Pinky!

No, no not a post about your last finger. Even I am not that crazy.......well not today anyway. No, rather this is a personal post about an odd actory thing I often do when learning lines, and that is using my secret weapon.......the Pinky.





Yes, that pink colored rubber ball that many of us had as children. Ok maybe for some of you it is a toy your folks used, but still just refer to the photo. So I actual use this simple device when trying to learn lines, especially Shakespeare. But it helps with all lines from any genre. it can also be used for lyrics.


Now work with me here. When learning lines, I simply bounce the ball along with saying the lines aloud. This works great for Shakespearean verse since it is written in specific beats. a typical line of verse has 5 soft and 5 hard beats, alternating...da-DUM-da-DUM-da-DUM-da-DUM-da-DUM. That is a typical line, so I may bounce the ball down on the hard beats.


But this works for any lines. It has to do with distracting your mind, and slipping your lines into your brain in a structured way. It really helps if you have a word that is hard or that you have trouble remembering. Then I FIERCELY bounce the ball while calling out the word several times. By over emphasizing, exaggerating, and making a strong memory path, the word gets into your brain more dynamically, and that helps you with recall.


If I am working on a scene with a partner, we bounce the ball to each other after each one is done with a line. If I am getting help from someone reading, I may just bounce it on the floor after my line, listening to the next cue.


I find it also helps if I am walking or pacing as I bounce the pinky, again, saying the lines aloud. You may recall an earlier blog about memorization, using an MP3 or the like, and that method is still great. But I alternate it with Pinky work, as it is a bit more physical, and fun. :)


(Oh and in a total nerd rush, I use a different ball for each show, and write the show on character on it. Then after, give it away. )

J.T. Turner
The Actors Sensei

Baby ears

I have had the great fortune and honor to work with some excellent directors over the years. They have inspired me to be a better director, and to be a better actor as well. Paul Daigneault runs Speakeasy Stage Company here in Boston, specializing in premiering plays to the Boston area. With Speakeasy I have been in such works as Johnny Guitar, Chess, Floyd Collins, and A New Brain. Paul is an amazing director, very low key and organic, and one of the lessons I have taken from him is about delivery.

Since Speakeasy specializes in new works, often an audience is hearing a show for the very first time. Paul always reminds his actors to think of the audience as having "baby ears", hearing sounds for the first time. As a result, an actor needs to be loud and clear. Even though you have worked on a piece for weeks or months, and know it inside out, that does not transfer to the audience. They are listening for the first time to you and your delivery. I am not saying make things slow and ponderous, just loud and clear.

I am currently working on the Scottish Play, and for many people Shakespeare is a realm that begs for this posts advice. The language, though gorgeous, is unfamiliar, so to let people take it in properly it must be heard! Enunciate, stay crisp, don't mumble, nor make your delivery so intimate that people lose what you are saying.




I will have more to say about volume in future blogs, but for this week Sensei says.... "Baby ears".

J.T. Turner
The Actors Sensei

Oh fancy Latin phrases are so cool!

Since I am, in general, as cool as say, John Travolta, who is indeed very high on the Cool-O-Meter, I must share  a cool Latin Phrase as well as a great concept for actors in this post. (I know, you are thinking, "he is so generous and kind, and he does all this for free, he is a saint!" You are correct.).

Via negativa (Negative Way) is actually a phrase use by theologians and religious people to present a way of describing God. Since God is in many religions considered undefinable, one way to think about what God is would be to list what he is not. If you list what God is not, then you have a good idea of what God is. Get it?

But we can use this same concept when dealing with acting and performing. We are presented with lines to read aloud, to present to an audience, how we say them tremendously impacts how they are received and how our character is formed. So the idea of via negativa, applied to an actor's lines, is to decide how NOT to deliver the line. In broad terms, take the line an deliver it in as many ways as possible, and eliminate the ones that don't work.

Let's look at a piece of Shakespeare for this idea. "Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow creeps  in this petty pace from day to day, to the last syllable of recorded time.". OK, now to work, what if we rushed all the words together?  "Tomorrowandtomorrowandtomorrowcreepsinthispettypacefromdayto daytothelastsyllableofrecordedtime." Bad choice in most cases, so we eliminate that.  What if we made each and every word important, same length, emphasis, loudness, "TOMORROW AND TOMORROW AND TOMORROW CREEPS IN THIS PETTY PACE FROM DAY TO DAY TO THE LAST SYLLABLE OF RECORDED TIME". Nah, that sounds to old fashioned and actorish. So we have eliminated 2 ways we might deliver the line, and perhaps we start to find the ways we can deliver it. Words are repeated, what if we emphasize them? "TOMORROW and TOMORROW, and TOMORROW creeps in this petty pace from DAY to DAY, to the last syllable of recorded time". That might be the reading you go with.

(And now, a quick suggestion from Ian McKellan, who says, try it this way, 'Tomorrow AND tomorrow, AND tomorrow, creeps in this petty pace from day to day"...Sir Ian suggests hitting the word AND could take the speech to a new meaning.)

Have some fun. Try lines in outrageous ways, like a little girl, like a lumberjack, like a gangster. By eliminating what does not work, you will soon narrow it down to what DOES work, and that will give you a starting point to the line readings that lay ahead.

J.T. Turner
The Actors Sensei


Acting classes for stage and screen.

WAR?

This summer I am directing The Scottish Play. Although it is bad luck to say the name out of context, it is OK to say it in relation to the actual play, so I will be directing William Shakespeare's Macbeth. With that in mind, expect a few posts this summer about the Bard. But this post has information that is good for not just tackling Shakespeare, but any script at all.

When dealing with a script for the first time, especially Shakespeare, it makes sense to have an approach to your work. In that regard, I use the simple silly acronym, WAR?. Yeah it is goofy but you will hopefully remember it, and most importantly, what each part of WAR? is.

W-Start with the words. When dealing with Shakespeare, never ever speak words you do not understand. There are many books that give you a contemporary explaination of what a word or line means, (Side by Side editions, No Fear Shakespeare), and many annotated versions as well. And of course the internet is a great reference library for the actor. If it is not in your library, C.T. Onions great book A Shakespeare Glossary should be added at once.
So make sure you know what it is you are saying,

A- refers to the arc of the play. What happens in the play, where do we start, where do we end, what is the journey about? What is the structure of the piece?

R- reason! Why does your character say the line? Background, foreshadowing, plot device, comic relief? Why do you say what you say? Especially with Shakespeare, no line is given to you randomly. (In Shakespeare, R may do double duty as rhythm).

?- Finally the question mark. In a simple sentence or two, decide what the play is about. The answer may be different for each production of the same play, as a director and actors have a vision they are working toward, and that vision may change from one production to another.

So when you face a new script, think of going to WAR?

Next up, a show-off Latin phrase!


J.T. Turner

The Actors Sensei