DIFFERENT FLAVOURS

How to create dynamism in a scene

It’s a festival of workshops in my world right now. I’ve been working with directors in a 3-day workshop for the Directors’ and Editors’ Guild of Aotearoa New Zealand; with teen actors for Rātā Studios and with global actors and directors via my Zoom classes.

3-day Directors Working with Actors workshop for DEGANZ

The scenes and monologues have been rolling in from the Zoom actors and directors. And it is thrilling to see how much their work changes from the first version to the second and third versions.

Once they have engaged with the tools we use in class: Connection, internal landscape and vista, the performances are free-er, more relaxed and vivid. There’s more embodiment and ownership of the characters, less constraint and self-consciousness. The actors are more inspired by their reader or scene partner — and the text is enriched with deeper, fresher imagery. As I say to them in my feedback...

“If you think it, I will see it”

“Make it about the other person, and we will feel it more”