To begin with.........BREATHE!

Thanks for coming to my blog. I intend to use this space to share ideas, philosophies and tips for actors of all ages, but primarily young ones, those in Middle School , High School and College. You older actors, feel free to lurk, join and comment.

A great topic to start an acting commentary is a basic one, breathing! Seriously, it is such a key foundation to any acting work we do, yet many actors of all ages and abilities show a shocking lack of knowledge in this area..Yes, yes it is totally natural and boring, one of those things we rarely think about. And yet many of us do in improperly. PE teachers and coaches tell us to take a deep breath by filling our chest with air. That tends to be very shallow breathing. What we want is diaphragmatic breathing.

As an actor, singer, speaker or preformer, I want you to think lower, right around your belly. There is a key muscle that helps us breath called the diaphragm. Its located just at the bottom of your rib cage, right at the top of your stomach. When we breath properly, this muscle creates a vacuum inside you, and air is drawn down deep into your body. Yes the chest fills, but that should be after the lower part of you abdomen fills. By the way, some teachers will refer to this method as abdominal breathing, same concept.

Place your hands on your belly. Breath in. If you do it right, your belly should expand outward. As you exhale, it contracts in. If you are doing the opposite, and many people do, just try and relax and adjust your breath to create the right pattern, air in means belly out, air out means belly in.

It may help, as an exercise to get use to this idea, to lie on your back with a book on your stomach. Making the book rise and fall as you breath can help you focus and learn what a "good" breath is. Also if you have a baby handy, watch how it breathes. ( I do not recommend stealing a baby just for an exercise, just see if one is handy). Babies breath the right way, because gravity is on their side, and they have no bad breathing habits. (As an aside, babies can cry for long periods of time without getting their voices tired, this is because they don't let the throat get in the way, they just wail right from the diaphragm. This is an important concept for singers and speakers, it shows that great sound can be produced without straining the voice. More about that in a future blog).

Most of us go through the day breathing shallowly. Stopping every so often and breathing deeply, a good diaphragmatic breath or two as described above, does many great things for you.

1) A good breath relaxes you.

2) A good breath oxygenates your blood, and helps you think more clearly.

3) A good breath is the basic of support for clear supported speaking and singing.

4) People that suffer from asthma seem to get some relief with the occasional proper breath.

5) This type of breathing helps people who are having a panic attack (you know, like when the person running an audition call your name :)).

Try and take a few breathing breaks throughout the day. If you are into yoga or meditation, you may already be doing this type of exercise. If you are not, you will be surprised at how refreshing a few good breaths can be.

In my next post, I will try and revisit breathing properly, and how I teach my students to use breathing to relax before going on stage or auditioning.