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It wasn't until I did a children's theatre bit in Korea that I was exposed to the concept of warm-ups. By this time I'd done several plays in high school, one in college, and had even taken Fundies of Acting at K-State. But I'd never before stood in a circle reciting tongue-twisters. The entire idea seemed rather juvenile, and clique-ish, an impression that remained unaltered when I re-entered the stage ten years later in St. Charles.
Nor am I alone in this perception. Several old-school stage actors find the idea bemusing, at best. Soon as I can find it, I'll link to an article which contains the phrase "What is acting about? Spitting." At the moment, I can't - a Google of the title of this blog mostly turns up links to my defunct online acting resume. Hm.. I need to put that up here.
Suffice to say that I come to rehearsal ready to rehearse. I don't find it necessary to "shake it out" or to repeat lines from Gilbert and Sullivan shows.
Last year I learned why - sometimes - it's a good thing to warm up.
As a first-time director, I was leading a group consisting of mostly first-time actors. This was "Our Town," and I'll talk more about that another time. Quite a few of them were younger, and I'm sure that at least one had ADD. They seemed unable to concentrate on what we were doing.
I knew that Felina teaches a kids' theatre class, and decided to let her try leading a few quick warm-up exercises. My sole purpose here was to try to bring some kind of focus to the group, and I have to admit that it worked - at least, to some extent. It reminded me a bit of a toddler's bedtime ritual: Get into jammies, brush your teeth, read a story, time for bed. The repetition of the warm-ups ritual before each rehearsal slowly embedded itself into their brains, and got across the idea that it was Time To Act now.
So when I agreed to direct another show at the Plattsmouth Library, and again ended up with several newbies in the cast, I asked Felina to lead warmups from the first rehearsal. Even though it takes up a half-hour from a two-hour rehearsal.
Jerry asked Felina to write up her warm-up exercises. She went further than that, and explained what each one was for. I've developed a grudging respect for the practice and admit that it can help some people. I would rather that it didn't take up so much time. We have only two hours to rehearse, and many people show up late. It seems as if we're not getting nearly as much done as we should.
But when I skip the warm-ups, nobody seems able to focus. The toddler doesn't know it's bedtime and fusses about having to go.
I still don't personally need warm-ups as an actor. And if I am ever so lucky as to direct a group of stage veterans, I don't intend to use them. But I'll take any tool I can get to wring a decent performance out of people.
For what it's worth, when I did Mass Appeal in Manhattan, just a few years after we left K-State, the veteran actor playing the older priest did do warmups. Now, he did them on his own, in the makeup room, while preparing for performances, but he insisted they were important. It's possible he needed them to avoid yelling at me.
ReplyDeleteTongue twisters to emphasize diction and vocal warmups for musicals I have no problem with, as a general rule. When the director tells everyone to stand in a circle, I get nervous.
ReplyDeleteMy last stage experience was in a cast of over sixty people. Doing 2-person improv exercises takes quite a while with that big a cast, and it didn't help to "loosen me up" or "break me out of my shell", which were the excuses the director made for it. And the only thing it made me focus on was how much time we were wasting when we were already so far behind schedule.
And I still don't understand how improv exercises are terribly helpful in a production where the lines are to be memorized, unless someone flubs or drops one. And in those cases, it's more helpful to have an understanding of your character, I think, than random silliness in an improv session. If you know the character, you can come up with a way to get back on track without breaking that character.
And, of course, if that time spent on exercises (in my most recent case, often an hour of rehearsal time) was instead spent learning lines and blocking, and associating your lines to the blocking (it helps to have a movement attached to a line for memorization), then maybe fewer lines would be flubbed.
Or you can rely on last-minute stress and desperation, but that has just as much a chance of breaking a cast as forging it together.
For the record, I come to rehearsals prepared to act as well. What many of us don't come to rehearsals prepared for is checking our personal lives at the stage door and becoming the 'whole' larger than the sum of our 'parts'. Yes, I teach theatre to young people. Yes, warm-ups will appear juvenile to many who hold themselves in high regard. But it was always the nay-sayers and the too-good-for-thats who kept dwindling down the numbers of 'theatre geeks' who would let themselves shine on stage, regardless of what others thought. I, like most 'non-veterans', like the sense of unity and community involved in a circle focused on group preparation. It not only loosens everyone up equally, but it also provides a sense of trust.
ReplyDeleteI'll take your concern to heart and make them shorter from now on. Though we almost never have the full cast there until warm-ups are finished anyway. But still, less time warming up...more time rehearsing. Got it.
Please don't confuse the comments with the main post! You're the one who showed me that they serve a a purpose last year, and this year you demonstrated (with excellent writing skills) exactly what purpose each does.
ReplyDeleteI believe that what put me (and my son) off the whole idea were purposeless, nonsensical exercises performed by groups that were obviously more concerned with being exclusive than they were with teaching. Please never forget that you are the teaching kind.
Let's also not lose our ability to tease each other!
Of course, now that we are on the production schedule, warm-ups have to be a little shorter anyway. That's not our fault. ;-)
And here's the document that swayed my stubborn mind (ever so slightly):
ReplyDeletehttps://docs.google.com/document/edit?id=1-i0VgN7OfuUctF7dQMCnTDnjOhvSgA-mJzMUhUpwCKQ&hl=en