Author Archives: Michael

THE ACTOR AND PREPARING TO PERFORM

Generally pitches and presentations do not suffer from a lack of effort and hard work- research into the subject and the audience, development of an idea, a proposition and the supporting argument, a storyline or script and the visual aids/charts.

A lot goes on but, generally, at the expense of time spent in preparation for the performance at the end of it all, the performance, the way everyone comes across, which will determine success or failure . Professional actors perform for a living. Here is how one actor answered questions on preparation.

How do you approach preparing for performance?

Every actor has their own way of working. After time you find what works for you. There are two types of preparation for me: preparation that happens in the lead up to, and over the rehearsal period, and preparation that happens in the hours before the play begins.

During the rehearsal period my own private preparation work includes a lot of research and daydreaming, reading the script quietly to myself repetitively so that I become familiar with it.

Before I go on stage my warming up preparation includes doing a relaxation, stretching my body out, warming up my voice, and then going through my lines quietly to myself.

How do you handle the different demands of a script?

I break up my script into sections, or units, based on when my character changes tactic in a scene. This helps me focus on smaller sections of the script so that I can work on giving a more detailed, less generalised performance. Each unit is like each point in a speech.

At the beginning of each unit I write my intention, for example: to convince, to charm, to seduce, to make someone understand me, to inspire, to excite, to calm, to reassure etc. When I have worked out what my intention for each unit is, I focus on using my words to land my intention.

I underline key words to give more gravity to what I am saying.

How do you make the role your own?

When I start to read my script aloud I tend to move around a lot, or go for a walk. I physicalize what I am saying with my hands and my body, sometimes even in an overly exaggerated manner. I sometimes even stomp as I am learning my lines. All of this gets energy moving through the body, helps me lose any tension, makes me feel relaxed, and gets me out of my head.

The more embodied your script is in you, the more ownership you have over it, the more it is you. To me, performance is ownership of what you are saying and doing.

What steps do you take to connect with your audience?

I try to say my lines as many different ways as I can so that I don’t get stuck in a habit.

I try to find a need to speak – I think of my lines as a need to communicate, rather than just a pre-prepared speech. No-one wants to hear something prepared. People want to feel like you are saying what you are saying to them and only them for the first time.

What do you look to get from rehearsal?

Emotional connection and clarity in what I want and what I am saying. To be comfortable with any blocking (movement on the stage) so that I don’t have to think about it – this comes from repetition. The more you can say your lines and do your movement over and over again in rehearsals, the more you can be free in performance.

Can you rehearse without an audience?

Yes. It is good to take time working on the script without the added pressure and nerves of rehearsing in front of an audience. You can get familiar with the script on your own.

However, it is then very helpful, if not essential, to have someone to rehearse with – to speak to, so that you stop thinking about how you sound, and you start focusing on how you are affecting the person you are speaking to. The most engaging actors are those who are focusing on who they are speaking to, not on themselves.

“An ounce of performance is worth pounds of promises.”
― Mae West

THE ACTOR AND SHOWING OFF

No one wants to be accused of being a ‘show off’. It has the negative association of boasting, being vulgar, and being egocentric. But when pitching or presenting we are performing, and any performance requires a certain level of ‘show’. Showing off can be a positive thing. It can be about an enthusiasm to share, it can be about charisma and charm, and it can be about putting yourself out there. It is important to give oneself permission to show off.

Various dictionary definitions cover the positives: to behave in an ostentatiously skilled and assured way with the intention of impressing others. Or: to behave in a way that is intended to attract attention or admiration (and that other people find annoying – the element to avoid!)

This is what an actor says about showing off:

Is showing off natural to actors or a by- product of performing?

I think if you are telling a story with as much conviction as you can, and you are trying to fill the space of the theatre with your energy, make sure you are heard by all, and have an intention to share with your audience, showing off happens naturally. I have, however, been watching many actors recently on stage and I think a bit of ego can go a long way in a performance.

How do you handle/manage showing off without annoying your audience?

If your intention is about telling a story, rather than just showing off, and you are using your charm in order to tell a story, you are maintaining integrity with the play. The play is not about you. The play is about the play. It is not for you. It is for your audience. That is the point. You need your audience.

When you give, your audience will appreciate your level of generosity. It’s called showing off with heart. It is easy to see when an actor is being indulgent and is only performing to please themselves and to take from an audience. Be generous and be joyful. Make showing off a gift, rather than a way to get something.

“ I show off – I’m a very good show off. It’s what I do, it’s what I’m good at.” Robbie Williams

THE LASTING FIRST IMPRESSION

A recent article by Craig Brown in the Daily Mail noted that many political biographers are attempting -without much success- to emulate thriller writers like Elmore Leonard and Dashiell Hammett, well known for their dramatic opening lines. Best of them, Raymond Chandler; “The first time I laid eyes on Terry Lennox he was drunk in the back of a Rolls Royce Silver Wraith…”

Apparently, Cherie Blair starts her In Speaking For Myself with “O.K, guys, that’s it. Let’s do the business.” While not the subtlest of phrases, you can’t question her intention to make a powerful, lasting first impression as important to the book, play, movie, speech, poem or song as to the pitch.

The film Patton grabbed attention with “Now I want you to remember that no bastard ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his.”

Gentler but unforgettable words from Jane Austen set the scene for Pride and Prejudice, “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.”

Two contemporary songs capture instantly different moods, and personalities, Amy Winehouse’s “They tried to make me go to rehab / I said no-no-no.” And Sinead O’Connor with, “It’s been 7 hours and 15 days / since you took my love away.”

Two rather different love poems, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, “How I do love thee? Let me count the ways,” and Andrew Marvel (in pitch-mode) To His Coy Mistress ,” Had we but world enough and time/ this coyness lady were no crime.

Of course pitch teams do not number a Shakespeare to give them a “to be or not to be” opening but this is no excuse for not having any kind of planned start, a feature of many otherwise reasonable pitches. It is a wasted opportunity and a final quote – if you have not yet watched the ‘winning movie’- “Remember, a winning start means a winning finish!”

JUST BE YOURSELF, BUT BETTER

in a recent coaching session, with a supposedly inexperienced and possibly nervous , speaker I was reminded that the first thing a coach should do is engage in some normal everyday conversation.

Chat away about something that interests both of you, listening and observing, In almost every case, an entirely natural, animated conversation style will be revealed. Easy body language, gesturing for effect and pausing for thought. You being yourself!

For a lucky few, this naturalness is maintained, seemingly effortlessly, in any performance. Few more so than Jamie Oliver. This is how A.A.Gill, writing of his first meeting, described him:

“I can’t remember anything about it except he was one of the few people I ever met who had absolutely no fear of the camera. He was exactly the same on as he was off. There was zero performance anxiety. It wasn’t arrogance or vaunting confidence, he was just unusually comfortable behind his own character.”

For the less lucky, most of us, the challenge is to maintain this naturalness under the pressure of performing perhaps for the first time.

Often the best first step is to concentrate, not on the performance itself, but on the way you structure and arrange your script or content. Make it easy to deliver (and for the audience to follow), utilising the ‘rule of three’ with no more than three supporting arguments to your main theme. An earlier post discusses this: Handling the BIG speech nerves.

My book “It’s Not What You Say, Its The Way You Say It!” explores many practical aspects of performing naturally when it really matters, being yourself, but better.

available in bookshops and from Amazon

THE ACTOR AND THE ……PAUSE

For the experienced, confident presenter or speaker the pause becomes natural. For the less experienced it’s more difficult and yet mastering it can be the surest way to improved performance.

In music as Claude Debussy once said: :”Music happens in the space between the notes.” The pause – for dramatic effect – is equally vital to acting. This is what I learned from one actor answering these questions.

How important is the pause to the actor?

It is everything, the difference between the ordinary and the exceptional performance. It should be part of an actor’s DNA.

How do you know when to pause?

Sometimes the author tells you by writing PAUSE in the script, or SILENCE when a major interruption is called for. The director will usually ensure the instructions are followed.

Most times however it is instinctive.A recognising of the sub-text, a sense of the moment, feeling for the response you seek.

It is everything that cannot be said with words. A look. A breath. A moment of connection. The most intimate and profound moments can happen in silence, when the emotional weight of something is too much to express through verbal language.

“The most precious things in speech are the pauses.” – Sir Ralph Richardson

“Thou weigh‘st thy words before thou givest them breath.” William Shakespeare, Othello