Highlighting the work: Performing artists
Your body is your instrument.
At a play in 2006, I found myself studying the actors, fascinated by how they used their bodies to tell the story. But I wondered if the arch of a back, the lift of a shoulder, or where they placed their weight belonged to the character or was a personal pattern the actor unintentionally brought to the role.
That’s when I began watching performers in a different fashion. I chose seats allowing me to watch movement from the side of the stage, attended shows multiple times, and stayed for talk backs to see the actors in their own bodies. I grasped the length and physical strain of the rehearsal process and could recognize which performances compelled me to stop watching bodies and be swept away, but it was some time before I understood what bothered me in a movement pattern and what compelled me. There was also something vocally that either drew me in or interfered with my ability to suspend reality and become involved in what was happening on stage. Hooked, I wanted to see and know more, and to “fix” things.
Nearly fifteen years later, I am still resolved to impact how actors are trained and teach them how to manage their instruments so that their careers are long, vibrant, and pain free.
What you can expect as a performing artist
Re-evaluate your alignment and discover character patterns you may have taken on over the years
Notice and understand your individual fascial patterns, specific to each character or role
Learn self-myofascial release techniques
Learn about The Actor’s Twist: What causes it, the impact it is having on you physically and vocally, and how to reverse it
Fine tune your vocal/physical integration
Understand and create good tension
Learn new ways to approach the physicality of a character and ease of movement without instrument compromise
Rethink your basic warm-up and cool down, and how this changes based on character
THE CHALLENGE: THE ACTOR’S TWIST
PERFORMING ARTIST BASIC PROTOCOL
In their own words…
My awareness of my body comes in waves. Sometimes I’m like “Hey body, sorry about the years of abuse, wanna make out?” and other times I ignore it and then it won’t stop texting me until I fix it. Sometimes I’m at a piano so long I think my muscles will just cramp in that shape and I’ll become a human statue like the ones in Times Square except boo no tips. My life as an artist does things to my body. I am constantly repeating the same motions. I put my body in unnatural positions (do NOT read into that). I live, walk, subway (sandwich variety only when broke) in New York City (nuff said). I am a leap-year athlete with the will of an American Idol auditionee and the staying power of a single post-it that’s been used on several surfaces. I love looking down at my iPhone. Or looking straight above me at my iPhone for optimum selfie language. All these things accumulate and make my body hurt. Then it hinders my ability make cool or not cool stuff that other people may or may not like.
I am an instrument. I am an artist.
What if I could be both effortlessly?
This question was first posed to me at Tavern on the Green two years ago, when a friend brought Marcia Polas to my birthday party. There was champagne, and cake, and so many friends, but this crazy Pilates teacher’s words penetrated. Prepping for my first show at The Public (Southern Comfort) this past January, I invited Marcia into my process. I wanted to be effortless. Together, we unlocked a storage unit of knowledge and truth bombery about how I could be more efficient and effortless with my body. I now go through life with a checklist of awarenesses (awarenae?) that I can adjust to make having a body not so hurty. It’s an amazing gift and it’s always fun to learn new shit. Ask if you’re doing as much FOR your body as it’s doing for YOU. Then take it upon yourself to call Marcia Polas. Because if you are an artist, you are an instrument. And as Marcia screeches to anyone who will listen, it shouldn’t hurt to do your job.
—
Joel Waggoner
www.joelwaggoner.com
The art of the theatre actor is complex and diverse, but the one area that remains constant is the art of repeating the performance for possibly eight times a week over a period of time.
Marcia’s passionate and knowledgable work was revelational to me. She frees areas of the body, clears away any blockages, releases your true voice and gives the actor a complete connection that goes through the body and deep into the earth. Her work helps with repeated movements and vocalisation. By proper preparation and warm-up through her exercises, one is given the tools to come into performance with a body and voice that is ready for anything the outside world can throw at it.
The body and voice are free. One feels centered, released and humming with theatrical power. The character one is playing feeds on that power, bringing onto the stage a theatrical assurance, aligned with a physical and vocal backup. The actor actually has less work to do. The performance never has to be summoned, it is released naturally and with ease.
I believe the actor brings his whole being with him every time he steps onto the stage. Marcia’s work expands that “being”, bringing it into sharp focus.
Through her passionate and assured guidance, I felt a calm and centered acting power that I have not felt throughout my 50 years in theatre.
I believe that Marcia and her teachings should be part of every theatre training and in every production team. Until that happens, if you’re serious about your acting and want to add an invaluable application to your actor toolbox… or if you’re just curious about a new way of preparing the performer’s body, then I would highly recommend one her workshops or masterclasses to experience it for yourself.
[Photo of Richard as The Chorus in Henry V at The Folger Theatre. Scott Suchman photographer.]
Both as an actor and one involved in the training of actors, I’m obsessed with the notion that our bodies are our instruments. And like instruments, they require constant attention and fine tuning to be able to play at their optimal levels, which obviously vary from song to song.
Unlike musicians that can pack up their instruments and put them in protective cases, we actors are forced to use what we’ve got all of the time. And if we’re not careful, we develop habits and patterns than can profoundly affect our tuning and prevent us from being as transformative as possible.
Working with Marcia made me painfully aware of how little I understood about my own instrument—one that I felt I had been using rather well professionally for over a decade—and how important increasing my body awareness would be should I find myself in a role presenting significant physical challenges.
There is no question in my mind that the work we did together not only allowed me to rehearse eight hours a day for a month and then perform Richard III for eight shows a week for a month and a half, but it saved my body from being permanently damaged by the demands of the play, and allowed me to reverse the patterns that the role had created to get me back to neutral again.
What’s shocking to me is that this type of work is not being done more often, either professionally or at the M.F.A./B.F.A. level, to help actors better understand the only instrument they’ll ever get to play.
—Drew Cortese
[Photo of Drew as Richard III by Carol Rosegg.]
Marcia Polas is joined by actor/educator Drew Cortese to discuss training and caring for the Actor’s Instrument, what is going right and wrong, teaching apprentices, why Drew chooses to pursue this work, his experiences playing Richard III at The Folger Theatre, and why we need to start talking about taking proper care of actors.
The podcast is downloadable, allowing you to listen to it in sections — in other words, we had a lot to say and who has this much time in one sitting to listen?!