Sex, Lies, and Nudity.

Today I had to be quite brutal and break down my actors' personal privacy boundaries.  It sounds a bit harsh, but they are supposed to be portraying a couple who have been in a sexual relationship for a year and a half, and they were terrified to even touch each other.  Not really convincing.  So it was time for a bit of tough love.  I had them strip down to underwear, and they were supposed to lie on the couch and talk about the history of the characters relationship, and then their future dreams.  I left them to it for 15 minutes to give them privacy and get past the initial awkwardness.  What did I come back to?  Both of them sitting on opposite sides of the couch, curled up into little inaccessible balls.  Not happy Jan!!!  So then it was time for the big guns.  I made them spoon, told them off, put a blanket over them, and left the room again.  This time it worked.  When I got back I quizzed them about their stories, and physically they were much more playful with each other.  Victory!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What I have come to realise is that in school young actors are taught 'the rules' of acting.  Make sure you are always opened out to the audience.  Make sure you listen to what the other performer says and then formulate your next line, etc.  So what you end up with is a whole lot of young people who can't do naturalism worth a damn.  They are so busy being turned out to the audience, and 'thinking' about what is being said that no-one faces each other and the pace is so slow you want to kill yourself.  I am spending most of my time telling them to forget what they have learnt and do the opposite.  The rest of my time I spend telling them to keep still because they always want to move when they have a line.  It is exhausting, but luckily my current cast take direction really well and are trusting me about this stuff.

I probably sound like I am grumbling, but I am having a great time, and my actors are really open to ideas and trying stuff they are not comfortable with.  We had a great time tonight playing with text pace and rhythm and found some really amazing moments.  When you find something extraordinary, a really profound moment, it makes all the hard work to get there worth it. 

Well, until next time :)