PODCAST

In each epidose of my podcast LA REVOLTOSA, I comment what we did during our classes.

Check below the episodes (each title of the episode is a link):

EPISODE 1 : CASTING TIPS 

In this episode I spoke about what we did during Ed Hughes’ class on the 22nd of February. We took part in a mock casting scenario during which Ed demonstrated different variations of casting directors that he has encountered in the past (the one that is not interested, the one that is busy…)

What should you do in a casting?

1. Go for it: Give it your all. You have nothing, you would not lose anything. There is nothing to be afraid of as you go with nothing already.

1. Be the character: When you enter the room, you are the character already. The director is looking for the character, not you as an actor. As Mr Davenport says ‘Make your first 15 seconds count’ (Ken Davenport, 2020).

1. The relationship between the director and the actor is very important. There should be a connection in between them. If you do not get that connection or they do not get that connection, it is better not to work with them.

1. The energy you have when you go to a casting: You have to bring something to the table. The director has probably seen a lot of people before you. You do not need to go really high but go with your energy up.

1. Control the room (particularly for castings in the USA): The actor sets the camera and takes control of the space. This is a way of showing to the director how well prepared for the casting the actor is. The director wants to see in the casting room an actor who is confident with what they are doing.

1. Do not talk too much: Be nice, be polite, talk but do not go over the top. The director knows what the story is about so you, as an actor, do not need to explain to the director what the story is about.

1. Do not feel you have to be sitting all the time: Follow your impulses, do not hold them back.

1. Do not hold your voice: Do not try to hold your voice, be quiet and polite.

1. Once the casting is done, move on. The director has an idea in their mind about the character. And sometimes you can do a great casting but you might not fit the idea of the character the director has in mind, like maybe your voice or something you do. That is why, just do not obsess too much about your casting, just move on.

1. Always give your best in a casting because you might not get the part that time but the director will remember you and might call you for something else in the future.

EPISODE 2: READING THE SCRIPT 

In this episode I spoke about the two classes we attended with Ed Hughes on the 8th and 15th of February. During these classes we read through the script of the play Grief by David Kantounas. We will have our show at the end of the semester and right now we are reading it together to feel the play, discuss the play and for our director Ed Hughes to start casting us.

When actors are doing the reading, normally actors have been cast already, but in our case, we were not yet.

Ed Hughes told us that he should respect the tempo of the play. This particular play is written at a very fast pace.

We were analysing how the play is written and the situation the characters encounter: The main character is Pete and he appears in all the scenes. He is having a breakdown and becomes obsessed with an actress who has committed sucide; the play unfolds around that initial situation.

In this play we talk about the shadow self that everyone has but does not like to show to others.

In this episode I also spoke about the research I was doing at the time about social media and acting. I was particularly researching TikTok and Instagram. I shared my findings about how TikTok has evolved since it was created and where it was then.

The main ideas to take from today’s class are:

• Respect the tempo of the play.
• Analyse the situations the characters have prior to the moments portrayed in the play and the relationship between the characters.
• Take your time to read the script and be full on without interruptions. The more you read the script, the more ideas come to you about the play and the characters.

* Please note I left this episode unedited and two interruptions occurred while I was recording it.

EPISODE 3: CHOICES WE MAKE FOR OUR CHARACTER 

In this episode, I spoke about what we did in Ed Hughes’ class on the 1st of March 2022. Ed gave us the characters we were playing in the scene. I am playing Ed in scene two and Mary, the mum of Helen who committed sucide, in scene six. I spoke about the initial rehearsal I had with Sammie-Jo for scene two and the tips our director gave us to help develop our characters.

The advice Ed gave me about my character was to think about what happened to my character prior to the scene, my ‘previous circumstances’, as Stanislavsky called them (Stanislavsky, 2013). My character has been working a lot on this project and probably did not sleep the night before the scene due to working on his presentation. I thought my character would be very high energy but Ed told me my character should move less, playing this scene like Pete does not understand what is going on.

Another piece of advice Ed gave me is to contain myself. As an actor you should contain your personality to step into the personality of your character.

When you take an option on how to play your character, do not take the most naturalistic one, but take the one that is more interesting for the audience to watch.

As an actor you make a choice for your actions. You might have multiple choices to pick up from to work on an action, but you should always choose the option that perhaps is not the best thing you could do in real life, but is the most engaging to watch.

Advice to take from today:

1. Research the situation your character experienced prior to the scene.
2. Do not let your own personality overshadow your character’s personality.
3. Watch great comedians/actors like Charlie Chaplin, Laurel and Hardy, The Marx Brothers.
4. Take the option that is more interesting for the public to watch: The most powerful one.
5. Walk as your character.

EPISODE 4: TIPS FOR ACTORS 

In this episode I spoke about what we did in Ed Hughes' class on the 8th of March 2022.

Tips:

1. Consider the previous circumstances of the character.
2. Voice: Bring the endings of your sentences/lines up. Practice your lines while moving and step in your last word. If people cannot hear you, they will lose interest in what you are doing.
3. Do not play the emotion. It is more interesting to see how you are holding that emotion, how you are battling to not show that emotion.
4. Play your lines: If you really play your lines, the emotion will follow.
5. Allow yourself to be affected by what the other actor says and create those thoughts: Do as it is the first time you ever heard it.
6. The characters are created in the moment: You cannot plan every action of your character. If you understand your character, things will come naturally.
7. Warm eyes: When we are acting for the camera we give this idea of privacy, inviting the audience into our world.

EPISODE 5: TIPS AND TIPS FOR SPANISH SPEAKING ACTORS 

In this episode we spoke about what we did during another of Ed Hughes' classes. We learnt a bit of choreography, resembling the walk of a londoner, then developed this with another bit of choreography where we pretended to be inside of a wagon in the underground. We will be using this choreography as the entrance of our performance in Grief.

During this class we are allowed to watch during the rehearsals of other scenes.

A tip Ed gave us about playing Pete was again thinking in the given circumstance (Stanislavsky, 2013): Where he lived, which school he attended, who his parents were , did something happen to him in his childhood, etc.

Once again, we were reminded about listening and being present.

A very strong tip he gave us was about being aware of devoicing. Some actors tend to speak quietly and with strain when they act. It is important to understand your habits and work on them.

Tips you can take from this session:

1. Go big: Do not hold it back.
2. Devoice: Use your own voice. Do not go quiet.
3. Listen and be present.
4. Find the truth of the character.
5. Think about the given circumstances of your character.
6. Help the other actor to carry on with the scene.
7. Walk as the character.

The job of the actor is to help their scene partner, to open the door to the other actor to continue with the conversation.

When we were talking about the play Grief, we had to think about:

1. Where is the play set?
2. What is the intended audience of this play?

Tips for Spanish speakers:

1. Pronounce your ‘d’ and ‘t’ at the end of the words.
2. Elongate your vowels.

EPISODE 6: AFTER THE PERFORMANCE  

In this episode I spoke about my thoughts after performing Grief at UEL and the challenges I encountered.

Our teacher and director Ed Hughes was giving us some tips in the second day of performing Grief:

1. Playing the true emotions.
2. Not devoicing.
3. Learning the lines, knowing the lines.
4. Not forcing the feelings.

My personal feedback was about devoicing, leaving beats in between lines and playing the feelings.

I found this performance very challenging which brought me to question why I found it challenging and what I was doing right and I was doing wrong.

There are moments in every actor’s life where you question your capacities as an actor and your abilities and that is part of the journey of being an actor and growing as an actor.

EPISODE 7: FILMING GRIEF 

In this episode I spoke about my experience filming Grief and the differences between filming and theatre.

We filmed most of the scenes of Grief last Saturday in three different locations: A house, the Marketing suite and the green area outside UEL Stratford.

It is very different to film a script than to perform it as a theatre play.

Theatre plays are performed for weeks if not months while an actor preparing a scene for a film may meet their scene partner for the first time on set. I have been given the advice of doing this exercise: Delivering your lines in completely different ways which will help you not only memorise your lines, but also to change the way you deliver them in case your director will ask you to do so.

Also in theatre there is only the point of view of the audience while in film you have many points of view indicated by the frame of the camera. In film the director and the DOP work hand on hand to deliver the director's vision of the film. In theatre the director is the main person orquestating the play while in film both Director and DOP must work together to get the final product, the film.

As an actor, in theatre you can play bigger and your voice needs to be protected while in film it is quite the opposite and ‘less is more’ applies: Your movements should be minimal, your voice should go down and sometimes actors are required to be in a very unnatural position but that it looks good on camera. My scene partner and I had to be opposite each other as if we were facing each other while we were facing in reality to the camera and talking about something that was placed behind us. On the other hand, in films the scenes are shorter and there is less dialogue to learn per take which makes it easier for actors to deliver their lines (as opposed to theatre where dialogues tend to be very long).

During filming, the camera dictates the position of the actors and the length of the takes as some things simply cannot be done within a take because of the limitations of the cameras.

In our filming of Grief, many parts of the script were cut during the scenes to make the dialogues much shorter, our movements were limited by the frame of the camera and we had to bring down our performances making them more minimal.

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*This is a project for my MA Acting for Stage and Screen at UEL, London (2022)