Students love performing in popular musicals and big comedies. They long for the Act I solo of “Defying Gravity” and yearn for a fall down the stairs that leaves the audience in stitches. They want the emotional breakdown onstage that leaves the theatergoers in tears and a Tony award-winning performance of a closing number that brings the audience to their feet.
CONNECTING THE ACTORS TO THE STORY
What young actors don’t always understand is that the believability in their performance is what leads to award speeches and grandma reaching for the tissues. An audience can like a show that is professional, entertaining and full of great musical numbers. What makes an audience RAVE about a show is falling in love with the story as well. Caring about it. How do we do this?
Teaching your actors how to deliver their circumstances honestly so for those two hours they believe it is unfolding right in front of them for the first time. Below are some of the largest obstacles I helped students to overcome with twenty-five years of teaching young actors.
YOU CAN’T PLAY OTHER PEOPLE UNTIL YOU KNOW YOURSELF
I have had the privilege of consistently teaching students ranging from grade 3 through 12 the past couple of decades and no matter where they fall in their journey to adulthood, they are still discovering who they are and who they want to be.
On this road to “enlightenment", they often skip over the intricacies that make them unique. How they stand, walk, speech patterns, and mannerisms. Have they ever thought about the faces they make when they belly laugh or what their breath does when they are about to cry? There are thousands and thousands of unique things we do every day in response to the world around us.
I used to tell my students, “You need to start paying attention to yourself. Turn on your mind's-eye and watch how you behave and move and interact. But be warned…cause once you turn it on, it’s hard to turn it off again and it can be annoying when you are trying to just relax and watch TV.”
If we are supposed to believably become these characters given to us in the pages of the script, we need to perform the same task of discovering who they are. What happened to them? What are their mannerisms and why? Students often understand this part of acting. The connection that is lost is that they don’t truly know this information about themselves yet.
Every time we embody a new character we take from ourselves what works and then create and discover what is new. How can you possibly perform this task without prior knowledge of your own instrument? At the beginning of all my acting classes we explore ourselves. We get to know how we ourselves tick and by doing so we create characters by keeping what works, throwing out what feels forced and by discovering new choices that feel believable and grounded in ourselves. A character grounded in ourselves…what is more believable than that?
PLEASE STOP “ACTING”
If you ask your students what their favorite movies or musicals are, they will no doubt include some gems ranging from “Dumb and Dumber” to “Mean Girls.” They love this type of exciting and funny entertainment, but what I try to get them to understand is that even the silliest of moments is funny because we BELIEVE that it is happening.
Not only do the circumstances feel like they are happening for the first time, but the characters seem authentic. The dialogue is natural and relaxed. The actors are in the moment and free from unnecessary tension. Young actors sometimes feel like there is this massive departure from the way they are everyday to the way they have to be as an “actor” on stage.
Yes, we need to practice good volume and diction and open our mouths so we don’t mumble through our lines, but as the great Stanislavski hammered home, a great actor appears relaxed onstage. There is an ease about them as they move about the stage. We don’t have to exert more energy than we do every day to do simple tasks. Release and relax. If you can get your actors to truly “be” in their moments you may never have to mutter the five words I hate saying the most:
“Would you please stop acting.”
BREAKING THROUGH THE EMOTIONAL WALL
A sophomore in high school is tasked with the daunting goal of having to have a mental breakdown in the middle of Act II where he is supposed to deliver a monologue wrought with frustration, anger and tears. A huge task for someone who spends his evenings playing Fortnite and flirting with the dance captain. To be honest, it is a huge task for any actor and takes a lot of focus and hard work.
The biggest obstacle in these meaty roles for young actors is the emotional wall they have built up around them that they are not comfortable with you seeing behind. We are told at young ages to, “stop being a cry baby” or to “just get over it.” Those messages mixed with the complications of puberty and trying to figure out who they are and what they like cause them to hide a lot of things behind this wall.
So how do you get them to break it down so they can tap into their deep emotions and be vulnerable in front of their friends and audience? To connect to the moment and portray believable emotions on stage? The short answer is…you can’t. The longer answer is that we are theatre educators and have to tread lightly with how hard we push them to reveal things before they are ready. We don’t always know what is going on in their lives behind closed doors. However, if I create a safe and respectful space for them to explore and push themselves where they are supported by everyone, then the ones that are ready will get there by opening night or at the very least, make huge strides before the next opportunity arises.
Breaking down this wall is easy for some and impossible for others. My job is to let them know that the most important thing is not whether they ended up with tears in their eyes. It is what the audience feels. Focus on being in the moment as honestly as you can and you will bring the audience along with you. Tears are not a requirement of an award-winning performance. Believability is.
And whatever you do, don’t fake cry. The audience will eat you alive.
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