Relaxation Exercises - March 17th, 2008

Today we started our 3rd unit, about Stanislavski. Today Steve introduced us to the importance of relaxation and self control in theatre, which eventually connected to Stanislavski’s system which we will learn about later on.

We did couple of different exercises today:
Relax, lie down – in the first exercise we were asked by Steve to lie down and ‘control’ our body. First we had to make different parts of the body stiff and heavy, so we will concentrate on what really matters. Steve asked us to think about an amazing place, that we truly think is beautiful. Another task was counting out loud until 50 when your are tensing your muscles, the challenge was staying focused.
Kitchen Visualization – Steve asked us to mime a scene in the kitchen of us, preparing a meal. Every time he changed the situation. First, we had to pretend like we are preparing a meal to our parents when we actually want to go out with our friends, later when our friend died in a car accident, later on a date and so on. We couldn’t change our action. It was very interesting to see myself changing within the consequences, and also the way other people behaved. Oda especially impressed me by her demonstration. I think that the fact that she used certain movements that can show different sub-texts were very powerful and convincing.
Burning Letters – The next exercise was to ‘burn letters’ the have been written because of different situations, for example, being cheated by a partner or throwing away secret letters.

Later on, Steve asked us to demonstrate a situation when we see a car accident, but because of personal reasons, I decided not to. I was disappointed that I didn’t try, but I just didn’t feel comfortable with it at the moment.
Mariana showed us her visualization. It was very strong, because she really felt what she was imagining and we could see it on her eyes. It wasn’t because of the fact that she was crying, it was her eyes and body movements that seemed so real to me that showed me what she felt.

On the next lesson we did Rhythm Base exercises. Their purpose was to concentrate and listen to the other group members. Steve divided us into 4 groups; each group had a different sound to make. We had to listen to the instructions, collaborate and make a piece. Later on we had to do it with walking! It was hard because we really had to concentrate on both our walking and clapping.
The exercises helped me a lot to understand, at least some of the way of thinking of Stanislavski – concentrate. Forget who you are for a second and get into the shoes of your character, and this is why it is so important for an actor. I loved it because I felt so relaxed and focused, and I think that if I will get to this level during our end of year performance, I can achieve a very good performance.

· Your awareness of how relaxed you really are in day-to-day life?
I felt that usually I’m not aware of how stressed I am. There are so many things that you can just pass on them, and try to relax, understand what you feel and move on, but we choose not to. In these exercises I felt that I have control on myself and that nothing else matters. Therefore, I realized that usually I’m not the relaxed, but I can easily change this situation.

· How easy or difficult you found it to consciously relax or tense different parts of the body?
In the beginning I didn’t feel like the description of the exercise suited me, because I couldn’t really relax. Therefore when Steve started describing to us what he suggests us to do to ‘relax’, I imagined that I’m drowning in the sea. It sounds weird, but it actually helped me- I felt like I’m falling, my body was heavy, part by part. I think that it all depends on the level of trust you give to yourself to make you feel ‘uncertain’.

· The advantages of an actor who is aware of and able to control his/her level of relaxation and tension in performance?
When we did these relaxation exercises, I also could control my thoughts. All the things that bothered me before kind of disappeared. I think that an actor can feel totally free to be his character on the stage only when he lets himself go completely and concentrate on being the ‘new’ person.

· How easy or difficult it was to be relaxed/touched/manipulated by other group members?
Because of the close relationship that we have with our class members now, I felt very comfortable to be touched by them. It’s amazing to see how differently you act next to people that you actually trust.

· What might make you tense both in day to day life and in performance and how you can lessen these tensions?
Most of the stress I get is because of people. Fights, and thoughts, or the fact that I live far away from home. On stage I think it’s important to ‘forget’ for a second and maybe just use the feeling that you feel for acting, but, try to forget about the real problem and story.