Standing Down Straight for Actors (362-0-20)

Instructors

Billy Siegenfeld
847/491-3147
10 Arts Circle Drive
Office Hours: Tuesday and Thursday, noon-2:00pm and by appointment

Meeting Info

Wirtz Center SOUTH: Tues, Thurs 11:00AM - 12:50PM

Overview of class

Standing Down Straight® for Actors (SDS) is a method of body-and-voice training that teaches people to speak, sing, and move both more relaxedly and - in a seeming paradox - more powerfully.

To discover how to do monologues, songs, and scenes in this relaxed-but-powerful way without strain or injury, we study the anatomy of the body. We do this to discover how Nature has constructed the body to work - which is to let go of tension and move and vocalize like our cousins the animals -- rather than how our human mind thinks the body should work -- which (under the influence of social constructs like standing up straight, core strength, and no-pain-no-gain) is to hold on to tension and move and vocalize with hypertension.

Knowing how to use our voices and bodies according to the laws of Nature helps us both unlock the rhythmic-emotional energy in our acting and the rhythmic-emotional energy in our humanity. That is, the work of this class involves discovering how being vulnerable, grounded, and energy-giving on the stage can fuel being vulnerable, grounded, and energy-giving in everyday life.

Toward both these goals, the artistic one and the human one, SDS explores how the human body is designed to work with gravity rather than against gravity. That is, by using gravity's cost-free, always-available support, we practice using humanity's five primary rhythmic-emotional articulators - the 2 eyes, 2 hands, and voice - to explore how to perform any movement or vocalization by letting go of the muscle-encased bones of our body rather than by hypertensely holding on to them.

In sum, we learn to work with greater efficiency.

Working with greater efficiency means learning to use the least amount of energy - emotional as well as physical energy - to complete a task with the most power and clearest articulation.

A synonym for working in this more efficient way is LESS IS MORE.

Registration Requirements

Background in either singing or playing instruments, with an emphasis on understanding in body as well as mind the rhythms of the music you are performing.

Class Materials (Required)

No cost

Class Attributes

No Freshmen