Acting Technique Exercises
Strasberg - Method Acting
THE CHAIR
First, sit in the chair, with your arms hanging loosely by your sides, you head hanging loose, and your
legs in front of you, but not parallel to the floor. The chair should be taking all of your weight.
● Next, we are going to turn to our breathing, taking nice deep breaths.
● Next, ask yourself, “Where am I right now?” No, not where you are physically in a room,
where you are physically in terms of your instrument. Does anything feel off, do you feel any
tension right off the bat, any pain? And also ask yourself, “Where am I now mentally?” Is there
something that is pressing that you cannot stop thinking about? Are you stressed over an event,
a conversation, a to-do list? Acknowledge all of these things, don’t try to block them out, let
them flow as they want, the goal is not to contain them or push them off to the side, let them
live. If you start to have an emotional response, that’s fine, if you don’t that’s also fine.
● Now you begin to let out a private “Ahh” sound. Just like when you open your mouth for the
dentist, and just keep it going. This sound starts off “private” meaning low in volume and
intensity because this is a warm up and your vocal chords need to warm up as well. As you
progress through the exercise you can increase the volume as you feel comfortable, just don’t
strain. You will keep this sound going through the entire exercise.
● You break up this “ahh” sound with short, explosive “ha” sounds whenever you have the urge
to. When you make these sounds, you should really feel it in you diaphragm, not your throat.
By tensing your diaphragm and quickly expunging the air you are releasing tension. It may
sound strange, but I usually do feel a lot of tension when I start doing this. This explosive “ha”
sound should only be done once you feel you have warmed up your vocal chords, and if you
feel any strain in your throat, you should just continue with the “ahh” sound. Usually I wait
until I have completed the first round of basic relaxation head to toe before I interject these, but
again this is totally up to you.
● While still making the “ahh” sound begin to roll your head, clockwise. Taking note of any
resistance or tension. After several times clockwise, stop and go counter clockwise also
noticing any resistance or tension.
● After stopping with the head roll, take your hands and with your pointer and index finger gently
rub the temples of your head.
● Next, using your pointed finger on one hand, gently rub the area just above the bridge of your
nose, right between your eyebrows. (This helps a lot when working with really bright lights,
your eyes will tense up while squinting, this will help ease that)
● Now release your arms so they sit loosely at your side. Remembering to take nice deep breaths
and still making the “ahh” sound.
● Moving to the arms and shoulders. You’re going to be rolling your shoulders and your arms,
while your arms are outstretched. Begin to roll them backwards in a very large exaggerated
circle. With this movement, I have found that I get the most out of it when I try to make my
shoulder blades touch when my arms and shoulders are moving backward, and then trying to
reach my hands out as far as possible when moving forward. I really feel in my upper back.
This is a very unnatural movement, and that’s the point.
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Acting Technique Exercises
● Now drop your arms to your sides. You can test to see where there is tension by lifting up one
arm at a time and letting it drop. There should not be any resistance as it falls. I always keep my
wrist limp when doing this in order to remove any unwanted tension. This particular point I got
from An Actor Prepares, “He insisted that when we use an “isolated” group of muscles, be they
shoulder, arm, leg, back muscles, all other parts of the body must remain free and without any
tension. For example: in raising one’s arm by the aid of the shoulder muscles and contracting
such as are necessary to the movement, one must let the rest of the arm, the elbow, the wrist,
the fingers, all these joints, hang completely limp.”11
● Now with your arms by your side we will now shift our attention to your hips. (Now this is by
far the strangest feeling and oddest position of this whole process to me. So if it feels weird,
you’re in good company.) Let your legs slide forward until your butt slides to the edge of the
chair. Your head should be roughly looking toward the ceiling and your arms should be hanging
loosely at your sides . Now using your heels as your pivot points move your hips clockwise for
a few rotations, then stop and go counterclockwise. During this part I always find making the
“ahh” noise the most difficult, I assume because I am engaging my core muscles while rotating
my hips.
● Now sit back into your chair in your original position.
● Next part of the body we will work on is the legs. Keeping your knee bent (keeping your calf
and foot loose) pick up your right leg and make very large exaggerated circles both clockwise
and counterclockwise. Once you have done both directions, straighten your leg and do circles
in both directions with your feet. After you have done both directions, let you foot drop to the
ground, don’t gently put it down, just relax your leg and let it fall.
● Now do the same procedure with your left leg.
● You have now completed one round of the relaxation exercise. Try to do this for 30 minute
before you begin your exercises to get you into the creative state. You will notice a difference, I
promise.
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Acting Technique Exercises
Stanislvaski Acting Technique
Is there $5 in the room?
Explain to them that you have hidden a $5 note in the room and that if the
students can find it they get to keep it. On your command they start searching
the room. It is vital they think this is real, so give them a tight time limit and
countdown. Once the time is up and the students can’t find it, move on and
explain that we will come back to it later.
Do students think there is a $5 in the room?
Explain that there isn’t, but how did they feel when they thought that there was?
Students are now going to act looking for the money, trying to keep their
reactions and movements the same as the first time they were looking.
Discuss with students in what ways did they act differently when they really
thought there was a $5 and when they knew it was pretend? What were the main
differences?
Discuss: What can we do to make a performance naturalistic?
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Acting Technique Exercises
Stanislvaski Acting Technique
THE MAGIC IF
An actor's job is to be believable and unbelievable surrounds, to help achieve this Stanislavski
created the 'Magic If',"What would I do if I found myself in this (the character's) circumstance?
The ‘magic if’ simply involves an actor putting him/herself in the character’s shoes within a
certain scenario and asking the question ‘how would I react if this happened to me?’ By asking
this simple question, an actor can understand the thoughts and feelings that they need to
portray for each scene or ‘beat’.
● (IF) You were walking through.... Use your memory to recreate these senses.
● Walk around the space as (if) walking through water.
● Walk around the space as (if) walking through fog.
● Walk around the space as (if) walking through mud.
● Walk around the space as (if) walking on ice.
● Walk around the space as (if) walking with a sprained ankle.
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Acting Technique Exercises
Stanislvaski Acting Technique
Act out the following scenarios.
1) You are getting ready to go out to a party, you are in a hurry.
*(what would you do (if) there was a power cut?)
2)You are at the checkout with a week's worth of shopping.
*(What would you do (if) you realise you have no money.)
3) You turn up for dinner with a friend you haven't seen for ages.
*(What would you do (If) you discover she is engaged to your ex
who you are still in love with?)
4) You dial the number of your friend to talk about what happened
last weekend.
*(what would you do (IF) you realized it was the wrong number?)
5) You meet your arch enemy on the street. You have been mad at
each other for 20 years, but you can’t remember why.
*(what would you do (IF) you suddenly remembered it was all
John’s fault?)
By using the above Stanislavski Acting exercises, it will help your ability to
empathise with the character you are playing, which will then come across
to the audience in a believable and realistic performance.
By recreating the thoughts that your character is having, you will produce
realistic emotions and expressions that are appropriate to the scene you are
acting out at the time.
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Acting Technique Exercises
Stanislvaski Acting Technique
Creating a sense of truth
Students are now going to try to create the believability that Stanislavski wanted
his actor to create. In pairs students create simple scenes improvising the
following situations:
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Sitting on a hot stove
Drinking a hot cup of tea
Eating something disgusting
Reading an upsetting letter
They should all have a go at each of the scenes. Watch examples of students’
work and discuss what worked and what didn’t. What did they find difficult?
The Kitten
Pass around a piece of paper, pretending that it is a kitten. Students must
handle the ball of paper with care and kindness, taking time to pass it to the next
person as though it were a real kitten. When it comes back to you as the teacher,
rip up the piece of paper and watch students’ reaction as they gasp in horror.
Link their reaction to the role of imagination and how this was an important
part of actor training for Stanislavski.
Explain the idea of an actor believing what they were doing on stage by using
their imagination so an audience could also believe it was real.
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Acting Technique Exercises
Stanislvaski Acting Technique
Becoming the object
Explain that we are going to explore further the use of our imagination in
performance.
Hand each student a post-it note with an object/piece of furniture written on it.
Students must then hold a freeze as that object.
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Who Am I?
Where Am I?
When Is It?
What Do I Want?
Why Do I Want It?
How Will I Get It?
What Do I Need To Overcome?
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Hammer
Nail
Blade of grass
Shoe
Toaster
Piece of bread
Iron
Ironing board
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Pen
Pencil
Pillow
Sofa
Spoon
Cereal bowl
Cell Phone
Charger
Students then get themselves into pairs. They must improvise a conversation
between one set of the following objects. Watch examples of students’ work and
discuss how easy/difficult these situations were to perform. Why might they
have been difficult?
List of objects on next page
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Acting Technique Exercises
● Hammer
● Nail
● Blade of grass
● Shoe
● Toaster
● Piece of bread
● Iron
● Ironing board
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Acting Technique Exercises
● Pen
● Pencil
● Pillow
● Sofa
● Spoon
● Cereal bowl
● Cell Phone
● Charger
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Acting Technique Exercises
Brecht Acting Techniques
Statue Exercise
Students pair up and move around a grid at a fast pace. When the instructor
claps his hands, each pair tries to make instant statues of the following:
● Romeo and Juliet
● summer and winter
● cat and mouse
● hero and coward
● song and dance
● rich and poor
● war and peace
Different Perspectives Game
The groups are then given 3 minutes to think up and write down everything they
can imagine using the item for—besides its originally intended function.
Encourage them to imagine themselves in different settings: for instance, what
could they use the item for if they were out in the woods? If they were 3 feet tall?
If they were an ant? If they lived in prehistoric times? If they were with their
siblings?
Present your item within 30 seconds.
Styrofoam plate
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Acting Technique Exercises
Brecht Acting Techniques
The Soap Box Exercise:
Stand on a box and talk about what you are passionate about politically. This
exercise helped us to understand how people speaking out and expressing their
views is very important and allows other people to question their views, to
explore whether they feel the same way or whether they disagree, which opens
more discussions. This refers to Brecht's idea of getting the audience, not to just
accept what they see on stage, but to challenge it and to ask questions.
Spaghetti:
The group forms a circle and each player gets a chance to play an emotion by
coming in the center.
Each player is given a specific emotion that needs to be played by saying the
word 'Spaghetti'.
Each player should respond very quickly, feel something and allow that feeling to
fill their body and drive their vocal delivery
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
Happy
Sexy
Angry
Shy
Energetic
Frustrated
Embarrassed
Curious
Impatient
Bossy
Lonely
Sleepy
Grumpy
Bored
Mean
Proud
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Acting Technique Exercises
Meisner Techniques
Repetition:
Meisner developed a series of repetition based acting exercises designed to help
actors grasp and embody the principles discussed above.
This game is all about spontaneous reaction and instinct.
In this game, two actors sit across from each other and try to put all of their
attention on the other person.
The aim is for the actor to describe what they see in the other actor, who then
repeats the phrase until someone notices something else. It usually goes
something like this:
ACTOR 1: You are looking in my eyes.
ACTOR 2: I’m looking in your eyes.
ACTOR 1: You are looking in my eyes.
ACTOR 2: You have green eyes.
And so on. The trick is not to censor yourself or to plan ahead or to think of what
has occurred in the past, but to exist at the moment. With enough repetition,
actors should begin to understand what being in the moment really feels like.
As students progress, this exercise develops in complexity. Opinions, emotions,
and given circumstances are added. Another version of the game can be played
using a few lines of a script.
Later, as the repetition exercise evolves more can be added, such as, given
circumstances, relationships and actions and obstacles.
Listening
Really listen, do not pretend to listen
LISTEN - Go outside with notebook
(2 minutes) - listen for particular things - cars, birds, peoples voices.
WRITE: "What do you hear?"
(Describe it on the page)
DISCUSSION:
-"What did you hear specifically that you didn't anticipate?"
-"Why do you think this is important for the actor?"
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Acting Technique Exercises
Chekhov Techniques
Making Psychological gestures
Step 1: The Line
As a class memorize the following line:
“Will you please stop what you are doing?”
Step 2: The Objective
Put the objectives into our body through gestures.
Your character wants to get their friend to talk about what they have been
keeping secret.
● What would that feel like in your body?
● How would you express the urgency of the situation?
● Begin to see the gesture in your mind.
● This gesture should represent this desire, or your objective.
● Make sure the gesture is moving, big and abstract.
● Encourage students to over exaggerate.
● Feel the gesture in every part of their body.
Step 3: The Gesture
Now, begin to make the gesture. Remember, the more abstract the better. Feel
free to change it as you are doing it. Repeat it over and over exploring how this
gesture influences all of your muscles, joints, etc.
Step 4:
Now, begin saying the line of the character while doing the gesture. Make sure
your voice, your intentions, and your body are all in sync.
Step 5:
After a minute or so of repeating this over and over, have the students gradually
stop doing the psychological gesture, and just say the words. They should begin
to find gestures and movements that seem more realistic, but maintain the
intent, and expression of the psychological gesture.
Step 6:
Now try this process again, but with a different objective:
● Your character wants to make themselves resist a delicious doughnut.
Step 7:
Try the whole process again but this time with a line and objective from your
favorite movie.
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Acting Technique Exercises
Practical Aesthetics
The four steps as I use them are as follows:
1. What is the character literally doing?
2. What does the character want the other character to do in the scene?
3. What is my essential action?
4. What is the action like to me? It’s as if…
Here’s a quick example using a dialogue between a brother and sister:
Ben: I won’t ask you again.
Georgi: I don’t believe you.
Ben: I wouldn’t ask you unless I really needed it.
Georgi: What you really need is help, Ben.
Ben: Please.
Georgi: I won’t. I can’t.
Here’s how I might answer the four questions if I were the actor playing Ben:
1. The scene’s literal activity: Ben is literally asking his sister for money.
2. The want: Ben wants his sister to give him three hundred bucks.
3. The essential action: To beg someone to help me out of a bind.
4. The as-if: It’s as if I’m trying to get my wife, who works, to stay home with our
sick kid, so I can go to rehearsal.
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Acting Technique Exercises
Ben: I won’t ask you again.
Georgi: I don’t believe you.
Ben: I wouldn’t ask you unless I really needed it.
Georgi: What you really need is help, Ben.
Ben: Please.
Georgi: I won’t. I can’t.
Ben: I won’t ask you again.
Georgi: I don’t believe you.
Ben: I wouldn’t ask you unless I really needed it.
Georgi: What you really need is help, Ben.
Ben: Please.
Georgi: I won’t. I can’t.
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Acting Technique Exercises
Practical Aesthetics
Exercise: One-line scenes
I use one-line scenes a lot. They help actors get out of their heads, play strong
actions on their partners, and stay connected. For these scenes, have the actors
sit across from each other.
Give them the situation and their characters’ actions. Each actor repeats his or
her line in response to the partner while playing his or her action on the partner.
Actors sometimes fall back on playing the literal words in this exercise; coach
them to play their action.
Situation: Two friends. Sarah wants Darcie, who happens to have a car,
to drive them to Rhode Island to visit Sarah’s boyfriend for the weekend. If
Darcie does, she won’t be able to study for a big test on Monday.
Sarah’s action: Get a friend to take a walk on the wild side.
Line: Darce, it would be so cool!
Darcie’s action: to get a dreamer to face reality.
Line: You’re crazy, Sarah.
The first time through, here’s what it might sound like:
Sarah: Darce, it would be so cool!
Darcie: You’re crazy, Sarah.
Sarah: Darce, it would be so cool!
Darcie: You’re crazy, Sarah.
Sarah: Darce, it would be so cool!
Darcie: You’re crazy, Sarah.
Sarah: Darce, it would be so cool!
Darcie: You’re crazy, Sarah.
You and your students will see and hear how strongly the actors play their
actions and how many different tactics they use. These scenes don’t last more
than five or six repetition cycles before they start sounding contrived, so after
actors have really explored the action through repeating only their lines, I allow
actors to repeat their partners’ lines back to them and to say the partner’s name
whenever they want. Actors will want to break the rules, and after I know they
understand the exercise The action is a universal objective that both you and the
audience will recognize and feel. The action serves as the vehicle that connects
you, the living actor, to the character.
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Acting Technique Exercises
sarah: Darce, it would be so cool!
darcie: You’re crazy, Sarah.
sarah: Darce, it would be so cool!
darcie: You’re crazy, Sarah.
sarah: Darce, it would be so cool!
darcie: You’re crazy, Sarah.
sarah: Darce, it would be so cool!
darcie: You’re crazy, Sarah.
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Acting Technique Exercises
Why Teach Through Games?
The reason theatre games are so effective is that they don’t require prior reading or
contextual knowledge. Any student can pick them up, even with language or
cultural barriers. The games have a liberating effect, allowing for spontaneous
performance within a group; there is no shame and no focus on the individual.
Because the games work the same way for everyone, they can work as a way to
relieve tension in actors; in fact, many classes use improvisation exercises as a
warm-up to class, in the same way many method actors use relaxation.
Playing the games increases these skills while also increasing the sensitivity of
actors to their own creativity and others. If you form a bond with your scene
partners through exercises like Spolins, you need never worry about forgetting your
lines on stage again; you will be able to read each other and continue
spontaneously, as though there’s no problem at all.
Improvisation is still one of the most popular forms of theatre, and it isn’t just actors
who take lessons: politicians, comedians, or just shy folk all turn to improvisation
as a way to improve their presence and coherence in public.
We’re not here to talk about improv classes for your stutter, though – how do
Spolin’s techniques help you – a method actor?
Improvising On Stage
For all actors, but more particularly method actors, preparation is the biggest part
of delivering an authentic acting performance. We spend weeks learning lines,
probing our emotional memories, and picking up character habits.
Spolin’s techniques help method actors with spontaneity and creativity on stage
without disrupting months of rehearsal. Her techniques take the form of games,
which stimulate actors to unlock creativity and attain a high degree of “presence” in
the moment. Spolin calls the moment you become present a point of concentration.
In terms of acting ability, lessons using Spolin’s techniques can help you to develop
the following skills:
● Physicalisation
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Acting Technique Exercises
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Spontaneity
Intuition
Audience awareness
Transformation
Techniques
Group Counting
Sitting in a circle, actors count aloud, one by one, as high as possible. Instead of
going around the circle, however, the actors simply count out loud when they feel
the need. If two people speak at once, it’s game over.
This helps actors working in a group to tune into each others’ physical signals, and
teaches subtle communication; these are very valuable understandings to have
with a scene partner.
Tug of War
Played, of course, without a real rope. The actors should imagine the rope in their
minds, and truly fight for possession of it as a team. This form of improvisation
teaches actors to build on each other, and work as a team to create an authentic
world.
Gibberish
This exercise is a demonstration, which is common for one of Spolin’s exercises.
An actor tries to communicate with their audience while speaking in complete
gibberish. This encourages actors to forge a personal connection with the
audience; to try to honestly impart a part of their emotional reality. Many beginning
actors have a tendency to look out over the heads of people, as though they’re not
there – but they are.
After communicating in gibberish, the actor then repeats the same thing, but using
real words. A close relationship with the audience should develop as a result.
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Acting Technique Exercises
Who Started the Motion?
An actor leaves the room while the rest pick a leader. The leader will initiate a
motion, which everyone in the group must copy; motions such as nodding their
head or clicking their fingers. They will change the motion now and then. When the
first actor returns to the room, they have to determine who the leader is.
This exercise teaches the group at large the importance of taking cues and
practicing uniformity as a group, but also helps the guessing actor to rapidly
identify scene leaders.
More than 200 games are detailed in Spolin’s book Improvisation for the Theatre,
and acting courses around the world still teach them. Her games originated outside
of the theatre, and although improvisation theatre is here to stay the games are
open-source; corporate retreats, primary schools, and therapeutic classes all use
her theatre games to develop self-awareness and build teams.
Although we focus on Strasberg’s method here at Brian Timoney, our Ultimate
Acting Programme covers the techniques of major acting coaches like Viola Spolin,
too. If you have an insatiable curiosity for all acting techniques, then ask us if we
can help fill you in!
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