Workshop Day 2

Day 2 of the workshop stared at 10AM, but before that breakfast was on. The meals they here have been outstanding. I would come just to eat. All kinds of fish, purple potatoes, slaws, homemade breads, fresh eggs and milk. It's amazing. I will come home a bit larger than I left. Below are the musings from Keith. As I said before I will write my take on all this when I have had time to reflect. Right now it's about absorbing.

Enjoy! As a child I decided not to believe things adults told me. The opposite was often just as true.
Actors improve when you ask them to make a sound
Don’t ask “Keith says” Find what works for you.
Make ideas simple
You cannot predict value from training
Promote skepticism
I had a solution to help those poor American improvers that ask for suggestions from the audience: “I need a suggestion that inspires me” Suggestions – hopeless – no, no Americans: “Hey, we’re improvising, be nice to us.” Why should they bother, you didn’t learn the text. Don’t take a suggestion you don’t want to do.
Shout “Again” when you think, oh, shit! Then make a fresh start
Enjoy what you do. Have no fear. Positive energy gives you work. Cheer people up. Project happiness.
If you don’t care about being right you project no anxiety. People are attracted to no anxiety. No fear. Fear doesn’t help you. Fear doesn’t inspire.
Training supplies fear, not spontaneity.
Allow the gods to change it. Take pleasure.
It’s magical when it happens on its own, when you let go of planning.
They use magnets now to switch off the brain in order to be more centered
The brain is often censoring stuff
Keith’s work is distracting actors.
You are a defensive system against nature.
When you say words to yourself in your head, where do those words come from?
The culture teaches you where your voice comes from; head, heart, gut?
Playing jokes is human.
Americans have too many rules, probably from lack of space.
Get skilled in inspiring your partner
Do the obvious
The concept makes the “circle of probability.” Everything else is easy from there.
No negative ideas - The audience wants action and adventure - Go somewhere - Don’t introduce conflict too soon
Improv is learning how to write for kids
A real story delays chaos
We begin at a neutral point
Tell stories to people who don’t know your language, you will suffer, but if you can master it then you can be a good improver; a good story teller
The more calm you are the more you engage the audience
When an action is complete you feel untalented on stage; in that moment you alter things.
Agreeing is a refusal to change If you are not altered it’s not worth seeing
Everything does not have to be made interesting; either it is or it isn’t
Improvisation can be made easy if you go to the stage and pay attention, create stability and then alter.
You don’t have to think about it. You just have to know it. You can’t get rid of knowledge once you have it.
Actors try too hard and are boring
Sanity is a kind of agreement
The audience is not usually interested in your feelings; you don’t have to show what you feel all the time.
With every phrase you say have a slightly different impulse – Henry Fonda
The quality of sound will tell you when people are ‘acting’
Spontaneity is a trance
Inspired means being breathed into by a God
If you are inspired you know what to do.
When you think of the audience you break your trance.
There’s no research in the fine arts. At university acting should be linked with anthropology and psychology. Music should be linked with math. No research means no progress.
Don’t do anything you learn here unless you’re in trouble.
I think you should just get on with it.
Be a bit stupid when you start a role, sleep walk through it.
It’s good to have a problem to solve.
Most people don’t want to fail so they don’t look
Sometimes when you read a book from another discipline you have more objectivity and thus more chance to learn.
Buy second hand books on sports – good improv training.
Intellect is slow.
Spontaneity is in the moment
The problem is getting you out of the way because you spoil everything.
Get out of the way and just do it.
Understand your own buttons so you can push them.
Far too many ideas is not a good idea
Mask work is very good at 2AM.
More likely to be successful when you’re tired.
You can take an actor anywhere, that’s why you don’t trust them
You don’t want great acting all the time. Just sometimes.
Great acting all the time screws up everything. You might just want the ordinary (movies) There’s nothing worse than a great beginning. You have nowhere to go. I took a walk after lunch and explored the forest side (yes we are between the forest and the sea!) and learned that the theatre school shares property with a psychiatric ward. I ran into one of the inmates and he asked if I was from Ireland. When I told him I was from America he said they knew him there too and that he's in contact with the sun, the moon and the blues men. Crazy has no borders. We finished the day at 9:30PM and then sat around and had some beers. I learned about the EU and how it works. Seems as thought it's just as confusing to the natives as it is to this foreigner. We made a plan to go swimming in the Baltic sea the next morning. We'll see if that happens. The sea is about 200 yards from our door. _