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Thursday, 29 September 2011

Movement Techniques for Serious Actors

By Maggie Flanigan


Movement acting classes are essential for any serious actor and physical technique is important. Any serious actor looking to add an improved physical technique to their craft has this kind of training. Movement classes are important to serious actors. These classes help actors improve their physical performance technique. Actors are physical beings, whose movement technique, and sense of physical space need to be expanded, softened and heightened if they are to perform well.

A Meisner actor's main objective is to imagine circumstances and then "live" them in a truthful way, and a movement class can help support this goal. If an actor is tense thinking about their next line or their performance, training from a movement class can help them loosen and expand their physical technique. As a physical artist, a tight, closed off body and face affects the quality of the emotional responses of the actor. No serious actor can afford to allow themselves to be closed off to all that is happening around them, especially physically.

It can be unusual to find an actor who is keyed into their physical surroundings to such a degree that they remain open to all that is going on in their environment. Meisner actors are intent on reaching a state of full physical openness to their physical surroundings a technique of the movement class. Everyone has ingrained physical reactions that become habits, based on our default emotional states. Actor's that tense up, find that anxiety has affected their body and their movement. This kind of movement habit affects all interactions, even those that involve acting. Limiting for the Meisner trained actor, this constricted physicality can lower the emotional quality of the performance. Meisner actors benefit greatly from work in a movement class that helps to break their pre-existing movement habits.

It is important not to define the phrase movement training in too narrow a sense. It's not just about controlling movement in a pre-conceived way. Movement technique is about becoming more aware of the physical relationship to people around you and the surrounding space.

Physical movement of the body is not the only aspect of movement. Movement also relates to the face and its expressions, the messages sent by the body and sound awareness and control. An actor moving around a space, the voices of other actor's, your sound as you inhabit a space can also contribute to a great performance. Working with the voice is also part of movement training, how it fills up a space, how other actor's hear it, also effects the quality of a play as it is performed.

If an actor's physical self is constricted the voice will be also. It could be that if the physical state is too open when a constricted voice is needed, movement awareness can help. Learning these types of nuances in terms of movement and how it relates to the emotional preparation of Meisner acting, can set an actor apart as exceptional. Actors trained to use their physical selves with movement training can enhance their emotional performances, making them more human and authentic. Only by working very hard to develop an awareness of movement and using to great effect, will the actor be fully present and authentic in their performances.




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