Body Language

YAY!!!!!!!!!!! NUMER 4 IS DONE!!!! ONLY SIX MORE!!!!

Barranger says, “The actor’s tools are the body, voice, impulses, emotions, concentration, imagination, and intellect.” At the presentation on Monday I learned how body could communicate all of these ideas. Body, as I learned is a way to express emotions without relying on the text. To draw back to my last discussion, it is a way to manipulate “style”.

A body’s stance can speak volumes about a character, and change how the audience views them. To draw an example from Marry Wives of Windsor: at the end of the play Falstaff is being poked, and burned with embers. Because of the happy dancing of the “spirits” and the overly childish cowering of Falstaff, in short how they moved their body, what would have normally been a seen of abuse and pain and fear, turns into a fun practical joke. With the use of body, actors can perform a more complex style, which gives the audience a deeper view of the actor’s character.

During the presentation, several different exercises were used to exemplify the many uses of body. The most prominent to me was an exercise of communication through body. Paired into partners, each group of two had to convey movement while touching. This exercise not only uses body to communicate to a perspective audience, but also communicate to your partner. Without talking my partner and I attempted to use each other as balance, to achieve more difficult positions; while communicating what we were doing, not only to each other, but the people around us.

As a class we also participated in exercise in which we mimicked words with our body. At first we were given words as a class; the group leader would shout out something like “hurricane”, and we would act with our bodies in whichever way we thought best communicated “hurricane”. I found this part of the exercise to be a challenge for my imagination. A simple way to convey hurricane, would be to simply spin, but does that convey a hurricane, or somebody spinning. I still to this day can’t figure a way to move my body to communicate hurricane.

To help with increasing the ability to communicate with the body Barranger suggests to put the emphasis “on developing the actor’s body as a more open, responsive, physical instrument by first eliminating unnecessary tensions and mannerisms” essential, before you begin to act with your body gain a neutral stance. Loosen muscles and stand straight. From the neutral position, an actor can learn the physical gestures, and movements of their character.

Body is important because of the way it communicates feelings, thoughts and emotions without reaching for the text. An actor skilled in body language can give depth to their character, and add complexity to the “style” in which that character is portrayed. The deeper and more complex a character, the more engaged an audience becomes, and the stronger the connection between the audience and the actors.