"I don't know what to do with my hands!"

"When I'm acting, my mind feels alive but my body feels stiff/boring/dead."

"I feel like we've just been sitting on this couch the whole time, I want to do something more interesting physically."

It's common for even very skilled, highly trained actors to "not know what to do" with their own bodies while acting. Even when one feels alive in a character, attuned to their scene partner, and active with the text, an actor can still feel frozen or self-conscious-- like their physical experience isn't as connected to their emotional experience as they'd like it to be.

Viewpoints is designed to get actors out of their heads and into their bodies. A technique and playbook of exploratory movement exercises, Viewpoints gives actors a structure and toolset to help put their imaginative impulses into literal motion. Participants will be led through a structured series of non-verbal, play-like exercises, gradually developing a physical vocabulary for how their own body is capable of moving on-stage. These exercises will allow actors to feel more alive and engaged in both 'life-like' motion suited for realism, and more creative dance-like motion for abstract or devised work. Participants will then tackle more process-oriented exercises, including techniques for physically embodying character, and cultivating a sense of physical liveliness within an ensemble.

Participants will leave with a rich understanding of how to use movement more fully and expressively in their work, as well as a set of tools to bring into rehearsal rooms for exploring character, ensemble, and narrative in a new way.