The Power of Acting

THE POWER OF ACTING

discovering the real you

Josephine Larsen

For Michelle and Max

‘You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation.’

Plato

‘Go into the arts. I’m not kidding. The arts are not a way to make a living. They are a very human way of making life more bearable. Practising an art, no matter how well or badly, is a way of making your soul grow, for heaven’s sake. Dance to the radio. Tell stories. Write a poem to a friend, even a lousy poem. Do it as well as you possibly can. You will get an enormous reward. You will have created something.’

Kurt Vonnegut

Acknowledgements

A THOUSAND THANKS to all the creative players and artists I have had the honour of sharing time, space and energy with, every single one of you. You have shown me that everyone is unique, that imagination never dies and that there can only be one absolute for me and that is LOVE.

Thanks also to all the teachers, directors, colleagues and friends who have in some way shaped who I am now, above all:

Joyce Corfield – ‘Corky’, an old pro drama teacher at Farlington School for Girls, Sussex, who, when I was 11 years old, somehow mysteriously managed to get permission for me to miss a lot of main lessons like geography, history and maths in order to rehearse school plays. She showed me that I could be anything I wanted to be, including a mad woman with a seagull on my hat, a man, a fool and a tree. She was one in a million and she saved my life.

Nat Brenner – Principal of Bristol Old Vic Theatre School (B.O.V.T.S), who taught me that there is beauty in all things and that one of the most important acting skills is to listen.

Rudi Shelley – Russian Jewish survivor of the concentration camps, master of ballet and acting tutor at B.O.V.T.S., who taught me how to stand tall and said: ‘If it is not easy, darling, you’re not doing it right.’

Budd Thompson – American dancer, teacher and choreographer in Copenhagen, who taught me how to dance erotically with no shame.

Daniel Sanders – choreographer of Les Folles de Paris, who invited me to come to Berlin and turned me into a ‘star’ of the Berlin Cabaret scene.

Ian McNaughton – Director, producer and writer for Monty Python’s Flying Circus, who directed me in a late-night German T.V. comedy show and taught me that the most important ingredient of play is ‘joy’.

Rik Maverik – a black, gay, New York ghetto ‘sister’ with knife slashes on his chest and debt collectors on his back, director of the Berlin Play Actors, who taught me to not worry about money and ‘just do it’.

Maximilian Glass – Hermaphrodite, classical pianist, crystal expert and collector, who worked on the film The Never Ending Story and who confirmed my beliefs about the relationship between space and time, and introduced me to many other paradoxes of the Universe.

Peter Oswald – Poet, playwright, actor, once resident writer at the Globe, London, also writer for the National Theatre, London, and his beautiful wife Alice Oswald (T.S.Eliot Award), with whom I spent twelve important creative years, who taught me much about the music and magic of words and the spaces in between them.

A very special thanks to Jeremy Holloway, Bardot Boy, Anna Ash, Jessica Hatchett, David Ash, Michael Pickles, Michael Brown, Claire Calverley, Jaques Juin, Priscilla Bergey, Gerry King and, of course in particular, Louise Burston (and her daughter Eleni) for so generously giving me their time to read what I have written, comment on, edit, shape and create this book. All of them have given me great encouragement, inspiration, vital tips and advice (albeit all from completely different perspectives) without which this book would not have been possible.

Introduction

THERE ARE MANY books out there about how to succeed as a professional stage or film actor. I recommend some of my favourites in this book. So why write another? Because an actor’s training is clearly not just about ‘stage worthiness’. Nor is it just about being believable on film or in front of a camera.

Acting is a LIFE SKILL. It is a highly intelligent form of imaginative play that teaches us about ourselves and others. It touches on every aspect of being human, emotionally, sensually, mentally, physically and mystically, and it does this in the most experientially interactive and amusing way possible. Perhaps most important of all, learning to act requires the development of evolved communication skills, human understanding and empathy, which are desperately needed in the world today.

Taught in the right way, acting can greatly increase ones self-belief, confidence and motivation for life in very simple and effective ways. For example, slow down, take your time, breathe, watch, listen, feel, do nothing, imagine, trust your intuition, be truthful, only do something if you really feel it… Were you ever taught these things at school? These are some of the most empowering and effective techniques that professional actors use to immerse themselves in the action or the role they are playing.

Not everyone wants to become an actor. Not everyone wants to become a mathematician or engineer either. What works for one may be completely wrong for another. Behind the façade of whoever we are or pretend to be, I trust that we know which ‘way’ works best for us. Nevertheless, for a long time now, I have noticed that people in general tend to be fascinated by the skills of accomplished actors. This is perhaps understandable, considering the amount of money and glamorous attention that top actors get! But, I think there is much more to it than this. Skilled actors appear to have some mercurial, transformative skills that other people don’t have, some kind of charisma or playful power that many ‘ordinary’ people would love to make their own.

For me it is clear. One cannot separate the art of acting from any other human activity, whether it be nursing, teaching, policing, scientific discovery, psychology, philosophy, astrology, cooking or gardening, because imagination is central to all human creation and our evolution.

Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.

Albert Einstein

On the basis of this, I am compelled to write about the Playground I have been nurturing and the extraordinary human transformations I have witnessed when teaching professional acting techniques to people who wouldn’t normally describe themselves as ‘actors’. Over the years, I have gathered some radical insights into the true nature of the human spirit and developed a large range of alternative resources, which I wish to share.

In the first chapter, I describe the nature of the Playground and who can play. (Please note that in Shakespearian times actors were called players.)

The second chapter tells the story of my own personal relationship with professional acting and the evolution of the Playground. It includes my observations of clear correlations between the ‘art of acting’ and modern paradigms in psychology, neurology and life skills.

The third chapter is a provocative enquiry into why we are not taught these things in school and, considering its general relevance in all walks of life, why the vast majority of young adults enter the job world knowing absolutely nothing about acting or about their true potential as imaginative beings in life.

The fourth chapter discloses some of the acting secrets that I explore and explains the Playground’s conceptual principles and processes.

The fifth gives detailed descriptions of a large range of the games, techniques and creative challenges that I have invented or developed for use in the Playground.

The sixth briefly discusses: ‘What now?’

In essence, this is an account of my own personal discovery process as a professional actress and a rather rebellious player on this planet. It’s an exploration of the invisible spaces between the things that we are led to believe are true in school. Looking back, I can see how my maverick curiosity and resistance to mainstream arts entertainment and the competitiveness of the profession, was nothing more or less than a search for some other kind of truth, integrity and authenticity in the ‘real world’; the outcomes of which I was predestined to share with others.

Sometimes I state the obvious, because the screamingly obvious needs to be stated. Sometimes I refer to acting concepts and techniques that are not so obvious, but which are profoundly relevant to the untapped potential of the human mind and spirit.

I do not claim that anything I suggest or write about is new or even completely mine. I therefore include referenced quotes from many of the great minds who have influenced what I think and feel today, in order to inspire the reader to question and research further.

This book represents a piecing together of strangely synchronistic events in my life: observations, quotes, creative ideas, theoretical musings and case studies, plus a large collection of absurd games and imaginative acting challenges that embrace a whole range of what may initially appear disparate subjects. My intention is to lead the reader, as I do the players in the Playground, via a series of fascinating insights towards a greater awareness of the role of the Creative Observer and the relationship between his/her inner Shadow world of imagination and the world we live in.

I have two small notes to add.

One is about my use of gender pronouns. The pronoun ‘it’ implies that one is an object, so, except in the case of a case study, where I have respected the choice of the individual with regard to the gender or the role they wish to play in society, I have chosen to use s/he or an elongated pronoun, him/her or his/hers. In this way, I wish to address the taboo that denies one the right to say that one is something in between the two or, in part, both at once.

One other small point. It is often said that teachers of the performing arts are failed actors. This type of generalisation is outdated and naively misleading, when considering the greater potential of the art of acting. For me, both acting and teaching acting was a means of discovering this potential. It is my vision that this book will provide some vital and playful suggestions not just for aspiring actors and teachers of the performing arts, but for carers, influencers and teachers in general, wherever or in whatever subject or field they are active. It is my aim to show that the development of acting and improvisation skills can help literally anyone to become a more creative, confident, responsive, responsible, intuitive, self-aware, interconnected, in touch, focused, empowered, empathic, free, daring, proactive, imaginative, communicative, compassionate, joyous, unique and playful individual in the theatre of life.

Josephine Larsen 2022

Contents

Title Page

Dedication

Epigraph

Acknowledgements

Introduction

CHAPTER 1:Oases for Child-Like Play

An Adult Playground?

Is this Therapy?

Who Can Play?

The Games and Concepts

CHAPTER 2:Parallel Worlds

How it all Began and Became what it is now

The Acting Profession?

Professional Acting Techniques

The Ancient Phenomenon of Theatre

CHAPTER 3:Invisible Walls

The Traumas of Institutionalisation

Ignoring the Child Within

Separation

Presence

CHAPTER 4:To Be or Not to Be

Acting Consciously or Unconsciously

Stage Fright

The Secrets of Body Language

De-Mechanisation

The Power of the Eyes

The Power of the Mask

Truth and Transformation

Being Dangerous

Self-Awareness

Memory and Imagination

Empathy

Catharsis

Emotional Intelligence

The Roles We Play

Being Two Faced

Blind Spots

The Being Behind the Mask?

Mesmerism

The Shadow

The Creative Gaze

Generosity and Love

CHAPTER 5:The Games

PART 1:The Approach

PART 2:Imagination

PART 3:Authenticity

PART 4:The Underbelly

Copyright

CHAPTER 1

Oases for Child-Like Play

An Adult Playground?

I WAS CURIOUS to know why people kept telling me that what I offered didn’t exist anywhere else. So, I searched the World Wide Web. I typed the name THE ADULT PLAYGROUND (which is what I called it at the time) into the search engines and found… a plethora of pornographic sites. I wasn’t surprised. My choice of name was intentional; a provocative jab precisely at the fact that ‘the adult playground’ is generally understood to refer to pornography – probably the biggest and most profitable industry in the world, alongside chemistry and warfare. These are not the games I play.

Other than that, I found one solitary company in America that provides Adult Playgrounds for obese people; activity parks, they call them, with swings and roundabouts and bouncy castles, designed to attract adults who don’t normally take much physical exercise. It is not my intention to provide fun weight-loss programmes either. I changed the name. I now tend to simply call it the Playground, and that is how I mostly refer to it in this book for the sake of avoiding confusion. But it is quite definitely and intentionally a Playground for Adults.

I continued my search.

In an artistic context, I found adult play groups all over Europe and America that explore imagination, improvisation and creative self-expression in more or less exclusive or overlapping cross-art-forms: experimental dance, contact improvisation, clowning, fool work, comedy stand-up, forum theatre, playback theatre, circus skills, improvised street theatre, arts therapy and psychodrama. I include elements of all of these forms of play in my Playgrounds, so why were people telling me that nothing like this exists elsewhere?

A very subtle, but major, difference began to emerge. I found no other such like Playground that explores professional acting techniques with the primary aim of empowering individuals (both actors and non-actors) with essential LIFE and COMMUNICATION SKILLS.

Top stage and film acting techniques, which include improvisational play, are usually taught in the context of making people ‘stage or film worthy’. Furthermore these techniques are usually only taught to a relatively small minority; i.e. those who are considered talented enough to gain entry into top drama schools. Funnily enough, those who are selected are usually those who demonstrate in some way that they already know how to do it. Knowledge of this enlightening kind is guarded by ‘the professionals’, like magicians guard their tricks of illusion.

I began asking myself two things: ‘Why shouldn’t the common player be empowered by these top secrets, when the results are so clearly transformational?’ and, ‘Why is there such a strong divide between theatre and life itself?’

The most obvious answer to the latter question is that life is ‘real’ and theatre isn’t. Theatre and film are simulations of life. We dream of doing things on stage and in film that we wouldn’t dream of doing in real life. Of course! But in my rather anarchic mind this observation inspires far deeper questions about the very real connection between life and imaginative play. I mean, how on earth do we create the world we live in? The whole of life could be seen as a form of theatre or film.

One question led to another and in my ongoing research I came across like minds… a whole zeitgeist phenomenon, if you like, that must have begun at least two centuries ago… alternative thinkers, writers, spiritual teachers, psychologists, philosophers, actors and theatre directors and yes, quantum physicists and scientists too, who express opinions similar to mine, as my book will gradually reveal.

In short, there is a body of thought that probably speaks for the majority of humans on the planet. We are in need of nothing short of a revolution in our common consciousness; a new general awareness of the potential of the human psyche, imagination, intuitive intelligence and the real nature of the human mind. We need an awakened perception of a universe, in which the word ‘separate’ no longer exists.

Sadly, we witness the opposite. The ‘success’ of industrial progress has turned us into full time blinkered, right brained, for the most part semi-robotic and sedentary workaholics, living in our separate little microcosms. Stressed out of our minds, isolated from each other (apart from on social media), with no time to truly sense or dream, we have to accept that we have been dumbed down to become willing and unwilling consumers, money addicted slaves, albeit with a longer life expectancy, but exhausted, diseased beings, who in their play time sit hypnotically captivated by billion dollar films starring our favourite actors… whom we attempt to emulate or copy.

It is time to exit an era, in which we have been told that the only route to success, happiness and freedom is speed and hard work.

Gradually it dawned on me why something as simple as the concept of enabling people to slow down, imagine and dream; to gain access to their intuitive/emotional intelligence; to empathise with others; to self-actualise through dramatic games and spontaneous play might well, in this day and age, be regarded as unusual, alternative, airy-fairy, gay, weird and probably dangerous.

‘I have a theory that the truth is never told during the nine-to-five hours.’

Hunter. S. Thompson

Very recently, I saw a video clip of John Cleese (Monty Python’s Flying Circus) giving a lecture to a large Flemish audience, all very corporate in appearance, at a World Creativity Forum. He was lecturing on the theme of ‘Creating Oases for Childlike Play’.

Cleese said that if you’re racing around all day, ticking things off a list, looking at your watch, making phone calls and generally just keeping all the balls in the air, you are not going to have any creative ideas, which is why the offices of companies like Google are full of toys, why the workdays of the Mad Men ‘creatives’ often resemble preschool and why artists’ work spaces tend to be so intriguing to peer into. They are, as Cleese terms them, ‘oases’ from the punishing pace of the workaday world. He was suggesting that the unconscious mind is a genius source of creative intelligence that comes into play when we are asleep and when the logical mind is switched off.

But it was the following part of his lecture that kept returning to haunt me:

‘…if people in charge are very egotistical, then they want to take credit for everything that happens and they want to feel that they are in control of everything that happens and that means that, consciously or unconsciously, they will discourage creativity in other people.’

http://www.openculture.com/2013/09/john-cleeses-philosophy-of-creativity-creating-oases-for-childlike-play.html

Powerful, confident, relaxed and visionary creative play; i.e. doing what we feel like doing, using our intuitive intelligence, imagining and dreaming, appears to be the privilege of the ones in control. Creative play, I mean the type of imaginative, experiential play that I am describing in this book, is not for your ‘average punter’.

I would like to point out very quickly that when I use phrases like ‘common player’, ‘average punter’, ‘normal’ human beings or the word ‘reality’, I do not believe that anyone is normal or average, and I believe that we all need to ask far more questions about what is prescribed to us as being ‘normality’ or ‘reality’.

‘Imagine a world… rescued from psychopaths by a children’s game invented by adult prodigies …in fact, stop imagining – and become more than we have dreamed or dared.’

Darin Stevenson visionary writer. Posted on Facebook 2015

What sort of children’s games are we talking about? Hide and Seek? Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush? Simon Says? Wink Murder? Let’s Pretend? Charades? Yes. And the ‘Ministry of Silly Walks Tag’ too. And ‘Secret Missions’ and ‘Absurd Habits’ and ‘Power Swaps’ and ‘That’s Not How The Story Goes’… and much more.

What’s missing are oases in time and space, where adults can turn off their smartphones and reunite with the child in themselves again; where no-one is competing to be the best, where there aren’t any fixed rules (except that we don’t hurt each other intentionally) and where failure is not a concept. I am not saying: ‘Failure is not an option’. I am saying that the word ‘failure’ doesn’t exist. We need playgrounds where we can reinvent ourselves, re-define the word ‘success’ and unlearn some of the life-debilitating and soul-destroying rules that we learnt in school.

If you’re interested read on, but be warned, this book is biased in favour of a healthy curiosity for the forbidden and the absurdly unacceptable. I am talking about a new, but very ancient, game, which involves a lot of imagination and which has the power to transform our lives and take us into other ‘psychic realities’. We all know how to play this game. Some better than others… we call them ACTORS.

‘In fact he* [the actor] may be said to be