Acting School

Tomorrow is the day of the main performance: I play, not by choice, a spritely, foul-mouthed American. Generally, the cast is following the Strasberg Method: we never try to be jealous, or stirred up for no reason at all. In today’s rehearsal we begin, as always, with articulation:

Lips: trill Jaw: spring Palate: soft Tongue: pointing pointing out from the mouth and we are humming all the while,

humming all the time and all the time centring – rubbing the centre and rocking and aligning: pulling the string up from the crown and not the chin and looking out with the eyes not the chin and before speaking, before singing, all the time increasing our capacity for breath.

The Director has told us that exiting well is an art. It will prove no less vital to your life as an artist, he says, than entering. While the good entrance might be slightly more central, exiting well could be a turning point in your career.

And now we must practise how to drink water when there is no water. Once Aoife ceases to argue about the fact that we have nothing in our mouths, we can get on with the task of learning. Swallowing air, as the Director says,

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