The office of drama is to exercise, possibly to exhaust, human emotions. The purpose of comedy is to tickle those emotions into an expression of light relief; of tragedy, to wound them and bring the relief of tears. Disgust and terror are the other points of the compass. ~ Sir Laurence Olivier.
The Positive:
- Strong company member.
- When in a character, have confidence I know her and my inner ability to convey her.
- Ability to relax into a character on stage.
- Thorough. Enjoy delving into character’s world.
- Reliable. Both time-keeping wise and in terms of repetition, know it’ll be the same from night to night.
- Have experience of working in a variety of venues & period costumes.
- Can dance, pick up routines quickly and accurately.
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- Used to be good at accents, until I found out that in order to be good at accents you have to be good at singing and I’ve struggled to make an accent work since.
- Used to have a good memory. Not so good now.
- Can get into the zone, but not as consistant as it needs to be.
- Didn’t use to be able to cry on command. Think I can do that now (providing I can focus – see above).
- Can take direction. Like blocking. Well most of the time (see 4 below)
The Negative:
- Not a good singer.
- Gabbling. Have a tendancy to speak too quickly. Have to be conscious of my speed.
- Concentration. Not always been able to sustain focus.
- Inflexibility. Found it difficult to bend. Eg. to a director who insisted on arbitrary characterisations.
- Tendancy to go for the easy option. Need to always watch that.
- Don’t listen (react) as much as I would want. Certainly didn’t trust that my reactions were right.
- Improvisation. Find it very hard to relax, I tense up and can freeze.
- Stuggle to ‘let go’ in rehearsals, character only fully arrives at 1st performance/when the camera is turning.
- Posture not as good as it should be. Tend to slouch.
class action lawsuit on prednisone The now necessary confidence booster:
- Called a ‘natural’ by several directors, colleagues and 2 critics.
- Told I had potential.
Could possibly be more in all categories (bound to be something huge I’ve missed out too) but that’s all I can think of at the moment. Now all I’ve got to do is make all areas better 
Spoken by Madame Arkadina in the Exercises category with the tag(s) criticism, self-appraisal.
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The most important thing in the face is the eyes, and if you can make the eyes talk, you’re halfway there. ~ Ian Holm.
- Be like a duck. Calm on the surface, but always paddling like the dickens underneath.
- I’ll always be there because I’m a skilled professional actor. Whether or not I’ve any talent is beside the point.
- Timing in comedy is like walking on a razor blade.
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Spoken by Madame Arkadina in the Quotes category with the tag(s) actors, lists, Michael Caine.
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I’ll always be there because I’m a skilled professional actor. Whether or not I’ve any talent is beside the point. ~ Michael Caine.
In her instructions for watching fellow actors, she says “Don’t be judgemental”. If you don’t believe in something, think that it’s what you’d do and look at how you correct it.
But if something convinces you, and you really identify with it, ask “Why? What are they doing that allows me to be convinced?”
I’m not sure if this is precisely how she meant it to be interpreted but using those statements I’m going to analyse some performances by great actors in depth. Not entirely sure if I have the tools to do this effectively but I’m going to give it a try anyway. So every so often, I plan on analysing a really famous performance that’s impressed me.
Not sure which I’m going to start with … hmmm … decisions, decisions.
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Spoken by Madame Arkadina in the Exercises, Technique category with the tag(s) performance study, Uta Hagen.
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You have to love the characters you play, even if no one else does. ~ Glenn Close.
Having begun this journey rather haphazardly I have realised that I ought to approach this task in a more orderly fashion: I need to be able to assess my progress (if I’m lucky enough to be able to make any) and use this space as a place to order my thinking.
To accomplish this first task I will write regular (oh okay, semi-regular) self appraisals. Being brutally honest with myself about my faults as well as my good points. I’m not ready to post videos or sound files to chart my progress but I hope that later one, I will be.
The act of writing down my thoughts, and not solely the techniques, themselves will take care of the second point – I hope. I’m expecting them to be disordered, messy incoherant but mainly stupid. I hope that they will clarify certain elements in my mind and eventually lead on to a more intelligent, practical and honest methodology. And successful, of course 
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Spoken by Madame Arkadina in the General category with the tag(s) intentions, mission statement.
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I’ll always be there because I’m a skilled professional actor. Whether or not I’ve any talent is beside the point. ~ Michael Caine.
Been listening to/reading interviews with actors recently, one of which mentioned the lack of preparation usually undertaken by young actors prior to starting a new movie; which has lead me to think: what is classed as ‘preparation’ and just how much is too much? On stage as much as in film.
Learning any skills necessary for the part prior to beginning work with the company makes sense – no point playing a world class unicyclist being unable to get on the thing – but beyond that, what is meant?
Does, or should, preparation consist of being off the book before the first day of work? Not being encumbered by reading during any rehearsal period would definitely have it’s advantages, especially in terms of rehearsal freedom, but does it a) look too eager, b) affect the ‘newness’ of the lines or, even worse, c) lead to desicions, unconscious or not, being made without the director and the rest of the team and becoming infelixible.
Or is preparation less concrete and more abstract. Research, while it provides concrete facts of time and place for a character, is abstract in the sense that it informs character but again I can see it could have the possibility of making decisions prior to work.
Or does preparation consist of close textual study. Not a learning of the words themselves but an analysis of the script in a more academic manner. Combing it for clues over and over again, in a more literary sense. Does such a thing inevitably lead to a more cerebral, rather than visceral, portrayal? Can it disconnect the actor from his/her material? Or is the opposite true?
Or is preparation more basic than those? Having a firm technical foundation, with emotional dexterity: being able to last a run without losing your voice and cry on cue could be construed as being prepared. I feel on thin ice with this, so will discount that and take it as read that any professional would possess these technical qualities and not include it.
So, with that discounted, is it more realistical to assume preparation’s a combination of all the rest. If so, what combination? Is it dictated by the character, the director, or personal choice of the actor?
So which is best? Arriving fully ‘prepared’ with all the attendant problems of rigidity (which I know I have a tendancy towards) or turning up prepared only for the unexpected and have to ‘wing it’ through the whole process increasing the risk of failure? I’m not sure I know the right answer. Success in a role with a lack of preparation impresses me immensely, as does any form of improvisation, but I’m not sure I could manage. For me, I think battling the potential infexibility of preparation is the route to take … I think ….
Spoken by Madame Arkadina in the General, Technique category with the tag(s) preparation.
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