting, and also in building small class ensemble. Breathing deeply slows us down, brings us in sync with one another.
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Standing Room Only for Intro to Theater
This week, I am exceedingly busy.
On Monday, I taught the first class for my Monday night section of Intro to Theater.
Tonight, I teach the first class for my Tuesday night section of Intro to Theater.
Tomorrow night, I teach a workshop on using Process Drama to teach Bible stories in Jewish Education.
Thursday night, I will be leading a rehearsal of my youth theater club to prepare them for leading a theater workshop next Tuesday (while I am teaching). After that meeting, I am off to meet with a subcommittee of my teen youth theater troupe regarding our "brand" identity.
Friday, in theory, I have off.
Last night, the class went quite well. However, the room was too small for the class. The class is capped at 45 students; I have permitted overrides that brought the number to 47. However, my overrides were not the reason we were at Standing Room Only last night. The room only had seating for about 25, and there was not enough room to bring in 20 more desks! I told my students I would look into finding another space for the class (which, with the help of the departmental secretary, I have accomplished today).
As always, the first part of the first class was taken up with going over the syllabus and establishing ground rules and priorities. Then, to introduce small group work and peer evaluation, both of which will be elements of future work in the class, I had the class break into groups of 5 students. Each group sent up one of their number to fetch the assignment sheet. Each student of the group took on one of the tasks: reader, facilitator, recorder, reader 2, presenter. The students then discussed a "think" question about theater-- each group had a different question.
Then, the groups reassembled in our (too small) room. Each group presented their question and the results of their discussion. The larger group was then invited to add additional comments.
Following a lively discussion, each student then evaluated the different members of their group on their contributions to the discussion and on their fulfillment of their task. These evaluations were then handed in.
Class went well; I think it will be a good group.
On Monday, I taught the first class for my Monday night section of Intro to Theater.
Tonight, I teach the first class for my Tuesday night section of Intro to Theater.
Tomorrow night, I teach a workshop on using Process Drama to teach Bible stories in Jewish Education.
Thursday night, I will be leading a rehearsal of my youth theater club to prepare them for leading a theater workshop next Tuesday (while I am teaching). After that meeting, I am off to meet with a subcommittee of my teen youth theater troupe regarding our "brand" identity.
Friday, in theory, I have off.
Last night, the class went quite well. However, the room was too small for the class. The class is capped at 45 students; I have permitted overrides that brought the number to 47. However, my overrides were not the reason we were at Standing Room Only last night. The room only had seating for about 25, and there was not enough room to bring in 20 more desks! I told my students I would look into finding another space for the class (which, with the help of the departmental secretary, I have accomplished today).
As always, the first part of the first class was taken up with going over the syllabus and establishing ground rules and priorities. Then, to introduce small group work and peer evaluation, both of which will be elements of future work in the class, I had the class break into groups of 5 students. Each group sent up one of their number to fetch the assignment sheet. Each student of the group took on one of the tasks: reader, facilitator, recorder, reader 2, presenter. The students then discussed a "think" question about theater-- each group had a different question.
Then, the groups reassembled in our (too small) room. Each group presented their question and the results of their discussion. The larger group was then invited to add additional comments.
Following a lively discussion, each student then evaluated the different members of their group on their contributions to the discussion and on their fulfillment of their task. These evaluations were then handed in.
Class went well; I think it will be a good group.
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