1. Keep it simple
2. Just talk and listen
3. Play off her energy
4. Communicate
5. Stay with each other
6. Let yourself hear what she’s saying
7. Watch her eyes
8. Just talk and listen
9. It’s okay to relax
10. Give the lines to each other
11. Let yourselves connect
12. It’s okay to engage and be affected by her
13. I like it when you come off each other
14. You can pay attention to each other
15. Don’t say the lines until you feel like saying them

This list is taken from Judith Weston’s Directing Actors (p86)

It utilises the brain’s innate ability to freely associate words.

You’ve gotten some of the lines down by rote, and you’re using body memory, but you’re feeling anxious. What will happen if I lose my place? There’s so much stuff here and I really want to get lost in the reality of the moment.

Here’s what to do:

Break the script into paragraphs and name each paragraph with a visual noun. So … If the first paragraph is a mini speech about being lost at sea, the noun might be “sea”. If the second paragraph is about a childhood memory where the character caught a grasshopper, name that paragraph, “grasshopper”. Something visual is the key here. The third paragraph is about falling from a high balcony and smashing through a window. “Window” might be your third word. And so on.

Your final list of paragraph titles might look something like this:

• sea
• grasshopper
• window
• cat
• hammer
• leg
• coffin
• cloud

Remember that it’s not supposed to make sense just yet.

Now to link the words. All you do is put them together into a little associative story. Make sure the story is imaginative and VERY visual. The more visual the words, the better.

So, my associative story for the above list would be … On the sea floats a grasshopper. The grasshopper jumps onto a window pane. Behind the window pane sits a cat. Someone hits the cat with a hammer. The hammer is then used to fix a wooden leg. The one-legged person dies and is put in a coffin. Above which floats a single cloud.

And that’s it!

If you can’t find a word to suit your paragraph – perhaps because it’s not a visual paragraph – find a word or image that rhymes or feels like your noun. Eg. I used to be cheeky when I was a kid. I played all day and never went home when mother would call me. You might use monkey (as in “cheeky monkey”) to nudge you into remembering that paragraph.

This technique will work well alongside traditional rote learning or reading your piece out loud to friends and family. You can also pick up anywhere in the story – or even say your script backwards – just by remembering one item.

No. It’s none of these internal things if Sanford Meisner’s book, “On Acting” is anything to go by. It’s his theory that an actor’s focus should be on the other person or task at hand, rather than themselves. And I agree. An actor’s ego can spoil a performance.

Here are a few things you might like to do to improve your acting.

10 ways to a better performance

1. Get the lines down

They’re not important. You really need to commit them to memory so that they just fall out. You should be so used to your lines that there’s no memory of them. You’ve seen actors saying phrases like “I mean…” and “ummm…” or just plain freezing. The audience isn’t stupid. We know that this is a form of buying time. The actor is trying to remember a line. By doing this – you’re taking us out of the story. Get the lines down!

2. Forget the subtext

“Whhhhaaat?” I hear you say. Forget it. Your director will look after this in the form of actions. She is in control of story. Your job is to find character. And you do that by being in the moment – not by trying to second guess how this relates back to your character. Subtext is not your concern. Don’t tell anyone I said that. Reality is. I know this is controversial, but bear with me . . .

3. Examine a physical element of the other actor during a scene.

Eyes, clothes, hair. How do they carry themselves?

4. Choose one thing the other actor is doing and physically copy it.

Copy a different thing each time. See how the director likes it.

5. Listen carefully to the other actor.

Not only their lines. Always listen to the other actor. On and off camera.

6. Pick something about the other actor’s costume.

A necklace, a ring, a charm, tie or cufflink and admire or loathe it. Don’t indicate. Think the thoughts.

7. Repeat the other actor’s line in your head

On a significant line, really think about what the other actor said. Say it again in your head. Was it meant to hurt / praise / teach you? (your character) How do you feel now? Feeling comes before action. Repeat the line, then Feel the effect.

8. Ignore the camera.

Obviously. Don’t be too concerned with the frame. It’s always a close-up, Darling. Let the camera find you (it’s the Cinematographer and Director’s job to sort this stuff out). If the Director wants you to point your head a certain way, or hit a mark – find a character reason to get there. Discuss this with the director. Or invent your own reason. If it’s an ad you’re doing – direct yourself. The camera wants to see you thinking. We can feel your thoughts – there’s no need to project them.

9. Let yourself feel the environment

When you walk on, feel the air, the heat. Listen to environmental noises around you. The wind, birds, the hum of traffic. Smell the grass. Get into a place where even a loud noise might make you jump. Really tuck yourself in to the given circumstances that surround you. You might allow yourself to feel giddy during a scene.

10. This scene is his / hers

Even if the scene is actually your scene storywise, convince yourself that it really belongs to the other actor and really help them get it right.

All of the above will make you look good on screen. These “tricks” will take the emphasis of you and your “performance”. Acting in a scene should finsih with the feeling that you’ve been awoken from a dream. If you can remember all of these things, your ego will be so distracted that it won’t start chewing up the furniture during a take (ie. you won’t be accused of over-acting because, really, you weren’t acting in the first place).

When the camera is up your nose, all you have to do is think and it will be faithfully recorded to a hard drive. Not very romantic, I know – but we’re living in a technical age.

Let us know other things that aren’t on this list.
I’ll come back here to modify, delete bits or append this from time to time.

Geoff currently stars in shivering geoff.

• Geoff’s acting process
• the moment
• how not to “act”
• self-consciousness and the ego”
• improvisation, ethics and when to stop
• making mistakes
• taking yourself seriously
• Strasberg object exercises
• the feel of rubber tyres
• close-ups and sound

This podcast is 12 minutes long.

Reference links:
Perth Actor’s Collective Screen Workshops

• The Acting studio is not the famous Actor’s Studio.
• Meisner’s technique of learning lines
• Ten week introduction to Meisner
• Veronica’s background
• Short courses
• Books on acting

This podcast is 10 minutes long.

Reference links:
Perth Actor’s Collective Screen Workshops

1. The 9-12 year olds
2. The 15+ y.o. teenagers

The differences in behaviour between these two groups is vast. There is no professional approach to acting at all for the younger, immature kids. It’s completely a game. The director is merely a part of that.

Things not to rehearse with 10 year olds

When I say not rehearse, what I mean is – just roll the camera and go for a take. Rehearsing is never taken as seriously as a camera shot. On tape, with a tiny crew (ie. me on Saturdays) and with kids as my subject, I shoot all “rehearsals”. Young kids get bored and soon wander off to the toilet – or to Mum – or to get a drink.

Instead of rehearsing, just shoot whenever a child has to:

• hold hands, touch or hug another (unfamiliar) child
• do a fake fall or punch
• cry
• do anything that is going to require concentration

Things not to rehearse with teenagers

• Kissing
• Fighting
• Hugging or getting close in any way to an (unfamilar) teenager

<>Teenagers will only kiss each other if they like each other. It’s an uphil battle if they have to do a first kiss scene. Adults will grin and bear it. But, as I found out on Saturday, just saying stuff like “That didn’t look real. She’s in tears and needs you. You two weren’t close enough,” resulted In one of the most touching teenage performances I’ve ever seen.

Erica and Kelly (male) were laughing after the first take. Erica’s character was in tears because of the daily feeding ritual she had to go through (because she was living with cancer). Kelly came in and gave her a blokey pat on the back. We all knew the scene didn’t work. It was then simply a matter of gettnig them to solve the problem.

And I’m glad we didn’t rehearse it. I, as director, gave them permission (my job) to get as close to each other as possible. On the first take, Kelly was really nervous about going up to Erica and hugging her. And, because I was recording the rehearsal, that nervousness came right through the lens. The scene was perfect. Two teenagers huggin each other for the first time.

It was real because it was really happening. That’s why you don’t rehearse some things.

Things not to rehearse with adults

• Sex . . . basically.

Good adult performances are the ones that come from within. Directors needn’t know why or how or what the actors are chanelling. In fact, it’s none of our business what the actor is thinking of / emotionally remembering.

We need to respect actors and record sensitive rehearsals as often as possible. With new digi/tape technology, such an approach is becoming increasingly possible.