The Acting Classes As your Look for Now
You catch yourself pumping trying to bring emotions to the surface, often accompanied by heavy breathing in and out: stop immediately. It is the definition of amateurism and ugly play. Instead: start listening to your opponent. In case of the Dog obedience training you can be sure.
The brother of pumping: sighing.
Be alert for unconscious and sometimes conscious sighs. Sometimes they are only tiny sighs, but it is a natural mechanism for people to soothe tension away. Not only is it ugly to see, on stage at least, it also takes the sting out of your game. That tension feeds the engine of your game that sighing away means having to start over. Listen, collect, let yourself realize what is being said, what that means for your character, for what you want. And only then respond.
Listening and collecting is not only the most important motor for a scene:
It is also much more interesting to look at listening and collecting people. If you don’t even respond, because there is always something new to collect: the entire better.
Collect yourself.
If you say something stupid, realize that you are saying something stupid, and respond preferably non-verbally. If you say something very hurtful: realize that you didn’t mean it that way and see the damage you do and establish what you then do not do about it. It is actually absurd how poorly many impro players take themselves on stage. Usually, they pretend that everything they do and say is