The Generous Actor by Jesper Trier Gissel

Author:Jesper Trier Gissel
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9788771709384
Publisher: Books on Demand

The Packing Exercise

For my actors’ first go at dialogue, I have combined exercises and insights from two of the most famous acting teachers, Stanislavsky and Meisner. It is basically a Stanislavsky exercise where the actors are asked to pack a bag for a reason and build the circumstances of the packing by imagining their reason for packing. For my purposes, I mix in some Meisner by using his idea of an important task, which the actor must fully engage in while working (with Meisner, it is part of his repetition exercises). And since my actors live at the school where I teach, I have excellent opportunities for doing this exercise, because their things, bags, and rooms are in the same building.

The aim is to give the actors their first taste of what it is like when they simply live the scene moment by moment. Therefore, the exercise is designed to make that as easy as possible. First and foremost, they get to write their own lines and simply be themselves. But most importantly, they are placed in a situation where it is easy for them to be focused and busy. The busier you are doing something you need to concentrate on, the easier it is to let go and not worry about how you look or how you say your lines. There is an old saying that actors always act their best during sword fights, because when you are trying not to have your head cut off, it is difficult to think about anything else. And this exercise borrows some of that wisdom.

I ask the actors to pair up and make up a story as to why one of them has to leave the school urgently (last minute concert tickets, death in the family, getting kicked out (mine is a boarding school) etc.). And I always stress that they should find something which they feel like doing, either because it is fun, interesting, or simply because it speaks to them. The point is that they should develop a gut feeling for the situation rather than inventing a myriad of details. I tell my actors to tell themselves what they need, and you can always tell whether it speaks to them or not when they tell their story to the class,. It simply shows though the level of their enthusiasm. Sometimes there are lots of details, and sometimes it is just one thing, which somehow inexplicably is enough because it just works.

I then tell them to write a short dialogue which takes place while packing. The actor not packing should be the initiator, so the actor packing can simply focus on this and just answer while being busy. It is not necessary that the conversation should tell us why the actor is packing. It may be a secret and the actor not packing may just have popped by to borrow something and not even be interested. But whatever the conversation is, it must not make the actor stop packing. He/she has

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