This is part two of my blog from last month, Exercises you can do at home
I get asked frequently about acting exercises that an actor can do at home. Maybe you’re in between classes, you want to do some extra work, or you just want to explore and stretch yourself in the privacy of your home without being watched and judged. Or maybe you’re curious and want to see and experience what actors do and try an exercise or two. Doing these exercises is a good way to work on specifics, details, activity of doing, and imagination. Here is another exercise that you can do on your own. Take your time and discover your way.
Exercises at Home #2 – LOST OBJECT
ONE PERSON
This is another exercise in imagination and imaginary circumstances.
In this exercise, you are in your dwelling either getting ready to leave or settling back from being out.
While in the middle of your activity of arriving or leaving you realize that you lost something. It needs to be something of importance that is very important to you. You need to look for and find this object with tremendous urgency. So, you have to look for this object, looking through everything. Perhaps it’s your keys or your cell phone that is turned off so you can’t call it. Maybe it’s money that you hid or a piece of jewelry that you are planning on giving to a loved one. You must search and find this object. Look over/under things, in drawers, under couch cushions, all over your dwelling.
The challenge of this exercise is that the “actor” in you knows where the object is as you need to “hide” it so you can later find it. Yet, you need to look through things as if you don’t know where it is, while panicking, looking for it with emotion, fear, anger, whatever you feel when you can’t find something. Look all over for it, and have the emotional experience, and then, actually find it. Then, have the reaction of finding this and moving on with your activity. This is not that easy to do because you know where it is, and need to pretend not to. The more life experience you can bring, both physically and emotionally in doing this, the better. All the while, you want to do this with authenticity and believability. Enjoy.