I haven’t yet written any blog posts purely about acting, but today I feel the need to discuss some of my experiences at school.
Over and over again I have been receiving the same notes from my acting coaches:
“Breathe”
“don’t show me what you’re feeling, just feel it.”
“relax and have fun.”
“listen.”
“if you’re going to fail, fail big – you need to make bold and specific choices. Do not play it safe.”
You hear all this instruction, and it’s like “Yeah, that’s easy. I can do that.” And the concepts are incredibly simple in theory, but incredibly hard at the same time. All these notes are also interconnected. In order to breathe you need to feel grounded and you need to be honestly listening to the other character. You can’t be anticipating anything, and you definitely can’t be worried about remembering your next line. When you stop breathing, you stop living. Once the first 4 notes are mastered – that’s when playing with the fifth direction gets to be really fun. The key to all of this, is to not care about trying to impress anyone. You just need to put in the work, and then trust yourself when you walk into the audition room. You must trust that you know what you’re doing. Just like I changed my self talk when I went on stage at the cold reading series, I need to change my self-talk as I’m preparing for an audition. I need to prepare with the belief that all this preparation is going to win me the role that will kick start my career. I can’t be going into these classes with a poor opinion of myself as an actor. I will get the most out of my training if I believe in myself 100%. If I make a fool out of myself, or if I make a mistake – so what. None of that matters. I need to develop a thick skin so that I can shake it off, and move forward. I can’t let the opinions of others affect my self-worth or my belief that I am talented and capable of working as a successful actress and storyteller.
I noticed that some of my followers are actors. Have you ever received similar direction? and how did you overcome those obstacles?
Actually, not just actors. I want to open this up to everyone who is reading right now. We all have dreams, and we all have obstacles or challenges that stand in the way of our achieving our dreams. What are your obstacles? How do you cope with:
- Anxiety
- Self-worth
- Negative Self-talk
If I didn’t feel fear, and therefore couldn’t be afraid of screwing up and making a fool out of myself, what could I accomplish in life? What could you accomplish? Fear is something that constantly undermines our decisions and keeps us in a low place. What if, for an entire day, I did not allow myself the opportunity or the pleasure of indulging in a fear experience. What would happen if, for an entire day, every time I experienced a fear symptom, instead of stopping right in the middle of it I walked right through it. Tomorrow is my scene study class, and so that is the perfect opportunity to put this challenge to the test. I’m so going to regret doing this tomorrow, but here comes the 3rd challenge.
I,Christine, promise to do what scares me every time I experience an anxiety-like symptom for all of June.19,2012.
I have completed my previous two challenges, and this one is no exception. Oh, and I should add that this is a fun challenge. I should have fun doing this. This should be a liberating and not stressful experience. I just felt I needed to remind myself of that.