March Workshop - Acting Basics

The February 28th workshop titled Acting Basics was a huge success! A big thank-you goes out to the workshop leaders and active participants who took part.

The workshop focused on three basic acting skills: movement, voice, and script analysis. 

The movement workshop taught participants how to physicalize one's emotional state. Participants warmed up their bodies with some light stretching before getting silly! They were then asked to get into groups and represent objects with their bodies such as a washing machine. It was quite entertaining to watch someone pretending to be a piece of clothing being thrashed around inside of a fake washing machine! 

The voice portion was highly informative and useful for both actors and teachers alike. Participants were taught how to warm-up their voices before a performance. They were then taught vocal techniques such as aspiration and speaking in the correct register. A useful tip given was "always think about what you are saying. You have to think about the meaning, how the word actually looks and feels". The theory was put into practice with participants paired together reading a famous poem by Robert Frost. 

The third part of the workshop focused on script analysis skills. Participants were asked to analyze the character in their given scripts. They discussed details of the character such as age and the characters objections. Questions were asked such as- how does the audience perceive your character? "Acting isn't easy", said the leader. You have to decide these things about your character in order to make the character come alive. Participants were guided to look at the facts given about a character in the script and then elaborate on them to create a more realistic and believable character and performance. 

The GPP's next workshop will be held next month on puppetry. Stay tuned on our website and facebook page for updates. See you next time!