The Mindset Acting Technique
Recently, a number of blog readers have asked me to succinctly explain the technique that I teach at Acting Coach Scotland. I was delighted to do so, I have now added a permanent page of the website dedicated to explaining the technique. However, over the next couple of blogs, I will go into a little more details than the casual reader might require.
Today, I will explain a little of the development of the technique and why it is called the Mindset Acting Technique.
I developed the Mindset Acting Technique from the various strands of my experience in the field of directing, writing and teaching acting. My journey began when I was just 15 years of age, and it has become my lifelong search to find how actors do what they do and how they can do it better.
Inspired by experts in skill acquisition and development, I sought to streamline a way of working, an acting technique imbued with common sense and simplicity, that would allow actors to give captivating truthful performances without engaging in silly games and pointless exercises.
Through my study of the acting techniques of the past, particularly the work of Stanislavski and Sanford Meisner, and my own training and practice in Practical Aesthetics, I evolved the Mindset Acting Technique, a powerful and empowering tool for the professional actor or those that wish to be.
The Mindset Acting Technique is an innovative approach to acting that empowers actors to give authentic performance for stage and screen. The Mindset Acting Technique (known simply as (The) Mindset or The Technique) is a natural evolution in a history that includes Stanislavski’s method of physical action, the Meisner Technique and Practical Aesthetics. The technique owes a great deal to these approaches, and is built upon them as firm foundations.
What is a Mindset?
In the Mindset Acting Technique, we give the actor a real-world achievable objective to carry out in every beat of every scene. We call these objectives: TASKS
Each task represents the psychological action of the character translated into something that the actor can do in the real world. A psychological action is the essence of the intention behind why we do and say what we do and say. In life our choice of words and actions come from our mindset.
As actors, we must derive that intention/psychological action or task from the script, by working backwards from the words to the character’s goal or want. We must then translate this into something achievable in the real world by the actor.
The character may want the other character to realise he didn’t sleep with his sister.
So the the task or psychological action of the scene might be to: CLEAR UP A MISUNDERSTANDING
A Mindset is a description of what it means for the actor to do one of those psychological actions/tasks.
The Mindset for CLEAR UP A MISUNDERSTANDING, is that the other person in the scene has an incorrect belief and that you need to correct that mistake belief.
The actor takes this Mindset into the scene with them as they attempt to clear up a misunderstanding with their fellow actor, through the lines they are given by the writer. The Mindset must dominate the words, and the actor must work hard not to tempted away by the implied meaning of the words of the script.
To embody a Mindset means to manipulate your own non-verbal means of communication (NVCs) to transmit a set of behaviour, that are in line with that particular Mindset. These include: tone of voice, volume, rhythm of speech, body language, facial expression, proximity, gesture, body language etc. To manipulate your own NVCs requires a particular type of self-awareness, and this is the hallmark of an actor trained in the Mindset Acting Technique.
Rather than the conventional skillset proposed by historical practitioners and continued without question, the Mindset Acting Technique is based on a set of five simple core skills.
The 5 Core Skills
We have a remarkably simple approach to acting, and these are the five skills that teach.
ONE: The ability to transform/translate words/ideas into action. This skill is developed through our unique approach to Scene and Script Analysis, the Mindset is derived directly from our understanding of the writer’s scene. Our goal is to find a Mindset that closely represents the writer’s intention, or the director’s required result.
TWO: The ability to notice and acknowledge psychological change (registered through behaviour) so that it can be worked off on a moment to moment basis. This skill is developed through various exercises based on Meisner’s Repetition Game.
THREE: The ability to embody the Mindset of the Task. This skill is developed through the Mindset Exercise, the Preparation Exercise (Prep) and to some extent in the As-If Exercise.
FOUR: The ability to acknowledge psychological change through the Mindset of the Task. This skill is primarily practiced through Repetition with Task, the As-If Exercise and an exercise that I created called Task Jamming®, which is the most advanced form of rehearsal technique in our studio. Task Jamming® allows an actor to rehearse a scene without ever doing it the same way twice, yet to retain the blocking, lines, and director’s notes. It requires a high degree of habitual skill acquisition in our core skills before an actor can use it.
FIVE: The ability to acknowledge psychological/behavioural change, while embodying the Mindset of the Task, working through someone else’s words. This skill is practiced through Line by Line Task Jamming® and Scene Work.
Like any technique worth learning, The Mindset Acting Technique is requires considerable time to habituate these skills. Skill acquisition in any field is a matter of time, expert tuition and deep practice. Most students develop conscious competence in the first three skill areas relatively quickly, the final two are entirely down to the individual’s commitment and personal development.
In tomorrow’s blog, I’ll capture the practice of the Mindset Acting Technique in a nutshell.