JAN
14

Listen Up!  Active Listening Activities for Actors

By Lavinia Roberts 

Lavinia Roberts is a theatre teacher and award-winning playwright who’s passionate about arts education and about creating zany, engaging, and meaningful plays for schools and community theaters. 

What is active listening, and why is it important?  Active listeners are fully present and respond to the speaker in a way that demonstrates understanding and compassion while remaining free of judgment and unsolicited advice.

Practicing active listening within your ensemble creates a culture of respect, understanding, and emotional safety.  Being an engaged listener builds trust within the troupe by encouraging open communication and collaboration, while reducing the likelihood of conflict or misunderstandings.

Active listening skills may also enhance an actor's performance by encouraging them to be more present during their performance.  Actors who are actively listening are more attuned to their scene partner, reading subtle verbal and non-verbal cues.

Responding with appropriate body language, using reflection, and asking open-ended follow-up questions are different techniques a speaker can use to convey that they are actively listening.  Below are three exercises to help your actors develop these active listening skills.

Body Language

Body language is a powerful tool for the listener to convey to the speaker that they are engaged and actively listening.  Posture, facial expressions, eye contact, nodding, and even our breath — such as a sigh or gasp — can convey that we are both physically present and mentally attuned to the speaker.  Below is a short activity demonstrating the importance of body language in active listening. 

Activity:  Missing Listener

Put actors into pairs and give one actor a short monologue to perform.  Have them perform the monologue the first time with their back to the listener.  Next, have them perform the monologue facing the listener, who remains unresponsive — still and silent, without expression.  Finally, have the speaker perform their monologue facing the listener, who should respond non-verbally to the monologue, pretending they are the person in the scene to whom the monologue is being delivered.  Now switch roles so both actors have the chance to be the speaker.

As a class, discuss what they noticed as speakers during the exercise.  What was different about performing without seeing the listener?  Without seeing any response or reaction from the listener?  What about as a listener?  Was it hard being a listener but not responding or reacting in any way?  Did it make it harder to stay focused on the speaker?  How does our body language change if we are holding a cell phone?

Reflection

Reflecting or repeating back to the speaker what you just heard is an active listening technique that not only indicates that you are listening, but also ensures that you truly and accurately understand the speaker’s thoughts, ideas, and feelings.

Activity:  One-Minute Reflection

Put actors in pairs, then set a timer for one minute.  Have one person in the pair tell a story for one minute while the other actor listens.  After the minute is up, set the timer again for a minute and have the listener repeat the story they just heard in a minute, making sure to include relevant details.

Discuss how complete and accurate the reflection was.  What could have made it easier for the listener to do a better job with the reflection?  Switch roles, putting these new ideas into place.

Open-Ended Questions

Open-ended questions cannot be answered with a simple word or two and instead require full sentences as responses.  When a listener asks these type of questions, it signals the speaker how carefully the listener is attuned to what they are saying.  It also helps to keep the conversation flowing.  Posing open-ended questions also helps the listener more deeply understand the speaker’s point of view, in addition to the values, boundaries, and experiences that led them to this point of view.

Activity:  Character Interview

To have actors practice asking open-ended questions, first put actors in pairs.  One of the pair, the speaker, will respond as the character they are currently playing on stage or for scene work.  The other of the pair, the listener, will ask open-ended questions that the speaker must respond to.  Examples of open-ended questions the listener might ask include:

• Please tell me more about...
• How did you feel about...?
• What would you have done differently in that situation, if given the opportunity?
• What lesson did you learn from...?
• What was your goal in doing...?

Along with practicing the active listening technique of asking open-ended questions, this is a great way for actors to more deeply reflect on their characters and the given circumstances of the play. 

By being active listeners, students will develop greater empathy, fostering a more compassionate and inclusive classroom.  But it doesn’t stop there!  Developing active listening techniques is one of those skill areas that will benefit actors throughout life, not just on stage.  Being an active listener will help them to understand and connect to others around them in various environments, both personal and professional.  It will aid in their social and emotional development and strengthen their relationships in all aspects of their life.