Independent – Ownership
So… I volunteered to partner with a student for his small sword test. And unfortunately, that is where my ownership of the experience started and stopped. I thought I was being helpful “just being his partner”, letting him lead the rehearsal process and giving him whatever he asked for. Because of this, I was holding back many things: a personal interest in my work, major skills I could utilize (teaching and coaching) and a point of view….
Master Class montage from latest residency
[fblike] Great week in Jacksonville working on physical theatre (contact improv, “As One” collective consciousness, intention and actor/creator skills). We had a blast with a terrific group of risk takers! Watch the video here…
Play Today! – An Energy Game
[fblike] On the blog, we’re starting to spotlight exercises we use in rehearsals and workshops. The key is never the game itself, it’s the use of it. One game can be used in so many different ways, accomplishing many different goals. Keep in mind: What does the group need? Why am I using this exercise …
Independent – Switching Roles
[fblike] Here’s the quandary… how does someone know what someone else NEEDS to learn? They can’t, they can only guess based on statistics and past experience. But we’re not living in the past and education is meant to prepare us for the future. So… what to do? I suggest switching roles. Let the student be …
Ensemble/Community – Stereotype
[fblike] They say we all have a little bit of stereotyping/prejudice in us and I am no exception. Recently, I was at a conference of multicultural schools in Germany. While there, I worked with teachers and students from many different countries and cultures. As our ensembles formed, I noticed a student who fit the Non-Team …
Creativity – Commitment
[fblike] When directing a play or teaching character work, I have many exercises dedicated to giving the actor the opportunity to live inside the world of the play. We start these exercises at the beginning but I’ve noticed it’s difficult for some actors to fully commit early on. They tend to hold back in …
Creativity – Neutrality
Clean slates are important in our work, starting from neutral in order to build a character, a play, a song, etc. Yet most of us tend to cover up our neutral in one of two ways… doing too much or suppressing doing anything… both fight what truly “is”. Sometimes we observe our students doing more …
Ensemble/Community – Partnering
I love it when you find your match. The partner who is in tune with your every move, thought and feeling. It happens when you least expect it, at least it did for me.
Working in the Stage Combat world, as with many other worlds, you are constantly partnered up with people you don’t really want to work with … the issues… safety and talent mainly. It’s great to find that fellow actor that you can succeed and fail with and know they have your back. Recently, I found that partner….
Independent – Play
Somehow and somewhere we have lost our ability to play freely without judgment. I’m amazed at the amount of times I need to remind students, of any age, that they have an open opportunity to play within these exercises. They still feel closed off, shut down and simply not willing to let themselves go….
Ensemble/Community – Reading the Signs
During a directing master class, a student commented that a group HAD to have one person to control the group, to calm it down in order to avoid confrontations and bickering. I asked him, “What about traffic? How do we all know where to go and what’s going on without that one person to control the situation?” He said, “Well, we have traffic lights and stop signs.” And I propose that people also have traffic lights and stop signs in their body language, spacial presence and facial expressions. So, how do we read the signs?…
Creativity – Inspiration
[fblike] So, I’m in the process of writing a play. About 3 months into this idea, I find myself trying to trace my steps backwards in order to keep on track with the original inspiration. I can pin-point the exact moment when the decision was made to commit to the idea but the real need …