Performance Coaching with Paul Parker and Associates

TECHNIQUE

This Blog is interactive. I encourage your comments and questions. So please join the Blog and respond.

TOPIC – TECHNIQUE

Introduction:
In reference to having an audition or attending an acting class – does this following scenario sound like something you might do?

You go to an audition or you go to an acting class: you look at the script, you tried your best to learn the lines, but that is all the preparation that you do. You do not do any technique work on the script or the scene?

When the audition or the performance in class is in finished, you have no idea how you went! You feel vulnerable because you “winged it”. (Winging it gives you a 50 % chance of doing well). Perhaps other people tell you that you did well, so you think and / or say “I nailed it!” However, you are unsure of how you went and as a consequence your work is hit or miss. Is this you? Or is this your acting approach sometimes?

Finally, if you get the job, or get another opportunity in class and get direction saying, “Do it again” and the director or teacher says, “Do it exactly the same way as you just did”. Can you? What if you are on a film set and you have to do many takes and do it the same each time; can you? Can you cry on cue at the same place in the script for twenty to thirty takes?

This blog’s target audience:
Is for all actors! At any stage of their careers.

Quick background:
Hearing “I winged it” or “I nailed it!” were common utterances that I heard in my nearly eleven years of living amongst actors in the entertainment industry in the USA. These were utterances that I told my students not to say and not to personify. Why? Because I taught my students techniques – five of them! I also taught the actor to be open and creative and to explore the process. In this sense, they were not “nailing it” because they were not in control of their work the whole way through. Nailing it also implies that you have sat on your shoulder and watched yourself nail it. Which means, you were most likely not in the moment and not creatively exploring!

What is the point that I am alluding to:
Technique is the answer for the actor. Actors should learn techniques. Techniques that they can draw on when and where necessary. Actors should learn many techniques and then find out which ones work best for them.

Why am I writing this BLOG?
Because many actors do not learn techniques! Also, many actors do not take the time to create backstory to their character and to their scene. Many actors do not put a technique onto their work. In this sense, they are like an unqualified dentist holding a drill for the first time and trying to do a filling in a patients’ mouth. Yes, I feel that strongly about it.

Here are a few obvious pointers:
Actors should always create a backstory to scene and character
Actors should play with subtext to help them explore during the scene
Actors should develop all round training skills and techniques
Actors should refresh their skills and techniques
Actors should always do a warm up prior to performing

A technique:
Learn a few techniques and then decide which ones work best for you. I teach five: Australian – a technique that I devised based on my learning’s and from my tutors in the entertainment Industry; dating back professionally to 1977. German – Brecht. Polish – Grotowski. Russian – Stanislavski and Hungarian – Laban.

What is technique?
It is a foundation. It is a way of looking at the script or the scene and implementing a format to follow. A format to help you get connected with the scene and the character and with what is going on and what is going to happen.

Repetition. Repetition. Repetition:
Repetition is an important part of being an actor. The ability to repeat the same thing is an important skill for the actor to have.

Yul Brenner played the King in “The King and I” on Broadway for years. That is, eight shows a week for probably forty five to forty six weeks in a year; for years. http://www.broadwaymusicalhome.com/shows/kingandi.htm

In addition I have been on film sets where I’ve had to re-do the same acting scene, over and over, take after take, due to direction, or the weather, or a lighting problem, or for some other technical reason.

This is where repetition comes in. I encourage you to build on what you have learnt the first time. Be diligent. In support of this, repetition is the best way possible to learn to implement new things that you have been taught and to build your confidence and to practice your skills on some things that you already know! Repetition helps us practice our techniques.
One is not an expert the first time they learn how to pull a car engine apart are they?

Technique and being creative:
How can we do technique and preparation work and still have the freedom and spontaneity and openness and creativity in our work?

Well to begin with, this is why acting is hard! I never tell actors it is easy. Especially at the highest level! Actors must find the balance between the two – having technique and being open and exploring. So that when you see a close up on Hugh Jackman or Cate Blanchett (and it might have been their 25th take), their work is supported by technique.

Self trust – how important is it?
To find the balance between the two, actors must do the technique work and teach themselves or have a teacher teach them to let go! An actor must develop trust. Trust is very important. Trust in the preparation and trust in their technique and then let it all go and have trust in their own work during the performance; and not sit on their own shoulder and watch their performance and try to nail it! With the Australian techniques that I teach, the work, the lines, are in the body and I find this technique makes it easier for actors to trust and to let go!

Can all actors trust?
I believe with training every actor can develop self trust. With trust – freedom, spontaneity, confidence and risk taking all begin to happen. Once down this path, actors are much more vulnerable and out in the open. Having their sub text in place and their technique as a foundation helps keep the actor on their journey to discover what they are trying to achieve, and, they are profoundly more watchable as a result!

Let’s explore the other side of the coin.

Having technique and yet acting poorly:
When people do have technique, here are some of the reasons why they don’t do so well:
* Perhaps they have not found the right technique?
* Perhaps they are mixing bits of pieces from many techniques together (this is common in LA)
* Perhaps they are not doing the technique right?
* Perhaps they created what they call their own technique?

Some of the reasons why actors don’t do as well in performance when they have technique are as follows:
* They practiced too much
* They decided how to say the lines, and only one way
* They didn’t listen as well
* They forgot the surprises for their character in the scene
* They forgot the discoveries for their character in the scene
* They didn’t go after what their want as much
* They thought too much about the technique or the backstory
* They were focusing too much on themselves and not on the other person in the scene

Please take notes of these pointers above actors. Because if you do, they will help you develop trust and be able to conduit technique and freedom and creativity in your performances. Of course an acting teacher who knows what they are doing can guide the actor well here.

In the end:
T. Technique. One must have it
R. Respect the craft of acting and don’t be lazy
U. Understand you and your habits and work on your deficiencies
S. Surprise yourself by how much better your work can be with technique
T. Trust that you can have technique and freedom and spontaneity in your work

In closing, in all my years in the Industry, I do not know an actor who has had longevity in the acting field without using technique.

This Blog is interactive. I encourage your comments and questions. So please join the Blog and respond.

Copyright © 2013 Paul Parker – January 2013. No part of this Blog can be printed or reproduced and used without consulting the author first.
Paul Parker (B.Ed)
Acting and Presenter Coach
paul@paulparkerpc.com.au
www.paulparkerpc.com.au

Paul Parker has booked actors onto hundreds of USA film, television, theatre and commercials. He is a qualified teacher with 23 years teaching experience as of 2013. From 2002 to 2011 he was the Artistic Director and head teacher of AIDA – Australian Institute of Dramatic Arts in Los Angeles and New York in the USA. Paul has been in the entertainment Industry professionally since 1977.

About the Author

Paul Parker

Paul Parker has trained many business people with their presentations to help them when on television, in television interviews, on radio and with their video logs on websites in Australia, Japan and in the USA.

Paul works as a Business Presentation and Acting and Voice Coach too. This includes training people who present in work forums, class rooms, conferences, staff meetings and court rooms.

7 thoughts on “TECHNIQUE

  1. Dear Paul,

    Thank you so much for another fantastic blog! I really enjoy reading it. I have been learning and practicing these techniques from you and definitely gaining tremendous freedom, spontaneity, openness and creativity in my work!! Thanks to your caring and loving!

    I look forward to many more of your wonderful blogs!

    Lots of love,
    Ashley

  2. What a gold mine Paul! So much important information, made easy to read and understand, about one of the most critical aspects of connecting withour work, and creating consistently. Thank you!”

  3. AWESOME BLOG!

    I have recently been getting back into acting again & back on stage after WAAAAAY too long of a hiatus & Technique has honestly been my saving grace!
    I have been booking auditions non stop this past couple weeks & have been soooo grateful for the Australian technique that you taught me!! Tho I do often forget to do a physical warm up before most of the auditions, I have been doing the Bill Pepper CD about once/month for the past few months again & doing a lot of what you talked about above. It is crazy how repetition over a few years keeps things ingrained & comes back automatically like it never left. I DO feel rusty, but I am very consistent in the dropping the breath before an audition/performance, as well as breaking down of the scene & character work… & it is SOOOOO helpful!
    This play is my 1st in FOUR YEARS, & because I have been implementing your Australian Technique, I continue to be singled out every week with compliments by the director, as well as many audience members who come to see the show. I feel confident that I am quickly building back up to being my best simply by repetition of my technique every week… I may not be where I want to be yet, but I have the confidence to know that I WILL be!

    I look forward to reading more of the blogs… they are good reminders as to what we are doing well & what we could be improving on. THANK YOU! 🙂

  4. G’day. Brilliant. I could not agree more! In fact, were it not for the technique I learned in college, mixed with the amazing Australian technique I learned at AIDA, taught by you, I would not have booked the work I have in the town. And your anagram for T.R.U.S.T. is exactly right. I am looking forward to sharing this on Facebook and making sure my acting friends see this. It is an amazing difference technique can make in an audition, as well as a shoot/gig. I have worked with people who got roles based very little on technique and more on looks, and it is frustrating. Thank you again for this blog! Looking forward to many more!

  5. Paul,
    I came back to comment again, as I recently had a very positive experience with using the Australian technique! I had prepped a monologue using the technique, and also prepped a scene…but I was lazy with the scene and did not use proper technique (I got totally distracted by the content of the monologue). I performed both in front of an agent and casting director…They said they scene did not seem real, that I did not seem to know the character well enough. When it came to the monologue they said: I connected ‘beautifully’ with the text. Surprise! 🙂 Now I have personal proof, technique is essential!
    And I personally think it helps you enjoy the process of preparing more as well, and produces confidence and stability within your work.

    Thanks again,

    Jasmine

  6. i havent really done any auditioning in a long while, so i cant say that this is how i handle an audition. but i will say that the australian technique has helped me understand acting a million times better than i have in the past. it really works well for me. i like to prepare; i like feeling like ive done all i can do to grasp the character and the scene. but trusting myself is a big issue; thats something i definitely need work on.

  7. This was extremely helpful and a timely reminder about how important the right training can be. Thank you!

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