Set Us Free

I love this song, it’s a great get up and dance number and it reminds me of taking the U-Bahn to my classes in Berlin when it was first released.

I’ve been taking an Acting class through Zoom since last August and I’ve come to realize this one acting hack: rehearsal makes all the difference in performance.

What most don’t know about being in front of the camera is that acting involves a lot of repetition. In class, we practice cold readings and get coached by the Instructor who is gentle, honest, and has loads of experience. Cold reading means we have only a few minutes to look at the sides (script) and figure out who the character is and what they want. I see what I can identify with, and what part of their personality resonates with mine, and if there is none, I think of who I know that mimics their traits.

It’s been good preparation for auditions where you often read with a stranger or the Casting Director who often wants to get it over with, so it’s up to the actor to stay in character emote the feeling, and remain natural.

Before I took this class I didn’t think of the backstory, nor could I find the scene objective. There was so much that I didn’t understand and I desperately wanted to make sense of it all. Actors universally have this desire to master the process and “get things right”. We want to be able to dice up any scene or monologue, put it through a clever little system, and out pops a perfect performance at the end. The issue is, even if you find the scene objective, a detailed backstory, and learn every possible thing about your character if you have found it through stress, you will perform it with stress.

My work ethic was admirable, but my intention was not. All I cared about was getting it right! But a desire to get something right is simply a desire to be in control. And words like control, accurate, and safe are not what audiences look for in great performances. What gets us salivating is danger! It’s actors who live truthfully in the moment, and constantly surprise us, that we fall in love with. We want performances that are built on impulse and spontaneity. It’s the goal of actors to “put a mirror up to nature” and genuinely show us something truthful, honest, and compelling about ourselves.

If you force a scene through the same old process it becomes an intellectual pursuit. We all understand the notion of being “in our head” or disconnected. If you keep telling yourself to get something right over and over, how do you expect to have a free and open mindset in performance? We censor ourselves while performing because we don’t want to get it wrong. But the only way to be great is to give up the agenda of being great and remain natural.

Actors spend more time prepping and rehearsing than actually performing so it’s crucial to enjoy the process and ultimately that is what makes it fun.

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