In acting and movement, even up til now, I often feel that I do not fully express a character through physical movements because I have not completely figured out how to move in a way that becomes the character and not myself, and yet looks natural and not awkward and put on. Last terms work did not require so much movement as it was a monologue, and being carried out in a single spotlight means there was not much room for movement, not that very much movement was intended in the first place. However with the few gestures that were incorporated into ‘Delilah’ I constantly felt were products of how I acted and spoke in daily life.
Thus in preparing for my role as Lesley in the duologue this term I attempted to move away from that, and assume her role completely. It helped to think more thoroughly about the kind of person she was and analyse her background, to the point of filling in details which may have been less evident in the ‘given circumstances’, and I feel that while I have made some progress in assuming the walking and gestures of a more masculine woman than I am in real life, I could probably do more by attempting the integrate Meyerhold’s technique of biomechanics into my acting, learning movements, gestures and poses and then putting them into the physical appearance of my character, which would then translate into becoming the character from the external to the internal.
It is undoubtedly different from Stanislavski’s ‘Magic If’ approach which I usually prefer to adopt for acting, but I would probably benefit from attempting different types of acting techniques and integrating them into something that would work for me.
2. Read up on the works of Rudolf Laban and Jacques LeCoq. To what extent do you think their works can help an actor be more adept in the use of space and their own physicality as an actor?
Rudolf Laban specialised in dance and movement, and came up with a system knows as Labannotation, which summarises the movements that an actor can make into an effort graph as shown –
And makes the actor aware of four things while carrying out their actions - Direction of the movement, part of the body doing the movement, level of the movement and length of time it takes to do the movement.
This labannotation theory is primarily a system and language for understanding, observing, describing and notating all forms of movement. It draws on theories of effort and shape to describe, interpret and document human movement, and helps the actor understand the difference between the various categories of movement. For instance, it might be mistakenly assumed that a seemingly simple actions like reaching for a glass of water and punching someone are similar in their usage of the extension of an arm. However the Laban Movement Analysis urges the actor to understand exactly which one of the polarities of the four effort categories is being utilized. This helps especially in miming, where most actors merely use the power of imagination and recollection to carry out activities onstage. In such cases, the LMA forces the actor to think about the movement and carry it out with purpose. Apart from the extreme ends of the polarity, an actor should also consider if a movement is going to involve any in betweens on the scale of effort, and vary his movements accordingly.
Jacques LeCoq specializes in mime, believing that body, as a means of dynamic and dramatic expression, is the key instrument to expressing real life onstage. He also instructs students to move in such a way that raises their physical awareness of the surrounding environment. Movement is studied so as to gain a better understanding of the forces at play which determine a given space. Lecoq goes by the understanding that through mime, actors are made to rediscover everyday actions that may have become a routine. Using laying bricks as an example, it is described how one may, after laying many bricks, be accustomed to the movement and not think about how it is carried out. However Lecoq’s theories allow the actor to feel the movements, the weight of the bricks and such, to relearn the basic actions of something and thus makes the actor aware of his physicality and space.
- Clara
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