OCT
12

Don’t Get Rusty!

10 tips to stay on top of your acting game 

By Christina Hamlett 

Former actress/director Christina Hamlett is the author of 44 books and 252 plays.  For Pioneer, she and her writing partner Jamie Dare have penned three “Seusspeare” comedies as well as a contemporary script titled “Fandemonium.”  She is also a professional ghostwriter and a script consultant for stage and screen.  Learn more at http://www.authorhamlett.com. 

A colleague’s daughter — a junior in high school — was excited to get cast in her first lead role.  And then along came COVID-19.  The drama department was as optimistic as anyone else that the crisis would be short-lived.  Until it wasn’t.  They also promised she’d still have the lead in her senior year.  Until she didn’t.  Now, she’s a freshman in college and hasn’t been in a big show since her sophomore year.  Poised to pursue a theatre arts degree in college, she’s anxious that everything she ever learned about treading the boards has been forgotten during this forced and unfortunate hiatus that just kept getting extended.

She’s not alone in this.  Though things look better than last year, both rehearsals and productions are still tentative at best for many of us.  From school and community theatres to Broadway, actors of all ages are stressing that they may have forgotten how to do what they do best.  But the worst thing to do right now is nothing.  Just like the Olympic athletes had to continue training during their year delay so they could still excel, a continued regimen of discipline and training can keep us at our best for that moment when the curtain once more rises.

Here are ten tips to share with your actors to keep their voices, minds, and bodies in shape while they’re waiting for the footlights to come back on as brightly as they shined before.

Brush up your Shakespeare (or Wilde or Shaw or Moliere or Simon)
If the only time you ever read a play is when you’ve been cast in it, you’re missing out on an opportunity to become a well-rounded thespian.  Familiarize yourself with a broad range of playwrights and their styles.  Read the lines aloud to acquaint yourself with inflection, rhythm, and accents.  When an audition opens up for one of those plays you’ve already studied, you’ll be more at ease in try-outs than others who are reading it cold.

Streaming theatre
Thanks to the internet, you can watch any number of amateur and professional productions of your favorite plays online and observe how others have played the roles you’d like to play.  Some sites that include viewable online theatre or links to shows available online include Drama Notebook, Timeout, Playbill, Broadway Direct, Digital Theatre, and PBS.  You can also find clips and segments of many plays and musicals, including Pioneer Drama’s, on YouTube.

How the cookie crumbles
Work on your improv skills.  How do you do this if you’re quarantined at home?  My favorite technique for solo improv work requires a bag of fortune cookies.  Each time you break one open, incorporate the fortune inside into a 30- to 60-second off-the-cuff monologue.  Consider what type of character is delivering this monologue, who they are talking to, and under what circumstances.  Tasty tip:  buy fortune cookies that have been dipped in white chocolate.  You deserve it!

Build your skill sets
If it’s not possible to take acting classes in person, there are plenty of YouTube and Zoom tutorials for adding new talents to your acting resume.  Singing, dancing, and playing musical instruments are obvious choices for remote learning.  But what about online courses in stage makeup, costume design, juggling, gymnastics, or even swordplay?  I also recommend yoga as a way to focus on movement, balance, concentration...  and training yourself to relax.

Audition demo
If someone asked to see an audition recording by the end of the day that demonstrates your range, would you panic?  Not if you read this article first!  Now is the time to be assembling a portfolio of short monologues which can either be shared individually or as a collection.  Word of advice:  don’t wield a selfie-stick for this endeavor.  Recruit a friend to be your camera person so you can concentrate on delivering a seamless performance.

Where am I?
Mime artist Marcel Marceau enjoyed a long career pretending to get out of an invisible box.  For this exercise in concentration and body language, you can either perform in front of others or record yourself.  Absent any props or furniture (with the possible exception of a chair), the objective of your mimed performance is for viewers to figure out what type of room you’re in and what you’re doing.  This is best accomplished outdoors or in a room with a blank wall or plain background.

First lines
As humans, we strive to find logic, cohesion, and progression in everything we read.  But what if you had to deliver a monologue which purposely made no sense from start to finish?  This is a fun one to do with friends either in a group or remotely.  Grab any ten books off the shelf and, using ten index cards, write down the first line from each one.  Shuffle the cards.  This is now the “speech” you’re going to give with as much aplomb and conviction as if your character believed every line was rational and true.

Straight from the headlines
In this exercise you’ll play a newscaster.  Take any story from today’s newspaper and read it enough times that you feel confident you can get all the details straight in your own words.  Sit down at a desk and put both hands behind your back.  If you can’t move around and you can’t use your hands, you’re called upon to deliver as much as you can with your head, your eyes, your facial expressions, and the power of your own vocal inflections.  Once you’re back in rehearsal in an actual show, you’ll have greater mastery over what you’re physically communicating with your entire body.

We pause for this commercial break
What product or service could you sell in a 30- to 60-second commercial or public service announcement?  Whether it’s a magic disappearing cream, a pair of dirty sneakers, an elixir for acing tests, a caution against walking and chewing gum at the same time, a bag of enchanted beans, or your father’s new car, the sky’s the limit in using costumes, makeup, props, and backdrops for a video performance.  For variety, introduce the fusion of well-known characters hawking modern products.  Example:  Lady Macbeth selling spot remover.

Tap into creativity
You’re not the only one who’s missing theatre right now.  This last bit of advice comes from my actor friend, David Selby, who recommends seeking out kindred spirits and getting creative.  “You can do a virtual play or a scene from a film and then show what has been done.  Some of my friends have improvised little skits on their phones or written out scenes they’d like to do.  Think about stories to write that would lend themselves to a fresh performance piece.  Do a monologue on your phone, then send it to a good friend and ask for comments — or not.  Free the imagination.  Don’t try to impress.  Watch films of actors you like and learn from their techniques.  And as Christina says, ‘Read, read, read!’”