Mel Churcher's Blog, page 2
October 21, 2015
Concealing and Revealing
(This was first published in ‘The Great Acting Blog 2011 but links were invalid..so updated.)
Actors are often obsessed with sub-text and when they find it, they want to share it. But
what is sub-text? Literally it is what lies beneath the words. But we deal in sub-text all
the time, even when we are not telling lies or trying to hide. Every association, clutch at
the heart, memory or link we make as we talk, look around or communicate is a form of
sub-text. If I say, ‘I’ve got to go and pick up Johnnie from school’, there is a whole world
within that line – a life with and caring for Johnnie, pictures of the journey, a happy
excuse to go or a duty to be done and so on.
If I look around my room or out of my window, everything I see evokes associations,
feelings, memories and needs.
In life, these connections are already there but for a role, you have to build them. You can
use improvisations, research, psychological gesture, substitutions, sense memories and
especially any physical imaginative or practical work that stores muscle memory. Always
act out stories that you have to tell at home so that when you tell them on set, your body
has real memories of what happened.
(You will find many ways to rehearse alone in ‘A Screen Acting Workshop + DVD’
published this year by Nick Hern or my earlier book, ‘Acting for Film: Truth 24 Times a
Second’ published by Virgin Books and also available on Kindle.)
But once these connections and deep feelings and thoughts are stored, they must be
trusted and relied upon without you feeling any need to parade them. You must not show
us your preparation or how hard you’ve worked. Just like life, we will see it when we’re
meant to or it will seep out in spite of yourself. Just like life, you may have to work hard
not to show it if you wouldn’t want others to see it. The difficult words may be simply
statements thrown away or they may be pulled out like thorns to extricate you from the
situation. It all depends on what you, in the role, want to do – to conceal or to reveal and
whether that is easy or hard. You may even smile or laugh when you talk about the most
painful things.
Watch any documentaries or newsreels when people talk about terrible things that have
happened to them. They don’t lose their warmth, personality or even humour. They don’t
stand back and comment on how the story should make you, the listener, feel. They are
factual, practical, often laid-back and sometimes surprisingly funny. Their action is to
share the pictures in their head with you, not to ‘feel’ it again. In fact, this is often the last
thing they want to do.
‘Sub-text’, when used in acting training, is usually focused upon the want or need that
lies beneath the surface of the actual words or action. The first thing to ask yourself is, do
you want the listener to understand this need?
1. ‘Would you like a drink sometime?’ (I fancy you like mad but you mustn’t know
that – I’ll play it cool.)
2. ‘Would you like a drink sometime?’ (I need you to know that I’m here for you
whenever you want me.)
The speaker in example 1. will not give an inkling of the desires running underneath.
He or she does not want the listener to read the subtext.
The speaker in example 2 will be trying to make contact and to see something back
from the other person that shows the proposition has been understood. The speaker
wants the listener to understand the subtext.
But we don’t even think about this in life as sub-text. We just know what the stakes are
and whether we have to conceal or reveal our thoughts. And if we are alone, we just
think. There is no-one to share it with, but we are not concealing anything either. In film,
if you are alone, this is the same. You are not having to conceal anything from anyone
else but there is no-one to explain those feelings to, either.
We are not trying to ‘show’ our thoughts – we are just having them. And reacting to them
ourselves, if we need to.
If there the other people in the room who mustn’t understand those thoughts we will not
give them away. If Kevin Spacey, in ‘The Usual Suspects’ gives the game away and we
know his story is fiction, there is no film…
http://youtu.be/4OAFtr-ciQE
Of course, if we want the other person to guess our thoughts then we can share them, as
Lauren Bacall does in this famous clip from ‘To Have and Have Not’:
http://youtu.be/30DSfAA0brs
Sometimes our eyes can show what we feel but our voices mustn’t give us away.
Consider this superb moment from Colin Firth in ‘A Single Man’(He cleverly takes off
his glasses. A natural move but it allows us to see his eyes. )There is no-one else in the
room so he doesn’t need to hide his emotion in his face but his voice cannot give him
away. This is also superb moment-to -moment work. Real listening. He is always just
dealing and computing each second as it comes. How spare the script is.
http://youtu.be/AGLrSZuMnqw
A clever director/writer will allow the actor a private, unobserved moment when the
thoughts don’t need to be hidden and we , the viewer can see what the other roles must
not. But there are other ways for us to observe subtext without the actor ‘showing’ us. In
this famous clip from ‘On The Waterfront’
Marlon Brando cannot show Eve Marie Saint’s character how much he cares for her, but
when he puts on her glove, we, the audience, understand the subtext through this
(seemingly) unconscious move…
http://youtu.be/dHtJUWO7yeA
It is a useful thing to give characters activities they would do in the course of the scene,
The juxtaposition of the mundane and the extraordinary makes compelling viewing.
This is an extreme example of secondary activity explaining the actors’ feelings. Albert
Finney and Joyce Redman share a meal! Pretty explicit subtext.,,
http://fw.to/ezoKq0O
We think of James Dean playing haunted characters. But in this clip from ‘East of Eden’,
the shadows have not yet descended and he and Julie Harris explore their attraction for
each other. They are both superb actors and here Dean allows his warmth and charm to
shine through and we see clearly how he feels about his brother’s girl.
http://youtu.be/du9jH9jPTMs
Jeanne Moreau in the classic ‘Jules et Jim’ sings a song with a deceptively upbeat tune.
See the deeper meaning in her eyes and the way she looks differently at the two men.
http://youtu.be/oUDqB8wJu4E
Here in the Pinter screenplay, The Servant, there are dark undercurrents in this
beautifully played scene between Dirk Bogarde and James Fox (Doesn’t Laurence look
like him…). Notice how they hardly look at each other. Even at the height of the quarrel,
there is no sign of the screwed up faces or histrionics you see all the time on daytime
television…(although the music is heavy on subtext!)
http://youtu.be/cyYgGHsrh9I
In Mrs Brown, Judi Dench never indulges her pain. It is always about interaction with the
other people. Her loneliness, confusion and sorrow leaks out of her, but her energy is
always away from her, looking, listening, watching – never towards herself or trying to
get a ‘feedback’. She is always communicating.
http://youtu.be/GELcstDOj_0
Subtext doesn’t always have to be serious. ‘The African Queen’, Humphrey Bogart and
Katherine Hepburn embrace in delight at getting their boat through – and then find their
feelings for each other need hiding – for the moment..
http://youtu.be/V0eqINn0e4U
Clips from older films are easier to find on youtube and earlier Hollywood actors were
superb at sitting back, letting their words fall out and allowing the subtext simply to
happen. But I would have liked to have shared more wonderful examples from recent
television dramas, like the Swedish ‘Wallander’, ‘The Killing’, ‘The Sinking of the
Laconia’ or ‘An Appropriate Adult’.
The moral of all this is: do your homework, but then trust it – sit back, relax, think, let
pictures pop into your head and simply interact. Watch, listen, pursue what you want. It
is YOU speaking, they are YOUR needs – it’s easy, like life. Don’t add anything. Don’t
know what will happen next. Don’t try to make it interesting. Don’t show us…
September 20, 2015
London Screenwriters’ Festival 2015- http://www.londonscreenwritersfestiva...
http://tinyurl.com/pd3uak4
@MelChurcher
http://www.melchurcher.com http://www.actingcoach.london
blog: http://www.truth24timesasecond.com
July 31, 2015
Directors:How do You Solve a Problem without Knowing what the Problem is?
When you first start screen directing, you know there’s a problem but you can’t put your finger on what it is – so you can’t solve it.
Here’s a little check-list to help you identify what the problem might be…
Symptom: The actor is rushing/leaning forward/looks uneasy.
The actor probably IS uneasy. Trying to deal with the lines & the nerves is making the actor come forward to feel safe, rush the lines to get through it, tense shoulder and neck, stop breathing.
Rescue remedy: Relax the actor.
Ask them to sit back, look around the imaginary environment. Remind them what they want. Get them to shut their eyes and put a picture in of something to drive the scene – e.g where they’ve come from, who they are talking about, the prize they want etc. Or tell them to see something in the room relevant to their needs or relationship.
If very tense or emotional scene, get them to sit back, shut their eyes, put hand on belly and ‘breathe into hand.’
Watch for tense shoulders, high tense breath or collapsing forward while they work. If they do any of these things, they won’t have free ‘channel’ to emotions and will feel nervous.
Tell them to look around the imaginary environment,go again in their own time,and to take all the time they need.
Symptom: The actor is pushing, showing lots of facial movement, working too hard, looking down a lot.
The actor is probably trying hard to perform TO- has an imaginary audience/make it interesting/please you/nervous. Looking down is hiding from camera.
Rescue remedy: Remove the audience and the responsibility/Relax
Remind them the camera is a super powerful observer of the soul and there is no audience. Put in something they can rely on, some muscle memory. Do a quick impro of a key moment in their past relating to this scene. Or get them to impro the moment just before they entered the scene. Or do a physical metaphor. Remind them what they want. Get pictures in their heads by asking specific questions: e.g. Where did you meet? What is your (the role’s) daughter’s name? what colour is her hair? which cafe? which mountain? Choose a place/person you know. (If this is emotionally difficult – like dead mother etc, – choose an actor or someone else you know to visualise) If other roles share same place or person, choose someone/somewhere everyone knows – it really makes a difference!
Are they aware of environment – are there other people who may be here (office/cafe/ etc.) Have they been here before? Is it their partner they are talking to? Like life, we use shorthand with people we know – shared references. How much would actor need to look at them in life? We also look away from the other person as we get a new thought or picture in our heads,
There are no lines – only thoughts which sometimes provoke speech.
If they are in second language get them to improvise/paraphrase scene in first language. This is usually more organic and connected up. (Second language can be head-bound – self censored) Then go back to second language.
If they want something – ask them to keep checking on the other’s reaction. Are you getting what you (the role) want? (This gets energy outwards and away from self-absorption or nerves.) Also guide them against too much looking down or blinking – this usually means shyness or not connected to text.
Symptom: Underenergised/dull/quiet/self-indulgent.
The actor hasn’t made it important enough to themselves, still remembering lines, trying to play a ‘character’, not communicating with the other person/people/situation in scene.
Rescue remedy: find a way to identify with role/up the stakes.
Start by moving the actor from saying ‘him’ or ‘her’ to ‘I’. Help them to find the reality of the situation and the specifics of the life they lead – not a generalised emotional colour. Remind them – it is YOU-AS IF…Try improvisations, physical or mental metaphors/images. Check the relationship is important enough – e.g. If the scene is breaking up do the impro of falling in love, (remember these actors have had no rehearsal and probably never met before) get the actors to hold each other and say why the fell in love – what they love about each other. Then – if they are now no longer in love – what they don’t like. Then get them to pull apart and start the scene again. (If this is too confrontational, they can stand back to back feeling the warmth). If they are too quiet – get them to speak as themselves about anything – e.g. where they are going later – then when voice is full, move back to text.
Make sure the temperature is up on the inside – even if they wouldn’t show the other role. Inside they are angry because…this is the sixth time it has happened etc. desperate for job because…about to lose home etc. Dream of this person every night. Other role reminds them of dead brother. And so on.
Actors often engage with themselves when on text rather than with the other person. Get them to press against a wall – feel strength in abdomen & take energy into scene (or hang them over, do press-ups, breathing exercise, run round room etc.)
They don’t look like they belong there…
Symptom: Somehow you can’t visualise them in this place/situation/state of mind. The actor looks like he is in a different film. She looks like she doesn’t belong. You don’t believe the reactions.
Rescue Remedy: check the logic of the situation, does everything match?
Simple things first – are they outdoors in winter without a coat? Coming home without a handbag or purse? Wearing trainers in court? Climbing a mountain too easily?
If in close-up – does their body match their energy/needs? Some actors work from head only instead of engaging whole body – even if it’s out of shot.
If they are a barman, can they mix a good martini? If a plasterer – can they do it? Our work lives shape who we are and what senses we use.
Does the voice match? Technical speech can sound like nonsense unless actor is specific about what it means & says it over & over again until second nature. Names of loved ones often sound odd – get used to saying them, Voice might not be centred (breathing again) or accent wrong, or too careful.
Remind them about the specifics of role and situation. Check their needs and how much they would show others in this situation.
If this is an alien world or a strange situation, different time or culture – understand the logics of that world – even if not the same as ours or the one actor is used to. Iron out inconsistencies – so actor can believe in new environment.
Symptom: Over emotional/stays on one emotional note/no sparkle
Actor is playing a mood, character, has made decisions on ‘how’.
Rescue remedy: Find the life they lead, bring back unique life.
Instead of letting actor (or you) describe role as ‘shy’, ‘sad’, ‘weird’ etc. paint them a picture of the life they lead…’Shy': ‘You go to parties but don’t leave the drinks table. You like the comfort of the wall behind your back and a glass in your hand. You prefer to observe and hope no one notices you…’ ‘Sad': ‘You can’t sleep since your wife died. You get up at two in the morning and take the dog for a walk in the park, looking up at the few lit windows and wondering what the people inside are doing…’ ‘Weird’ ‘You don’t understand other people. You find you see things differently People often tell you things are ugly that you find beautiful. You can’t breathe in the house so you sleep in a tent in the garden…’and so on…
Say – ‘Don’t view the role from outside. Jump in the magic circle – it is YOU as the role – dealing with these circumstances – this situation. YOU with all your life/humour/wisdom who happens to have led this life and now are dealing with the present – moment to moment.’
Help them turn off the ‘director’ in their heads – take some lines for ‘circling’ (repetition) to change patterns, impro at top of scene, feel safe to be brave.
What senses do you use to deal with?
Have you a hidden animal inside?
Breathe, look, listen, anything could happen…
Tell them they’re doing a great job!
Voice for Teachers – Mel Churcher
(This article was first published in The Times Educational Supplement August 2014)
Voice is the most precious and effective means of communication. Yet teachers often work in terrible acoustics. Modern rooms deaden sound, old halls reverberate and echo. Worst of all, you may need to be heard in a playground with no resonance at all. Your voice is your most valuable teaching tool. Here are some tips for using it without losing it.
1: Recognise Relaxed Breathing:
Sit back in your chair and close your eyes. Rest your hand lightly on your stomach. Don’t think about your breathing. Listen to the sounds around you, let your thoughts drift. Soon, you’ll feel the familiar rise and fall of your diaphragmatic-abdominal muscles under your hand. Let your breath out slowly on ‘shhhh…’ and feel your stomach going in. At the end of the breath, those muscles release and your lungs refill. Your stomach expands outwards as the breath comes in, and contracts inwards as you breath out: OUT on the IN breath; IN on the OUT breath. Relaxed breathing – we do it all day long.
2: Don’t go into ‘Flight and Fight:
Avoid taking a high preparation breath in before you speak. Trust you’ll have enough breath, and go. When you’re stressed or nervous, your body feels the adrenaline, and tries to protect you by tightening your stomach and drawing in a high breath. Your breathing goes into reverse: stomach IN on the IN breath and OUT on the OUT breath. But we’re only designed to do that for a brief moment while we fight the lion or run away. You are ‘fighting lions’ all day long and If you stay in this mode, you’ll get dizzy, nervous and out of control. Stay on relaxed breathing.
3: Sit or Stand Tall:
Your larynx is suspended by ligaments and muscles like a trampoline. If you scrunch it up, it affects your voice. Stand straight and breathe normally. Now lift your shoulders and you’ll find it harder to breathe. If you stick your chin forward – as we often do when we try to reach people – you’ll find it hard to breathe at all. Become aware of your posture. If you reach forwards, or slump in your chair, it will constrict your voice. If you read to children on the floor below you, sit them a little further away and hold the book high, so as not to tuck your chin in.
4: Project without Strain:
Let those abdominal muscles do the work. Stand tall and feel your stomach going inwards as you speak. Allow it to release as the air comes back in. Keep your neck free. A breathy voice can cause voice strain. This simple exercise helps to find a stronger tone: waggle your finger as if telling someone off and go ‘uh-uh’ at the same time. Do this three times, then count to five using the same strong tone. Hang your head forward, letting your neck go completely. Gently move your head in a half circle (not to the back) while you speak loudly. Balance your head back up to its normal position without changing your voice. You’ll hear a strong, centred tone.
5: Let your Voice Drive your Intentions:
Your abdominal-diaphragmatic centre is not only effective at powering your voice, but it’s also where you feel – passion, anger, pain. Before you go into the fray, find a quiet spot, shut your eyes and put your hand on your stomach. Breathe into your hand. Focus on the message you want to give. What do you want your listeners to understand and feel? What do you want from them? Linking body and mind will ensure your voice carries your thoughts and feelings.
6: Vary your Tone:
We remember beginnings and endings. Find a new energy, rhythm or pitch to start each new thought or section. Don’t be afraid to stop and breathe between thoughts. This means you will get people’s attention again and again.
7: Match Body and Voice:
Turn your hands palm upwards, weight on one leg, head on one side. This is the body stance we instinctively use to show warmth and sensitivity. Your voice will reflect this. Take a strong stance (don’t lock your knees), turn your hands palms down. You’ll notice a firmer voice. Use strong endings and consonants to exercise authority.
8: Know your Acoustics
Check out your space. Hold the sides of your hands against your head, like wings, in front of your ears. Speak loudly and you’ll hear your voice bouncing off the surfaces around you. You can judge whether your space is resonant or dry. Resonance carries the sound but muddles the diction, so take your time with strong enunciation. Dry spaces need diction too, especially consonants – and be careful not to strain since there is very little feedback to your own ears.
9: Be Heard Differently:
Instead of increasing volume – hum or call on a different pitch to get attention. Clap your hands. Use a whistle in large spaces to protect your voice. Different pitches or rhythms are heard better above the din than a loud voice.
10: Take Care of Your Voice:
Warm up before class: breathe out several times on a long ‘shhh’ feeling your stomach going inwards – at the end of each breath release your abdomen to refill. Clasp your hands in front of you and shake out a natural rich sound on ‘Ahh’. At the end of a long day, hum gently up and down a scale a few times to stretch out your vocal folds. Breathe in steam to soothe a sore throat. If your voice is tired, rest it completely or use full voice. Don’t whisper as this increases strain.
Finally –
Get your class enjoying their voices too. Create group soundscapes: storms, parties, a summer’s day, vampires – the possibilities are endless. Tell stories or act scenes with sounds first, then words. Act out poems. Explore pitches, rhythms and voice qualities and share the joy of using voice to communicate.
July 22, 2015
June 9, 2015
Projected Voice? ‘We’re not yet dead, not yet dead…’
Someone recently contacted me to see how I feel about microphones being used in theatre. Was projection dead? If so – why? Is it because we are more used to recorded voices? And what should we do? His students found conversational plays the hardest in which to reach an audience past the fifth row.
I believe conversational work is harder for students in some ways because it comes closer to oneself and ‘acting’ seems false – (which, technically, it is). Thus we are asking a lot for beginners to jump into the magic circle of belief to ‘be’ the role in the moment and yet still harness the work to the techniques of voice projection. After all – it is a pretty unnatural game. Not only are we asking ourselves to have a real impulse or need to speak, but also the only words that can come out of our mouths to fulfil that need just happen to be the scribbles on the page that we’ve learnt. It’s a big ask and a lifetime’s journey.
Theatre projection is a kind of internal con-trick – we have to increase volume/resonance/articulation/time taken but not raise pitch (as we would naturally to cross a space) or change range of tone (i.e. if you speak publicly you will find yourself using a greater ‘band-width’ than in intimate conversation). We have to ‘con’ the audience into believing that we are having an intimate conversation with someone two feet away from us that they, in the tenth row, are just – magically – able to hear. If we are dealing with musicals or plays/stand up where we speak directly to the audience, or pantomime, or wild declamation – or if we are allowed to blatantly ‘act/perform’ – it doesn’t feel so bad.
Yet we make damn sure we can be heard in life – over a dinner table – in a crowded restaurant – in a noisy car – across a large space – because it is IMPORTANT to us to be heard. As actors, we have to find that importance/ammunition/needs. Then we will be heard.
The lack of real connection to the words they speak is a high hurdle for actors. I mainly teach for screen these days and the same thing happens – on camera, actors are apt to drop way below the natural conversational level. They will talk to their partner – several feet away by the camera – perfectly normally and audibly, but as soon as they are on learnt text the volume drops so that – in life – they would not be heard easily. They are now conversing in an inner bubble – talking to themselves, looking for internal feedback, and remembering lines. The only way to combat this is for the need to speak/ to change the other/ to get them to share the pictures in our head/ to get what we want – to be clear and strong. We need to put in the ammunition to make this happen. I like muscle memory – impros of things mentioned/past lives/relationships – images – hidden animals – physical metaphors (I hate too much head work/’actioning’) But of course you need to understand the situation entirely and have clear needs. WHY you say – not HOW. The way you get what you want should happen in the moment of getting what you want – like life.
The vocal/abdominal/diaphragmatic ‘support’ that trained stage actors instinctively use makes them feel more real – because we are supported this way in life. When we are relaxed, our voices are ‘supported’ and drive from our ‘centres’ where we also experience feelings. On camera, actors often work without this grounding, feel false – and then push and manufacture. They start to ‘act/perform’.
In life when we are relaxed – we are centred – we use relaxed breathing and breathe/project/feel from the abdominal-diaphragmatic centre. As soon as nerves kick in or we are not behind the words, we come off this area. Then we are in a vicious circle – we don’t sound real to ourselves – and we can’t be heard because there is no support. (So we push & produce unreal work or continue in small vein & can’t be heard.)
I was resident voice/text coach at the Open Air Theatre, Regent’s Park for 12 years. That’s a pretty challenging space. I developed some quick fixes for projection: Put some friends/fellow actors out at the furthest part of the auditorium. Talk to each other – allowing for more bodies absorbing sound when there’s an audience – this will give you an idea of volume you need. In an open air space with little resonance, you won’t get much vocal feedback, so you need this trust. Start by having a strong grounded posture (don’t lock knees) – then do lighthearted pretend opera singing – then go back to speaking, keeping the energy. Put your hand on your belly & feel it go backwards as you speak, then release those muscles for the air to leap back in with a new thought (no upper chest work:) Lie on the floor with your head/neck completely relaxed & allowing only the abdominal/diaphragmatic area to work, ditto against a wall. My favourite – and usually instant help – (if back is strong) – is to hang over, knees bent, head completely free – speak naturally and loudly – come up slowly through back not letting voice change, balance your head back in it’s normal place (golden thread taking crown of your head to the stars, neck lengthening out of your back) & continue speaking feeling connected, free voice. (There is a point, about 2/3rds way up where you have to consciously go on working from your centre). Or try rolling over & over speaking loudly – or simply shake out/jog/run with voice work. Allow your eye level to be high enough for the audience to feel you are in contact with them (if they can’t see you, they can’t hear you.) Also make sure your false vocal folds are open – no creaking. (Hands over ears – mouth open – breathe in & out to hear the breath – then make it silent.) Also you need mouth space. Also courage!
(You can read about my voice work at Regent’s park Open Air Theatre at http://www.academia.edu/210031/Shakespeare_in_the_open_Air)
Not all actors go to drama school and cut backs mean voice work isn’t always as thorough as it was. Many actors start in TV – go to stage – and haven’t had the training, so they feel insecure. Old fashioned methods (I don’t teach them either) like rib-reserve breathing – extensive use of bone-props over lengthy periods of time – were swept away by the movement towards ‘natural’ breathing in the seventies. There was truth in this as we no longer wear corsets to impede natural breathing, and some of these methods definitely added vocal strain – but maybe to some extent we swept baby away with bath-water…Anyone over 60 (myself included) would have trained in this way – and that generation do have strong voices. (And theatre is not ‘natural’ – even ancient theatre looked for amplification) However, before my colleagues rightly jump on me – I think it is perfectly attainable to produce a free projected voice in a more organic, holistic manner than was usual earlier in the century – and I certainly work/teach in this modern way.
Now we come to what my colleague was really asking. Yes – undoubtedly modern audiences are more used to hearing recorded voices. Yes – undoubtedly – so are our students. Being older, I too baulk at the idea of using microphones in live theatre. I worked for the RSC and many other theatre companies as voice coach as well as my long stint with The Open Air Theatre Regent’s Park. No – we didn’t mic the actors there unless they had voice damage, and then only in extremis. There were a few mics front of stage turned on for very windy days to help the back rows. I believe this may have changed…
Even opera houses now do subtle ‘enhancement’. And maybe we have to ask ourselves – why not? Life changes…Shakespeare didn’t have access to electric stage lighting. So should we perform the plays with full modern effects? Why not? Shakespeare would have loved it – every last act is full of candles, fireworks etc. Are we letting the same reservations stop us micing actors in large theatres?
And voices still need to be supported even if mics. are used for all the reasons above. And – yes – ideally I would like my actors never to need to use a mic.
But in the end – if we can’t hear – we can’t enjoy. And we are used to hearing loudly.
So much of this projection question is the product of changing times, changing experiences and opportunities. Our great Sirs & Dames grew up in a time of much rep theatre and large acting spaces; a time when going to the theatre in your town was relatively normal – at least for the middle classes. And everyone went to seaside shows, Punch & Judy, pantomime, music hall…Now actors when they leave drama school have only small fringe spaces & a rare schools tour…And theatre still fights to get audiences. And going to the theatre is an expensive pastime.
But rest assured – all is not lost – my main theatre-going space is Cambridge Arts Theatre I see marvellous tours (recently the wonderful RSC tour of ‘A Mad World My Masters) and I never have any trouble hearing.
Theatre voice without the need for mics is not dead – or as Monty P would have it – ‘we’re not yet dead, not yet dead…’
May 26, 2015
SKYPE COACHING
Mel offers Skype coaching if it is not possible to meet face to face.
It has taken me a long time to feel that this is a viable option, but with advances in technology and reports back from actors that it has been worthwhile and valuable to them, I have decided to add this type of coaching to my one-to-one options. It means that now I can help actors in other countries or within a shorter time frame.
Currently, slots are available on Thursday late afternoons and Friday mornings UK time, but in a real emergency I’ll see what I can do:)
Skype can be used for help with preparing a difficult role, working on a scene, using British English or as an assessment tool to help with audition problems.
It is best when used for a specific project rather than as a general teaching tool.
I’m happy to work with people at any level – as I do on films – but Skype doesn’t work well to try to teach acting in a general way.
For experienced professionals it is a way to summon help in a crisis, or get another view on a difficult problem, or for a role that has particular challenges. I can also be an experienced shoulder to lean on.
For students of acting it can be used to prepare an audition or hone sight reading or audition technique.
I have the ability to record and playback short scenes if required, I am 100% trustworthy if you wish to send a scene – and I never add the names of private students (as opposed to those I coach on films) to my list – unless by consent.
It’s not the perfect way to work – I’d rather be with you in person, or on the set, or in the rehearsal room or see you at a workshop – but it can still be a valuable resource.
Prices 2015: £75/$120/107 euros for 75 mins. £65 for drama school auditions (come prepared with several choice of scenes)
£20 extra to read full script. (scenes are fine to read beforehand within price & I’ll also supply hand-outs where appropriate)
Payment by Paypal ahead of session but refunded if poor connection. Cancellation 3 hrs – then rebooking. email: melchurcher@hotmail.com
May 9, 2015
May 6, 2015
Learning how to fly…
When you are fighting to get auditions, change your agent, fix your showreel, cope with earning enough money in a job that lets you off for castings – it’s easy for the joy to go out of the work. ‘The world is too much with us…’ as Wordsworth put it.
But there is a joy! Remember those wonderful moment on stage when you felt you were ‘flying’? That incredible impro in rehearsal when you temporarily entered a parallel universe? How amazing you felt on location playing that role as an equal with the actor you used to hero-worship?
Do you remember playing those games, exploring in anarchic masks, crying with laughter while trying to finish the scene? The tech that went on all night so you walked home to your digs in the dawn? The sell-out first night and the unexpected roar of the applause? The smell of stale clothes, make-up and hairspray in the dressing room where those lipstick messages on the mirror wished you well? The end of shoot party when you fell into the warm pool under a Spanish moon?
Why did you want to do it in the first place? Because you loved entering that imaginary world? Because you loved language? Because you made people laugh? Because you found an escape from the roughness of life in the warmth of the drama club? Because you felt a strange power – an exhilarating freedom – a terrible pleasure in the terror? Because it felt like a wild lottery? a prize to be won? an addiction to a vibrant life inside that overwhelmed you sometimes?
Because you could stop time.
You are a five year old for ever, an adrenaline junkie, a seeker of truth.
It’s a wild and glorious game you want to play. Sometimes no-one will let you. It can be painful, unbelievably hard, send you crying to sleep. but you are alive in a rare way. The joy is still there buried under the day to day hassles of trying to make a living, to push through the barriers. But you are rare to ever feel it – even rarer to get paid to feel it.
Shut your eyes – put your hand on your belly. Do you still feel joy? Do you still want to be an actor?
You’re a lost cause. You’re hooked. Go on going on. But don’t forget to laugh, play, feel the thrill. It’s still there.
And there is a world outside too – a Spring springing, a swallow flying. There are people to love and be loved. Real people. Food, wine, friends.
When the world is too much with you – take a break – breathe – walk in the fresh air away from sets, theatres, casting suites. Then when you feel ready – shut your eyes and remember how to play. And enter the wonderful never-ending, never-to-be solved game again.
February 14, 2015
Digging for Subtext is like Turning the Topsoil…(it’s not enough…)
‘Subtext:
Any meaning or set of meanings which is implied rather than explicitly stated in a literary work…’ (Oxford Reference)
I did a blog a while back called Concealing and Revealing about what lies beneath words (what doesn’t! We’d all get arrested or ostracised from society if we couldn’t hide our thoughts…) and I’ve always paid lip-service to ‘subtext’ in my own books and teaching. I have triumphantly uncovered at least 3 varieties:
1. You want the other person not to read your subtext…(e.g. lying)
2. You want the person to read it…(e.g. irony)
3. A hidden agenda you don’t admit to yourself…(e.g. I want to impress)
Suddenly yesterday I had an epiphany – subtext is waffle, subtext in a practical context is an extra confusion, subtext is jargon, subtext is only suitable for literary criticism. The idea is not useful for actors or directors – maybe not for writers…
Subtext is simply the end result of driving the action under given circumstances. It is what happens when you deal with the situation to get what you want and can’t speak about it directly. It is the outcome of what is happening to the role as they speak or act – whether they are censoring their thoughts for fear of causing pain to themselves or someone else, or simply that they are not prepared to tell the truth. (Truth is not easy – life without subtext would be nigh on impossible.) Nobody in life thinks about using subtext. If you are a thief you want not to get caught – so you lie. If you love someone but don’t want them to know it – you hide it. If you lust after someone, you show that feeling subtly or overtly depending on the circumstances and who you are.
I’m not suggesting that words have only surface meaning. Quite the contrary. Of course you need to dig beneath the role to speak them. But you need to go much deeper than to scrape away at the text to uncover a hidden meaning. In fact you won’t discover the whole subtext unless you are exploring – in depth – what the speaker wants, is doing, is trying to avoid or explore. You need to go to the bedrock of the human being and find what drives them – what they need – who they are – in the deepest sense possible. Then the words will be the audible part of their thoughts and life. And subtext will take care of itself.
I started thinking about all this because the other day I heard that an actor was advised to ‘play the subtext’. Now what does that mean? If the role doesn’t want the subtext known, you need to bury the truth not play it. Otherwise you are ‘showing’ the audience and if you are on camera we will see the falseness instantly. If you want a lesson in how to bury the truth – look at Kevin Spacey in The Usual Suspects.
Maybe the director or teacher meant: there is more to this role than I’m seeing – the feelings are deeper – more complex – there is more going on. In other words: up the ammunition, make the needs stronger, increase the jeopardy. Believe it.
‘Subtext’ has become a fashionable word. It hit its heights in the mid 20th century when playwrights, delighted by the ‘new’ discovery that people don’t always mean what they say, revelled in helping the actor to find what they meant underneath the words by adding ‘Pause’ or ‘Silence‘ to flag it up. And wonderful plays they wrote – although what seemed naturalistic then can appear pretty stylised now…
Shakespeare (supposedly) has little subtext – but all humans have hidden depths. He has people lying and short lines that leave a space for thought. But if you follow the life and needs of his characters in depth – I don’t think you’ll have to analyse your part for ‘subtext’ to know what those thoughts are.
Restoration dramas simply delighted in speaking the subtext aloud to the audience as asides – and what fun they were.
Peter Nichols brought subtext to life in Passion Play – literally – by having the roles doubled up; one speaking the surface words – one uncovering the subtext. (Does the alter ego have subtext too I wonder…?)
And it’s all good stuff. But there are deeper drives in these works that may escape in the exercise to find what superficial meaning lies under the words. Instead, explore what deeper impulses give rise to them – revealing or covering our desires. In other words – find out what you (in the role) need, and what you (in the role) need others to think – and subtext happens of its own accord. It’s simple.
With the usual serendipity that happens when you are exploring an idea – my husband read me this quote today from David Shield’s Reality Hunger:
‘Chekhov removed the plot. Pinter, elaborating, removed the history, the narration; Beckett, the characterisation. We hear it anyway. Omission is a form of creation.’
But the actor, director and surely the writer (though Pinter would never admit it) have to be aware of the whole: the past, the person, the story – in order to remove it but retain its resonance within the work.
Later today, in The Observer, I happened upon an article where Simon Russell Beale discussed taking liberties with Shakespeare:
‘The idea is that (the text) in itself expresses the characters’ tormented thought process. If all you get out of it is ‘tormented thought process’, but not the thought itself, then, frankly, I prefer the thought.’
Yes indeed – so would I. Now you could argue that finding the thought is discovering the ‘subtext’. That I’m playing with semantics. And I wouldn’t argue. But text analysis per se or ‘subtext’ bandied about in a lit. crit. context is apt to see the discovery of these undercurrents as a superficial end in itself. It is ‘subtext’ as an easy analytical concept I’m arguing against, rather than the idea that words contain subtext. It can be a lazy way to approach a work. Its pursuit can diminish the text rather than give it life. It is akin to scouring Shakespeare for the puns without enjoying or being aware of the context in which they are used – sometimes as weapons and always with hidden messages. We could simply substitute ‘thoughts’ for ‘subtext’ in our teaching and directing. Actors, directors and writers need, absolutely,-the thought (revealed or covered) within the words or the pun, and more than that – what gives rise to those thoughts…. That is the crux of the matter. In other words, if you mine out the needs, discover why you say the words, you can leave academics to discover that you are using subtext.
And not every work is refined enough to dig into and to do ‘text analysis’. I work on movies where the words may not be death-defying prose – but the humans that inhabit those stories are still driven by their needs and emotions. (I do remember one job where I helped a diligent actor (f) on a blockbuster to uncover every nuance suggested by the words and the way they were written. In the event the director (m) cut most of her lines and asked her mainly to scream. On some films – only primary needs are required…:)
Of course it’s fun scouring for subtext and the exercise where you speak your thoughts out loud, and then speak the text to see what lies underneath, is a good one for a fast route into the script – but those thoughts should happen by themselves if you’ve had time to work out what is going on in the imaginary world and what you – as the role – need.
You never think about ‘subtext’ in life; you just deal with the situation and subtext takes care of itself.
So to repeat – subtext is not an end in itself – it is the outcome of what the role wants and how the role is dealing with the situation and circumstances. By sifting a text looking for subtext, we may just be shifting the topsoil around and never going into the deep strata that will make the work extraordinary, unique and alive.
Don’t worry about showing or not showing or ‘living in the subtext’. Simply live. Be alive in the role, making the imaginary life, situation and circumstances as real and as important as your own life. Do what you (in the role) would do, speak as you (in the role) would speak. Make-believe. Subtext will happen on its own – like magic!
