As the calendar approaches, glimpses and thoughts of the holidays begin to reveal themselves. A global pandemic soon takes flight sweeping across the lands.
For some, it is a volcanic eruption of “hip, hip, hooray!“; for others, it is a tidal wave of “oh, no, not again!”; and for many others, everything is abounding in between.
The holidays worldwide are often associated with a flurry of activity including parties, dinners, shopping, gifts, decorating, travel and crazy schedule changes.
An Actor’s Changing Environment
Major sensory overload sets in:
- travel to familiar places, a home town or a new distant location.
- adornment of decorative elements & festive lights
- unfamiliar accommodations
- expectations
- nostalgic visions of the past
- smells of holiday classics
- tastes of old time favorites
- sounds of native or spiritual music
- donning of festive clothing
- religious services
A myriad of emotions, thoughts, sights, sounds, and feelings are evoked. At the mere thought of the holidays, emotions and reactions immediately appear on the actor’s scene. Emotions and reactions that are changing continuously during the course of the holidays, continuing well into the days following. A flood gate of thoughts rush in “What will it be like this time?“
Emotions, reactions dominate the scene:
- excitement
- nostalgia
- joy
- contentment
- love
- romance
- anticipation
- relief
- satisfaction
- delirium
- joviality
- graciousness
- kindheartedness
- adventure
- peace
- relaxation
or feeling of:
- dread
- disgust
- guilt
- nonchalance
- disappointment
- apathy
- anger
- loneliness
- aggression
- sadness
- fear
- depression
- agony
- hatred
- despair
- franticness
- worry
- sickness
What Actors Can Glean From the Holidays?
How can the holidays be approached by a performer? A LIVE ACTOR’S WORKSHOP: A STEP OUT OF THE BOX.
An actor can use the holidays as a type of acting workshop by using themselves as mirrors; as mirrors reflecting who the actor becomes; mirrors reflecting the actor’s ever-changing emotional state, reactions and transitions in live, real-time scenes as they live each passing day of the holiday season. Actors can view others as scene partners; that is, those people who are temporarily part of the actor’s holiday daily experience; whether it be their aged father, or their little brother or their precious grandmother they only see once a year.
Actors can then harness:
- each emotional feeling
- each reaction to each emotion
- each reaction to each circumstance
- each reaction to the surroundings
- each reaction to what they see
- each emotion in response to scents smelled
- each emotion from a song heard
- each reaction to each person who appears in the Holiday “scene”
- each verbal response to others that is generated from the actors’ emotion
- each non-verbal & physical response
Actors can capture every tidbit of emotion felt throughout the holidays, including those feelings occurring in the early days before the holidays and those intense emotions and reactions that are triggered and seem to linger well into the aftermath. Within themselves, actors can register the thoughts that were associated with each emotion and each reaction that they experienced and catalog those thoughts to trigger the
same emotion and reaction.
Creating a Believable Performance
Actors can channel the emotions into personalization. They can draw up those emotions by remembering the thoughts associated with them and then use those emotions as they develop and deliver character performances in future acting roles. Personalization is an effective technique many successful actors skillfully use to bring believable truth to the roles they play on the screen and stage. How fabulous!
Stay tuned for my next blog post coming soon. For questions or comments, please respond through this website.
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