Working with Naturalistic Exercises
Recently we have been studying and using exercises that focus on:
Awareness of Muscles
Control of Muscles
Observation of Everyday Activities
Centers of Gravity
Centers of Gravity
Consider these questions...
To what extent are the type of exercises we have been working with of use to...
a) the acting student
b) the actor
c) anyone and everyone in everday life
d) you
Refer to specific exercises in your answers
I believe that awareness of muscles's will be the most import to an acting student as they need to learn different moments, however control needs to play a parts and therefore the must coexist. This is shone threw during the exercise where we pushed against the wall, we thought about how much force was needed in each muscle and control this force so we could hold this for a long time.
ReplyDeleteThe observation of life, I think is perhaps the one the actor should think about most as the actor should draw on real life to give the performance a naturalistic quality. I am reminded about the task we did towards the start of the year when we where asked to observe a stranger and give them a life and background. That has helped me understand the concentration required in building a character.
Some people do yoga or tai chi it comes down to the same principle that finding a balance and center of gravity can help you relax and get rid of unnecessary stress and this can interfere with out efficiency when carrying out everyday tasks. The chair exercise shows this best as it, requires balance and focus to achieve the goal.
The one that affects me the most is center of gravity and balance, I have awful posture and improving this can only help and aid my performance. If my posture was better I would be able to move more and I believe help me get rid of the tension built in my shoulders.
In my opinion the awarness of muscles is the most important aspect out of the 4 for the acting student. They need to be aware of how their muscles react in different movements while playing different roles/characters so they don't seriously hurt themselves and have a control of their musles. This is then shown through the activity we did were we had to pick up the chairs and put a line of chairs on the other side of the room because it makes us aware how much strength we need in our arms to pick the chair up.
ReplyDeleteI belive that observation of everyday life is the most important thing out of the 4 for an actor. When a actor is preforming they can use the observations and experiences they have made of different situations they have experienced in life. These then can be recalled on by using emotion memory (Stanislavski) to give a more nautralitic performance. The task I refer to (from the Jean Benedetti extract) for this section is when Sir asked us to observe how the monkey lived, ate, moved and how clever they were.
The most important and relavant one out of the 4 for anyone and everybody in everyday life has got to be the control of musles as we control our muscles by walking, writing and talking, etc. This is then shown through the activity we did were we had to lie on the floor and tense our muscle until it hurt (I think this was one of the relaxation exercises). It is also shown though the task were we had to walk round the room at different speeds as this was part of tempo and rythm movement (Stanislavski).
Personally I think the one that effects me the most is the centre of gravtiy as I can't stand still. To help me improve this for any performance I would be doing different centre of gravity exercises. The best activity for this is shown through would have to be were we had 2 chairs spaced 3 feet apart ,then balanceded one knee on one chair then reach for the other chair and picked it up. Then we had to lift the other foot off the gound and without holding on we had to find the centre of gravtiy (personally I loved that activity!).
(sorry again if it long guys)