with John Markland
March 26th – May14th
Have a Process
This class will hand you tools with which to build a character, to personalize the
work, to get into your own body and voice, to craft emotional movement, to access
hard to reach emotions and most importantly to give you the freedom to play.
The body and breathe work are straight forward and follows steps that you can
directly translate into a pre-audition routine or have at the ready to warm-up for a
scene. The breath and body work have been used over the past decade by Emmy and
Oscar winning actors and will become as second nature as taking your mark.
The personalization is an element that allows for two things, one, to make the work
authentic and not just imagined or pretend, secondly, it connects you to “real stakes”
or as I call it a Cathartic Focus. When your heart and soul feel they can rise, over-
come, be true, heal or connect you in the creative act, you rip the attention away
from anyone not working at that depth. You become real.
Accessing authentic emotions is not as difficult as many classic techniques would have
you believe. It doesn’t have to be tortuous nor require tears or heartache. I will guide
you through, Re-Visiting, a simple approach that, once played with, can access the
subtlest and nuanced of emotions. It allows a freedom and confidence and cultivates a
sense of belief and discovery… a game that is new every time.
There has been a process and language gap in the way in which acting has been taught
for a long time. Emotions are not of the mind - they are of the body and soul. If we
are to articulate them and understand them then there must be a dialogue that offers
them something beyond good and bad. Speaking of acting and scenes in terms of
what worked or didn’t, saying things this way or that or any such analytical manner,
immediately disconnects you from what you are trying to accomplish - emotional
expression.
Transform performance into experience and free yourself.