Tony's stash of textual information

acting

Part of an actor's work is finding scripts and today I received one.

It uses the gimmick of body-swap – once popularised in the movie, “Face Off”, featuring Nicholas Cage (1997) – but after reading it, I fear that I will be ashamed of the final work.

The lines are unnatural,

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Darren suggested future directions.


HCAC: private acting school with various short courses of styles and methods.

https://methodactingasia.com/

Nine Years Theatre: Actor Training

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Improvised acting.

Games, and exercises, to build up confidence and reflexes.

  • stand in a circle. Next person asks you: “what are you doing?” That next person has to do what you say. For example, you might say: “I am playing soccer on the moon.”
  • enter a space. put in, or take out something. Exit the space. Then, the next person has to evolve the story.

Ways of using your body to convey feelings.

  • disgusted: your body is tensing up
  • overjoyed: you are walking on a bed of roses
  • frustrated: your guts are twisting

#acting

the practice script was “Come in, Nielsen.”

the actors were L and H.

Darren observed their performance once, and then told them to perform again, but with a game in mind – an actor's game. L's goal is to get H to look at her for more than three seconds. H's goal is to give L as little eye-contact as possible.

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“It is better to be a glorious failure than a mediocre success.”

Mediocre success hinders you from tasting glorious success. (Editor's note: Darren attributes this quote to the late playwright, Kuo Pao Kun)

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terminology from Darren

“invisible body”: What an actor does off-stage, which helps in his performance on-stage. Eg. Tai-chi, amateur boxing, basketball, soccer, marathon-running, stamina-training.

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Acted with Ariel using a practice-script, titled “Come in, Nielsen”.

As things turned out, our scene became a confrontation between two hostile criminals.

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A new classmate made his entrance today: Joao (pronounced somewhat like Jo-el), a youthful-looking man from Portugal.

He had missed the previous two classes due to a business trip – or so he claims – but he seemed to catch up quite quickly.


Today's exercise: intercostal diaphrammatic breathing.

Lie down and breathe in. Notice how your belly rises.

Now sit up and breathe in. Notice how your shoulders hunch up.

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Two new classmates: Kester and Karis.

Kester brought his young son to class because there was nobody else to take care of his son.

Karis has a day-time job that involves sitting at a computer,

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New game: Zip, Zap, Zoom. New rules. Everybody knew nothing about the game except our coach/teacher. But we managed to get a nice rhythm going, eventually. I feel proud of myself. I realised that I'm not incompetent, I just need some guidance and practice.

Exercise for the diaphragm:

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