Pfluger Empathy Movement Method

HOW TO TEACH TEENS STAGE PRESENCE?

When you are on stage, it is easy for any beginning actor to fall into the pitfall of just smiling and being ready for your photo op. But this is not real acting. And any good director’s job is to create learning opportunities for teens to grow on stage, to deliver scenes with realness – not just a photo-op. And that realness? That’s where the best memories are made!

When you are on stage, you need to use your space, and give your body resistance to the area surrounding you. And you did this differently as your character…. And each character you create on stage will be VERY different than you, with unique personality traits, and motivations that you will represent with different animation in your acting physicality and expressions.

You have the opportunity to be a real storyteller on stage. You are taking the audience on a journey -a story arch with your scene partners. Stage presence is being PRESENT. If you “check out”, so will the audience, because the magic of theater and stage will be broken. This takes stamina and using your rehearsals to build this muscle memory allows for real transformative change and gorgeous stage presence.

Real stage presence call for each cast member to be energetic and activated, showing animation. Think of this as a forcefield that extends across the stage and into the audience. It is easy to fall into the trap of only activating part of the body or face when every part of the body is needing to be “activated” from your hair to your toes. Alive and animated, moving and attracting real and raw feedback. So create tension and release WITH your scene partners, and in doing so, you will stand out as an Acting Professional!

A Challenges to Percolate:

Do a simple mirror warmup with yourself or your scene partner. Challenge yourself to be bigger and give your muscles more resistance and realness.

The Java Jive: Depicting Trauma on Stage

It happens. You get an incredible role – with trauma in it. Thankfully, you haven’t experienced anything like this in real life. You haven’t lost a loved one. Or been trapped in a garret to avoid persecution. Or been burnt at a stake. Or walked down the street and be assaulted – or accused of something you never would do. So how do you deliver a real and authentic performance when you have no such life experience to draw from?

We’ve all seen it happen. A normally talented performer becomes wooden and emotionally-affective during a fight scene, retreats during aggressive stage conflict, or worse – “fights the part”. How do we transcend this “fight or flight” instinct? How do we keep it real and authentic on stage?

It answer is simple. What parallels have you experienced that you can draw from? Maybe, thankfully, you have never lost a spouse, parent, or sibling, but, you might have helped a friend through the pain – or know the pain of losing your pet. Think on how you would, with kindness and empathy, help them. Then, use that as your starting point.

The stages of grief are universal. The rules would definitely apply to this pandemic. As humans, we deny. We bargain. We are shell-shocked. We grieve. We become depressed and angry. And finally, we find some acceptance. Lather. Rinse. Repeat. Because the stages of grief can come and go as we process these painful losses. The loss of a job and our identity. The loss of our childhood home. The loss of a child. The loss of what we thought was permanent and safe and protected.

That is what we take to the stage. That is what we give to the audience. The honesty of the emotion. The bravery of showing it through our actions. And portray hope for the future

Challenges to Percolate:

Be super brave for five minutes today.

Think about something you mourn. Remember “the emotions in the room” at that time. Think what got you through it, that you could bring to a role in healing.
“Text” a letter to a character you struggled with, showing your support for them, and then read it as that character would. Allow this to be a “moving action” to heal.

~ Felicia Pfluger

The Java Jive: Fatal Flaws and Fantastic Strengths.

As you develop your character, think of them in terms of their strengths and weaknesses. What fatal flaws will they conquer? Which of their strengths will help them triumph? What other characters of the stage have complimentary faults that together, could be their undoing? Which combined strengths could be used to help them triumph over adversity? Tag team with your fellow ensemble to create this. Are the tensions internal or external? How can they be heightened? When the audience is sitting in the darkness, what “magic” you created will make them lean forward in their seats?

Create an emotional scavenger hunt for the audience. Before the “moving action” of the play takes place, ask where can you embed foreshadowing. Where might you build tension early on to give the audience inklings of what might happen? Remember, it is only through your action, and little “tells” that anything can be visualized. Your breathing. Your eye contact – or lack of. Your posture changes. Yes. these gifts to the audience allow you to create the backstory to bring forth the tension and build the dynamics of your role, so that the play is going someplace.

Challenge to Percolate:

Pick up a script and take some time to “play”. Choose two areas to build tension as “the stage is being set” in the first scenes.
Think about your favorite movie characters. Write down bits about her that make her/him character authentic – that make you “root” for them well before the crisis.
Choose a character in a show you hope to act some day. Create a few journal entries, in their voice, over a week. These can even be from a decade before or after the story we know takes place. There are no limits. Just have fun! Play!
Look at the relationships between family members in the show. What habits stretch generations? Which are a character developing their autonomy or rebelling?

~ Felicia Pfluger