TECHNIQUES OF ACTING

DEVELOPED BY KEN FARMER

 IN MASTERING THE TECHNIQUES OF ACTING:

• (1) The actor  must learn that the single most important ingredient in acting is PASSION!
• (2) He must always focus on the STORY and never the dialogue.
• (3) He must be trained in habitualizing responses of his character so that   they become automatic and instinctive reaction patterns; called "grooving the channels of the mind" or learning to direct each thought into its proper expressional activity for purposes of  outpicturing.
• (4) The actor must train his memory to absorb observed experience, record it in his BACK STORY and recall it when needed for a character,
• (5) He must constantly practice and develop his powers of Imagination,   Creativity and Concentration (Focus),
• (6)  He needs the ability to Visualize with Power  (VP) the character he   creates; he must see the  character before he can be the character,
• (7)  He must practice daily, reading with imagery. (Seeing what he says.)
• (8)  He must learn how to create an original and unique character in his   BACK STORY out of all the factors of his experience in observing    character types and sometimes creating characters out of "whole cloth",
• (9)  He must acquire, through practice, the ability to  Create, be the  Creation and Observe his creation at the same time,
• (10)  He must learn how to absorb the character he has created and inject   it smoothly into his understanding of the STORY,
• (11) He must study, with a vengeance, the Emotions, for  they   are  the   very  colors he must use to "paint"  (tell) his story,
• (12) He must never Memorize  his dialogue, but rather Learn  it as he learns   the story.
• (13) He must See what he says in telling the story.
• (14) He must perfect the art of Listening and to allow his character to be   changed by  the other characters.
• (15) He must never listen to the words, but listen to the Person.
• (16) He must realize that the more he learns the more he needs to learn.
• (17) He must be completely self disciplined/controlled at all times.
• (18) He must never allow his own personality or personal memories to get between himself and his character.

 When I was in High School, during the late '50's, My English Lit teacher required that we all memorize the "Prologue to the Canterbury Tales" by Geoffrey Chaucer, in "Old English".  I can recite it to this day and I memorized it over 40 years ago, but until I looked up the translation recently, I never had a clue what the hell it was about.  All she wanted was that we got all the words right.  (Anyone can be an automaton.)  Memorization (I call it the "M" word; the most offensive word in the actor's vocabulary and is the kiss of death) involves the act of just reciting the words (fence post acting), which does not require an understanding or even knowledge of the story, whereas learning the dialogue does require an in-depth knowledge and understanding of the story as the character because the character was there.

THE STORY IS THE KEY:

 I was doing an ADR (Additional Dialogue Recording) session in Los Angeles (it is also known as 'looping') for "Uncommon Valor" and the director, Ted Kotcheff, asked me if I could do any other voices.  Of course, I said yes.  He asked if I would dub another character who was speaking Thai, now, since I don't know a word of Thai, he called in a young Thai lady to help me with the dialogue.  She would say a phrase and I would repeat it (parrot) until I got it right then we would "loop it".  I was extremely uncomfortable with the whole procedure until I asked her to completely translate the dialogue into a story; once I knew the story, it all begin to flow together.  The story is always the key, no matter what language it is in.

FREE ACTING:

   The actor must remember that he knows all the lines for all the characters from the script (or is supposed to) but his character does not; nor does his character know what the other characters are going to say.  He must allow the character the opportunity to create the dialogue as he listens, in playing and staying in the moment, with all the emotions and visualizations that a true knowledge of the story brings.  The actor must recall, he is lending the character his equipment and now must get out of the way and allow the character to have his freedom to tell the story.

FOCUS ON THE STORY:

 When the actor performs as the character (not like), he should focus on the story and not the words.  With true knowledge and understanding of the story and a carefully created Back Story, the words will always be there; it is Free Acting.  All dialogue is based on the story.  "If you're practiced, rehearsed and thoroughly versed (know the story), you have something to offer.  You know what the lines are about, but you haven't waited for the final, ultimate way of saying them or handling a single moment... take care of the play (story) and let genius take care of itself".  - Sir Laurence Olivier