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Acting Habits

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August 11, 2016 Acting Classes

Acting Habits

As adults, most of us can relate to the term “the force of habit” in some way. The more of our lives that we live, the easier it is to see that the things that we choose to “repeatedly do” often become quite ingrained. The daily choices that we make about how and what we eat, how much rest we get, how we think, communicate, work, play, move and react to the stimuli around us, all become a collection of our personal habits.

Science shows that we, like most creatures, live and die by habituated thinking…meaning we humans are truly creatures of habit. Our bodies and brains lock into a way of approaching something and due to our nature, nurture and personal experience we begin to repeat the familiar, because familiarity equates safety to our animal brains…there is comfort in routine.

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Acting Classes & Performers

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August 11, 2016 Acting Classes

Acting and Performers in 2016

I remember when I moved to Los Angeles from Montana to pursue an acting career in the fall of 1999 like it was yesterday. I was eighteen years old and experiencing a considerable amount of culture shock. By that next spring after some good luck and a moderate amount of hustle, I had landed myself a commercial agent in Hollywood.

On the day that I signed my two year contract with my new agency, I was told that I needed two very important tools to get my commercial career off to a go start. The first was a good head shot and the second was “a cell phone”.

At that time near the turn of the century mobile phones and devices were not yet ubiquitous. Those who were alive and old enough to remember know that it was yet another significant crossroads for modern life. In 1999 not everyone had a cell phone yet and even personal computers were still making their way into the mainstream.

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Acting Classes Improve English Skills

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August 5, 2016 Acting Classes

Acting Classes Can Help English As A Second Language/English Language Development

After almost a decade of being a Teaching Artist for Center Theater Group (CTG) and the SAG Foundation, as well as a senior teacher at Gary Spatz’s The Playground, it still brings a smile to my face and makes my heart pitter patter when I see kids who are working with English as a second language improve their speaking and communication skills.

How do they do it? Because a large part of teaching acting for stage or camera is all about articulation, enunciation and diction, it makes for a great “one-two-three combo” on the journey of learning how to communicate clearly and effectively! So, it hurt my heart when I met with a 5th grade teacher (who teaches the lowest level ELD students) about doing a theater/literacy residency with her class and she didn’t feel she could give up 2 hours a week and still fulfill her curriculum.

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Acting For Shy Kids

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August 4, 2016 Acting Classes

Acting Classes For Shy Kids

Many a child shows up for our acting classes at The Playground in a very shy state of mind. Some have difficulty making eye contact. Others are uncomfortable expressing their thoughts to people they don’t know. These may be symptoms of the “first class jitters,” but for some, social anxiety and nervousness are part of their daily experience.

One of the real gifts, I believe, of an acting curriculum is that it gives the student-actor permission to play. And, inevitably, during the course of that play, the student-actor’s shyness starts to fade away and is eventually replaced by confidence.

All of the acting exercises, improvisations, theatre games, and scenes we do at The Playground serve to encourage students to look each other directly in the eye and express their thoughts through words and behavior. Invariably, these exercises are done with a sense of play and fun, so even the shyest of students can find the confidence to stand on his or her own two feet.

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Alexander Technique For Actors

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August 4, 2016 Acting Classes

How Does the Alexander Technique Benefit Actors?

“I can immediately tell the difference between actors who have studied the Alexander Technique, and those who haven’t.”-Sam Mendes, Academy Award-Winning Director (American Beauty)

I think about this question a lot. Besides being an actor, I teach on-camera and audition technique to kids and young adults at Gary Spatz’s “The Playground,” an acting school in Los Angeles. I saw that studying Alexander Technique really made a difference in my work and in the work of my students. But the one thing I couldn’t pinpoint when I began to study it and then teach it was how did it make that difference?

When I read my first Alexander Technique introductory statement, and even when I took my first lesson, there was not a very obvious connection between artistic improvement and the set of skills to which I was being introduced. Sure it felt great to allow my neck to free up—I immediately felt taller and lighter and a bit more calm.

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