Lessons & Journal Assignments for Students

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Wed, 22 Dec 2010 09:27:54 -1000

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Tell Your Story

Sun, 12 Sep 2010 16:40:39 -1000

Your Monologue is like taking us on a journey inside your world. You paint pictures with words, you orchestrate our emotions with your own. A monologue can be about anything real in your life. It can be from childhood, or recent or even current events.
It should have a strong dramatic arc, and be a story that you can tell many times through the process of rehearsal and multiple performances. Actors in Broadway shows often have to deliver intensely emotional performances eight times a week! So get used to being able to call up strong emotions, and then release them just as quickly.
Specific Details, Please!
You only have a couple of minutes to draw us into a whole world. So you want to paint vivid images of people, places and things. Be as specific as you can with the details. In other words, instead of saying “My mother was cooking” which is a generic statement say: “I could smell the bacon, and hear it sizzling on the hot stove.” These words call upon our senses, and we immediately paint a picture in our mind.
Condense, Condense, Condense
Monologues, like poems, are a very condensed form or storytelling. Nothing should be there that doesn’t need to be there. Don’t tell us any tangential information if we don’t need to know it. It is tangential if it doesn’t help build the story line, or explain important information we need to know, or explain a character’s actions or mood. You want to pare down your story to its most basic and essential ingredients -- without throwing out the essential details that build our emotional response.
Build Your Story Arc
Every good monologue has a strong beginning, clever and unexpected twists and turns, and a powerful ending. It doesn’t mean you have to tell the story in that order! It just means that the story has some kind of structure, and that everything builds to the most powerful ending you can find. For the purposes of this class, you can fictionalize some elements, such as condensing time, combining characters, or other narrative devices, in order to make the story have a clearer flow, as long as the essential elements of the story are true.
Pack a Punch
Make sure your monologue generates a strong emotion -- in you as well as in the listener. It can be any emotion -- just not a vague one -- find those peak moments that cause you to feel the emotional juice. If you aren’t feeling it, your audience won’t be moved, but if the story generates real emotion for you, chances are it will strike a chord in your audience.
Performance Tips:
Who are you talking to? It could be yourself. As you prepare to do your monologue, make sure you know who you are talking to. Is it being delivered to one particular, specific person? Is it being delivered to the whole audience?
If you are talking yourself, as if you are narrating an interior monologue, it still needs to have an objective or goal. Examples might be to: convince yourself to do something, or get the courage to do it, to mourn, to vent, to understand, to solve a problem, to escape, to break free, to plead with someone, to forget, to predict or see into the future, to hope.
Where are you, where is the location for this story? How can you bring that environment to life? Are there any specific props you can bring to convey the sense of place?
What just happened? When does this story take place? Is there a “back story” that we need to know? This is exposition of facts that we need to know in order to connect with the emotional meaning of the story.
Dress the part. Dress according to the character. What would you have been wearing at the time this story occurred? Wearing the right clothes and shoes will make a big difference in bringing your character to life.
Find Your GOTE: Goal, Other, Tactics, Expectations
Goal: What is your character’s principal quest or goal? What is your intention or objective? Make sure that what you want is something specific and concrete. In the simplest terms, what do you want?
Is there a relevant physical activity or action you can do during the course of your monologue?
Other: How do you feel about the person (s) involved in the monologue? Who or what is your chief obstacle or opponent in your story?
Tactics: In the context of your story, what will you do, how will you gain your goal? What are the methods you use to achieve the goal? Tactics should involve a range. They can start with one simple tactic and escalate. There should be two to three in your monologue. We want to be able to see the changes.
Expectation: What do you expect to get as a result of your words? What do you want and what is your excitement, energy, enthusiasm (what is the passion driving the goal.) Why do you care? Why is it important to get your goal?
A good monologue will have “high stakes” or strong emotional consequences. Why do you have to tell this story? Why is it important? What do you need to prove? Who do you need to “hear” ? What is the compelling reason for this story?
Beats:
A “beat” is any change of emotional direction. For example your monologue may begin with a scared beat, change to an angry beat, and end on a resolved or satisfied note. Those are beat changes.
Identify a beginning, middle and end in terms of emotional beats, and divide your monologue into these separate beats. Hopefully you can find at least three in a good monologue. Make notes as to where the “beat changes” are in the text.
Fun Practice
To help you find clear emotions, practice doing your monologue without words, just using gibberish. Or sing it as a song or rap!
The Most Important Advice
Be truthful! Don’t push, rush or force anything. Take your time when you deliver it. Let us savour every word!
Some helpful videos to help you write and prepare your monologue.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKRISSbFe5g&feature=related

Creating characters

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AMBHnx6l1uA

How to Write a Monologue

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WgjLyk57zG8&NR=1

Genie Joseph

Text and Subtext

Sun, 12 Sep 2010 16:38:38 -1000

In a scene there are two levels of meaning with the dialogue. The TEXT is what you actually say with words, or in a screenplay they are the words on the page. The SUBTEXT is what is implied. It is what the words really mean. It is the UNSPOKEN messages. Sometimes the text and the subtext match, but often they can be different or completely opposite. For example I can say “I understand” (the text), but according to my voice and body language it can have any number of other hidden meanings.
Play the Subtext
Scenes can become flat if they are all text. Or they can be too subtle if they are all subtext. The most interesting scenes have a combination of text and subtext. It is the rhythm between them that makes a scene combustible! They keep the audience active, because they have to detect what is really going on inside the characters minds.
When you see great performances from actors you admire, chances are they are using some subtext to give the scene emotional nuance and dimension. And remember, sometimes the subtext is silent, as in a reaction shot that lets the audience in on something that maybe their acting partner doesn’t understand.
The Double Take - Subtext King!
The double take is a famous technique from Vaudeville. Below is a link so you can see how playfully it is used by Ryan Styles in the original British version of “Whose Line is it Anyway?”
It is just a reminder that sometimes the best subtext is no words at all!
Look how skillful these improvisers are at physical comedy, the use of the body to create characters. Subtext is a great training skill to help you become less dependent on words, and more expressive with your body, as you will see in the English version of the show.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvQDJfA0f10
The 2% Solution
Various communication studies say that in terms of how we communicate, words are anywhere from 2-10% of the entire message. All the rest is conveyed through tone of voice, body language, facial expressions, posture, energy and movement. You can see how the best improvisers don’t just rely on text or words to convey humor to the audience. It is because of their faces, voices, expressions, and physical behavior that we can’t help but laugh. So don’t rely on just words, which can create a “talking head” scene. Use all the elements of your “actor’s instrument” to create a full character and a dynamic scene.
This doesn’t mean flap your arms around wildly, or throw yourself around the stage. Movements have to be purposeful and organic, motivated and grounded through the reality of the scene.
Nothing will raise your confidence in yourself as a performer faster than adding more physical behavior to your scenes! Let yourself loose.
Here’s a scene from “Coupling,” a British show, where they actually speak the subtext.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PxVHealguGs
And putting it all together, The British Whose Line…look how fast they are on their feet!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQuAF0-92JQ&feature=related
Genie Joseph

Secret Wants

Sat, 11 Sep 2010 15:49:59 -1000

Another excellent way to make your scenes more dynamic is to have an internal desire or “secret want” that drives the scene. This is not necessarily something you speak about, as in saying: “I want your money.” It is an internal desire that colors or affects everything you do in the scene.
Secret wants should not be spoken about in a scene, rather they drive the “subtext” and work best as your private motivator. Some examples of secret wants are: “I want you to love me.” Or “I want you to respect me.” Or “I wish you would leave me alone.” Or “I hate the way you smell.” These are called “Secret Wants” because they are rarely spoken out loud, just like in real life, when in some interactions we don’t say what we really want.
How Do You Feel About Your Desires?
Some people are afraid to connect with their innermost desires, because they fear they will be consumed or overwhelmed by some huge force. Or they are worried that they will feel depressed or angry if they allow themselves to want something or someone, and then can’t have it or them. But if you don’t allow yourself to have desire, it is unlikely that you will magnetize or attract that which you really want. If you look around at the people who have the things that you wish you had, you might notice that they are very comfortable having them, and have an inner belief that they deserve to have them.
Focus on What You Want:
For this lesson, you want to really allow your own authentic desires to have air time. Take them out and air them by honoring them. Let yourself feel your desires. This is actually a sacred process, because you are being truthful and open. To get started, think about when you were a child. What were some of the things you wanted or wanted to become? What happened to those desires? They are part of your innocence and your power.
In short, reclaiming your true desires can be a very healing experience, because they reconnect you to your heart and your truth. The more you focus on what you desire and enjoy, the more likely you will attract it into your reality.
What Does Your Character Want?
In an acting scene, if you begin the scene with a “secret want” it will make your character very alive and the scene will become much more interesting. This is true even if (and especially if) your partner has a completely different desire. Allow this desire to be like the fuel that drives the scene. This takes you out of your head, and puts you into the zone of creativity. When you let this force propel the scene you will surprise yourself and your audience with the choices you make.
Desire is Your Secret Weapon
Perhaps when you were growing up you learned that it wasn’t safe to have desires. Or maybe you just made a decision not to “want” anymore, as an attempt to protect yourself from disappointment. As actors we need to open the Pandora’s Box of Desires. We need to learn that desires are our secret tools to help make scenes exciting and spontaneous. We need to get comfortable with wanting!
Your desires are your soul’s fingerprint, and are intimately connected to your deepest self. Allowing these desires to bubble up into your life will lead you to more authentic communication and connection with others. This week really allow yourself to feel what you want, and allow those desires to propel you to new and unexpected delights on stage and off.
Watch these You Tubes.
This scenes are driven by a non-secret want, a mission, but look how much fun they have with them. In this sketch a secret want is introduced late, but dropped by the other player. It might have been fun if they didn’t let it go. Can you find it?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a55kjGzYem4
Look how character and desire are so connected that you can’t separate them. What are some of the skills and techniques you can see these players using to make this sketch work?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJfnDo6ijbk&feature=related
Genie Joseph

Power Play

Sat, 11 Sep 2010 15:29:39 -1000

As actors and improvisers we always want to make our scenes as dynamic as possible. One way we can increase the potency of a scene is to play with the power dynamics. Just as in real life, many situations and interactions involve complex power dynamics such as one person being more dominant than the other. These sometimes subtle, something overt inequalities influence the interactions in fascinating ways. As actors, we can play with this basic human nature element to create interesting scenes.
High Status/ Low Status
In a given scene you might choose to play high-status, which means becoming a dominant person. Or you might choose to play low-status to your partner, which is often hilarious. Both roles can be very funny and creative. Some people find one role more comfortable than the other, and will tend to go to that status as their “default” character. What you want to do is vary your characters so that you don’t get stuck in either extreme. In short, you want to cultivate the ability to play high and low status characters with equal ease.
Practice Switching
Identify which is generally easier for you in terms of status, and make a deliberate effort to play the other part in class. This increases your range of characters and flexibility and keeps your scenes fresh. This may be a challenge if you are very polarized to one extreme or the other. But the goal of improving your scenes is complete spontaneity, and if you are always playing one role or the other, you are not fully in the moment and creating anew.
Identify the Actor’s Elements of Status
How does a high-status person stand, how do they use their body? How do they move? How do they assert their dominance with their body? How do they use their voice? Do they use volume or speed of talking to create this dominance? What about eye contact? High status people will often use extremes, either a lot of eye contact, or refusing to look at you.
What are the elements of behavior in a low-status character? How do they use their body, voice, face, eyes, energy? If a performer is clear in their choices, you will know in less than three seconds whether they are playing high or low status in the scene. You can choose to play the same status, you can one up them, or you can play the opposite of their choice. All of these options can be very entertaining and create dynamic scenes.
Flexibility Drills
One of the great ways to increase your emotional flexibility is to play with status in a scene. You might even change your status in a scene according to what your partner does. Change from one status to the other can be interesting, but it should be motivated by the interaction between you and your scene partner, not just something you “decide” to do within your own head. But in practice mode, you might try switching just to get the experience of playing both sides of the character coin.
Go to the extremes of both behavioral poles. It is fun to push the envelope. It also gives you greater range and helps you find new ways to engage with each other. Status creates instant character. If your scenes are feeling bland, try adding a strong choice of status and watch the fun explode!
Watch this You Tubes where actors switch status during a scene. Do you like the choices they made or do you feel it would have been better if they stuck to their initial choices.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6a_GBKcrWSk
Genie Joseph

Courage = Aliveness

Tue, 7 Sep 2010 13:02:39 -1000

It takes courage to do Improv Comedy. But it also builds courage. Like a muscle that you train, the more you use it, the stronger it gets. The more you do Improv Comedy, the more you build a sense of trust in yourself and in the flow of creativity and spontaneity that can carry you across the abyss of daily life.

You are going to live your life – but you can live it with courage or without it. If you are just living in a box of safety, or other people’s versions of reality, you are going to feel a loss of vitality and courage. This is because your courage muscle isn’t getting any exercise. It is good to push yourself in class because you strengthen this muscle, and then that muscle becomes stronger for the other areas of your life where you need to expand your potential.

“Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage.” Anais Nin.

Improv is exciting precisely because you can’t entirely predict what is going to happen. You have to let go of the reins in order to succeed. Some people find this challenging, and in emotional terms, it feels like skydiving. Use this class to practice and get used to the sensation of emotional free fall. It is exquisite. Explore emotions you don’t usually play with. Move your body in ways that are brand new. Use your voice to express nuances you didn’t know you had. Playing with the same couple of emotions is like playing with a crayon box of four colors. Why play with a box of eight Crayola crayons when you can play with a box of 64? Improv is about allowing the unexpected, unplanned genius to flow through you.

The great dancer and choreographer Agnes De Mille said:

“Living is a form of not being sure, not knowing what next or how. The moment you know how, you begin to die a little. The artist never entirely knows. We guess. We may be wrong, but we take leap after leap in the dark.”

Jump Up!

In class, it is better to jump up and try something – even if you “fail,” than to sit there and let an opportunity to learn go by. When I ask for “two people – jump up!” Don’t even let me finish the sentence, be on your feet, up on the stage. It’s an exhilarating feeling -- not to be an observer -- but to be a participant. There are some life situations where you need to exercise caution and critical thinking! But in Acting Class, there are no hidden tigers. So go ahead! Leap up on stage and make it happen.

It is ironic, but many great improvisers and even stand-up comedians are shy people. Or they started out that way. Improv comedy becomes the process of how they move from the cocoon of shyness into the butterfly of full-self expression. So, it doesn’t matter if you start this class as a shy or somewhat shy person. That is simply where you start. What matters is where you end up. And where you end up has all to do with the choices you make in class.

Choose Courage

Whether you feel brave or not is not as important as how you act. This is an acting class. Act Brave. Act as if you have courage. The reason that this is important is that you actually teach the brain courage not by thinking about courage, not by talking about it, but by actually doing it. In other words, you might feel frightened when you first stand up, but as you move into the process and the character, the courage finds you.

I believe that the fact that you are reading this, that you are in this class, means you have what it takes. You just have to believe in yourself!

It only takes one brave person to change the world! Want a free hug? Watch how one person’s courage can start a whole new ball rolling.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vr3x_RRJdd4&feature=related

Genie Joseph, M.A.

Spontaneous Power

Mon, 6 Sep 2010 17:05:02 -1000

As Improvisers you are learning to trust your power of spontaneity. It is better than anything you could plan. The magic happens in the spontaneous moments that develop out of the unplanned discoveries between you and your partner. Discoveries happen when you and your scene partner move into a rhythm that comes from really listening and accepting each other’s gifts.

Learning to trust this spontaneous power is what makes improv so exciting to perform. And it is what makes it so special to watch, because you know the actors on the stage are working without a net!

Surrender Your Best Ideas

Sometimes you come into a scene with a great idea, but your partner takes the scene someplace else. You have to be willing to bow to the Spontaneity God – and worship at the throne of discovery. It is more important than sticking to your own idea at the expense of the flow of the scene. Maybe your idea can come back later, maybe not. But the joy is in letting it go and investing in what is actually happening right now.

Always be prepared to let go of a preconceived idea in favor or nurturing the spontaneous creativity of the moment. This is what will make you an amazing improviser.

Trust and Collaboration

When your acting partners trust that you will surrender an idea to make the scene work, it develops trust. Trust leads to collaboration. Artistic collaboration is what leads to your partner’s wanting to make you look good – so that the scene will take off. There is nothing more dull than watching improvisers who aren’t really working together, but instead are doggedly hanging onto their own individual ideas.

The spirit of collaboration is essential for successful improv. It is more fun to play and to watch when all the actors trust each other and work as a team and build something totally surprising.

Trust Yourself

In order to let your spontaneous juices flow, you have to trust your first impulses. Don’t edit or judge yourself or your partner, because that is a spontaneity killer. Believe in your ideas. Spit them out – and commit to them! Once they are out there, treat them as if they are the most brilliant ideas ever. The truth is that what makes an idea really work on stage is not how smart or clever it is, but how deeply the actors trust and commit to the idea. Always invest in your own ideas or the ideas of your partner. Ambivalence or going half-way creates a weak scene. Give yourself fully to each moment. That’s where the magic comes from.

Watch these inspiring You Tubes on Spontaneous Improv.

Watch These You Tubes on Flash Theater -- in public places -- where the audience is not expecting it.

Napkins:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dkYZ6rbPU2M

Philadelphia Market

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_zmwRitYO3w

And here are the Genius’s of Spontaneous Improv from:

Whose Line is it Anyway: “Director” Musical Styles

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Xbwzzj_wa8&feature=related

Genie Joseph, M.A.

Please read my other Blogs

Yes...and... Your Secret Weapon

Sun, 5 Sep 2010 19:00:28 -1000

Improvisational Comedy is based on cooperation, connection and support of your teammates. The best improvisers are those who make their partners look good, rather than just going for a quick or cheap laugh at the expense of the development of the scene. The more you work to make the scene develop, instead of just going for a “look at me, I’m funny” moment, the better you will be at becoming a great improviser.
A cornerstone principle of Improv is called: “Yes, and…” What it means is that whatever your partner says or does – you consider it a gift, and you accept the offer by saying say “Yes” to it. This doesn’t mean you have to agree with them, or even like what they are offering. It means that you receive and acknowledge it – and then develop it in a new way – that is the “and” part.
For example, if your scene partner says: “Wow, it’s raining.” And you say: “No, it’s not,” the scene can grind to a halt. Now your partner has to come up with something new, and this is called “wasteful” in Improv terms. Or you could end up arguing about whether or not it is raining, which will be entertaining to the audience for about one second.
Say “Yes…”
When your partner says its raining, you say: “Yes, it is raining. And I hate the rain.” Or “And I love the rain,” or “And my new peacock hat will be ruined.” It is as if you have agreed and accepted the basic gift your scene partner has offered. Then you added something new, which sends the scene in a fun and interesting direction.
It takes a certain discipline to say “Yes” and not “No” in a scene. If you find yourself being a “no” person a lot in life, it may show up in this class when you try to do scenes. You can learn to break this habit, and it may have very pleasant consequences in other areas of your life.
You Have to Really Listen to Accept Offers
You have to listen very attentively to what your scene partner offers. You can’t say “Yes, and…” if you have been busy thinking about what you want to say, or if your aren’t really listening to them.
Assume that everything (no matter how brilliant or stupid) your partner says is a fabulous suggestion – because it can become one in your hands as you put your twist on it. The secret to great improv is to listen, and not miss any opportunities that come your way.
Great improv is like a ping-pong game where neither player misses a ball. Everything that is said in a scene is something you can develop. You do not have to like it or even agree with it, but you just need to accept it as a playful ball that has come your way.
Say Yes to Life!
Learning the power of saying yes can have a huge impact on your life. So often we are judging or resisting things that are delivered by others. We often define ourselves by who or what we don’t like. Improv gets you into the discipline of saying yes, or partnering with the people and all the things that come your way. The result is that you get into sync with those around you. People enjoy you more because they feel you are on their side.
Practice Saying “Yes…and”
Take a day, or a week, or thirty days, and practice saying: “Yes, and…” to everything that is offered to you. Let’s say someone says: “I love Kim Chee,” and you hate Kim Chee. You can say “Yes. And I love Kung Pao Chicken.” In this way, the conversational ball stays in motion. You are true to yourself, and haven’t said that you like Kim Chee, but you have offered something up in exchange for their gift. This is the art of living! And it is what makes great improvisers!
Here’s two You-Tubes demonstrating Yes, and...”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qe2a3ppacUk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wLBlDRAaHE0
This great example below is from “Whose Line is it Anyway” Notice how they apply the concept of Yes, And...without using those words. You can see how they don't drop anything, and treat everything as a gift in -- Sound Effects.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4blSNuXhGY&feature=related

Genie Joseph, M.A.
Please read my Blog

Pleasure & the Present Tense

Fri, 3 Sep 2010 15:09:52 -1000

Be Here Now

Improv comedy means being present – right here, right now. Not thinking about what you need to do later, or what you should have done differently. Improv only works by your being willing to:

BE HERE NOW.

The more present you are, the faster your brain will work, because you are not using up brain RAM thinking, being in the left brain, or being self-critical. These take up a lot of mental processing space and leave less room for creativity, humor, inspiration and spontaneity. One of the reasons people enjoy improv so much is it is one of the fastest methods for putting you in the present. And the present is where we have all the fun!

Focus on Pleasure

What you focus on, you get more of. So focusing on pleasure will bring more of it into your life. To focus on pleasure, you have to begin to trust your own senses again.

There was a time when you trusted pleasure.   It felt good.   It made you happy. It made you feel full. You wanted more and felt delighted when you got it.

Then language showed up.

The word “NO!” in particular had a pretty clear meaning. “No, don’t touch that!” “No, don’t put that in your mouth! “No, don’t do that!” We heard a lot of those words and saw the faces that went with them, and they made a strong impression in our minds.   After all, they came from people we were dependent upon for our very survival.

For the most part the people who said “No!” to us zillions of times were doing the best they could to protect us from the perils that go along with infant pleasure – such as touching everything, putting everything in our mouth, and in general exploring the world through our senses.

Don’t do…THAT! Yes! Do that!

The problem was -- that what we were doing felt good. But the looks on their faces said that was bad. And so we began to doubt that what feels good is good.   Somewhere along the road of leaving infancy, we lost the Paradise of Pleasure where everything was experienced through the senses. Now we have to get it back. How?

We go back home through our senses. To what feels good. Because the journey home is paved with pleasure. This is very important for improv students because to get the full range of the “Actor’s Instrument” we need full access to our senses of sight, sound, touch and perception.

Great acting and great improvisational comedy is based on your ability to authentically display emotions and sensations. You need to re-connect with your senses. How do you do that?    Focus on what feels good.

What feels good is good for actors, because it means you are in the present moment.

This is because what feels good is what is authentic and true for you. And what is authentic and true -- feels good. On the other hand it feels awful to be phony, or to pretend to be happy, or to try to make someone else happy at the expense of your own happiness. It feels constricting to follow someone else’s prescription for your life if it doesn’t ring true for you. It feels maddening to accept someone else’s version of reality if it doesn’t match yours. The only thing that feels good is to live in accordance with what you know to be true, because that is the only thing that feels good.

The Sense-ible Approach

This is why actors need to reclaim their sense of truthful pleasure and to re-enliven the senses. I believe that the journey back home is through the senses, which is why we do the specific warm-ups in class that focus on them. So if what you’re doing is feeling good, it is like a Geiger Counter that tells you you’re on the right track. Pleasure or good feelings are your inner guidance system pointing you in the authentic direction back to your senses. Pay attention to what feels good – and you will strengthen your connection to your authenticity and you’ll have more of it.

Because the mind can only focus on one thing at a time, focusing on pleasure is very therapeutic because it eases away suffering. Since the mind likes to be busy, it can be busy on the experience of joy or pleasure. Focus on pleasure increases pleasure. When a person has been traumatized, a part of their brain gets stuck in the past (read my blog on this). Helping traumatized people enjoy the present is extremely healing. It’s fast and effective -- and it’s free.

Homework Activity: Pleasure-Size

Exercising your sense of pleasure increases your ability to feel more. So if that sounds like fun to you, here’s a little “pleasure in action” process I call “Pleasure-Size.”

Pick one of your favorite senses – such as sight, sound or touch. Let’s say you picked sight (but you can pick whichever one seems more fun to you.)   Focus your eyes on something right where you are that brings you some pleasure.

If you happen to have an extraordinary view of the ocean at sunset, that’s wonderful. But even if you are sitting in the dullest of rooms – find something, a color, a shape, a pattern that makes you feel good.

If you are reading this from a maximum security prison, you can imagine something. Imagination is also very effective.   By the way, this good thing doesn’t have to catapult you into full-body bliss, it just needs to be something that makes you feel more good than you did a second ago.

Now, really focus on it; in the sense of letting it in, letting it affect your senses. Allow the good feeling to permeate or move through you. Feel the effect of focusing on this good thing. This is not a mental, thinking exercise. This is about the sensory experience of how it feels in your body to focus on something good.

Then find something else that feels good.   Find one or two more things that you can enjoy. Do you notice that you are quickly starting to feel better? If you are using the sense of sound, really listen to something pleasurable. Or with taste or touch, focus and amplify that sensation.

The reason you feel better so quickly doing this pleasure-size is because focusing any one of your senses on what feels good has a beneficial effect for your entire being, which includes your state of mind.

Write in your Journal for the week about how this exercise went. Try it with the other senses and see and feel the differences!

Need a little inspiration? Watch how committed Simon’s cat is to what pleases him in this You Tube.

http://www.youtube.com/user/simonscat#p/u/5/s13dLaTIHSg

Simon’s Cat: TV Dinner

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You're Right! When You Love Your Right Brain!

Thu, 2 Sep 2010 13:28:54 -1000

You’re Right! When You Use Your Right Brain

You have both a left and right brain, which refer to the two hemispheres of your brain. Although the reality is much more complex, in simple terms we could say that the left hemisphere is the domain of language and logic, seeing the whole picture and time in a straight forward or linear direction. The right hemisphere relates to sensation, creativity, intuition, empathy, imagination and the artist within.

Our society tends to support or focus us more in the left hemisphere and often down plays the value of the right. But we need both functioning fully in order to be happy, to feel inspired and to be creative. This is one reason why we do so many activities in this class that are designed to open the right brain.

The Spontaneous Brain

If your right brain has been under used, you will have trouble being spontaneous. You will find it weird or strange to make things up, as those things challenge, or in some cases threaten the left brain dominance over your personality. The truth is the smartest brains are the ones that cross-over continually, using both left and right in a balanced manner. If you strengthen your right brain, you will do better at all your left brain functions. One of the reasons that Asian children do so well in math is because they also learn music and art in school, whereas in the west, we don’t pay as much attention to the child’s whole brain.

The Right Brain is Fun!

Allowing yourself more access to your right brain immediately brings up the “fun quotient” in your life. You can only enjoy yourself if you are willing to allow yourself to get into your senses (sight, sound, taste, touch, intuition and perception.) Children under the age of six or seven (if they haven’t been traumatized) spend most of their time playing and with their right brains turned on fully. This is why they are able to learn so much in such a short period of time. As you regain access to your right brain, you will feel happier and naturally more resilient.

Opening the Right Brain

The warm-up exercises we do in class are designed to open the right brain. They encourage speed and spontaneity. If you stop and think about what to say or how to respond, you are not in your right brain, you have moved to your left and logical brain, and you are searching for the right words. In Improvisational comedy, the train moves quickly! There is no time to go looking in the left brain files.

Learning to Trust Your Impulses

Another key principal behind the activities we do in class is to encourage you to jump right in – to trust your FIRST impulse and not edit yourself or judge yourself. Judging is a left brain function. It is the enemy of freedom in improvisation. (Read the Stable Data lesson). The more you trust your impulses and don’t stifle your creativity, the more expressive you will become. You know what to do! You just need to get out of your own way and allow your right brain to lead.

Just Have Fun!

The Act Resilient class is challenging because we are making new circuits and re-wiring the brain to function at a higher, more focused and faster level. Be gentle with yourself! It takes a little time. But if you just focus on having fun you’ll get there that much faster.

Overview of Creativity and Right Brain

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2rzXFCd75s&feature=related

The Right Brain/Left Brain Dancer Test

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9CEr2GfGilw

I’m not sure if this is a scientific test, but it is fun. Let us know what you see!

Genie Joseph, M.A.
Creator of The Act Resilient Program