Lesson with Paul:
Tuesday 13th
November 2012
NLP (Neuro-Linguistic
Programming) has been brought up quite frequently by Paul, in all honesty I
have never heard of the term before, and upon primary research I could not see
how it linked in with drama.
LO 3.1 But as I read on and I saw that NLP
was all about how to ‘actively
use your mind and your emotions and your body to run your own
life more successfully and to communicate
with other people with 'extraordinary' effectiveness’. I realised
these are all the qualities a good actor needs, they need to be in touch with
who they are mentally and physically so their quirks don’t rub off on the
characters they play.
- v Do whatever I already do reasonably well, even better (who doesn’t want that?)
- v Acquire skills and attitudes to do what I cannot do right now, but would like to be able to do
- v Think more clearly
- v Communicate more effectively with others
- v Manage my thoughts, moods and behaviours more effectively.
(How I wish
to be as an individual)
During this morning’s
session Paul lead the class through a light NPL activity in which you are
directed through a dream sequence of your own creation; but you are asked to do
things such as follow the people within the dream or build rooms and think
about the exact colour objects are.
The entire
class was asked to lie in a supine position, close their eyes and try to relax
as much as a possible, relaxation is important for an actor because a ‘A
tense mind is one that will hold you back and keep you on the "safe"
road’ (Prior Aphter);
I believe this is very true especially when I recall moments when I had been
tense on stage and those tense moments have caused me to forget about
submerging myself into the character.
Instead I concentrated on my own nerves and urgency to recall
my lines not live in the moment like it was all happening new to my character.
After achieving a relaxed state I closed my eyes and listened
to the first prompt, “you are laying on a beach somewhere, starring up at the
blue sky”. This may not sound like such a hard thing to visualise however the ‘external
event’ for us was a cold winter morning in a cold room where the air vent
couldn’t be turned off. I now realise this is a form of NLP where you must
combat external events and distort/change or create an internal event.
I was so absorbed within the dream that despite the cold
weather I felt myself getting warmer, I think this is a great result because as
an actor I can use this tool in future to immerse myself in the world of any
character I’m playing and forget about external factors; it will be especially
good for ‘Three Sisters’ because I
have to imagine myself in there world, amongst their furniture and ornaments in
a totally different time period.
During the activity we were lead through to other
destinations within the world be had mentally created, and we were asked to follow
a character. The dream was very vivid it felt like a panoramic HD film and I
remember following a little girl in a red dress with long black hair to her
home, we were asked to look into their eyes; I remember feeling a state of
utter calmness coming from the little girl, this juxtaposed with how I thought
she would feel, as a little girl being all alone.
This taught me a valuable lesson as an actor, I may assume
something about a character but eventually they may morph and grow from
assumption.
Bibliography
Aphter
Prior, Mar 15 2012 , Online article : http://voices.yahoo.com/film-acting-importance-mental-relaxation-to-11102850.html?cat=40
(Accessed 13/11/2012)
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