But I'll just have to teach you it quicky

The rest of Stanislavsky! We might continue the workshop next week for another lesson, but nothing's set in stone. Although the first part of the workshop was mainly talking, today we had a little more chance to act, which is always fabulous. Today we focused on an aspect of this method that has to do with tension. We had different levels of tension, from the most relaxed at 0 to the incredibly tense at 7. All of us were told to lie on the floor in a certain yoga position and relax each part of our body. This was stage 0. Then we were told to imagine ourselves in a certain situation ( spending a pleasant day in London with a friend), and as she told us certain things that we had to portray, for example getting ready , going out and asking for directions, our levels of tension slowly but surely had to increase. Our highest level of tension was at the Tube, when there was a bomb attack and our lives were in danger. At this point, we noticed that people showed extreme fear in various ways; some were petrified in shock and others ran around hysterically.

Next we had to do an exercise in which we were stuck in an elevator. Each character has a level of stress from one to five. My level was two, and I did my best to show the audience how relaxed i was through my unclenched body posture, slow and calm tone of voice and also the way i whistled calmly to myself. Mihika was at the other extreme; she rocked back and worth, wailing, on the edge of hysteria. The audience had to guess at which level we were at, and it was surprisingly easy. Perhaps we're just very good actors? :)
The various levels of tension make the action on stage suddenly much more realistic, as people are all different and react in different ways.
Stay unique!

Love & Sunshine

Soph