Inspiration: Meeting Mel

As an acting coach, I spend considerable time thinking how to inspire my students. As such I look for ways to inspire myself.

I has inspiration from Mamet originally, from Shakespeare, from Csikzhentmihalyi, and this weekend acting coach Mel Churcher gave me another boost when she came to deliver a Masterclass to my acting students in Glasgow.

On paper we have very different approaches. But as we discovered over dinner on Saturday evening, sometimes the same goals are wrapped in different approaches, terms and techniques.

Mel said something about acting that encapsulates my entire approach “when the character is meant to be cold in a scene, the actor doesn’t pretend to be cold, they simply ask themselves what would you do if you were cold”.

She then started rubbing her arms.

This idea of not pretending to engage with the fiction but to do something real that brings the fiction to life for the audience is the perfect microcosmic explanation of acting to my mind.

Truthful acting comes from what Meisner called the reality of doing.

Hearing Mel saying this set me alight with inspiration again.