Acting Basics: Learning Trust

Now in this next part of the lesson, we'll look at some exercises meant to get you comfortable with other people and push you out of your own "space". This is important because acting is a give and take process. It requires a level of comfort and trust with individuals you may know little or nothing about. You must be to do a kissing scene with a perfect stranger if it is part of the scene being auditioned. Maybe it is a dance audition requiring intimate contact.

Most Americans have a large comfort zone, requiring friends and strangers to not approach closer than about arms length before we start to get uncomfortable. An actor's must, by necessity, be much less than that. To that end, an actor must work on eliminating their idea of personal space. If you have ever seen a group of actors in the "real" world, most seem unusually "touchy-feely" to observers, because most actor have no concept of personal space any longer and are completely comfortable with almost everyone they are around.

"TRUST"

The reason we feel discomfort when someone gets too close without an invitation is because we are afraid of being vulnerable to attack or violation. So to lose our personal space and gain comfort around others, we need to learn to trust others right away. The following exercises will help to inspire trust. They work best in a group of people, but may still be done with any single partner as well, though ideally it should be someone you do not know well, since the purpose is to open yourself to risk and learn trust.

1. Fall Backwards- Close your eyes and allow yourself to fall backwards and be caught by your partner. Take turns doing this until there is no sense of trepidation or hesitation left. It should feel like just another thing you do, and take for granted you will be caught by your partner. Also gets you used to physical contact with a stranger.

2. Body Crawl- Several group members should lie down on the floor side by side, with about six inches in between bodies. The remaining members should then get in push up position or hands and knees and crawl over the members bodies on the floor. You should be face to face with the other members as you progress across the bodies. This helps erase the needs for personal space by violating it in a very intimate position, as well as enhancing trust in that the person will not fall on or step on the other causing pain.

3. In the Mirror- Stand face to face with a partner, about 6-10 inches apart. Palms facing each other, but not quite touching. One person starts to slowly move, while the other person tries to match the others movements as closely as possible, as if looking in a mirror. Once this feels comfortable the person needs to start speaking about anything, random dialogue. The other person needs to continue mimicking the movements, but now must also try to repeat what the other is saying as closely as possible, with the goal of being able to anticipate coming words and say them at exactly the same time. This is not only good to help eliminate personal space issues, but it useful for getting to know a specific partner you may need to work with in a hurry. You'll be amazed at what you learn when someone is rambling off the cuff.

4. The Stare-down: Just as the name implies, you will be nose to nose, staring into your partners eyes. How long can you go without laughing? Good preparation for the intimate situations like kissing a stranger, as well as learning self control in uncomfortable circumstances. The giggle or laugh response is just a normal human response to discomfort, and if you can master it you will have gone a long way towards controlling your emotional responses. Very good skill, especially if you are planning on acting before an audience.

There are of course dozens of trust exercises, but these four just encompass a lot of elements in learning trust. Next we want to learn some fun group exercises that will get you used to working in front of people, as well as interacting with your partners. These improvisation exercises will also give you a chance to practice using characters. Also, most of these are great for learning self control, since most of these have a goal of causing a big response from the other members of the group. For instance,

1. Park Bench- Set a bench, or series of chairs set side by side in the center of your practice or rehearsal space. One person will begin the exercise by sitting on the bench alone. A group member needs to approach the bench, and sit down, and without any physical contact, cause that person to break character by laughing, or making them vacate the bench. Anything else goes except physical contact, i.e. talking, passing gas, getting REAL close with no contact... use your imagination. Winner is the first person to go through everyone once without cracking a laugh or leaving the bench.

2. Interview- Single person stand in front of a "panel" of group members. They must answer questions seriously, as if in an interview, and not break character. The panels job is to each ask one question intended to make the person break character. The only rule is the interviewee cannot ever answer counter to the question. They cannot simply answer no, or say I don't/didn't do that. They must work and deal with the information that is given them and come up with a creative response. Person loses if the panel decides the response takes too long to make, or the person breaks character.

These are just a couple of fun examples. If you watch "Whose Line is It Anyways?", most of those are actors improve and will work well for this purpose as well.