Like many of us would agree, a good measure of an actor lies in his ability to convince the viewer that he is not acting but is the very character he is depicting. That is probably the core of what I perceive to be the purpose and direction of the workshop at the advanced level.
What it is teaching me is that it starts with my belief that I am the character before I convince anyone else about it. That is also pushing me to believe that I am capable of doing it. If I do not believe that I can do it, then I cannot do it. This whole effort would be a waste of time. So in a way, it is teaching me to believe in myself before I even believe in that character.

The exercise of recalling personal experiences and reliving them in front of an audience through a character was something that I had only read about in the past but did not think possible for myself. I found that once I broke that barrier, it was not such a bad thing after all. What I need to get past is the barrier that makes me think I may not be able to improve or even repeat the same thing again. Another barrier is to use that experience while playing out a similar emotion in someone else’s experience. I think barriers are a good thing, it wouldn’t be much fun without a challenge.

The next thing that really stood out for me and opens a huge area of improvement is observation. The details. I was quite amazed at how the simple act of rolling ones eyes differently could make such a difference in projecting. Being the absent minded person that I am, I see that its going to mean a lot of hard work (Ouch).

Now that’s an alien concept I’ll have to get used to