The technique’s many benefits for actors include minimized tension, centeredness, vocal relaxation and responsiveness, mind/body connection, and about an inch and a half of additional height!
~ KEVIN KLINE, THEATER & FILM ACTOR
3 great Alexander Technique changes for Actors
~ KEVIN KLINE, THEATER & FILM ACTOR
3 great Alexander Technique changes for Actors
- Reduce Audition Anxiety
- Increase Efficient Movement
- Heighten Stage Presence
Los Angeles based Alexander Technique teacher Sharon Jakubecy (alexandertechniquela.com) shares her ideas about one of the most important aspects of the Actor's toolbox:
There are 6 qualities of an engaging and powerful voice that can propel you towards SUCCESS, whether that means speaking on Stage, on Screen, or Voice Over work:
1) RESONANT Your voice is sound and sound is vibration. The vibration of your voice bounces off the bones of your body and it fills the room with your message.
2) EMBODIED Your voice comes from your entire body, not just your mouth. When you are connected to your whole body, your voice is amplified from your feet on the floor, to your legs, hips, belly, back, and head.
3) GROUNDED The body of a dynamic speaker is grounded which means that both feet are hips-width distance and planted on the floor. This will calm your nervous system and literally allow you to breathe with ease.
4) TENSION-FREE You don’t have to push your head forward and tighten your neck, shoulders, and abdominals to make sound. An attractive voice that gives you the chills pours out of a body that is released and open which allows for a flexible ribcage that moves with your breath.
5) ENERGIZED Without tension, you are calm and the energy of your message can flow out of your body and impact your audience. They will literally FEEL the energy radiating from your voice.
6) COLORFUL With the above 5 qualities, your body is free to move with your breath and voice. This gives you the ability to play with pitch and pace. You can speak in a low voice when you want your audience to taste your every word and with a quick and forceful voice when you call them to action!
There are 6 qualities of an engaging and powerful voice that can propel you towards SUCCESS, whether that means speaking on Stage, on Screen, or Voice Over work:
1) RESONANT Your voice is sound and sound is vibration. The vibration of your voice bounces off the bones of your body and it fills the room with your message.
2) EMBODIED Your voice comes from your entire body, not just your mouth. When you are connected to your whole body, your voice is amplified from your feet on the floor, to your legs, hips, belly, back, and head.
3) GROUNDED The body of a dynamic speaker is grounded which means that both feet are hips-width distance and planted on the floor. This will calm your nervous system and literally allow you to breathe with ease.
4) TENSION-FREE You don’t have to push your head forward and tighten your neck, shoulders, and abdominals to make sound. An attractive voice that gives you the chills pours out of a body that is released and open which allows for a flexible ribcage that moves with your breath.
5) ENERGIZED Without tension, you are calm and the energy of your message can flow out of your body and impact your audience. They will literally FEEL the energy radiating from your voice.
6) COLORFUL With the above 5 qualities, your body is free to move with your breath and voice. This gives you the ability to play with pitch and pace. You can speak in a low voice when you want your audience to taste your every word and with a quick and forceful voice when you call them to action!
5 Tips to crush your next Audition
1) Take your time and slow down even as you are walking from your car to the building. When you take your time while walking through a door, you make a powerful entrance because you already look and feel more confident. A rushed person makes everyone else feel uncomfortable. Taking a beat to slow down allows you to be physically loose, fluid, open, and graceful. Magnetic, even.
2) Before you walk into an audition, pitch meeting, or interview, let breath out of your mouth, in a whispered Ahhhh. Most people will say “Breathe!” This command usually evokes a desperate gasp for breath that only makes you more tense. Letting breath out on a whispered Ahhh slows your breath rate, which slows your heart rate, which calms your nervous system. Your body’s natural breathing coordination can kick in and do its job. You think more clearly. Your eyes are brighter. And you have great energy when you make an entrance.
3) Look into the horizon instead of down at the floor. Your eyes have a huge impact on your posture, your perception, and your confidence. Looking into a room makes you look taller and more open. You can literally see more of the world and more of the people you want to connect with. You will also feel powerful and confident because you are no longer “hiding” by looking down at the floor. Your spine is longer and your chest and shoulders are wider. Everyone can see you and you can own the room.
4) Stand on both legs at hips-width distance. What do your legs have to do with your confidence? Everything! Your legs are literally your foundation. If you are collapsed on one hip with most of your weight on one leg, you are not grounded and it is harder to breathe. Standing on both legs gives your body structural support; you can breathe easier and you are taller. When you are grounded, you can make quick decisions, respond creatively to networking opportunities, and take bold actions to market yourself.
5) Release UP to your full height. Most people relate confidence with great posture AND most people will try to stand up straight by lifting their chin, tightening their neck and back muscles, squeezing their shoulder blades together, holding their breath, and locking their knees. Try this. It does not feel confident, more like an uptight soldier. Your full height, your most powerful stature, your expansiveness happens when you let go in the muscles of your neck, shoulders, back, legs, and abdomen. You are taller and more open when you release muscular effort. You stand out in a crowd and easily attract the people and opportunities that will propel you to success.
1) Take your time and slow down even as you are walking from your car to the building. When you take your time while walking through a door, you make a powerful entrance because you already look and feel more confident. A rushed person makes everyone else feel uncomfortable. Taking a beat to slow down allows you to be physically loose, fluid, open, and graceful. Magnetic, even.
2) Before you walk into an audition, pitch meeting, or interview, let breath out of your mouth, in a whispered Ahhhh. Most people will say “Breathe!” This command usually evokes a desperate gasp for breath that only makes you more tense. Letting breath out on a whispered Ahhh slows your breath rate, which slows your heart rate, which calms your nervous system. Your body’s natural breathing coordination can kick in and do its job. You think more clearly. Your eyes are brighter. And you have great energy when you make an entrance.
3) Look into the horizon instead of down at the floor. Your eyes have a huge impact on your posture, your perception, and your confidence. Looking into a room makes you look taller and more open. You can literally see more of the world and more of the people you want to connect with. You will also feel powerful and confident because you are no longer “hiding” by looking down at the floor. Your spine is longer and your chest and shoulders are wider. Everyone can see you and you can own the room.
4) Stand on both legs at hips-width distance. What do your legs have to do with your confidence? Everything! Your legs are literally your foundation. If you are collapsed on one hip with most of your weight on one leg, you are not grounded and it is harder to breathe. Standing on both legs gives your body structural support; you can breathe easier and you are taller. When you are grounded, you can make quick decisions, respond creatively to networking opportunities, and take bold actions to market yourself.
5) Release UP to your full height. Most people relate confidence with great posture AND most people will try to stand up straight by lifting their chin, tightening their neck and back muscles, squeezing their shoulder blades together, holding their breath, and locking their knees. Try this. It does not feel confident, more like an uptight soldier. Your full height, your most powerful stature, your expansiveness happens when you let go in the muscles of your neck, shoulders, back, legs, and abdomen. You are taller and more open when you release muscular effort. You stand out in a crowd and easily attract the people and opportunities that will propel you to success.
The Alexander Technique: An Acting Approach
By Tom Vasiliades
"As long as you have this physical tenseness you cannot even think about delicate shadings of feeling or the spiritual life of your part. Consequently, before you attempt to create anything it is necessary for you to get your muscles in proper condition, so that they do not impede your actions." - Constantine Stanislavski, An Actor Prepares
Stanislavski understood that excessive and unnecessary tension interferes with creating the spiritual life of the character in performance. The Alexander Technique deals with this directly. It is a method that empowers the actor to become aware of the physical habits that impede performance and to transform those habits thus improving breathing coordination and vocal production, facilitating the creation of the physical life of characters with ease and allowing fuller emotional expression. The Technique is fundamental to the training of actors; it is an integral part of the curriculum at theater schools, universities, and conservatories in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Europe.
In my work with student and professional actors, I teach them how to better use themselves. By 'use' I mean the relationship of the coordination of the muscles, sensory appreciation (the kinesthetic sense) and thinking. If an actor is performing with rigidity then the actor is not using herself or himself well. Both the actor and audience will typically experience this as poor vocal production, lack of freedom in movement and tense expression of emotions.
The negative impact on performance is obvious. Moreover, actors often have an unreliable sensory appreciation of their performance. They may not be aware of excessive or unnecessary tensions, or they may sense it but not understand how to change what is going on. Through studying the Alexander Technique actors become aware of their habits of 'misuse'. Alexander work includes hands-on work as part of the process. The teacher - with gentle touch - listens (in kinesthetic terms) to what the actor is doing and offer suggestions and directions for the actor to create improved use. Actors and non-actors have the capacity to self-direct themselves and change habits of misuse to improve their performance. Through self- direction the actor creates new ways of performing so as to not impede actions. Among the benefits are a lengthening of the musculature, improved general use and functioning and the re-kindling of accurate sensory appreciation.
During the Broadway production of Private Lives, I worked intensively with the two stars, Alan Rickman and Lindsay Duncan. The play was a rigorous test for the actors, including strenuous fight scenes and the demands of being onstage for most of the production. Through our work together, Mr. Rickman and Ms. Duncan were enabled to have ease and lightness during the performance, despite the emotional intensity and physical demands of the roles. They created the 'spiritual life' of the part.
Of this experience Rickman wrote: "With the best intentions, the job of acting can become a display of accumulated bad habits, trapped instincts and blocked energies. Working with Tom and the Alexander Technique to untangle the wires has given me sightings of another way. Mind and body, work and life together. Real imaginative freedom."
There are many methods and approaches in the acting world. What is unique about the practice of the Alexander work is that it offers the actor the opportunity to assess what is happening during the performance and improve it. Understanding how you do what you are doing in an Alexander way is what Stanislavski spent his life's work exploring.
This article appeared in "Soul of the American Actor" Volume 7, No.3 - Fall 2004
Tom Vasiliades is the Head of Movement and the Chair of the Alexander Technique department at The New School for Drama (formerly the Actors Studio Drama School). He is also on the faculty at NYU Tisch School of the Arts and the Juilliard School.
He is the founder and director of the Alexander Technique Center for Performance and Development in New York City.
Telephone: (212) 564-5472, website: atcpd.com