Wednesday 7th September 2016 -The Impact Of Acting, Subtlety And Impovisation

In our first lesson today we started by speaking about how we felt on stage and it was really interesting to see the positive impact performing has on our lives and how those feelings we have on stage get through to an audience watching. If you feel energised it is likely the audience will respond to this and in some cases they almost adopt that feeling too. This discussion made me aware of how much of an impact you can have through performance. As I have performed several times from a young age I was able to contribute to this discussion a lot by sharing my performing experiences both good and bad and how the audiences responses were different in each.We then saw how one chair can be used as much more than just a normal chair and that it can be used in a variety of settings and create a whole world and atmosphere around it just through what the actor does with it. It could for example be used as an electric chair, a sun deck chair on holiday or a hospital waiting room chair, which all create completely different environments, even though the audience cant necessarily physically see this, its all through how the actor gets across their emotions about being where they are. We also watched a demonstration on how an actor could be sat on said chair and be in complete silence for a while and yet still capture the audience’s attention fully through their expressions and movements. This to me emphasised the importance of small details when acting as they can help build the story or world around you. It made me realise that every little thing you do on stage can have an impact and be just as captivating as larger over the top acting.

Our second practical lesson looked at improvisation games such as freeze, which began to get us used to coming up with our own concepts on the spot at a high speed. We also discussed any experience we had with improvisation and its uses in acting. As I have previously been in an improvisation show at the Theatre Royal Bury St Edmunds I was able to share my experience. It was also interesting to learn how you can use improvisation in scripted pieces too, such as if another actor forgets their lines you can say phrases to prompt their line with subtlety. I’m looking forward to developing techniques to help with improvisation and today’s lesson gave us a good foundation of things to come.


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