Deliberate Practice
I was reading about the concept of Deliberate Practice, an idea espoused by Geoff Colvin in his book Talent is Over-Rated. It is a simple way of looking at the idea of practice, or a way of working. There are several levels to Deliberate Practice:
A Level of Effort that is directed towards a clearly outlined objective
Thorough analysis
Sharp Feedback
Layered, systematic approach to work.
I was reading it and thinking, this is exactly how we approach acting. It is a perfect way of defining how we should go about learning within the studio or through performance.
Effort to Objective
The job of the actor is to pursue an objective, something like that of the character whilst other watch. To do this, they have the fixed or given components of the words of the writer, the notes and direction of the director and their body and voice. Whenever we put effort towards objective, we produce action. It may not always be the desired action, but if you are truly engaged in placing effort and energy behind action, then your action, your acting will be truthful.
Thorough Analysis
It is essential to throughly examine your approach to work, to examine what intended to do, what you did, where you ended up and how and why you ended up off course. The answers do not need to be complex, they can be immensely simple. Analysis with other actors and the director can lead to great insight, as long as everyone is aiming to conduct a thorough analysis and not just make their opinion heard or demonstrate their intelligence.
Feedback
Honest, sincere and informed feedback is vital. Feedback must come in the form that can actually help. People may believe that they are being helpful, but often they are sounding off, or giving very vague notes that don’t add up to something that can be acted upon. So this is my own personal rule on feedback. Whenever I give a piece of feedback, you must immediately be able to do something about it. It may take time to achieve, but you must be able to act upon the suggestion, it must compel you to do something.
Systematic Approach to Work
A systematic approach to work allows us to build upon the self, peer and tutor led analysis of our work and respond to the feedback that is offered. This allows us to sharpen our focus on the goal, redouble our effort towards the objective and redefine the target goal if necessary. A systematic way is not paint by numbers, it is not fool-proof. It only allows us an opportunity to learn from our mistakes and recognise where patterns of effort towards the objective have delivered a result.
This is essentially that all acting classes and rehearsals should follow, this is deliberate practice, this is our deliberate practice, a practice that with time becomes intuitive.