To go on stage

The theater studio is attended mainly by those who are embarrassed to speak in public – to negotiate, give lectures, make speeches. They are afraid that they will not succeed, and therefore they try too hard – as a result, there are clamps in the body and lumps in the throat.

Free yourself from fear. I read a poem in front of the group, I get excited, I speak deafly and without expression. The teacher, actor Dmitry Kozelsky, suggests that I take a more ridiculous position – now one hand is holding my ear, the other is resting on my cheek. I start reading the poem again, holding back a smile, and a metamorphosis occurs: the voice sounds free and strong. “You stop being afraid of ridicule and assessments of others, because you already look ridiculous,” Dmitry explains. – And now all your energy is directed to what you say. This is how jesters once acted, who, by clowning around, allowed themselves to express everything that they felt. If you “settle” inside the image of such a jester and accept your possible absurdity, the fear of the audience will recede.

Feel the body. In the movement class, everyone stretches, crawls, jumps, makes faces – which is why the body is perceived differently. Those muscles that I didn’t pay attention to before make themselves felt: “We are!” “During acting, a person is immersed in the game, and the game brings us back to childhood,” says body-oriented therapist Svetlana Kostina-Erykalova. – Adulthood limits freedom of movement. The game awakens the memory of the body, returns children’s naturalness. As we become aware of each part of the body, we again feel its strength and wholeness.

Meet the new you. A simple exercise is to portray a heron, spreading your arms to the sides and resting the sole of one foot on the knee of the other. It would be uncomfortable to stand in this position if it weren’t for parting words: “And be sure to understand why you are standing like that, why you need it.” When the meaning is found – trying to understand how the herons feel, or the desire to stand the longest – becomes easy. “If you find an incentive, you can do anything,” says Dmitry. “Such exercises help break down internal barriers, clamps.” Acting training provides an opportunity to be different: in the improvisational game, we allow everything that we have to exist. Gradually, an understanding comes that many images and possibilities are hidden inside – and from these options you can choose another yourself, more fully, more accurately corresponding to your essence.