1. Description
1.1. These days, the accepted definition of acting seems to be that: 'Acting is the ability to live truthfully under given imaginary circumstances.' This is a complex construct. The actor cannot just be commanded to walk into the space and do it. The definition is ‘mysterious’ and one cannot just simply do it or test it easily. This definition must be broken down further to be understood and practiced. The components of this definition for our purposes are:
1.1.1. 1. Be affected by the moment, especially the other person in the moment. (Living truthfully)
1.1.2. 2. Know and personalise the givens. Givens include the text as well as movement/blocking/choreography. (submitting to given imaginary circumstances)
1.1.3. 3. Draw out the other person's behaviour to get what you want. (playing an action)
1.2. Defining meaningful acting
1.2.1. Meaningfulness is the second primary indicator of happiness. See CM's Ted talk 'Rules of Engagement'
1.2.1.1. What you are doing connects you to something greater than yoursef
1.2.1.1.1. This can be ideological abstract
1.2.1.1.2. Values
1.2.1.1.3. Feeling of being part of the cosmos
1.2.1.1.4. Human group
1.2.1.1.5. Beauty
1.2.1.2. The opposite of meaningful is trivial. Unconnected to greater ideas- unarousing.
1.2.2. Meaningful acting is acting that travels from the heart to the heart. It is palpable to the audience.
1.3. Engagement is typified by the flow model
1.3.1. Feeling that you are doing something which is:
1.3.1.1. Worth doing (meaningful)
1.3.1.2. Expresses who you are
1.3.1.3. That you can lose yourself into
1.3.1.4. Essentially look at flow for understanding of engagement
2. The Material
2.1. Wolf system. Most of the activities, games and exercises I use in my practice I learned from Tony Wolf. While Tony was principally interested in objective pursuits- fighting styles design, form and technique, I was obsessed by the opportunity for subjective application - acting the fight.
2.1.1. GAMES
2.2. Meisner's work, as taught to me primarily by Tom Radcliffe, of London, provides the essence and framework for our teaching. This includes the use of independent activities, The Wolf System as the improvisational bed, exercises that build into a set up and prep (relationship, twist, Emotional prep) notions of 'Dropping it', unfinished business, 'as if', etc.
2.3. Sanjuro is a Rhythmic behavioral Martial Art developed in London by Glen Delikan with a strong body of instructors provides many fluid martial arts exercises which go into 'the jam' and also allow us to teach martial arts technique not as a series of poses connected by movements, but as joined up behaviour and movement. It is Jazz kickboxing, Conversational Karate, Japaneasy Capoeira. The core instructors are an international neurodiverse team of creatives and leading edge individuals including several fight directors.
3. Teaching
3.1. Sharing
3.1.1. I'm hoping to find time at the workshop to share with actors how they can make their acted combat more meaningful. Teaching Tony Wolf's activities provide an opportunity to teach acting concepts as well as fighting concepts. They learn about point of view, relationships, attending and returning attention to the other actor, working relentlessly and without hesitation, playing cooperatively and competitively, dropping set-up and preparations, and practicing working in an emotionally full and mobile state, while performing complex actions. The exercises from day one accumulate into a free-flowing jam- an improvisational bed- a physical version of Meisner's repetition exercise. Actors then enter and exit the jam, and this provides us with an opportunity to set up scenarios and practice emotional preparation. This of course has them quickly ready for scene work, then full productions and accustoms them to the fragmented work as an actor in film.
3.2. Serving the Actor Training Marketplace
3.2.1. Any actor training is an opportunity to address meaningful acting. If you do not address meaningful acting then the training you are offering is less attractive to actors than if you were.
3.2.2. We must be compassionate to actors from all backgrounds- especially those who have been marginalised.
3.2.3. Everyone deserves dignity and respect.
3.2.4. We must resist reductive commercial thinking. Students are future colleagues and collaborators.
3.2.5. The time taken to innovate teaching and learning has a cost and must be paid for.
3.2.6. We find that quality actors who consider investing their development time in stage combat are troubled by the apparent clash between the necessity for combat and the ham-fisted way acting is addressed. Serious acting institutions often perceive combat for actors as an optional activity. Time and money are limited. Many actors and institutions feel they are forced to choose between investing in quality training in meaningful acting, and stage fighting. Actors usually choose to train where they see other quality actors training if they are unsure of the benefits of the specific skills. The market goal is to create training which delivers the combat skills AND uses the time well to develop the actor's core abilities. Actors would actively jump at a chance to adapt their combat practice to more directly develop meaningful acting.
3.3. What we are sharing:
3.3.1. Respond to the moment
3.3.1.1. Stand off
3.3.1.2. Boing
3.3.1.3. Leaning in/ Leaning out
3.3.1.3.1. Balance
3.3.2. Know and personalise the givens
3.3.3. Play an action- Draw out their behaviour to get what you want
3.3.3.1. An as if...
3.3.3.2. Leading and Following Exercises
3.3.3.2.1. Pre-stage
3.3.3.2.2. One person pursuing goal
3.3.3.2.3. Both people pursuing goal
3.4. Teaching models
3.4.1. What we coach
3.4.1.1. Belonging
3.4.1.2. Enjoyment
3.4.1.3. Technique
3.4.1.4. Skills, performance state, winning
3.4.2. IDEA
3.4.2.1. Introduce
3.4.2.2. Demonstrate
3.4.2.3. Engage/ Explain
3.4.2.4. Activity
3.4.3. Creating colleagues
3.4.3.1. Inform
3.4.3.2. Empower
3.4.3.2.1. Agency
3.4.3.2.2. Autonomy
3.4.3.2.3. Personal Responsibility
3.4.3.3. Inspire
3.4.4. Rules
3.4.4.1. 1. Take care of your partner
3.4.4.2. 2. Play relentlessly and without hesitation
3.4.4.3. 3. Don't apologize
3.4.4.4. 4. Begin just before you are ready
4. Things we say
4.1. Have a point of view
4.1.1. Monochromatic
4.1.1.1. Like
4.1.1.2. Don't like
4.1.2. Colour primary emotions
4.1.2.1. Glad- yellow
4.1.2.2. Mad- red
4.1.2.3. Sad - blue
4.2. Conflict is the essence of Drama (not Aristotle)
4.2.1. Cover behavior avoids conflict
4.2.2. Core behavior puts us in conflict
4.3. Set it up and Drop it
4.3.1. Leave yourself alone
4.3.2. Return your attention to their behavior
4.3.3. Don't drag your choices around like a sack of shit. No one wants to see that.
4.3.4. Take out the choice like taking out a teabag. The hot water is unaware it has become tea, just as you are unaware a choice will work or not
4.3.4.1. You only know if the choice works when you connect
4.3.4.2. Connections release choices
4.3.5. If you cannot directly move into an emotion then prepare something else first and move sideways to target emotion. Mobility first
4.3.6. You cannot directly control your thoughts or feelings
4.3.6.1. You can only control what you do and what you say. A script is usually only what you do and say written down. Because playwrights aren't stupid.
4.3.7. If you cannot realize emotion, it is possible that your mind is protecting you from something. It is possible your mind is killing the choice
4.3.7.1. Option1: ask yourself 'why' and be prepared to deal with the answer
4.3.7.2. Option2: detach and make another choice
4.3.8. You must not use affective memory / emotion recall preps for stage combat. Stanislavsky did not intend your life to be used as a preparation for going onstage
4.3.8.1. The past is not directable. You are vulnerable to the past and it makes you introverted
4.3.8.2. Use imagination and you can be directed, you will be able to let it go
4.3.8.3. Clearly begin and end every exercise/ scene or take
4.3.8.3.1. Begin with a connection
4.3.8.3.2. Finish the connection and then put your attention on your partner to see if they are ok. If they are hurt then they will shut down
4.3.8.4. You set up a relationship or a twist
4.3.8.5. You prepare emotion
4.4. Begin just before you are ready. Play relentlessly and without hesitation.
4.4.1. Begin just before you are ready. Ready is a fucking mindfuck. You will never be ready, or you will never know if you are actually ready. Most actors mistake stability for readiness.
4.5. If you see 'like' draw it out. If you see 'don't like'- make them don't like it more. When you see emotion draw it out. Work impulsively. Like finding the corner of a flag coming out of a box. Grab it and draw it out.
4.6. If you have a choice between playing what's in your head or working off the other actor- work off them. If you are to choose between their cover behavior or their core behavior- work off their core
4.7. We are suggestible creatures- if you try to force me to do anything I will shut down.
4.7.1. You cannot force a choice to work. It does or it does not. Sometimes you ask yourself why. Other times you let your imagination find another option.
4.8. Don't concentrate - just return your attention to the other person
4.8.1. Attention can be piercing like a spear
4.8.2. Attention can be broad and engulfing
4.8.3. You can only direct your attention to one thing at a time
4.9. The difference between practice and rehearsal: Practice is with and for yourself. Rehearsal is with and for the other actor. Get into the rehearsal as soon as you can.
4.10. Lightning strikes
4.11. Behavior includes:
4.11.1. Your inner life- thoughts, feelings, memories, fantasies, anticipations, wants
4.11.2. Where your attention goes
4.11.3. What you say
4.11.4. What you do
4.11.5. Your expressions
4.12. Put down your armour and still not get hurt
4.13. How specific should an actor be? Absolutely specific.
4.14. Sometimes choices don't work because our subconscious is psychologically protecting ourselves from harm. Explore these difficult areas in a therapeutic setting with a qualified counsellor. This studio is a place for making. Making is work... so in the meantime... make other choices.
4.15. An actor is an artist and a worker. Never both in the same moment
5. Realms of attention
5.1. 1. Inner
5.2. 2. Enviornment
5.3. 3. Being affected by the others behavior
5.4. 4. Drawing out someone else's behavior
6. Where we are coming from
6.1. Briefly my background- I trained from a young age as a method actor in the US, and then studied at Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. After this training, while a working actor, I trained in the Meisner technique with Tom Radcliffe.
6.2. In the time we have at this workshop we will focus on living in the moment, and being affected by the other person in the moment. I hope to clarify in simple and visceral terms what it means to play an action. If time allows I hope to at least briefly touch on how to suggest relationship, conflict, and emotional preparation. And outline how the fight director can help actors who uses strong internal technique set safe boundaries for themselves in their preparation. Most of all I would like to share with my colleagues a way of working and a few exercises to help them develop their craft.
6.3. My methodology was developed by teaching at Drama Centre London, as well as initially for Tom Radcliffe's Meisner students. Lawrence Carmichael (FD SAuFD) has been my co-collaborator from early days with this project. He is now adapting this system for work with Salon Collective actors in training. The Drama Centre is a particular UK drama school. Drama Centre is famously/notoriously method driven- both Russian and American methodological acting traditions. The movement technique is typical of English drama schools in that it is intense and relentless, and unique in the focus on Laban rooted movement psychology. The only fight director previous to my tenure at Drama Centre was William Hobbs.
6.4. The Stage Combat Acting Gap
6.4.1. Stated as a deficiency: The current approach to stage combat fails to adequately address one simple fact: Stage Combat is something we do while acting. Solution: Tim Klotz and Lawrence Carmichael have developed a method which reframes our practice and puts acting at the heart of every moment of stage combat training and performance
6.4.1.1. When I dance onstage I don't 'perform choreography'. I dance. When I play a role with a fight scene I don't dwell on the fact I am performing choreography. I act.
6.4.1.1.1. We are looking for a performance mode with the same creative arousal and unselfconscious release as acting or dancing. We need enough control to do so safely. So that we never become anxious or cause anxiety.
6.4.2. Stated as a common challenge: Acting is a subjective experience. It is living truthfully under given imaginary circumstances. Stage combat is something we do while we are acting. The challenge that faces us, as a new generation of dramatic combat artists, is to ensure that meaningful acting is inseparable from the teaching and learning as well as the practice of our art.
6.4.2.1. Specifically Acting combat needs to address the actors creative state, the overlapping of arousal and control.
6.4.2.2. The Audience Demands: The audience does not want us to tell them a story with movement. They wish to experience a story unfolding in front of them. Dramatic action - stage fighting- is not simply safe choreography executed by actors. Choreography is just the skeleton of a fight. The living fight scene is fleshed with behaviour: emotion, action, conflict, relationships. I'm advocating an approach which frees the actors' talent and imagination.
6.4.3. Our aspiration: Fulfilling acting is inspired acting. It is not self conscious; it is behaviour and life unfolding. Therefore a methodological approach should be sublimated: ideally technique is invisible to the audience and invisible to the practitioner. When inspiration occasionally fails, the actor's method becomes a conscious deliberate one. But for the most part, the working actor is casting themselves off from technique. Our best teaching sets talent and imagination free.