It made me laugh looking at my overview of my blogger page today. Seeing that a few days ago my page views had zoomed to 114 in one day! Where they are usually a maximum of 6, maybe 7 if I had written a particularly good blog.
Yesterday late afternoon, I went into Middlesex Uni to use the computers to try and get some work done, as life (Especially getting my tax's done for the self employed!!!) is taking over at the moment and I am finding little time for my degree.
I ended up staying till midnight!! (It is a 24 hour library which actually comes in very handy!)
This is either because I am very keen, or I am worried I am not doing to get everything done by the time I go away at the end of this month.
I am going to pretend it's the first option.
So seeing how my page views had risen dramatically, it seems that I am not the only one!
However, I am so glad that I did this!! I have had an Eureka Moment! I know what and how I am going to be doing my Artefact! Better start planning!
Thursday, 7 November 2013
Relaxation
Something that I did notice about what Missy was saying in our interview was that in the Meisner technique, they could sit however they like.
This shows a huge difference between the techniques, as relaxation is imperative in Strasberg's method.
In the book the Fifth Key Theatre Directors, Shomit Mitter, talks about how important Strasberg thought relaxation was.
'In Strasberg's work there was therefore an elaborate programme of carefully
orchestrated preliminary work, the first stage of which was to get the actors to
relax physically. Relaxations, for Strasberg, was the most fundamental condition of all creative work: it was so
important that he would often take all the allotted time in rehearsal just to achieve a properly
This web page describes what relaxation is and how is works.
What Relaxation Is And How It Works
This looks like a very strange picture, But this is exactly what relaxation looks like.
This shows a huge difference between the techniques, as relaxation is imperative in Strasberg's method.
In the book the Fifth Key Theatre Directors, Shomit Mitter, talks about how important Strasberg thought relaxation was.
'In Strasberg's work there was therefore an elaborate programme of carefully
orchestrated preliminary work, the first stage of which was to get the actors to
relax physically. Relaxations, for Strasberg, was the most fundamental condition of all creative work: it was so
important that he would often take all the allotted time in rehearsal just to achieve a properly
relaxed state.'Just relax', he would say,'If you never get to the exercise, I don't care' ' (Shomit Mitter 2004)
This web page describes what relaxation is and how is works.
This looks like a very strange picture, But this is exactly what relaxation looks like.
Why Would You Want To Be An Actor?
After the interview Missy and I spoke about one of the exercises she was talking about: Where we had to say how we felt.
I started to tell her that at the Lee Strasberg Institute, in one of the method acting classes, before we did scene work we had to improvise the scene we had been working on. We didn't need to say any of the lines, but just go though the thought processes with the character saying how we felt. I was telling her that my partner and I had worked on a scene from The Dreamer Examines His Pillow, Our teacher Mauricio Bustamante, who had been taught by Strasberg in the last few years of his teaching, was pushing me to say how I felt, he pushed me more and more when suddenly, I just burst in to tears, shouting 'WHY DON'T YOU LOVE ME!?!' So much so that the tears were making puddles on the floor!
Here is a link to an early rehearsal of the scene: Blake Curtis-Woodcock - The Dreamer Examines His Pillow
Missy laughed and said how great it was, (A connection that I believe only people that have worked with the method can understand) She said that there is a video on the internet of one of her teachers doing exactly that!
Here is a video from the American Academy Of Dramatic Arts, It's a great video to watch all the way though, but if you want to skip forward to my example, it's from 2:28- 2:38.
Why Would You Want To Be An Actor?
I started to tell her that at the Lee Strasberg Institute, in one of the method acting classes, before we did scene work we had to improvise the scene we had been working on. We didn't need to say any of the lines, but just go though the thought processes with the character saying how we felt. I was telling her that my partner and I had worked on a scene from The Dreamer Examines His Pillow, Our teacher Mauricio Bustamante, who had been taught by Strasberg in the last few years of his teaching, was pushing me to say how I felt, he pushed me more and more when suddenly, I just burst in to tears, shouting 'WHY DON'T YOU LOVE ME!?!' So much so that the tears were making puddles on the floor!
Here is a link to an early rehearsal of the scene: Blake Curtis-Woodcock - The Dreamer Examines His Pillow
Missy laughed and said how great it was, (A connection that I believe only people that have worked with the method can understand) She said that there is a video on the internet of one of her teachers doing exactly that!
Here is a video from the American Academy Of Dramatic Arts, It's a great video to watch all the way though, but if you want to skip forward to my example, it's from 2:28- 2:38.
Why Would You Want To Be An Actor?
Conversation With A Professional External..
This is my friend Melissa McAnulty. She has trained in method acting in New York too! However this interview was interesting for me as she trained in the Meisner Technique.
She is in a band called State Of Play which are doing really well at the moment.
Here is a link to their Facebook page, if you could give them a cheeky 'like' it doesn't cost anything and it would mean the world to them :) Thank you!
State Of Play - Facebook
This interview has given me a lot to think about and there are more blogs to come!!
She is in a band called State Of Play which are doing really well at the moment.
Here is a link to their Facebook page, if you could give them a cheeky 'like' it doesn't cost anything and it would mean the world to them :) Thank you!
State Of Play - Facebook
This interview has given me a lot to think about and there are more blogs to come!!
Saturday, 2 November 2013
Other Ideas I Had For Literature..
- Actors VS Dancers - (Mind Sets)
- Phycology
- Organisation books
- What to expect from an acting career
- - Lee Strasberg, the father of Method acting - Melgussow
Mind Maps
I drew some mind maps to help me think about what I should be reading into for my literature.
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Friday, 25 October 2013
The Interview and Questions
In June I interviewed my respondents with a list of questions about how they felt about what they were doing. All four respondents had been at The Lee Strasberg Institute for three months. (one semester) Two of them where continuing training, the other were to branch into the big bad world of performing.
I was able to interview them as I would see them everyday. Here is the list of the interview questions that I asked them:
I have learnt that interviews are a simple way to collect a lot of information as the person does not feel they have a limited time or space to say things. If I was to do this first section again I would have written my questions more open-endedly, so that the respondents could feel they had more to talk about. I am now holding onto this information waiting for the second part of my investigation to be complete.
I have now sent out my questionnaires, here are the list of questions that I used.
I have learnt was that it was a good idea for me to change to a questionnaire over an interview. This is because I have been finding it difficult to get hold of the respondents as they are not only half way around the world, they are also as busy as I am. Changing this part of the investigation to a questionnaire meant that I am more likely to get my information back, as filling in a survey takes a matter of minutes, where as trying to contact each other via Skype etc would take much longer, if it was able to happen. If I was to do this again, I might have chosen respondents that were in the same country / city as me so that my investigation would become less complicated to complete.
I have received two of my four surveys. So I look forward to receiving them all, starting to analise the information and look into making my artifact.
I was able to interview them as I would see them everyday. Here is the list of the interview questions that I asked them:
- 1. What are you doing now?
- 2. What has brought you here
- 3. What is your strength in Acting?
- 4. How often do you practice relation?
- 5. How do you do you go about this? / What do you do?
- 6. Which area would you like to work in? (Theatre / Tv / Etc Etc)
- 7. Which area would you not like to work in?
- 8. On a scale of 1-10 how much do you enjoy what you are doing?
- 9. Why?
- 10. What would you change about what you are doing?
I have learnt that interviews are a simple way to collect a lot of information as the person does not feel they have a limited time or space to say things. If I was to do this first section again I would have written my questions more open-endedly, so that the respondents could feel they had more to talk about. I am now holding onto this information waiting for the second part of my investigation to be complete.
I have now sent out my questionnaires, here are the list of questions that I used.
- 1. What are you doing now?
- 2. What has brought you here?
- 3. How have your strengths developed since leaving The Lee Strasberg Institute?
- 4. How often have you been able to practice relaxation?
- 5. How have you gone about this? / What have you done?
- 6. Which area would you like to work in? (Theatre / Tv / Etc Etc)
- 7. Has the way you audition for jobs changed?
- 8. If so, How? / What do you do differently?
- 9. On a scale of 1-10 how much do you enjoy what you are doing?
- 10. Why?
- 11. What would you change about what you are doing?
- 12. How has The Lee Strasberg Institute changed the way you think about yourself?
I have learnt was that it was a good idea for me to change to a questionnaire over an interview. This is because I have been finding it difficult to get hold of the respondents as they are not only half way around the world, they are also as busy as I am. Changing this part of the investigation to a questionnaire meant that I am more likely to get my information back, as filling in a survey takes a matter of minutes, where as trying to contact each other via Skype etc would take much longer, if it was able to happen. If I was to do this again, I might have chosen respondents that were in the same country / city as me so that my investigation would become less complicated to complete.
I have received two of my four surveys. So I look forward to receiving them all, starting to analise the information and look into making my artifact.
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