Ballet dancing

Today the director I am working with described to the cast how as a young boy he used to go to be sneaked into the Royal Opera House by his father who was working there - he got to see a lot of rehearsals.

One day, he was placed backstage for a ballet rehearsal: he saw the dancers perform beautifully, effortlessly pirouetting from one side of the stage to the other.... gracefully leaving the stage...then arrive in the wing breathless, swearing in their effort to catch their breath again.... they would then put a smile back on their face as the time came for them to 'effortlessly' jump and pirouette into the stage again...

He compared it with acting: like these dancers, you should give everything you have. You should give your mental and physical strength, and your soul to the audience - and come offstage exhausted without a single breath of air left in your body. Because it is too easy for the audience to drift off if we ourselves are not working our hardest to convey some emotion to them. 

Taking time on stage

I always rush my lines, my steps, and even my pauses. And I find that a lot of other actors do. Why is it that some of us actors, who strive to be on stage, want to 'just get it over with' as soon as we are given the chance to perform?

Maybe it's the combination of our desire to shine with our complete shy-ness, low-confidence level, shame at lack of technique.... or whatever it is that makes us want to go in and own that stage for once?

I wonder if there isn't a way of using those contradictory feelings while acting. Maybe it gives more depth to a character to approach it with both a desire to embrace everything she/he says, but also with a heightened awareness of who we are. Or it makes us more interesting to watch if we fully embrace all the contradictory emotions we are feeling on stage. Does it?

Accepting your posture

My voice coach told me that the thing with postures is that there's the ideal straight and balanced one, and the one we have - and that we just got to work with the latter.
It got me thinking, as I always try to straighten myself and pull my shoulders back. Maybe letting people come to you means using all our flaws on stage? Working with them, from them?

One of my former directors once told me: Alexanders technique students are boring because throughout their studies and for 5 years after that, all they do is with the alexanders technique principles in mind. they will sit on a stool thinking of their posture, and thus become very boring to watch. 

Can you change your hair just after getting some headshots done?

Because I just did it. And though it was probably not the best idea I badly wanted to chop all that hair.
Apparently, what most headshots photographers say online is that what you shouldn't do is cut your hair just before, as haircuts need a few days to settle. But I asked around - my tutor told me it really doesn't matter that you have the same haircut as before or not.

Which leads to another question: what should you do with your hair if you want to act?
One of my actress friends told me that she keeps her hair long to be able to do more with it on stage. Another friend of mine recently posted on facebook that she dreams of going half-shaved but fears she'd lose out on some roles. Which is probably reasonable as the small productions she'd be hired into at the start would probably not have a massive hair and make-up budget. Also, some very trendy haircuts can feel old-fashioned in a matter of months, and we could end up having to do new headshots every months.

I guess that in a world where the way we look matters so much, we should just select the haircut that fits us best today.

In which case I definitely need new headshots.... 

Dirty Butterfly

I saw Debbie Tucker green's Dirty Butterfly last night. I was not so fond of the direction, but I was impressed by Seline Hizli's (Jo) performance. She felt like the most alive of all actors on stage.

Something to offer

Discussing about what it meant to "let people see you on stage this morning", I realised the first step was probably understanding that you had something to offer as a performer. That giving a voice to a character starts with out own voice and body. And that no other performer would give it the texture you're giving. Which somehow brings back to the idea of confidence in one's own skills.

(picture from Oliver Dubois's tragedy)

Connection

"In order for connection to happen, we have to allow ourselves to be seen - really seen."
Brené Brown
These days, when I read about acting, I always stumble upon the concept of using ourselves, our personality as a starting point, instead of imagining who the character is or would be.Michael Shurtleff, in his book Audition

Brené studies human connection - She talked at TED on vulnerability