INTRODUCTION TO ACTTRUE CLASS/WORKSHOP

ACTION IS TRUTH

ACT: Accomplish, achieve, attain, bring about, carry out.

TRUE: Authentic, actual, factual, faithful, precise, undistorted.

Acting is undeniable action and imaginative living that is so truthful, so passionate, so clear, that it engages the mind and spirit of the audience, till they breathe with your character.

The Object Exercises focus on the cause and effect of thought in every second of living. And each exercise addresses specific, real world challenges that every actor must face, and all relating to focus. Without that focus there can be no trust in the imaginary, and it's all imaginary. Focus is only possible through relaxation, which the Exercises nurture in the actor through Doing, through investigating behavior over and over, more deeply, with greater detail, each time the Exercises are presented. This creates a "history", experience that bridges the classroom to professional work environment.

Developed by Uta Hagen through the challenges of her own legendary Broadway career and her fifty years of teaching top New York actors at HB Studios and throughout the world, these are ten specific exercises which reveal the thought impulse of all action. Ten investigations of human behavior that support the actors imaginative belief in every second of life on camera and stage.

THE HAGEN OBJECT EXERCISES

1. Physical Destination: Tests the cause of action.

2. Fourth Side: Tests the ability to imaginatively maintain faith in the characters physical world.

3. Changes of Self: Explores the many aspects of our persona.

4. Moment to Moment: Tests the ability to repeat rehearsed actions as if for the first time.

5. Recreating Physical Sensations: Tests the ability to produce sensations according to the physical demands of the scripts' realities.

6. Bringing the Outdoors On Stage: Tests ability to recall and recreate physical adjustments to nature

7. Finding Occupation While Waiting: Tests the body's experience while pursuing a psychological goal

8. Talking to Oneself: Investigates the need/cause of speech when alone.

9. Talking to the Audience: Tests the creation of imagined relationship with the camera or audience.

10. Historical Imagination: The culmination and application of all previous exercises which test our ability to believe in the "other" worlds of the writer.

Paralleling the Hagen exercises, I also use the LINKLATER VOICE PROCESS, developed by renowned voice teacher, Kristin Linklater at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. This process is used by theatre companies and university theatre programs throughout the world. This physical investigation of sound on breath frees the natural voice of every human being.

Relaxation exercises allow contact with freely expressed impulses, impulses of imagery that spur the production of truthful sound. I utilize this highly respected process to address the issues of tension and inhibition of breath which inhibits creativity, caused by the pressures of the work environment. This process develops in the actor the ability to recognize and release tension which allows for spontaneous creative action in his work. This is a vital component of an actor's overall acting technique: the ability to relax into trust, and creativity. Only then can the highest aspects of their intelligence and personality color the character they are portraying and engage an audience on a deeper level.

My work in the professional acting markets focuses my attention on the demands placed on the Film/TV actor. I apply the Hagen and Linklater processes directly to the Camera. I have developed specific imagination exercises that draw on circumstances and material from union auditions. This again gives the actor "experience", a sense of "I've been Here" and thus, "I can do this". Confidence, belief in one's own uniqueness and power is not a gift, it is not an aspect of talent, and it's only acquired through "Doing".

THE HAGEN SIX STEPS OF CHARACTER INVESTIGATION

1. WHO AM I? What is my present state of being? How do I perceive myself? What am I wearing?

2. WHAT ARE THE CIRCUMSTANCES? What time is it? (The year, the season, the day? At what time does my selected life begin?) Where am I? (In what city, neighborhood, building, and Room do I find myself? Or in what landscape?) What surrounds me? (The immediate landscape? The Weather? The condition of the place and the nature of the objects in it?) What are the immediate circumstances? (What has just happened, is happening? What do I expect or plan to happen next and later on?

3. WHAT ARE MY RELATIONSHIPS? How do I stand in relationship to the circumstances, the place, the objects, and the other people related to my circumstances?

4. WHAT DO I WANT? What is my main objective? My immediate need or objective?

5. WHAT IS MY OBSTACLE? What is in the way of what I want? How do I overcome it?

6. WHAT DO I DO TO GET WHAT I WANT? How can I achieve my objective? What's my behavior? What are my actions?

Following is the Assignment for all Workshop students:

EXERCISE #1. Physical Destination: Tests the cause of Truthful Action. Each student will prepare Physical Destination in a 3 minute presentation of Investigated Thought/Behavior in a Task from their own life, NOT A CHARACTER.

A ritual behavior with a normal objective.

DON'T TRY AND IMPRESS US! Just investigate the thoughts of one moment to the next.

Task: Fold Laundry. That's right. Fold Laundry. The simple is the profound. I dare you to be truthful in the simple. Without the accumulation of simple truths in the work, how can you be truthful in the "big, dramatic" moments of the work? How? You can't. You will not have engaged the audience along the path of dramatic life, and they will not accept your "great conflict", your tears, your screams, your heroic fight at the end of the movie. The audience will not trust you. Truth in the Simple is the foundation of Truth in the Conflict.

Each student will rehearse at least 1 hour for a 3 minute presentation. Set aside a 1-hour period for rehearsal. Set your alarm clock for five minutes. Then fold. When the alarm rings, stop. And answer The Six Steps of Investigation. Answer each question. Then, set the alarm again and rehearse. Do this alternating Task Action and Task Investigation for 1 hour. Answer the Six Steps as each Investigation reveals new thoughts that fill you according to the Circumstances, i.e., Time, Place, Objects, Relationships, Objectives, Obstacles which lead you into the clarification of Action, and the Specificity of Behavior. Keep a journal of advancing understanding.

For the Presentation in Class: Bring the basic object requirements, i.e., your clothes, your clothesbasket or bag, your books, magazines, pictures, whatever are aspects of the work that you will clarify through The Six Steps. The Six Steps when answered truthfully will leave no stone unturned in terms of reality. They will establish the internal and external facts of your moment in Truthful Behavior.

This is professional investigation, not a parade or charade or a performance or show and tell or opportunity to "look at me".

Remember Stanislavski's premise: "Action WITH Thought is Behavior".

Watch the following sequences in these Films:

Grapes of Wrath: Opening of the movie - Where Henry Fonda meets the preacher on the road. Watch Fonda as he throws the bottle away and invites the preacher to walk with him to his parents' home.

Bridges of Madison County: Opening of the movie - From where Meryl Streep fixes breakfast for her family to the moment she finally sits down at the table.

The Hunchback of Notre Dame: Where Charles Laughton, who is on the flogging wheel, is given water by Maureen O'Hara. Watch Laughton as he decides whether to take a drink of water.

Castaway: Watch Tom Hanks create his truthful human behavior in imaginary circumstances on the island.

Read A CHALLENGE FOR THE ACTOR by Uta Hagen.

Truthful behavior in Acting is timeless and is not a creation of any one period in Performance. So, for Class, bring: The objects specific to the First Exercise presentation.

For warm-up, wear comfortable clothes, i.e., sweat clothes that you can wear during our Linklater vocal warm-ups.

Any questions, email: info@acttrue.com