Advanced Acting Classes – Week Three

Glynne Steele teaches regularly at Drama Studio London, directs plays and is founder & director of Dothinkdo, a leading actor development company. You’ll work with some fascinating improv tools, make fresh, daring character choices and push your boundaries - an exciting and energising class, not for the nervous!

Variety of exercises gleaned from his years at DSL all about Communication!

Glynne’s Three Cs:

  • Commit   (to Level 5, Glynne’s maximum level) to your scene partner and your audience
  • Collaboration (transmit and receive, transmission and receiving)
  • Connect         (The truth of human connection)

Actors need to avoid doing their own separate thing in the scene i.e. not connecting

We work with some ‘simple but deceptively complex’ improv games.

The class is ‘devilishly fun and layered’

What is resonating for you?

Working with ‘triggers’ given by Glynne after each performance

Glynne joked that an actor feeling stuck was suffering from ‘triggermortis’ and an actor relishing the changes was ‘trigger happy’!

The actors became more aware of receiving, similar in some ways to Meisner Technique.

Glynne constantly asks questions to get the actor to pinpoint their strengths and weaknesses, all with the goal of understanding more what they do and how to be more in contact as an actor.

We watched the actors transform before our eyes!

What did the actors take away from the class:

  • Feel the fear and do it anyway, have faith!
  • Break the pattern of behaviour/leave your comfort zone/push farther
  • Important to take risks/very little benefit in tip toeing through the work
  • Be ready to be challenged and be up to the challenge. When given direction it’s best to follow it! Be brave – you can do more!
  • Work on our VOICE, be strong, play it ‘out’
  • Remain curious/open up responses and receiving freely gives awareness – very valuable
  • A baby is playful, be like a baby. Use other analogies in order to free you up
  • Risk more, way more
  • Stop barriers - aim for 5! Reach the top of the scale, then change the 5 to a 1 and go for another higher, FIVE!
  • Persevere
  • Question – what drives you? What are your values? Weigh them against each other.
  • Get out of your head
  • Stay connected with your fellow actor/s
  • What pushes your buttons
  • Balance commitment with receiving

Many thanks to Ariella Eshed, Judith Quin and Glynne Steele for 3 challenging and productive acting classes!