About Arlene Schulman Expertise I have been a director, dramaturg, actor and acting coach for over twenty-five years and am happy to share my expertise in learning to act, character development, taking direction, acting styles and techniques, auditioning techniques, how to choose an audition monologue or song (but NOT specific audition songs or monologues), learning lines, script analysis, acting in musicals, dramas, comedies, farces, mysteries and even new plays in their first productions.
I am NOT a voice teacher or vocal coach. My expertise is in acting and directing, not in singing. I can not advise you on specific audition songs, vocal exercises, how to stretch your range or on solving vocal problems. For that you need an expert on singing and vocal work. And there is at least one very good one on this list.
Experience I have been a director, dramaturg, actor and acting coach in the NYC/NJ area for over twenty-four years. I have directed dramas, comedies, musicals, mysteries, thrillers and farces as well as directing original plays in staged readings, workshops, showcases and world premieres. I have worked with all level of actors from amateurs to Equity, from children to seniors.
Organizations Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers - associate member Literary Managers & Dramaturgs of America - associate member Shakespeare Association of America The Shakespeare Instititute - MA candidate - "Shakespeare & Theatre"
Question Hello Arlene! I am directing an origianl one-act in the STrawberry One-Act Festival in NYC in August.
My question has to do with getting my actors out of what I call the "tone" in their head. It is a two person play and I think the trap is when it becomes to "natural." They get passive on a smaller more intimate stage. No one comes to a play to see people be "natural" so I am trying to get the actors to be "bigger." I already hate the terms I am using to describe my image. Bigger meaning more playing actions and less Dan Rather acting as I call it..reporting the news. Does this make sense..hehe
One exercise i did with them was separating them in two different rooms in a house..gave them a task...and made them do the scene while separated. This helped a ton. They were forced to Listen, react truthfully, and drive their actions while occupied with their important task. They put down the task when nessesary and went back to it when appropriate.
After all that...my question...Any tips on capturing that energy when I put them back in the same room on a small stage? I wonder if you can visualize what I mean and I am sorry to take the long way around.hehe
Overall the play is going well and if you get a chance to see it ...August 10th at 9pm at the Producers Club 2 between 44th and 45th street and 9th avenue.
Thank you for any insight.
Brendan Curtin
Answer Hi Brendan,
I would LOVE to see the show you're directing! I love NYC festivals and go frequently. Unfortunately I will be in Boston at the time directing a staged reading of a new play for a playwright I'm working with. Ah well... maybe next time...
I understand completely what you are talking about, and your explanation was not at all the long way around! You seem to be entirely on the right track with your cast. It seems like you are probably dealing with two different things here...
First, it is natural for people, actors included, to modify their voices to "fit" the size of the room they are in and their "relationship" - both emotional and physical - to each other on stage. So actors who have been rehearsing in a small space and then move into a huge theatre have to learn to adjust their voices to the new space. And actors who are playing "small", intimate scenes often find it difficult to bring their voices up enough to be heard by the audience. Just try it - try standing up really close to someone and say, sincerely, "I love you", and do it in a voice that remains intimate, but can be heard clearly in the next room. It's hard to do! And it's one of the things that good actor training teaches. Working in a small theatre often gives the mistaken impression that if you do more than minimalistic acting you will be seen to be overacting. Not true, of course - there is a middle ground, but it's hard to find if you haven't got the "feel" for it.
The second problem is a more technical one. Many professional stage actors today are so used to being miked that they have forgotten, or, worse, have never been taught how to really project their voices and how to use their bodies to help the audience understand the action. When faced with the usual NYC off-off Broadway theatres (I'm familiar with the Producer's Club - both) with little tech, no mikes, and various sized theatres, they are not sure how to control their voices and their acting. The reaction seems to be to do too little. The other side of this is those actors who have done film/tv work and who are used to "small" acting. In those media you MUST act "with your eyebrows". Anything more than that looks extremely unnatural onscreen. But when they come back to stage, they have to relearn how to open up and act, still naturally but bigger, more physically, and with more projection so that a stage audience who are not seeing all their nose hairs on the big or little screen can feel that same sense of reality.
So... what you did is great! You made them focus on what they are doing with their voice and their body and how to use them to bridge the gap between them and the audience. Now they have to bring that sense and energy back to the smaller stage with them. If they are good actors, they will, simply by having it brought to their attention and having "shown" their bodies what they need to do, be able to transfer it.
If they still have trouble doing that, I have a little exercise that a wonderful director/teacher I worked with taught me. He created something he called the "Kinesphere". It's an incredibly useful device that can be used for soooo many different issues onstage, but it is particularly useful for this exact problem
It goes like this...
Have your actors stand up, relax and focus. Have them stretch out their arms. Now, ask them to, using their arms, to create around themselves an invisible sphere, a bubble. Tell them to stretch their arms over their head as high as they can reach, reach as far as they can from side to side, stretch down and complete the bubble. Have them make it as complete as it can, so it surrounds them and they are inside this "kinesphere", this bubble.
Now... this bubble is flexible. It can grow and shrink and change size and attributes. You can make it as big or as small as you want. You can make it impermeable, so that nothing can get inside it. You can make it so it includes only yourself - isolating you from the outside world - or protecting you from the outside world, perhaps. Then you can make it stretch out to include another person or a group of people, or even the whole theatre!
Do you get the idea???
Once they get the idea, they can make this "kinesphere" an invaluable aid in creating an acting space which includes exactly who they, and you, want it to, without sacrificing intimacy, and with straining either their voices or their sense of the scene.
So, once this is done take a scene that is giving them problems. Now start with their kinesphere including just themselves - "Dan Rather acting" - the kind of intimacy that happens when two people are alone together, or when they feel the intimacy of a small theatre.
Now have them do the same scene but expand (in their imaginations, of course) their kinesphere, to include the audience. Nothing else changes. It's not about changing the scene, or what they are doing, so much as it is about including the audience, and, by doing so, opening up their voices and their acting so that what they are doing can be seen and heard and, even more, understood, by those who aren't right next to them. Just as you had them do by acting in separate rooms. You don't want them to overdo it - in a small theatre, it would look stagy and unnatural. But you do want them to open up enough to communicate with the audience as well as the actors. By stretching their kinesphere just to the back of the audience, they will automatically do just that. Once they've got the idea of how it works, expanding their kinesphere to include the audience will make the process effortless.
I had a similar problem when I directed "The Passion of Dracula". My Dracula needed to find a way to project that sense of power and control, not only to the actors on the stage, but also to the audience, but without overacting, since we were also working in a small theatre. We used the kinesphere to help him include the audience within in "sphere" of influence and it made a tremendous difference in his performance.
There are lots of ways to use this technique. The one I mentioned is just one. I'm sure you'll find lots of ways to use its influence, its inclusiveness, or exclusiveness, its permeability or impermeability, to solve lots of problems on stage...
I hope it helps, Brendan, and I hope your show is wonderful. I'll be thinking of you while I'm rehearsing in Boston! If you have any questions about this technique or any other directing/acting problems, I'll be happy to try to answer them for you...
