• Free Your Mind: Improvisation and Method Acting

    by Alexander Becker on August 29, 2006 | Link

    How do you act and perform without any preparation at all?

    Imagine that you are forced to make something up the very moment it is performed. Unplanned. Unprepared. Unrehearsed. How do you score?

    You can train and rehearse as much as you want -- you will either deliver a cold, static, robot-like performance or you will adapt to the respective situation and dynamically improvise and inject life into life.

    Improvisation is real time creation within the context of the given situation.

    Improvisation is spontaneous composition. The trick is to be prepared unspecifically, be prepared for surprises and for the unexpected. Prepare to respond to whatever may happen, spontaneously and appropriately.

    Go out and take all the tools with you except for a lighter. Now make fire.

    Improvise in standard situations. Invent at least some wheels, over and over, every day -- it helps keeping the mind awake and ahead of itself.

    Improvise your workouts. Take a hammer, for example, and build a tough exercise routine around it. Improvise when you travel and figure out how to exercise using your bodyweight only.

    An extraordinary opportunity to improvise and a generally great experience is method acting. You are able to deliver improvised reactions to any real life situation in ways similar to your instincts being triggered in the most appropriate ways to respond to the stimulation in method acting. Improvisation challenges your mind and your senses -- it requires maximum alertness to react quickly and most effectively.

    Method acting intends to simulate the emotions of the real life character as it is played on stage. You improvise, completely immersing yourself in the exact moment of the character that is played. Circumstances and external input play a big role in the way the acting eventually unfolds.

    Add improvisation to your repertoire, it will help you before, during, and after executing plans.

    Tags

    If you liked this post, please take the time to bookmark it on del.icio.us or vote for it on Digg. Thank you! You can also get free updates , send feedback, or browse the archives for more.

Subscribe to WOW to have the latest articles conveniently delivered for free. You can also subscribe to WOW by E-mail.

Previous Posts

Free Download

Peer pressure, vanity and behavior, motivation tricks and hacks, success and pain, and how to excel, Celebrate Your Beauty -- whatever it takes. Download your free ebook.