Relaxation of Muscles

Chapter six blew me away. The chapter is all about the idea of relaxing unused muscle groups. It made perfect sense to me. Before I step on stage I always find myself trying to loosen up my body. If I don't do or fail at trying to do this my voice locks up and I struggle to walk (yes we've all seen me trip on air). As I was reading I found myself trying the exercises and failing miserably. I lay on my back and find that it is imposable to get my body to fully relax. As soon as you releases one muscle another contracts to take the weight. It was impossible to get my whole back on the floor without engaging my abdominal muscles. It just seems natural and necessary. This chapter also managed to overwhelm me. So now we have to focus on concentration of attention, imagination, emotions and action on stage. On top of that we are adding relaxing your muscles witch is a three stage process (superfluous tenseness, mechanical relaxation and justification of the pose) that has to happen all in a matter of seconds. Were only on chapter six and my brain has hit overload.

KCACTF

I didn't take many acting workshops while at KCACTF. The first workshop I took was all about acting with an accent. It was very informative and the workshop provided us with some great resources to check out. The workshop itself focused on how to use the tools rather than learning actual dialects there in the room. I had hoped that the dialect we would work with would be British or a least a mix. Sadly the only dialect that was used was Scottish. The other one acting related workshop I went to was about acting in Shakespeare's plays. It was a great workshop. I was really able to make the connection he was trying to get across. I think that this was because of his vocal training. He could make you see the differences in vocal choices. There were many moments where he would give examples of the wrong way to do something and I would experience a moment of "oh yeah I do that". It was my favorite of the acting workshops. I also tried to go to a workshop that I believe was titled The Action in Acting. I sat in the room fro twenty minuets before we all gave up on the professor showing up. Even though the professor never showed up it was time well spent meeting new people and talk over why they had picked the workshop and what experiences they had over the week.

Concentration of Attention

Yippy chapter five! This chapter tackled the concept of the "black hole". Now this doesn't totally register with me because we do not have a stage that creates this "black hole" per say. The concept still rings true though. As an actor you need to have a "point of attention that is not in the auditorium". This is not to say that you can't look out into the audience but then your imagination comes into play because you are not looking out into the audience you are looking at a wall or into a window. Easier said then done. This chapter examines how the pull of the audience is a hard thing to break away from. The concept of the circle of light sounds interesting to me but I'm not sure it would work for me. I'm also not sure how it translates to looking "normal". When I try to think of myself and how I act on a daily bases I don't think that I stare intently at objects, memorizing every detail of them. This has me utterly confused and not sure what message to take home with me from this chapter.

Imagination

Chapter four....took me by surprise. I was not expecting to see a chapter on imagination in this way. I enjoyed the chapter very much. The concept of developing you imagination intrigues me both as an actor and as a human being. Imagination is the driving force behind creating a role this way. You give your character a life that he or she has had before and after the script. I know that I personally think that I have a very active imagination but also a very picky and selective one. My imagination can create wonderful stories about people I know well or people that I have never meet. (it is unfortunate that I currently lack the writing skills to tell these stories) However my imagination does not like to be given a tiny piece of information and then have to give that person a story. It feels to restricting. (Yes I confuse myself as well). The nugget I take with me from chapter four is that imagination is that everything that you do on stage is the result of your imagination.

Action

I finally made it past chapter two! I have also made the choice not to blog about it haha. Okay maybe a few words are needed. Chapter two was hard for me to follow. Mainly what I got from it was that everyone was doing something wrong. The concept of acting from a subconscious level seems to me to be not only an unreachable goal but also an unhealthy one.

So moving on to chapter three. Chapter three was when things finally got interesting for me. It starts with the first day of lessons with the director. The director has a young girl sit on stage and do nothing else. This seems to be an easy task at first but the more you think about it the harder the task would actually be. I know I would feel stupid sitting up there doing nothing. The take home message I got from this chapter would have to be something along the line of the best acting happens when you "aren't acting". Along with that you can not use the false acting of emotions or the use of conventional gestures. Instead of this false acting you must live in the emotions and types. (This is a concept that both intrigues and worries me)

The First Test

The first Chapter in the book An Actor Prepares reads like a story rather than a text book. The chapter is entitled The First Test which seems to me like an extremely appropriate title. It shows that it is normal to struggle to construct a character and bring it to life. The concept of the lines getting in the way of the character was something that I was able to identify with. It is very common for me to create this character in my mind and then have the lines get in the way.

This chapter does a very good job of presenting the problems you face when you first start looking at a script. The part that struck me the most was the concept of letting go. The best work coming from the subconscious. This rang very true to me but how do you control something such as that? I'm hoping that this story of perfect costume, perfect make-up, perfect set, etc. will be the bases for the rest of the books. How do you create that moment of subconscious perfection?