An Actors Reflection

My Learning - A thought... (Lens 2)

I'm trying to connect my blogs with lenses in the Handbook (Is this an area, that we need to write about in the essay?) Would be great to know if anyone knows... anyway I am just writing things down that I think about and hope somehow it all connects together...

Having looked at Lens 2 in The Handbook; I like the idea that actors are 'Reflectors In Action' (Donaldson 1987 Practitioner) Reflection can happen in the middle of you doing something, for an actor ie; This was the wrong choice/ I don't like the way I said that line/ or the choice I've made in this physicality doesn't work. I like this idea because it is more immediate and 'felt in the body' like muscle memory (Tharp & Reiler 2006, The Creative Habit). It makes me feel good that it's a feeling you have and you can reflect on instantaniously and know what you didn't like, or what didn't work for the character. However thinking about this perhaps it is running away - when. trying something out and feeling uncomfortable is it because it is hitting a nerve or I feel uncomfortable in this part of the play or playing this character like this, does it bring up a memory? Perhaps I shouldn't reflect on it right now but just experience it and take a risk. My drama schools always told me to 'Take A Risk' stop playing it safe'. if you reflect too much whilst doing' are you 'in your head' and not 'in your body' again a phrase that was knocked about a lot at Drama School. So thinking about it, perhaps it is a better idea to 'Reflect on action' rather than the previous. 

I had a Euronics Voice Over job not long ago and was hired with the company assuming I had done this quite a bit before (I think) so wanted to make sure I delivered and seemed like I had done it before. interesting to look back on and think in relation to this idea- to TRUST MYSELF. Trust my instincts and my 'tool kit' from drama school. I surprised myself with how comfortable I made it and how my body reacted by practising a few times and 'knowing' I could do it. My body and mouth started to know how long I had before each hinge coming in and therefore needing to have paced it correctly all the way through, it just kept doing it perfectly before the jingle came in. I was able to automatically sense the rhythm and race of the words through muscle and ear memory. It also made me remember how important it is to warm up, especially facial muscle with diction exercises in order to complete this sort of job with the timing and stamina they require. 

(Howard Gardener 1983) who introduced multiple intelligences made me think in this sense I am a verbal-lingustic learner here. By doing this job and having a few goes at the scripts at first and being the verbal- linguistic learner I was able to do the following; (Honey & Mumford 1992 adapted from Kolbs Cycle); "Having an experience, Reviewing the Experience, Concluding from the experience, Planning the next steps" as an automatic process that I did without realising in order to complete the job; Therefore the tools and experience I have learnt from training allowed this to happen.