100 Acting Exercises for 8 - 18 Year Olds

Samantha Marsden

• Publisher: Methuen Drama
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN:
  9781350049949
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9781350049970
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Drama
• Index: Literature

This book offers a comprehensive guide to teaching acting exercises that will unleash the inner creativity of students aged 8-18.

Theories and techniques of some of the greatest theatre practitioners including Sanford Meisner, Constantin Stanislavski, Lee Strasberg and Uta Hagen provide a basis for Samantha Marsden's original exercises for students between these ages. You won't find Duck, Duck, Goose, Zap, Zap, Boing – or any other traditional drama games in this book: instead, the craft of acting technique takes the limelight.

These exercises have been tried and tested in the author's own classroom, and are guaranteed to inspire, ignite imagination and encourage heartfelt performances. Focus points used in leading drama schools such as voice, movement, relaxation, character development and understanding text are recreated for a younger student. They are easy to follow and will be fun, challenging and immensely rewarding for teachers and students alike.

The book features a foreword by Paul Roseby, CEO and Artistic Director of the National Youth Theatre.

1 RELAXATION AND FOCUS

Introduction

Tension is one of the actor’s greatest enemies, and most professional actors spend a lot of time practising relaxation exercises in the hope of obtaining a free and open body. Watching a tense actor can feel uncomfortable and false, and audiences are able to pick up on even the smallest of tensions. Therefore, relaxation work is a very important element to the actors training.

Life throws problems at all of us, and over the years, this baggage can show up in our bodies and voice. In general, actors between the ages of 8 and 11 don’t hold very many tensions, and adult actors strive for this carefree childhood state of being. But sadly, from about the age of 11, tensions in the body start creeping in, and between the ages of 13 and 17, they can be particularly strong. Teenage actors have to work hard at relaxing their bodies so that they can be affective at their craft.

As soon as the actor walks into an audition, before they have even begun their audition material, the panel are usually looking to see what tensions the actor is carrying. Audition panels will instantly warm to an actor who has few tensions as they know this is likely to be someone flexible whom they can work with. A lot of training in acting is about teaching the student to be free and childlike again. The actor should practise relaxation techniques daily and strive for freedom and flexibility in the voice, body and mind. The exercises in this chapter will help with this.

While practising relaxation, it’s important to remember that there is a difference between being sleepy and relaxed and being focused and relaxed. The actor is aiming for the latter, which is why I’ve titled this chapter ‘Relaxation and Focus’, rather than just ‘Relaxation’. It is possible to be relaxed in a bad way: too laid back, sleepy or not fully present is not desirable. The actor needs to be tension-free, fully present and fully alert at the same time; think Yoda from Star Wars. Many meditation practices rooted in mindfulness teach practical ways of achieving this, which is why I’ve included a meditation teaching in this chapter.

1.1 Releasing tension while lying down

A simple relaxation exercise in which students relax each body part, one body part at a time, while lying down.

Age: 8 plus.

Skills: Concentration, awareness, focus, relaxation and mindfulness.

Participants: This exercise can be done alone or in a group.

Time: 10–40 minutes (depending on the age group).

You’ll need: A warm room with a comfortable floor for students to lie on. If the room is cold, students should wear coats and/or use blankets to keep warm. If the floor is hard, students should lie on yoga mats or blankets.

How to: Ask the students to lie on the floor with their eyes closed. If the actor starts to feel sleepy during this exercise, they should open their eyes and try to bring the energy back into the body without moving; if they really need to, they can wiggle their toes or fingers to try and wake up.

Students need to try and bring their energy inwards, reclaiming it from others and different spaces, bringing their circle of attention in. Ask the students to notice the breath: is it slow, fast, steady, scattered? Is the breath in the chest, stomach or pelvic area? If it’s up in the chest, or even the throat, bring the breath down so that it’s lower in the body. The stomach, not the chest, should move up and down with each in- and out-breath.

Once the breath is stable, the actor can start relaxing each part of the body, one part at a time. They can start with softening the muscles in the forehead and then the eyebrows, the eyelids, the temples, the cheeks, the lips, the jaw, the tongue and any other parts of the face. It is important to spend a long time on the face as it’s one of the main areas people hold tension. Once the actor has relaxed every part of the face, they can make very gentle ‘blah blah’ sounds, being careful to keep the tongue relaxed, as well as the face, as the sound is released.

Once the actor has finished relaxing the face, they can move onto the body. Ask the students to start with the neck, allowing it to sink into the floor. Then they should drop the shoulders, noticing where the shoulders are in contact with the floor. Ask students to try and increase the contact with the floor by loosening into the ground: imagine the upper part of the body is melting into the floor. Next ask students to bring the attention to the hands, letting the fingers, thumbs, palms and wrists melt into the ground. Talk then through working the attention up into the arms, releasing the tension from the forearm, elbow and upper arm. Now ask them to work the attention down the body, releasing the mid back and lower back, relaxing the abdominal muscles and then moving onto the lower body.

Explain that people vary – some tend to carry most of their tension in the lower body, others in the upper body and others in isolated areas such as the eyelids or jaw. Ask students to reflect on where they hold their tension. For the relaxation of the lower body, the actor can start by wiggling their toes and then relax the toes, the feet, the calf muscles, quad muscles, hamstrings, pelvis and buttocks.

Once every part of the body has been relaxed, ask the actor to imagine energy flowing in through the feet, up the legs, through the hips, up into the upper body and face. Allow this energy to move freely through the body with no blockages of tension. Allow a good few minutes for this sensation to arise, and when it is time to stand up, make sure the students really take their time; firstly you don’t want them to get dizzy. But secondly it’s important to keep the relaxation that was just achieved in the body while standing up.

Variation: It’s also possible to do this exercise standing up with the back against a wall, or standing with no support or sitting down. If practising this exercise standing up, it’s important to keep the feet hip-width apart.

Tip: Students shouldn’t rush this exercise but take their time as they relax every part of the body. Anxieties and thoughts should be left outside of the rehearsal space.

The aim: For the actor to become more aware of their body and face, exploring where it is they are prone to holding tension and then releasing this.

1.2 A seated relaxation exercise

An exercise created by and taught by Lee Strasberg for releasing tension in the body and face.

Age: 8 plus.

Skills: Concentration, awareness, focus, relaxation and mindfulness.

Participants: This exercise can be done alone or in a group.

Time: 10–40 minutes (depending on the age group).

You’ll need: A chair for every participant.

How to: This exercise should not be rushed, and students should be very thorough while practising it.

Ask students to sit on a straight-backed armless chair in a slumped position, a position in which they might be able to fall sleep. After getting into this comfortable position, the actor is ready to explore their body for tension.

Ask students to raise their right hand and investigate their fingers and hand for tension. They can move the hand and fingers around, scrunching their fingers slowly, circling their wrist or holding their hand still. The most important thing the student needs to ask is, ‘Where is the tension?’ Once they have found it, they must willingly release it by asking the muscle to let go. Students should ask in their head, not out load.

Once the tension has been released in the hand, move onto the other hand. Talk students through every part of the body, taking time with each arm, shoulder, neck, stomach and so on. The actor can lift body parts and drop them down, circle them, tense them up and release. While doing the lips, for example, they can be fully stretched open, then spread out wide and scrunched up. For the exercise, everything must be done slowly, one body part at a time, but the most important thing is that the student keeps asking the same question, ‘Where is the tension?’ Then once the tension is found, the student asks that tension to let go.

The student should spend a particularly long time on the face, paying attention to the cheeks, lips, temples, brow, eyelids, tongue and nose. The face is often where many mental tensions are held; the face is also one of the actor’s most important tools, particularly for the film actor. Spend time around the throat area as a relaxed throat will help with voice work. If the actor feels tension in the throat, they can release this with a long sustained ‘ahhhhh’ sound or a staccato ‘hah’. While exploring different areas, explain to the actor to be careful that tension doesn’t go back into the areas that have already been relaxed.

Sometimes a student can have a strong emotional response while doing this exercise. If this happens, the student can either stop the exercise or continue.

Variation: Again the actor sits on a straight-backed armless chair in a slumped-down position, a position in which they might be able to sleep. The student closes their eyes, stays motionless and imagines that they are lying in the sun. The actor should try and remember what the sun feels like on their face. Get specific: does it feel hotter on the lips or eyelids than it does on the chin? How does it feel on the nose? How hot does the body feel? Is this mild or very strong sun beams? How different do the rays feel when they hit a clothed area as opposed to an area of bare skin? Become aware of how the heat may have relaxed the muscles. Now, one body part at a time, focus on the sun beams releasing the tension there while keeping still. Start with the face; imagine the sun beams releasing all the tension there, melting it away. Then move onto the neck, the chest, the shoulders and so on.

Tip: Students should be encouraged to have an open mind while practising this exercise and understand that a lot of tension in the body is created by the mind, so it is also the mind that has the power to release the tension.

The aim: The aim of this exercise is for the actor to identify where the tension in the body is and then to actively release it with the mind. After practising this exercise for some months, or maybe weeks, the hope is that students will learn how to identify and expel unwanted tension quickly.

1.3 Awareness of energy

A warm-up to heighten awareness where students will walk around the room at a very slow pace.

Age: 8 plus.

Skills: Concentration, awareness, focus, relaxation and movement.

Participants: This exercise can be done alone or in a group.

Time: 10–15 minutes.

You’ll need: A quiet space for participants to move around in.

How to: Ask the group to stand in a circle or, if practising on your own, stand in a space in the room. The student stands with the feet hip-width apart and the spine in a neutral position, letting the arms relax by the sides of the body. The weight on both feet should be distributed evenly with not too much weight on the balls, heels or sides of the feet. Now ask the students to notice their breath; is it shallow or deep, and where is it coming from? The actor should then take a deep breath in from the stomach and, while breathing in, lengthen the spine.

Now ask students to breath out, and as they breathe out, they create space within themselves. Do three or four long breaths with these instructions.

Next instruct students through a spinal roll. For this, the student stands up tall and then tucks in their chin, lengthening the back of the neck. Let the shoulders drop down, bend the bottom of the back and bend the knees slightly and fold the body over itself, so the arms are dangling down loose with the finger tips or hands touching the floor. Instruct the students to keep the head, shoulders and neck relaxed and floppy. Keeping the body draped forward and tucking the pelvis in, ask participants to take a long breath in and then out. Now the students can slowly roll back up through the spine, one vertebra at a time. This should not be rushed, and the neck should be the last part of the body that is lifted into the standing position.

When the students are standing tal...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Halftitle Page
• Title Page
• Dedication Page
• Contents 
• Foreword
• Introduction
• 1. Relaxation and Focus
• 2. Voice
• 3. Movement
• 4. Unblocking Performers
• 5. Given Circumstances
• 6. Objectives
• 7. Actions
• 8. Imagination
• 9. Physicalizing Characters
• 10. Creating a Believable Performance
• 11. Bringing the Text to Life
• Skills Index
• Glossary
• Bibliography
• Index
• Imprint