Really Doing Stuff – Part 1 – Tactics

I’m moving house again today for the…21st time in my life, so today’s a guest blog from my assistant, acting coach Ian Watt:

I’m an old guy. They say you can’t teach me new tricks. My attention span grows shorter day by day. And truthfully – little startles or ignites my sense of wonder anymore.

I’ve done workshops – all sorts. Some enjoyable – some I’d rather forget. All cost me time and money but only a few helped me make any tangible progress. I didn’t know what I was doing. I got by with a daring mix of ignorance and stupidity. I envied those with traditional training –  without really knowing why. I was looking for something real to steer me, a compass to guide me – or even just a helping hand from some friendly soul.

I was suspicious about signing up for Mark Westbrook and ‘his’ Practical Aesthetic classes.

After a couple of chats with Mark – I committed to doing the very first Intro Class he was about to run. During these chats Mark flattered me, coaxed me and assured me. His classes turned out to be exactly what I’d been looking for. I didn’t learn any tricks – but had a good common sense approach drummed into me. Practical tools I understand but like all of us – struggle to use.

I’ve had a lot of Mark’s little ‘chats’ since then and I’ve noticed they usually end with me committing to do something – performing in a play of his or assisting him teach at the ACS studio. This isn’t a complaint – but take a look at the words in BOLD. They’re TACTICS – the way we do things or how we go about getting what we want from someone.

I’ve watched many of our students struggle DOING tactics for real. When called to do them to order -they start thinking about them. There’s a tendency to ‘act’ out how they think it should be done in an awkward self-conscious approximation of really doing it. They need to be pushed to DO it because you can’t think out a TACTIC – you have to commit to doing it. Find the impulse to do it and learn what doing it is like by doing it. Some TACTICS will come to you easier than others but work at them. Really commit to DOING the TACTIC and you’ll witness things happening to your scene partner. You will affect them.

Recently an Intro class a student forgot their lines because they weren’t expecting to on the receiving end of a TACTIC done for real. They were ready for an ‘acted’ version of it. They could’ve coped with that because I’ve no doubt the student had learned their lines well. The magnetic quality of watching a real reaction was pure magic.

TACTICS are powerful things. When we really DO them – they have a real affect on people.

Mark got me to do this Blog by using them!