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.
