Hey all you actors out there! Hope you had a great April Fool’s Day! I for one am not into practical jokes, but if you are I hope you got someone good!
But can I tell you what is not a joke? Warmups. For actors. Did I hear you groan? Did I hear you say that’s just for drama school? Au contraire mon frère.
Let’s look at the sports world. Those guys are doing warmups any time they go to pick up a football, or basketball or hockey stick. Those elite athletes take it seriously, so why shouldn’t we? (Here’s a link to the latest on the science of sports warmups https://www.scienceforsport.com/warm-ups/.)
But we’re actors, you say. We’re not about to run a marathon. No maybe not, but we are about to use our bodies, our emotions, our souls, and our minds. Really great acting looks super easy, right? So easy it looks like you can just roll out of bed and do it. Sometimes I wish it looked harder, like making a touchdown in the last three seconds of the super bowl, or dunking that basketball, or doing a grand jeté in Swan Lake. We have respect for other artists and athletes because their feats look so difficult. We can easily spot their elite-ness and be in awe of it. We need to have that same perception of great acting.
And we need to take it seriously, doing everything we can to bring our A game to the “field”. So that’s why starting with a warmup will really help you do your best—be it for an audition, or callback or booking.
OK. OK. You get it. So what does that actually mean? Warming up?
There are a ton of great acting warmups out there. You can just google, but I always recommend starting with something physical. Get your body going. You can start on the ground, on your back, knees up, getting in touch with your breath. Then moving and stretching your body. Or start standing up, feet hip width a part, knees lose, feeling your spine stretching up from your pelvis and hips. Connect to the breath, start to move, stretching and reaching.
Next throw in some voice, get your articulators going. We forget how important voice is in acting, especially if we’re more geared to film. But remember the voice is directly connected to your emotions. If it’s not warmed up and “limber” your work will not be as connected and real as it could be.
Next you could start speaking some text, something you have memorized. Let yourself explore the characters intention, feel the action of the piece. What do you want? What are you doing to get it? Next let your emotions be stirred. How much does your character want this? What is it like to you? Really believe you are in that circumstance, really work to get it.
That is just one suggestion.
If you don’t have time to do a full warm up, just shake your body out, add some voice and let it wake you up, get your blood pumping.
I challenge you to start warming up before you audition. Don’t just go into it cold. I’ll bet it will really help loosen you up and get you more into your role, into the scene, and hopefully bring more bookings!
Take me up on my challenge and let me know how it goes!
Also as a little bonus I made a quick video of a couple of my favorite quick warmups. See above. Try it out, it will do wonders!
Here’s to more bookings!
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