Actor Training - DIY

If you are sitting at home and want to act and think drama school is the only way, then think again. Through reading online articles, online videos, and books you can commit to your own way of training. As David Mamet said in his book True and False “It is more frightening, but it is not less productive to go your own way”. So, what are some of the things you learn when training at a drama school? If we can separate those then we can begin to structure our own timetable.

Where to begin:

One of the main things that you tackle when studying acting at drama school is how to bypass habitual responses or at least feel where those pre-sets are. When performing or devising you must be able to respond to a range of feelings in response to a myriad of stimuli outside of your world of experience and these feelings “must be able to find free release in action” (Marshal L, 2008:07).?This also must happen in front of a room full of strangers be they the audience or a film crew. In short, you must allow parts of yourself you would normally keep hidden to be expressed/communicated to a bunch of total strangers. That is a big ask but one you sign up for when you start your training.

There are many reasons why we filter our everyday reactions/responses to things but let’s save that for another article (Read some Keith Johnston), suffice-to-say we have been moulded and are a product of our environment. I was reading a paper recently on how first-year university students go through an “adaptation process” (Morozov et al:2017) when starting university. Every student must navigate and change to fit in with the group. Many factors are at play, and we can argue that conformity on any level is constrictive because to whose rules and structures are we conforming? However, it happens from an early age as we grow up and we learn to “behave appropriately” (Marshal L, 2008:3).

?

It is essential to realise that you are the real you. Who you are and all your characteristics got you to this place and that person will continue to meet the challenges and adapt accordingly. Without getting too self-help here it is essential to embrace what is unique about you as that will get you work in the industry. However, we want to increase our range, explore our habitual responses, get to know how our body responds to things, and how it communicates with us so we can “avoid the automatic and habitual management of impulse” (Marshal L, 2008:33) when working on stage or screen.

?When you start your training, you are introduced to a range of exercises that challenge these patterns of behaviour. Lorna Marshal’s book that I have already quoted entitled “The Body Speaks” is a good one for helping the actor reacquaint themselves with their whole body. I say reacquaint because as she points out, not only were we once fully connected to our feelings when we were children but before urbanisation, our bodies were the conduit between our environment and our brain/mind. Our body with its five limbs – two arms/hands, two legs/feet and a neck/head – hasn’t been designed this way by accident it came from a need to walk, climb, run, jump, crawl, hunt, feed and procreate. So early in the book, there are exercises like “Waking up The Legs” and “Star Fish” that re-engage the whole body.

Again, it is important to stress that you should approach this and all work that explores your body with a “gentle curiosity” (Marshal L, 2008:21) You are looking to extend your range. This work is personal to you. Not everyone can do every exercise, but we can adapt depending on our range of movement or explore different exercises, and different ways of moving around the space, working seated or lying down: in short, there isn’t a right or wrong way of doing this work just your way.

?The next big thing that Lorna covers is connecting our mind to our body. We start to become aware of the responses to our environment, to the space and to recognise how our mind communicates with our body. We tend to live on autopilot and only listen to our body when it calls out in pain. As actors, we need to start recognising the subtle shifts. Two examples:

• When you go into a bar or café with someone do you opt for the seat facing the door if you have the choice? Many would say that they do. What makes you do this? What is the sensation and where does that feeling reside – in your belly, legs, or arms…? Without recognising it you are responding to the environment, and you make a choice, so there is a line of communication between our inner world (Marshal, 2008:36) and outer.
• Sometimes the circle of communication between the mind and body is unmistakable. Standing near the edge of a big drop your body will not “let you go too near. If you want to peer over the edge, you must forcibly override the body’s instinctive response. You can feel the battle between your will and your body” (Marshal, 2008: 44)

?In a book by Stephen Wangh called The Acrobat of The Heart, he asks his students to find a “Safe Space” to work in. They try out different areas of the studio comparing how they feel in each. You can do this at home. You might only have your bedroom to work in during the winter months, but you can still explore different areas to find the best position – facing the window, the door, moving furniture and trying some moves – essentially what you are doing is connecting your “conscious and unconscious responses” (Wangh S, 2000) and waking up to those subtle shifts in your body. Start using your everyday routines to help you reconnect. Take time out of your day for example to sit in a space, either a café, a park, a bar, or your kitchen and listen to your environment using all the senses. I read a book on Mindfulness when a colleague at work pointed out that some of my techniques (I was teaching screen acting at this point) reminded him of Mindfulness techniques he had studied. He recommended Michael Chaskalson’s “Mindfulness in Eight Weeks” and I could see the similarities when he discusses body awareness and “automatic-pilot routines” that plague us when we try to focus in on a moment. Being present is essential as an actor so this is a good place to start and one that will support all of your work as a performer/creative.

?So, if you are starting out on your journey to be a creative/storyteller in 2023 then start by:

• ?Reading a book on acting – I have mentioned five in this article
• Do some basic exercises at home (that you get from a book or online) that encourage you to explore your physical range and re-connect your conscious processing part of the brain with that elusive unconscious.
• You might do Capoeira, or Wing Chun or basic stretches for a sport all of which are fine. While you do try tuning in to what you are thinking/feeling as you commit to these moves
• Sit for five minutes a day and take in your surroundings
• Do a simple everyday routine and try to focus on the activity. If your mind wanders, you start to daydream or worry about the unpaid bill bring it back to the taste of the toothpaste or the sound of the toast being buttered or the sensations accompanying whatever activity you have chosen
• Remember movement work is pleasurable. Nothing should hurt if you are listening to your body. Work within your range. Adapt the exercises and environment to suit you. You can work just as well sitting down as standing up or lying down if you need to. The main thing is to move, listen and engage.
• Remember to start from your own uniqueness as a performer/storyteller all you are doing is building on this to increase your sensitivity to the space and your ability to freely express.

This is the start of a lifelong journey. You are a performer the moment you say you are. It is great because this work not only develops you as a performer/storyteller but helps you grow and develop as a person. I remember what writer/actor and director, Fatima Dike once said to me “we learn through the work we do” and that is so true.