New Experiences

By: Dana J. Braxton MA/MFA International Course Head: Monique Wilson Logbook: Acting Technique

September 2011 marked the beginning of my professional actor training at East 15 Theater Conservatory in England. Moving to this country and studying has proved to be very challenging for me both personally and professionally. Before coming to East 15 I spent 6 years working in Human Resources for The New York Times Company with very little theatrical training. I took some acting classes in college and performed in 3 plays but mostly film and television. So, deciding to take on a new profession and coming into such a rigors program with little professional training and experience has proved to be a double edge sword; allowing me to experience everything with fresh eyes and perspective, but has limited my complete understanding of the new techniques since I dont have the practicum experience to build upon. As the days go by, I begin to have a deeper understanding of what was taught the day before and how that applies to what we are learning today. I hope this logbook shows the journey I have taken these past few weeks.

Project 1: Sustaining an activity with a sleeping partner The objective of the project is to be able to sustain an action over a 20minute timetable while someone is sleeping in the scene. Having someone asleep in the scene with you builds up a since of urgency as to why your action is so important to not wake up the patron. During this exercise, I chose to build a scenario in my mind of a women being hired to trap a friends boyfriend by planting evidence that he was cheating on her. I chose to un pack a backpack and pull out

3 glasses, plant underwear, write a note and kiss it with lipstick, take pictures and steel the husbands underwear because secretly I am in love with the husband and that was why I was so eager to help out the friend. The exercise I felt went well but was to short. Once I got into the scenario I found myself rushing to complete the tasks due to the urgency I had placed in the scene and what felt natural. I didnt want to slow down the activities I had preplanned because then they would have seemed like I was stalling. What my scene needed was more activities or at least different activities that could have been sustained longer. I focused more on the scenario itself instead of the actual sustaining of an activity with the sense of urgency added to it. Sustaining the activity is important because it teaches you how to be involved in what you are doing and to get familiar with working with objects on the stage. Having very little theater experience I didnt realize how hard it can be to just focus on tasks and what a big part they play in scenes. Project 2: Opposing Actions This project was the first of which we were asked to work with a partner and develop a scenario with 2 opposing actions. This next stage in our acting technique builds on the sustained activity project and introduces the 10 questions as a way to structure the background for the characters we will be portraying. Having never sustained an improve for more that 10 min and never really developing a backstory for my improvisational character this was an entirely new way to approach my improv. My first partner and I developed a story of two friends that live together in Los Angeles and are moving together to New York in 2 weeks. My action was to not move to NY and hers was to convince me to continue with our plans to move. Prior

4 to the improv we sat down and developed a complete life for our characters, which proved to be very helpful in the scene. I was nervous to preform this as it was the longest improv I have ever sustained to date and was worried that I was not going to be able to speak on the subject for the time allotted. All and all the scene went well, I had the backstory that was needed to drive the conversation and the sense of urgency that helped me to stay on task but I could have done so much more with my arguments. I have a tendency to think to much in my head about what to say and what actions to play instead of just letting the scene take its shape organically. I also found it challenging to sustain the activities that we had brought into the scene as a way for our characters to have things to accomplish instead of just sitting and talking. This obstacle stems from my insecurity with or lack of familiarity handling objects on stage while performing. I still struggle with knowing what to do with my body while on stage but having movement classes are helping my body find a rhythm with giving and receiving impulses. My second improvisation was also well thought out with loads of back-story and the 10 questions answered but I struggled again with letting go in the scene and trying new things. The partner I had this time was also a male and I have little to no experience working directly with the opposite sex in a relationship type scenario. This improv was stopped short of the 30 min limit because it had become stagnant. My partner and I had decided to play a couple of 2 yrs. where one has cheated on the other and wants to end the relationship. My character this time was the one who tries to convince my partner to stay with me. Verbally I tried everything to get him to stay with me but I again I was unsure of my what to do character wise. What is

5 too much? In my mind I wanted to beg and really show my partner my devastation but didnt know how. One point during my exercise Monique suggested that I beg which I tried but to no avail. I didnt go deep enough and really show my partner my emotions because I was just not comfortable with the choices I was thinking of in my head. I get so wrapped up in what is right and wrong that I hinder the scene from really taking shape. Its like I am standing on the outside of a house looking in the windows as oppose to just walking through the door to see whats inside. My third opposing action scenario was the worst of the scenes; it just went wrong from the beginning but was very eye opening as to why the 10 questions and backstory were so important. I worked this time with another colleague and we met and developed a scenario of 2 sisters one a nurse and the other an actor who wants to have plastic surgery. Even from the very first meeting I felt uncomfortable with my partner and was not able to shake the uneasiness during the performance. I didnt believe the scenario and therefore was unable to commit to the character. This was the first time I was faced with not believing in something I was playing and it was very apparent in the scene. At one point I broke character and apologized for leaving my purse on the couch when my partner sat on it. I think I took for granted the 10 questions and really didnt take the time to go deeper into my character. My scene was very surface and it showed. After speaking with Monique she suggested some ways that our scenario could have worked, we lacked a sense of urgency to drive the improve and as a result we just continued to talk in circles around the same topic. Although, this was not an ideal improve it reminds me of a quote from

6 Uta Hagen 1To maintain ones ideals in ignorance is easy; to maintain them with the full realization of the existing circumstances is not. To accept the way it is is the opportunistic way out or the way of the ostrich; to attempt to battle it takes knowledge and character. Again during the improv I thought of lots of different things to try during the scene but held myself back because I was unsure of how my partner would respond to my actions and I lacked the backstory needed to support it. Everyday is a small triumph for me and completing the opposing actions projects did help me to start to understand the skills we are building on for character work. My greatest strength during these exercises I felt was my ability to be open to the process and explore them. I understood the foundations of the exercises but just now need to get a handle on not being so internal with my thinking and build up a sense of fearlessness to be able to allow the work to develop instead of worrying about whether I am doing it right, what others will think, or how will my partner respond to what I am putting into the space. Part of being an actor is responding to the impulses given and that is what I began to understand during this process. Project 3 Characteristic Improvisations: At this point in our training we were experimenting with different characteristics and how to describe them through words and improvisations. We each were asked to provide a list of characteristics that we want to work on and we explored them in improvisations. The first improv that was given was a scenario
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Hagen, Uta. Respect for Acting. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 1973

7 where we played children in preschool. My character did not have direction and just had to interact with the other kids is school. This was very challenging for me at first, I am so used to or need to have clear objectives in order to feel at ease and not having a clear objective was at first very frightening. I wasnt sure what to do or how to interact but as the improv went on I was able to settle into my youthful character and let go. This was the first time in an improvisation I was able to just be in the moment and not worry about whether I was doing it right. There was a sort of fearlessness I felt with exploring the character that I hadnt encountered in a scene before. The next improve that we did was with partners, one is provided a clear characteristic while the other has to play off their partner and guess what characteristic is being portrayed. I feel that with every improv I am learning more and more how to be comfortable performing in front of people and developing a sense of ease. I worked with a colleague who was given the word Bragg during the improv I remember feeling uneasy at not knowing the objective of the scene and found it a little difficult to really be in the moment because in the back of my mind I was thinking where is this going, what is my partner trying to show me, I am not sure if that translated in my performance but on the inside this is how I felt. I felt that during the improvisation I kept a cool head and was able to respond to my partner even though I had an internal conflict on the inside. When Monique asked me what I thought the characteristic was, I was so hesitant and felt so self-conscious about being wrong.

8 The characteristic module was a discovery in playing characteristics that you have trouble with in life and wanted to explore. It was eye-opening experience and really allowed you to challenge yourself by playing in a scene things you would normally shy away from. This module really helps with character work, you will not always be able to play characters that are like you and this is an early exercise to familiarize yourself with this process. Project 4- Animal module During this module we were asked to choose 2 animals that had different characteristic than you posses. I chose the Polar Bear and the Aardvark. I felt the Polar Bear was different than me because of his size, strength, and aggressive behavior. The Polar Bear is very aggressive and lives a solitary life for the most part and these characteristics are the polar opposites of my self; I do not posses the size and strength or the aggressive nature. I tend to be very mild mannered and calm so taking on such a big animal was challenging in itself. The Aardvark on the other hand, is a much smaller animal that is very anti social and task oriented. The Aardvark lives alone much of its life with the only task of finding food, its inquisitiveness is one of the main reasons it is able to find food day in and day out. I myself am a creature of habit and find it hard to develop new paths and ways of finding/doing things. When observing the animals on line and at the zoo I tried to focus on the way they move and how they interact with other species to see if I could get the sense or air of the animal. When translating that to my work, I was able to focus on the movement of the Aardvarks noes and use that as a tool to show my inquisitiveness for my surroundings. After traveling around the room as our

9 animals and interacting with the other animals in the space we were asked to choose one and play that animal in an improve with a characteristic. I choose to portray the Polar Bear during my improve and I had the objective of wanting to rest. At first thought you would think that trying to portray a Polar Bear in and improve is difficult but for me I felt I transitioned nicely. The main points of the Bears characteristic I took into the improv was his size, by walking with a big space around me and the fact that a Polar Bear would not have to be so verbal to express how he feels. During the improv I felt a sense of ease and just went with the flow and responded to what my partner was giving me not loosing sight of my objective or the characteristics I wanted to portray. After the Improv was over Robin commented on my presence on the stage and the fact that I was able to translate my animal to the improv. This note really resonated with me because I tried to get out of myself and just purely work with the characteristics of the animal and not involve the insatiable need I have for perfection. What is perfection? If I have learned anything in my time at East 15 is that there are no right or wrong answers when it comes to acting just technique. When you are wary or doubt if you fall back on the techniques and skills that you have been taught you will be able to find your way. The whole technique process is new for me and am still learning and absorbing everything I have learned. If I follow the 10 questions, sustain and activity or a combination or both I will keep the door open for experiencing the right outcome for my scenes and Improvisations. Skills

10 In addition to our Acting classes we participate in a wide range of skills classes ranging from Movement, Context and Voice. One of my biggest struggles is learning how to move on stage and knowing what to do with my body. Having the movement classes gave me the tools to become more confident on the stage. Whether it was going through LABAN efforts of movement to giving and receiving impulses through actions they helped me to understand the art of moving in the space. When I first started movement classes I did not really understand the point of the walking exercise. But I find it so useful to acquaint yourself with the space and your feelings. It helps you to get a sense of yourself and those around you, when we are given intentions to follow I find it is extremely helpful to get my body used to moving a certain way in the space and when you have a performance or improv and you have to move like one of the intentions you have practiced in LABAN your body already has a sense of the way it feels to move that way in the space. All of these are tools to help the actors body understand the reason behind the movement. When you are on stage you just dont move-to-move you have either specific actions or impulses that you are following. I still have a long way to go before my actors body is comfortable but I can already tell the difference as to how I move now as oppose to the movement choices or lack there of I had in the beginning. Voice is another class that has helped me understand how to translate what I am reading and resonate it to the space. It is not just about saying the words it is about feeling and connecting to what you say and in turn resonating it into the space. Before I took a voice class I thought that speaking loudly was enough to get

11 the point across of what you are saying but I now realize that it is not about volume at all if you are breathing correctly and allow the sound to escape your lips coming from your solar plexus you can be heard and felt. During our classes in the beginning I also had trouble not being so breathy and resonating from my core but I feel it was because I was to busy trying to preform my text instead of really connecting to what I was saying. Once I took a step back to really analyze what I was saying through the text I found that it was much easier to resonate and lead with the breath from my solar plexus. In voice we were asked to work on a monologue and I chose Henry VI Part 2 Eleanor and I was struggling to understand the text and to really resonate the words but as I grew more comfortable with text and get over the shock of Shakespeare I was able to pull it together. Context was another class where we learned the basics of different theater movements such as: Grawtoski, Stanislavski, Chekov, Etc. It is useful to see how theater has evolved and the different movements that have helped theater become what we know now. We were asked to preform a scene with a partner in class and the text that was given was short little one-lined texts as we preformed the piece we started to see how the subtext of the scene was what drove the performance and not necessarily the words themselves. It was nice to contextualize the scene and see really how deep you could make the characters and how much of the 10 questions you could answer with such a small bit of text. For this scene I worked with a male and had a quite different outcome than the previous attempt at an relationship scenario. I am not sure if it was because I had developed more ease with this type of

12 relationship or I had removed the stress of Improvisation but the scene flowed so much better. At one point I was given the objective to seduce my partner, several weeks ago I would have been so limited it what I would have done but during my this scene I felt confident enough to sit on my partners lap and take risks I would have normally been bound from doing. It is refreshing when you see some progress in your work or recognize when you are able to accomplish something that you struggled with before. Singing is another skill class that I have taken during my first term and although I can carry a tune I never considered my self a singer. Most of the singing I have done in my past has been singing along with music in the car. The singing class has really helped me to be able to adapt to an ensemble style of singing, which is very useful in musicals. I have participated in musicals before but never having any real training. I am learning how to follow scores and how to blend my voice. When you are so used to singing by yourself you forget that it takes certain tools to sing as group. Articulation is the class where we are learning standard British RP. When I arrived in London I did have what I considered a London accent that I learned to through movies and TV. Working with my articulation instructor I have learned of the actual tongue placement and lip placement that it takes to achieve a standard RP sound. Being familiar with the British accent did help in class but I still show my American accent when speaking in RP. I need to work on my Dark Ls and Syllabic Ns which are the hardest for me to loose my accent on. Learning RP does help when reading Shakespeare and understanding the way the words are pronounced

13 and how to follow the iambic pentameter that Shakespeare Verse is written in. It is very interesting to me how much Voice class and Articulation work together. As a whole these past few weeks have proved to be very challenging and eye opening, I have tried and failed but tried nonetheless to constantly push myself out of the box I have created. I value the techniques that I have been given and see the connections between the skills classes and the actual acting technique and how one can not stand with out the other. I am generally excited to think of where this training will take me and look forward to continue to press myself to think outside the box and learn. At this point it is fair to say that I still have not totally grasped all of the things that have been taught to me in the past couple weeks but I am growing into my own and building a foundation that I will take with me to the next module.

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