First term done - how can what I've learnt help you in auditions?

SO I thought it would be cool for me to start posting about my time at drama school, summing up the work I have been doing every term/half term. I think this is useful for others as I think if you know what the drama schools are teaching - then you sort of know what they're looking for in auditions! Its also useful for anyone debating wether drama school is for them as they all follow the same sort of route in terms of classes/projects as I've asked other friends at Manchester Met and Central.

This term was split into two halves: The first half of term was spent on a movement project in which we looked at the elements (earth, water, air, fire) and a voice project which is where we explored breath and its pros and cons to an actor. We then spent the second half of term on our acting project - storytelling. We all told a personal story and devised an hour piece of theatre around them of love.
I also learnt huge amount through my Acting technique and Acting for camera lessons (absolutely f*cking great teachers)

This terms main points:

• Alignment
• Element work - Which is in most auditions! 
• Use of breath and how this can help an actor
• All things Acting (Objectives, super objectives, tactics, stake, previous and given circumstances, actions )

Alignment - neutrality 

This is 100% something they look for in auditions - I promise!

Perfect example of frequent habitual stances and then a  picture of a good
neutral stance! (Remember parallel feet that are waist size apart)

A neutral alignment is basically how you stand - it means you stand in a very neutral stance that doesn't show any habitual defects, I see the neutral stance as a relaxed ironing board.
You stand with your feet hip with apart, parallel feet, with straight stance that pulls from the tip of your crown (with ease!) make sure theres no tension, your not standing to attention like in the army. Whys this so important? I hear you ask well it is meant to be a 'ready' stance - your focused, efficient hout dragging your own characteristics/habits in. For example if you stand with you ankles crossed over and hands in your sleeves (you may not know you do this so just be aware) then really the only character I see you playing is a timid shy character - i don't see a lady macbeth in you. However a good alinement can go anywhere!

Element work 

Firstly, what is it and why do drama schools explore this subject?
Elements project is a project in which you explore the four types of elements through your body, how does water, fire, earth and air move? can it be abstract or internal? You look at many different ways into becoming the elements - through memory, imagination and copying in your own way what you are seeing. I found it so hard to begin to understand the point of the element project, like what the f*ck, how does jumping around the room like air make me a better actor? Well, it can actually. I began to understand this when we took the elements into our bodies making them internal. This meant our bodies became a really natural, contracted version. I found when embodying fire I would be walking around the room and maybe just a little twitch would come into my hand or my eye signifying the pops you hear and see when watching a fire - fire produced a character who was abit jumpy, jittery, angry, unfocused, all over the place type person. It wasn't till I noticed this character that was being built in my imagination that I understood how I can link elements into my work. Each character that i will ever play may link to an element and have traits of each element. A pissed off chav character could be more like fire where as a shy posher feminine guy may be a little more like air.

This type of movement work was in a few of my auditions for drama school and seen as though I have just finished my Element project I think its a good idea to write a little few things.
Our teacher for elements was fantastic, he's trained in places like Jaq Le Coq in Paris so he definetely knew a few things!

-   Element work is very abstract so its always important in auditions to not think about how you look to the people you just made 'mates' with who may 'cringe' because your actually committing to the work. And who gives a shit what anyone thinks, your probably not going to see them after today.

-   Use your whole body - water doesn't just ripple in the arms, it will ripple in your toes and your knees and your back. Don't forget any limbs - I always forgot about my legs!

-   Dont rush into it - take a minute to close your eyes, think about what they're telling you to become get a really clear picture in your mind, take a deep breath and go with it - your instinct - not the peoples around you.

-   Make sure theres no tension in the body, keep breathing throughout and maybe do some stretching before going into your auditions as you don't want a brilliant fire chest down and the top section of you to be really stiff.

-   Think outside the box (but not to outside of the box so you look an idiot) for example fire isn't always a roaring blazing fire that I'm sure you imagined - how is it a candle flickering in a still room. Or how is water a puddle and then the ocean?

Breath

I've really learnt how important breath is to an actor this term. It sounds stupid because as people we don't really think about breath or its effect - we just do it. By studying breath for about 10 hours a week for 4 weeks its safe to say I definitely thought about breath!

So what did I learn?

One very interesting thing I learnt is how breath can effect your mood. If you close your eyes now and think of a time in your child hood where you went on the most memorable holiday with the family and how hot it was and how good the pool was and how nice it was to walk down the beach no doubt your breath will change, it may become more deep and relaxed. This will then be completely different to if I ask you to remember the time you got in most trouble, maybe you did something at school, you lost something really valuable and had to tell your mum and dad, or had a house party when your parents where away and your best mate puked red stringy sick from the pasta bake and glass of red wine they had 2 hour earlier  - well imagine that phone call you had to make to tell them or having to tell them when they arrived home. My point is your breath changes in correlation with your mood.

So how is this helpful for you as an actor ?

This is helpful to an actor because it means we can start manipulating our mood through the use of breath. If your monologue you are using for your audition is a very excitable character who has a lot of energy a fast, shallow, chesty irrational breathing pattern - in in in out in in out in out, whilst thinking of something happy may start creating this excitement in your body. Have a play around with the breath and see which one works for you - sometimes people find shallow breaths makes them feel anxious, nervous and scared, its different for everyone so find your own.

You may think I sound stupid, I get it, I thought the same when my teacher began to tell us. So I was first to volunteer when my voice teacher asked for a few of us to get up. She asked us to close our eyes and to think about the emotion of jealousy - I thought of a memory instantly and began to feel it slightly, she asked us to notice our breath and heighten it, I did. We continued this for a couple of minutes until she said open your eyes and walk round the room and look at each other. The room was filled with an immense level of jealousy as 6 of us walked round the room staring at each other, breathing in our own way. It worked but it wasn't like a WTF moment it was more like a, wow thats cool. So our teacher asked us to start again this time with excitement (something which I normally find hard to portray as an actor. Probably because I find it hard to get excited as a person myself) we did the same process as earlier. The change was amazing, I remember walking round the room and after 2/3 minuites thinking to myself 'WHAT THE F*CK IM SO F*UCKING EXCITED AND I DONT KNOW WHAT FOR' the pace of the walk increased it was like I was about to tell my family I'd just got a role in the new bond film. I could see it in everyone else too, they where all so excited and couldn't understand why, as time went on it became a joke we where all laughing like a group of school girls about to wet themselves.

My point is its true, breath and the way you use it can really effect your mood so have a play around with it and think about how your character may be breathing and how for the minute you wait outside the audition room you can get into a breathing pattern that will help your inside be affected.

I wrote an essay that was assigned to us about breath and body and how breath helped me control my nerves if you'd like to see it feel free to comment and I can email or I will post on the blog very soon.

Acting

In the term we learnt the basics techniques an actor should adapt, they're basic but very very important.

Objectives: These are things your character wants or needs. Your character ALWAYS has an objective meaning you always have an objective to play. Even if your characters asleep, their objective may be to get as much sleep as possible for an important job interview tomorrow. It is normally something you want from another character: Character A wants Character B to love them, to understand them ect ect.

Objectives are what push a scene on and can make it interesting. However, its key to notice that you are not 'bulldozing' your scene/monologue with your objective because it can get boring to watch. We found this out in a lesson where we had an 'Objective off'. Two people entered the stage and picked a piece of paper from the box which had an objective on it, like 'I want you to kiss me' and 'I want you to comfort me'. Each time someone got up the scenes where just over powered by two people aggressively trying to achieve their objectives. Its funny because sometimes the best scenes are the the ones where the characters don't actually achieve their objectives!

Now things that can make a scene even more interesting is how you try and achieve your objectives; these are called tactics. For example *Character A* objective is to get B and C to give them £30 each as A is £60 in debt with a drug dealer. Character A may come in asking for £30 each as they are doing a charity run, this might not work so then he may try and remind B and C about a time they've owed money and A wants to claim it back now... this can go on and on. Its key not to get stuck on one tactic as this just get boring!

Talking about objectives, I remember at my East 15 the teacher asked me what my character wanted (obviously referring to objectives which I was clueless about at the time) I said my character wanted his dad to listen and believe him. She told me to think about how much he wanted that and to go again, I did so and I really pushed for my objective I finished and she said 'Wow, you really wanted that, great work'

Super objectives: This is something your character wants from life, the ultimate objective. Its pretty straight forward yours may be to live in a 5 bedroom house and drive a Ferrari. This is what drives your character, maybe why they make certain choices.

Stakes: These are what level your characters wants/needs are. Think about it on a scale of 1-10. Character A wants £60 to pay of a debt with a drug dealer, I would put a stake of about 8/9 on this as the consequences could be massive and impact not just you but the people around you. Compare it to if your character wanted the £60 to go on a night out this might change the stake to a 5. The stake effects how much your character pushes to achieve there objective or what tactics they use.

Previous circumstances: This is where your character has come from. Ultimately where you have come from is always going to effect your current mood. For example, if your character is about to walk down the aisle and get married I would expect them to be ecstatic, nervous or content. However, if your character has just been caught kissing one of the braids maids by the brides mother then your walk down the isle and mood throughout the whole ceremony will be completely different.

Previous circumstances don't just have to be shown through the way you first speak, it can simply be your entrance - the walk in, the way you open and close the door.

Given circumstances: The simplest way to find out your characters given circumstances is by asking yourself these 9 questions:

Who are you? Characters background, like and dislikes, characteristics, relationships ect
Where are you? what kind of place is it, how does your character feel in this place
When is it? Being at a bus stop at 10am is a lot different to being at a bus stop at 1am
What do you want? This is your objective as discussed earlier - think about the stakes too
Why do you want it? Theres always a good reason for wanting something
Why do you want it now? why not wait a few weeks
What will happen if you don't get it now? Consequences, repercussions
How will I get what I want? Tactics

Actions: These help convey intentions, they are transitive verbs which you attach to a line. The best way to do this is fitting a word into the phrase 'I  ______ you'. Actions are helpful, especially if you have a big monologue or section of speech and you feel its dull/wishy washy, the kind where your just saying words and in your head your thinking ' even I'm bored of this'. Its key to note that 3 words may be split up into 3 different actions, this would be nit picking and obviously wouldn't work if you did it for every word throughout but some words justify this. Also remember that a speech of 4 lines probably won't be one action, it may be 3 different ones.

Below are a list of transitive verbs:



Overall this term has taught me a lot, they may seem like basic skills but they are really laying the strong foundations for me to take through in my acting life. I hope that my evaluation of the term has given you an insight in to what drama school is like but also highlighted what drama schools teach thus meaning what they are looking for in you. If you apply all the skills I have talked about in this post then you are already meeting the wants of first term drama school students, which is obviously a plus for someone sitting on the panel!

cheers, KL