Tips for Ensemble Playing

You are one actor in an ensemble. The chances are that unless you have experienced Viewpointstraining, you have little understanding of how to connect with your fellow ensemble members. Viewpointsis a unique technique for developing ensemble creation and is a primary ensemble building tool for companies of actors. It is still overlooked in the United Kingdom. It is however taught in Ireland and the SITI Company who derived the Viewpoints as a theatre tool often visit Dublin, but rarely come to the UK.

I am offering some Viewpoints-inspired tips for ensemble ‘playing’.

• Listen with your ears and eyes. Pay attention to tone, gesture, movement and sound.

• Develop 360 degree awareness of your play mates.

• Play together.

• It’s NOT about you.

• Surprise yourself.

• Give into what’s happening.

• Get out of your head and into your body.

• Work outside your comfort zone.

• Play safely, but play at the edge of extremes.

• Play with danger. Play with fire.

• Trust.

• Commit Everything.

• Don’t Hold Back.

• Respect individual boundaries but broaden the boundaries of your ensemble.

• Find the Fun.

The exercises from Viewpoints offer the ensemble some incredible tools for discovering self and other. They suit the needs of the actor using Practical Aesthetics.  Of course, the tips above are just words unless you commit to making them part of your habitual way of working and it’s almost impossible to build an ensemble in the short time that professional productions are thrown together in the UK. However, if you have the time, if you have the people, make these your guidelines for group/ensemble work and you will see your ensemble blossom.

To You, the Best

Mark