Backstage Experts

The 1 Brain Exercise You Need

to Create Spontaneity
By Rob Adler | Posted Nov. 3, 2014, 10 a.m.

Brains! Ever get caught in your head in the middle of a scene and want to eat your own brain for
getting in the way? Or find yourself wracking your brain for inspiration to magically appear? Or
pleading with your brain to stop hijacking your performance?

Speaking of brains, I think we’d all agree that playing a zombie is fairly easy. Single focus: eat
brains. Why can’t other roles be that simple? They can, actually. Simple. Not easy mind you (pun
intended). Like everything else in nature, the mind abhors a vacuum. In the absence of a clear,
simple, focused point of concentration, the mind fills itself with whatever is available. Too often that’s
self-consciousness, insecurity, and other things that hinder high-level performance. The beauty of a
clear focus is it quiets the mind and frees the body to act spontaneously and live truthfully in the
scene.

In 1963, Viola Spolin, the mother of improvisation released her seminal book, “Improvisation for the
Theater,” and expressed an interest in demystifying the intuitive—refuting the idea that the magical
force of intuition was unattainable except by chance or endowed only on a select, gifted few. But for
many actors today, intuition remains a phantom.

Because spontaneity and humor are inextricably linked, the comedy world seized Spolin’s games.
Her techniques became the engine for developing comedic sketch and the foundation for improv
comedy. However, the true power of improvisation for many actors has remained largely untapped.
Now neuroscience and psychology are finally verifying things that the great teachers have known for
years, and Viola Spolin first wrote about more than 50 years ago.

In his book “Thinking, Fast and Slow,” Nobel Prize winner Daniel Kahneman describes the mind as a
pair of systems. System 2 is reserved for slightly more laborious thinking, like adding 289 + 7853.
You can do it, but you have to do it. In acting terms, System 2 typically shows up when you have
difficulty memorizing a line or when and your acting teacher tells you that acting is just “living
truthfully in imaginary circumstances,” but you are working in front of a green screen that’s supposed
to be a chariot race. The mind often rejects imaginary circumstances the way the body can reject an
artificial organ.

But the mind’s other system is effortless, insightful, and instantaneous. It is the part of the mind that
just knows certain things, like if someone is sad, what color blueberries are, or who your acting
coach is. This is the intuitive mind. It’s there for you when, with the camera rolling, you’re fully
Backstage Experts

immersed, playing, and you make some discovery or reveal some new insight and after cut is called,
everybody cheers. You were “in the moment” and all the answers “just came to you” intuitively. But
how did that happen and how can you make it happen more frequently?

Most of us have had the experience of moving difficult tasks from the laborious System 2 to the
spontaneous System 1, like when you first learned to ride a bike. Or drive a car. Or shave. It was
initially in the effortful System 2, then, over time, it moved to the effortless, intuitive system.

In the fast paced world of film and television, we often don’t have the luxury of time to create a role.
But total transformation is possible instantaneously if you have a technique for it. So how do you
speed up the process? The trick to quickly and directly accessing your intuition and turning the
effortful into the intuitive is crisis. That’s right—crisis. When your bike was about to tip over and you
suddenly pedaled faster to stay vertical that first time, your intuition saved you, but only because you
were thrust into crisis: steady the bike or skin a knee.

That crisis moment is a very creative time. We open up, new choices are available to us, and we do
things that were impossible only a moment before. When faced with a crisis, the mind doesn’t have
time to think through the problem. It just clings to the most present thought and intuition is released
to solve the problem. Intuition comes in the now. If you were about to tip over and felt gravity make
its move, but in the distance (or in your mind) you heard your parent’s voice coaching you to “Keep
pedaling,” your intuition kicked in and you did something you could never do before—suddenly and
completely.

It’s important to understand that the difference between handling a crisis with panic or with grace
isfocus. At the audition, you may feel you’re in a crisis when you look over the lens at Francine
Maisler, but unless you have that voice steadying your concentration, all you’ll likely get is
panic. Conversely, after waiting on set all day for your scene, having fully prepared, there may be no
crisis present whatsoever and your performance may be headed for Zombieland. So, how do you
find a crisis on set without causing a crisis for others? Play a game. Why? Games create a safe
crisis and thrust you into the intuitive.

The next time the camera’s rolling, try to make fresh physical contact with your scene partner for
every line of dialogue. Or discover as many objects on set that you can find. Or try and communicate
the relationship to your scene partner as if they didn’t know who they were. In addition to adding
more fun, one can easily integrate games as part of a scripted scene.

While brains provide zombies with a fine entrée and a simple motivation, they don’t always help
actors achieve their desired results. By using a singular focus and tricking the brain into a safe crisis,
it frees up the body to tap into its intuition and unlocks spontaneity.

Keep pedaling!
Backstage Experts

3 Differences Between Acting

on Stage and Screen
By Rob Adler | Posted March 26, 2015

When the cast of “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” first saw the film, many of them were
shocked. In post-production, Director John Hughes and Editor Paul Hirsch decided to
tell a very different story than what was filmed in production. The original Ferris was a
darker character. Ferris was a cigarette smoker and they filmed many scenes with him
smoking. They cut all of that out in post. In the original draft, Ferris even delivered a
monologue about smoking pot from a submarine and in production they ran out of time
before they could film the scene with Cameron and Ferris at a strip club. No wonder the
cast was so surprised.

In film and on TV, actors don’t create their own performances, editors and directors do.
That’s one major difference between stage and screen acting. In the rehearsal process
for the theater, it is not uncommon for an actor who is in control of their performance to
sense something has gone “wrong,” stop, go back, and fix it to get it “right.” On a film
set that’s someone else’s job. Actors don’t call cut.

Well-prepared actors may find themselves filming a scene when they forget a line or
something happens that changes the direction of how they thought the scene should go.
This could send them into their head and stop the take. But the director might have liked
what they were seeing or had a vision for how the footage could be used elsewhere in
the storytelling. In transitioning from stage to screen, actors need to practice letting go
of control. This doesn’t mean letting go of preparation. Far from it. Rather, when they
arrive on set, actors must have the ability to trust the other artists they are working with
as collaborators, and play along. Being fully prepared and simultaneously able to stay
relaxed and in the moment is a vital skill for film and television acting.

Preparation for the lens is different than the stage. In film, there often is no rehearsal
and sometimes you don’t meet the rest of the cast until shortly before filming.
Furthermore, because of camera angles or scheduling, your scene partner might not
even be there to respond to, but you are still responsible for making each take look as
Backstage Experts

though it is alive in the moment and for the first time. Great scripted acting looks
improvised (and great improvisation looks scripted).

Camera actors must have the ability to think actively. So much is communicated
physically and vocally on the stage that could be communicated with a closeup in a film.
One tool I use when coaching to help actors achieve this is to choose a specific point of
concentration to follow during the take. There are many that we teach at the studio, but
one we frequently use comes from Viola Spolin’s Preoccupation games: While doing an
activity, be totally preoccupied with an off-screen event and follow your flights of thought
from it, using your inner energy to springboard from one thought to the next, irrespective
of the scene’s text. Think of how rich Cameron and Ferris are because we see Ferris
fantasizing about driving the Ferrari and Cameron obsessing about getting caught:

Cameron
My father spent three years restoring this car. It is his love, it is his passion.

Ferris
It is his fault he didn’t lock the garage.

Michael Caine offered great advice: “Be like a duck—calm on the surface, but always
paddling like the dickens underneath.” Of course, planning your thoughts could lead to
the most controlled, unspontaneous performances (talk about being in your head). In
life, thoughts happen and life is improvised, so actors must find a way to remain in in the
frame and stay moving on the inside. When you get stuck in your head remember what
Ferris said, “You’re not dying, you just can’t think of anything good to do.”

Like this advice? Check out more from our Backstage Experts!

Rob Adler is an on-set coach, actor, director, teacher, and founder of AdlerImprov
Studio in Hollywood. For more information, check out Adler’s full bio!
Backstage Experts

The #1 Way to Live Truthfully in

Imaginary Circumstances
By Rob Adler | Posted Feb. 23, 2015

When my nephew was 5, I caught him running on top of the furniture in my parent’s
living room, with my jacket over his shoulders. When he saw me, he suddenly stopped.

Caught in the act, I thought. Then, with arms extended, belly down, he leapt from the
sofa in my direction. I caught him. Still in my arms, he was now reaching and twisting.
Without saying a word, he showed me he was a superhero and I was to fly him around
the room, which I gladly did. When he “landed” (I put him down), he instantly cast his
beloved uncle into the role of super-villain. Humoring him, I played my part, donning a
deeper voice and a wider stance to support my mischievous cackle. As I began chasing
him, the fear in his breath was real. He sought cover from the downpour of sofa
cushions as though it were hailing fire. He “killed” me twice before I tucked him in that
night.

We were playing, living truthfully in imaginary circumstances, and communicating them.

We were acting.

Children play. Adults censor themselves. Our mind very quickly tells us no—we can’t or
we shouldn’t. As a result, actors tend to think too much, get in their heads and get in
their own way. And heady, analytical approaches to actor training can reinforce the
limiting mind. We need a viable way to get out of our heads.

Using games to study acting can liberate us from the “constraints” of adulthood. Just
like acting, games have agreed upon (imaginary) rules (circumstances) in which the
player (actor) must spontaneously (in the moment) improvise how (actions) to survive
the onslaught of sofa cushions, get the basketball in the hoop or Juliet off the balcony
(objective). Games are childlike, but can be more than kid’s stuff.

Here’s an analogy: I studied acting in Chicago when Michael Jordan was still playing
basketball. Imagine if, while dribbling down court, three seconds left on the clock,
approaching the foul line, surrounded by all five members of the opposing team, he
Backstage Experts

stopped, analyzed the situation and thought to himself, What should I do now? The
clock would’ve run out and the world might never know him as “Air” Jordan. Or, what if
he called a time out and consulted with his coach. Do you think Phil Jackson would’ve
thought to say, “Why don’t you just fly to the hoop?” Instead of thinking through it,
Jordan played the game and, in the safe crisis of the moment, his body did something
new. He discovered he was capable of more than anything anyone could dream up and
he changed the game forever. You can’t think that kind of creativity. Play can do the
same thing for your acting.

When we play, time seems to slow down, concentration sharpens, and an underlying
joy carries the action. There’s also a full spectrum of real emotion. When was the last
time you experienced that at an audition?

By using play as an acting tool, we can discover ways of expressing things that are not
limited by our adult thinking. You may find yourself laughing at an inopportune moment,
or glaring at someone with heat, or effortlessly flying around in front of a green screen.
Games are the essence of acting. The pioneer of improvisational acting, Viola Spolin,
who developed a way of training actors through play and games, said, “When the
rational mind is shut off, we have the possibility of intuition.”

Play liberates intuition. It is an altered, maybe even higher state that has some very
valuable properties for actors. Great acting, like play, is attractive to watch, reduces self-
consciousness and leaves people with the desire for more. Play is filled with primal
excitement, anticipation, and passion. These are all qualities of the best acting. The
play’s the thing.

Like this advice? Check out more from our Backstage Experts!

Rob Adler is an on-set coach, actor, director, teacher, and founder of AdlerImprov
Studio in Hollywood. For more information, check out Adler’s full bio!
Backstage Experts

3 Tips for Developing Character

Relationships
By Rob Adler | Posted Dec. 3, 2014

Sometimes actors show up to set, are introduced to their co-star and have to hop into
bed together like they have been lovers for years. In the fast-paced world of film and
television, especially during auditions, chemistry reads and network tests, there often
isn’t time for actors to create detailed relationships the way they’ve been trained. Many
actors wind up substituting pre-planned emotions/feelings for relationship or otherwise
try and cram a backstory into their head, which, in the allotted time, only keeps them in
their head.

In my last article I suggested playing a game to help actors get out of their head in
scripted scenes for the camera. Several people emailed asking me to elaborate.

Instead of spending your time stuck in your head with relationship backstory or focusing
on feelings (which change, e.g., sometimes I love my brother, sometimes I hate him, but
he’s always my brother), consider the ways people demonstrate relationship more
consistently. Try these tips to stay in the present and truthfully communicate detailed
relationships regardless of how you feel in the moment.

1. Name the relationship. To avoid the trap of pre-planning feelings, label the
relationship so you can be free to explore the way the characters relate to one another
in a truthful context. If you’re playing Hamlet and Gertrude, the given relationship is
mother and son. As artists, we can also choose to paint with different colors. As actors
in relationships, we may want to use a metaphor. Laurence Olivier explored and
heightened Shakespeare’s text without changing a word by famously communicating
that Gertrude and Hamlet were lovers. Or in “American Hustle,” Christian Bale and
Jennifer Lawrence are husband and wife, but there are scenes where he treats her like
his child.

2. Physicalize it. If the scene were dubbed into a foreign language, how would the
audience see the relationship? This is important for getting your choices out of your
head and into the frame. What can you do to truthfully reveal the relationship? How can
Backstage Experts

you show the relationship so that it’s unmistakable, even if it were dubbed in Mandarin?
Even a detailed backstory is useless if it remains in your head. One way to explore this
is to make physical contact with your scene partner. So much is revealed through touch.
You can increase the challenge by finding ways of making contact without your hands;
even if it’s out of frame, it will inform the relationship. Touching toes under the table, for
example, can spark a sparkle in the eyes. Watch Richard Button and Elizabeth Taylor in
Mike Nichols film “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” on mute. You’ll see every nuance of
their relationship.

3. Seek tension. In a recent class, two actors were playing sisters in a power struggle.
Tension built as they got closer to each other. They were nose-to-nose at the climax.
Although the older sister won the beat verbally, the actor stepped back, so it appeared
visually like she lost. In truth, the actor felt the physical discomfort of tension and
released the tension by stepping away.

Another common relationship trap is when actors view their scene partner as an
opponent on the other side of a boxing ring or chessboard. While this might encourage
the fighting spirit, it also may overlook the very important collaborative role of relating
with your partner while in conflict.

To explore working together to create tension, play Viola Spolin’s Tug-of-War game. Put
an invisible “space” rope between you and your partner. The rope illustrates the high
level of connection it takes to relate in conflict. Use as much energy as you would to pull
a real rope to your side. If both players pull, but don’t collaborate, the space rope will
stretch or slacken and there is no conflict, just sound and fury signifying nothing. If
instead, both players are unified and seek to pull the rope (physicalize) while
simultaneously maintaining tension in the rope together, a magical thing happens: A
previously invisible relationship fills the space between them.

Today’s TV and film auditions are moving at hyper-speed and require quick, clear action
to land the job. And when you’re on set, you’re often working with strangers. The next
time you need to show the camera complex, detailed, truthful relationships fast, keep
these tips in mind. Together, with a partner, you can make something greater than just a
winner and a loser. Remember, it takes two to tango.

Like this advice? Check out more from our Backstage Experts!
Backstage Experts

What’s in a Game?
By Rob Adler | Posted April 22, 2015

Everyone who performs at a high level understands there are critical differences
between training and performing. Boxers don’t jog because they’ll jog in a fight. They do
it because it builds stamina. Ballet dancers stretch so their bodies move fluidly and land
safely on the day. Many actors spend 80 percent of class time sitting in the audience
watching other actors and another 10 percent listening to a teacher talk and still expect
themselves to perform at a high level on set or in auditions. An actor’s instrument is
their whole self—mind, body, and intuition—and they should train accordingly.

The 21st century has brought with it an epidemic of incomplete concentration—short

attention spans that mock mental rigor as passé. The ability to focus one’s inner energy,
memorize, occlude distractions, and explore for details are primary skills for an actor.
There are many ways to go about sharpening the mind, all of which begin with putting
down your “smart” phone. Read a book, go to a museum, or study a foreign language.
All of these will help strengthen the mental muscle.

Research suggests playing games might be the fastest way for actors to enhance
concentration, memory, and intellectual acuity all at once. Sociologist Neva Boyd noted,
“Playing a game is psychologically different in degree but not in kind from dramatic
acting. The ability to create a situation imaginatively and to play a role in it is a
tremendous experience…We observe that this psychological freedom creates a
condition in which strain and conflict are dissolved and potentialities are released in the
spontaneous effort to meet the demands of the situation.” Or as Shaun White put it
“Skateboarding is training, but I don’t think of it as training. It’s fun.”

Here’s a news flash: You don’t need a six pack to be a movie star. An actor’s skill is
measured in part by their talent to communicate physically, non-verbally, the life of a
character in a scene. Transformation is enabled by the ability to hold the body in ways
that are true to the character. So much of Eddie Redmayne’s Academy Award-winning
performance in “The Theory of Everything,” for example, was communicated by
adjusting his physical life. Watch Kevin Spacey’s Oscar-winning work in “American
Beauty” for a subtler example. Hidden beneath the detailed physicality of the award
winners is a secret tool of great actors: Being in your body helps you get out of your
head.
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When the mind is focused and the body engaged, keen and quick insights leap from
within us and creativity is liberated. It is these stunningly intuitive discoveries that allow
actors to express the most beautiful truths: a pensive glance out the window, a pep talk
in the mirror, even a preemptive laser-gun shot under the table. Although intuition is
often viewed as mystical, using a system of games can make accessing it a trained skill.

Viola Spolin’s Singing Dialogue is part of the sequence of games I use in my scene
study classes. The focus is singing with your whole body, from the tips of your toes to
the back of your knees to the top of your head. Aside from heightening vocal action, it
playfully coaxes the actor to further explore what they are saying and how it affects their
partner. Amidst the joy of play, the mind is exercised, physicality is heightened, and new
discoveries are made.

Training is not acting. Training is preparation for the job. Good training should engage
every fiber of your being. Now sing with your feet.

Like this advice? Check out more from our Backstage Experts!

Rob Adler is an on-set coach, actor, director, teacher, and founder of AdlerImprov
Studio in Hollywood. For more information, check out Adler’s full bio!
Backstage Experts

Interview

Rob Adler on Accessing

Emotional Range Through
Improv
By Rebecca Strassberg | Posted Feb. 3, 2015

From the time he was 5 years old, Rob Adler has wanted to work in the acting industry. “I was
sitting on the couch with my brother watching ‘Superman 2’ for the 500th time, and I asked him
how they made Superman fly.

“It was the first time that I ever understood that there was more to the picture than what I saw,
and I got a sense of the magic of moviemaking for the first time in my life,” he recalls. “It was
the first time I realized you could grow up and have a job where they would swing you from a
piece of constriction equipment and sew a cape to your back and let you pretend to be Superman
and I thought, That’s for me.”

Years later, his desire to pursue acting presented itself again while doing a production of “Peter
Pan” in the eighth grade. “I desperately wanted to be one of those characters [who flew], and I
got cast in the play but not as one of [them],” he says. “Initially, I was heartbroken, but then I
started to get into the work and the rehearsal process and I discovered there was another kind of
flight. And it was just as thrilling—discovering what it meant to tell a story with a group of
friends and then share it with a group of strangers and friends. It was life-changing and it really
set the course of my entire life. From there I just couldn’t get enough,” he adds.

It was at DePaul University in Chicago where Adler was “exposed to an improvisational

approach to acting” through the games of Viola Spolin, and he hasn’t looked back since.

Today, as an on-set coach, teacher, director, and founder of AdlerImprov Studio in Hollywood,
the experienced teacher brings his knowledge and advice to students worldwide, ranging from
beginners to season professionals.
Backstage Experts

On creating AdlerImprov Studio.

Adler says he originally created the studio because he “wanted to have people to play with,” but
noticing the power of improvisation, he quickly realized how useful it could be for actors. “I
noticed that this sort of improvisational approach to scripted acting really helped actors with
something that many people were struggling with. Many, many actors seemed to have this
problem of getting stuck in their heads,” he explains. “So what I found was that approaching
acting problems through games and play allowed actors out of their heads and allowed them to
tap into a source of creativity that wasn’t available to them.”

On the power of improvisational games and play.

“One of the magical properties of play is that it gives you energy,” Adler says,
referencing a time he was asked to coach actors in between takes of a television shoot.
After some improv games, “these actors came into the room with this newfound energy.
It’s really amazing to watch that happen.

“You can watch somebody who’s dead tired get involved with something as simple as a
schoolyard game of tag or whatever, and all of a sudden they have energy where there
was none,” he adds. Additionally, as an instructor at the University of Southern
California, Adler notes he often starts his classes with a game of tag, which allows them
to access emotions including anger, frustration, happiness, and joy.

“It exposes this really amazing dynamic of being an actor,” he says, “which is that we’re
the puppet and the puppeteer. It exposes them to the possibility that they can
authentically have emotion without having to drag skeletons out of their closet. “They
can play their way to authenticity,” he explains.

On one major improv myth.

“Because casting directors and agents understand the value of improv training, actors
might think they’re going to be asked to make up lines on set… and that is very rarely
true,” Adler says. “Writing is a whole art form, and if you change the words on an Aaron
Sorkin TV show, you’re probably not going to last very long.

“It’s about bringing spontaneity and presence to the lines as scripted, so one of the
things I help actors to do is find a way to bring spontaneity, bring freshness to every
take without changing the script and without disrespecting the writers. [What they’re
doing], really, is honoring them by speaking their words as written and adding the
actor’s art form, which is about bringing life to the work.”