In-Depth Acting

Dee Cannon

• Publisher: Oberon Books
• Year: 2012
• ISBN:
  9781849435420
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Media & Performing Arts
• Subtopic: Acting & Auditioning

' A book that will stand the test of time' – Pierce Brosnan An essential guide to the Stanislavski technique, filtering out the complexities of the system and offering a dynamic, hands-on approach. Provides a comprehensive understanding of character, preparation, text, subtext and objectives. How to prepare for drama school and professional auditions How to develop a 3-dimensional, truthful character Preparation exercises to help you get in character Rehearsal guidelines An appendix of Transitive/Active Verbs and more

1. KNOW THY SELF

I think the Jesuit motto is very apt – ‘Give me a child until he is seven and I will give you the man.’ I do believe that you should have experienced all the main emotions and feelings in life by the time you’re seven years old. Happiness, sadness, fear, jealousy, anger, hate, rage, grief, love, hurt and passion – undoubtedly in their raw unfiltered state. Ironic, because as actors it is necessary to be in touch with all of these feelings but often due to life and circumstances many of these emotions get buried and in some cases get buried very deep. It’s your responsibility as an actor to be in touch with your emotions and to grow and develop.

Apart from needing to nurture rich feelings and emotions, the main qualities I think an actor should possess and develop in abundance are:

Passion	Playfulness (childlike)
Sensitivity	Concentration
Imagination	Observation
Intuition	Curiosity
Instinct	Humour
Confidence	Versatility
Vulnerability	Compassion
Naivety	Grace
Openness	Honesty

You need to leave your ego at the door if you want to be a good actor. The profession has no patience for egotists, arrogance, defensiveness and aggressiveness.

Before I get onto the benefits of acting training, I will spend some time talking about all the things you can do to supplement your self-development. This can take many forms. You can do this pre-formal training (drama school), in conjunction with training, post-training and with ongoing training throughout your life.

Some of the things that I’m going to suggest might not seem like training at all – you might consider them pure enjoyment, things you do in life anyway. That’s my point; if you like to read a certain type of book, maybe you should progress on to reading different genres. If you don’t like to read then you should begin. Broaden your horizons, increase your points of reference. You don’t have to become an expert but at the very least you should become familiarized with things outside your own social sphere and comfort zone. If you’re choosing to go into the arts you should acquaint yourself not just with the actors or films you like but with all aspects of the arts. It can’t hurt can it?

Here’s a list of things to do: hobbies and skills which could be developed for your own pleasure, to broaden your skills or just evolve as an actor. I believe the hardest thing for an actor is to stay inspired in-between acting work. This list might also help stimulate your creative juices that should always be freely flowing whether you’re working, ‘resting’ or just in your own head daydreaming.

A friendly warning: be careful not to get so immersed in street/youth culture that it inhibits you from being versatile. Pop culture is getting more and more defined (this isn’t a comment but an observation); talking slang, having strong physical and speech mannerisms, for example over-using the expressions ‘like’ or ‘know what I mean?’. Other bad habits include going up at the end of each sentence, making everything sound like it’s a question even if it’s not, and having a certain street clothes style, which can be a uniform of conformity. All I can say is be careful not to define yourself in this way if you want to be a versatile actor. Essentially, you want to be castable and in order to be castable you have to be unclouded and adaptable.

Don’t set yourself limitations or be afraid of not being good enough – you never know until you take a dip. You might find inspiration can grow and a small talent you have for something can be developed. You might not want to go it alone, that’s often the time great collaborations are born. Learn from your mistakes, that’s how you can evolve. Be bold, take risks and don’t stifle your creativity – fearing what you’re scared of won’t get you anywhere. I say, ‘Feel the fear and do it anyway.’

THINGS TO DO

Watch films
Dramas, Comedy, Romantic Comedy, Sci-Fi, Action, Blockbuster, Independent, International

Go to the theatre
Comedy, Serious, Classical, Musicals, Fringe, West End, Repertory

Take dance classes
Jazz, Ballet, Modern, Ballroom, Tap, Salsa, Laban, Alexander Technique, Gym, Pilates, Yoga

Listen to music
Classical, Jazz, Musicals, Pop, Opera

Take singing lessons

Watch TV
Mini Series, Drama Series, Documentaries, News (Local and World), Current Affairs, Politics

Read
Fiction, Factual, Biographies, Auto-Biographies, Plays (Modern and Classical), Poetry, Reviews, Newspapers, Periodicals

Write
Scribble your thoughts, ideas, dreams and then progress onto fiction, poetry, film scripts, plays, reviews, lyrics.

Draw
Start by doodling – you can get some good ideas which could lead on to all sorts of wonderful things. Paint, graphic design, animation.

Film-making

Go to museums
Art, History, War, Science, Design, Fashion

Learn to play an instrument
Piano, guitar, drums, saxophone, trumpet etc.

Develop new skills and hobbies
Driving, Horseback Riding, Fencing, Swimming, Walking, Diving, Fishing, Cooking, Sewing, Gardening, Carpentry, Photography, Travel, etc.

I believe you should try to develop your own opinions and taste. Of course these can change but you should try never to sit on the fence. Everything you do and experience in life helps form your opinions, likes and dislikes. I’m not suggesting that you should become overly opinionated; I’m suggesting you should have opinions, ideas and views. The only way you can grow is by gaining life experience. Be open to your surroundings. Traveling is good as this gives you perspective and points of references, which can make you a more diverse and interesting person. If you have ever had a job, fallen in love, experienced a break up, lost someone you loved, this all adds up to your life experience, which at times can make you feel disempowered, at times inspired and ultimately empowered.

I used to think English actors were not able to emotionally connect. I felt frustrated for years, having worked in so many countries abroad and finding that actors there could access their emotions with relative ease. I used to think, well, why can’t British actors do that, why won’t they open up? I knew that it was a cultural issue and that a huge percentage of British actors were brought up in traditional families where you don’t show your emotions; ‘don’t air your laundry in public’, ‘stiff upper lip’. You therefore have many generations of actors keeping their emotions very private. Hence the fear of so-called ‘Method Acting’. The perception of Method Acting comes from Lee Strasberg and his Acting Studio doing a lot of sensory exercises, with feelings and emotions at the heart of the training. My take on this is, whereas there is a place for sense memory, affective and emotional memory, I do feel this is homework you do when you need to connect to a feeling or emotion you can’t access. I do not agree with making this the heart of the training.

If you go back to the time of the legendary Group Theatre in NYC in 1931, which was made up of a body of the new generation of up-and-coming American actors, writers and directors such as Stella Adler, Lee Strasberg, Clifford Odets, Harold Clurman, Cheryl Crawford, Elia Kazan, Robert Lewis and Sanford Meisner to name but a few. They were looking for another style of acting and they heard about this actor Konstantin Stanislavski in Russia who had founded a fresh methodology. The story goes that Stella Adler went over to Russia to meet Stanislavski and find out about this new ‘System’ of acting. She brought it back to ‘The Group’ and they were all very excited about finding this fresh, truthful and real way of acting as opposed to the ‘Old School’ way which was over the top and external – ‘Melodrama.’

There were new writers and playwrights coming out of Russia who were desperate for novels and theatre to reflect ‘Realism’ and psychological subtext; writers such as Turgenev, Gogol, Gorky, Chekhov, Tolstoy, Pushkin and Bulgakov. The Moscow Arts Theatre needed a new style of acting which would suit ‘Realism’. Stanislavki’s system worked and changed the face of Russian theatre; Moscow Arts Theatre in particular became the face of ‘Socialist Realism’ in Russia and ‘Psychological Realism’ in the USA.

After awhile the Group Theatre got a little bit confused and stuck in a rut with the new ‘system’, which at this time was based primarily around sense memory, emotional memory and affective memory. They needed something more. Stella Adler went back to visit Stanislavski and told him of their difficulties and he said that he doesn’t use ‘memory’ as the chief principle of acting anymore; he had come up with his latter work, physical action. This was based on physical and psychological ‘action’. Adler returned satisfied that this was the missing link. The Group Theatre agreed, this was the ingredient they needed, except for Lee Strasberg who was convinced that memory recall was the key to unlocking an actor and was the foundation of ‘truthful acting’. He quit, turned his back on ‘The Group’ and started his own ‘Actors Studio’ and the metamorphosis of Method Acting evolved. To this day Method Acting is synonymous with Strasberg, even though Stella Adler and Sanford Meisner, and subsequently Uta Hagen and Herbert Berghof went on to teach and form their own studios; all believed in Stanislavki’s action work as the primary source of the training alongside ‘imagination’ and Stanislavski’s the ‘magic if.’

I can’t say Lee Strasberg’s approach is particularly healthy. He encouraged introspection and saw himself as a therapist, convinced that real emotion sprang from an actor’s personal history. Unfortunately, Method Acting is almost solely associated with emotional and sensory memory; revealing and reliving emotional traumas in order to bring you closer to yourself and your feelings and therefore closer to your character; submerging yourself totally into your character by actually living and breathing them twenty-four hours a day.

I’m unconvinced that by neglecting ‘action’ and ‘imaginative’ work you become more connected to the character. In my honest opinion, I think this promotes emotional, self-absorbed, indulgent and boring actors that have no regard for audiences; performances (mainly on stage) being mumbled in an effort to be truthful and naturalistic, or shouted to show so-called emotion. I’m sad to say this has not helped the credibility of Method Acting in the UK as its perception is scary, self-indulgent and at its worst psychotherapy. I do...

Table of contents

• Front Cover
• Halftitle
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Foreword by Pierce Brosnan
• I WANT TO ACT
• 1. KNOW THY SELF
• 2. WHY TRAIN?
• 3. ACTING TRAINING
• 4. AUDITIONS
• 5. YOU GOT THE PART, NOW WHAT? TECHNIQUE
• 6. HOW TO DEVELOP A CHARACTER IN DEPTH
• 7. CHARACTER PREPARATION
• 8. HOW TO REHEARSE
• 9. FINDING DIFFERENT TRUTHS
• THE FINAL CURTAIN
• APPENDIX