Active Embodiment

Introduction to Active Embodiment

0:00so that's the end of our third season of the podcast and in our last episode with Richard Brick we discussed a new course that you've got coming up and we thought we'd let those know who are interested in studying the course a little bit more about it so could you talk about what active embodiment is yes active embodiment that's what I call it well just first to say that the spiritual psychology of acting is a complete body of knowledge you know it's the

0:37philosophy principles and the sort of technique of great acting and active embodiment is the technical process of how you put that knowledge into practice and it's part of the whole spiritual psychology of acting training and it's really you know what I call it the the holy grail of great acting because it's what every actor or at least certainly when I was training as an actor and really that's all I've ever done in my life teaching acting I've just wanted to teach actors that which

1:13I wish I'd been taught you know just to give them sort of the very best course so this is really like the cream of the course this is where all the knowledge comes together and how you apply it to a script because you know I've noticed that you know a lot of actors come to me and a lot of them have had three years of formal training or you know they've been to drama school and many that are actually working and they still tell them the same thing they get a bit lost when they get a self-tape or an audition there's a bit of panic um that they're worried that they won't be able to do their

1:46job properly so the idea of the course is that we bring all of that to an end and explain really

Analyzing Scripts

1:53clearly uh and practically how do you take a script how do you analyze it and break it down and then how you make the choices and then how most importantly how do you embody that and then finally how do you as I like to say as you'll know Jordan let go let flow and just let it happen you know Stanislavski said through conscious technique we pave the way to subconscious creativity which really is the premise

2:24of the whole teaching um the conscious technique that's the analysis of the play and choosing the characters objects of attention their purposes actions events etc but then the subconscious creativity comes when you just have to let go the final thing you do you know when you press record or or the curtains and the lights go up or the director shouts action on a film set that's when you kind of come into the moment and uh respond to what's going on in front of you so this is both the the conscious

3:00technique and the subconscious creativity of great acting yeah it's interesting you say that the biggest stumbling block to good acting is actors not really knowing what they're doing because I definitely experienced that coming out of drama school I'd learned a ton and it was an amazing experience but I remember shortly after leaving drama school going to the spotlight headquarters to film a show reel and literally the camera started rolling and I felt like this idea of I don't actually really know what I'm doing it was and it's crazy to think that after three years of training you've learned so

3:33much but really it's the nuts and bolts of like how do you actually just perform freely and and that I felt like I was missing that and definitely working with you and taking the course that this is the course that I've done myself I felt like I had that I felt the confidence of I know how to break down any character I know how to to embody this psychology with creativity and imagination and bold choices that's kind of what I felt like I got from it and so it's definitely it's much needed I think well exactly you know you know if you if you trained as a an architect for example you'd go to

4:06architecture school and you'd learn the laws of architecture and then when you came out of architecture school you'd be in principle you'd be able to design any building well it should be the same for actors you know that after you've trained as an actor you should know how to create any character but so often actors you know they become typecast in drama school and that sort of stays with them and you know if they were architects they could only build they could only design terraced houses and if someone asked them to design a music school or a theater that they

4:40wouldn't know where to start but if you had the true knowledge you would you know if your profession you'd know how to create any part and that's really what I'm hoping with this course people will come away with and learn something really solid and take their acting to the next level yeah excellent and so for this course you've done a couple of live intros for people who want to dip their toe in and find out a bit more about it but those intros are now going to be available as a recording that people

5:11can catch up on right before the actual course starts yes so the course itself starts on the

Course Details and Schedule

5:182nd of october that's a wednesday so it runs on wednesday's uk time it's 6 30 pm in the evening so obviously in the united states it's uh earlier it's it's 1 30 in the afternoon in new york and 10 30 in the morning for those that are in la and there's 10 sessions and each one starts with uh meditation just to get us all sort of focused our uniquely developed meditation to bring you into the present

5:48and remember yourself and then we get stuck into the work we're going to be using the plays the glass menagerie by tennessee williams and uh dangerous liaisons christopher hampton's uh stage version of dangerous liaisons as models so we're going to be using those and creating the different characters from that as a group and uh it's also really important that during that time i've got time also to to work with each actor and and help them to master the techniques yeah and so everyone who

6:23does join gets individual time as well i don't need to apply these principles that you teach absolutely and then i'm doing the same so so there's two options for those outside the uk or you just would prefer it i'm doing uh an online it's the online once a week course starting on the 2nd of october but i'm also doing two live weekend workshops the first one's on the 12th and 13th of october and that is looking at how to analyze and embody what we call the character's general psychology

6:57so what's under what actually makes them a character you know what's the underlying thinking which makes them who they are uh i won't go too much into the sort of technical process i mean you know the technical process but i won't go too much for this people can come and find out about it but then on the second weekend which is on the 16th and 17th of november i'm going to be going through how to analyze and embody the character's immediate psychology so really what we call the character's

7:27state of mind present state of mind based on the circumstances that the character finds themselves in at the time and both courses cover all the topics but just one is done as an online course and one is done as a live uh course where you can get in the room with me and fellow actors and flex your acting muscles and learn something useful yeah there's nothing quite like being that in person we've missed that a lot during the pandemic didn't we but uh but it is amazing i studied the whole course

7:58over zoom even though i was in london at the time that i started it is it's amazing how much you are able to get through zoom i mean everyone's used to zoom now they use it for meetings or for catch-ups or whatever but uh it's amazing that you can actually get a really good acting class through zoom i think it is i was always amazed at how immediate it felt and how it felt really kind of uh you've gotten very adept i think uh spotting people's uh blocks and anything that gets in the way of their their good acting i think through even just the lens of the screen it's amazing well it's exactly the same

8:29because you know whether they're standing if the actor's standing in front of you doing something in a class or whether you know and it's really intimate on online because you you you're literally looking at a close-up you know if we pin the actor which we all do say right everybody pin jordan now we pin jordan we have a look at your work it's like looking at you in a close-up shot so i can really see what's going on and really help you to to embody the the work yeah yeah it's amazing how

9:00much you can get get out of it and so that so the whole the online one is 25 hours worth of teaching isn't it over the 10 10 sessions because they're two and a half hours and so just to clarify again that is running from wednesday the 2nd of october until wednesday the 11th of december 2024 isn't it yeah there's a there's a half term week uh the last week of november so there's no class then whilst and whilst we we have a half term break um but other than that it's every wednesday night uh up until

9:30the 11th of december that's the complete course the first five sessions will be all about the characters general psychology and how to how to work on that and then the second five will be looking at the characters immediate psychology you'll know that as mind triads and epoas but for those who aren't familiar with it that that's uh what we're going to be looking at and that's really the chief skill you know yeah it's like you know all of the whole teaching the whole spiritual psychology of acting

10:00all the looking at purposes imagination attention psychological actions causal thinking uh resonant vibration you know all the elements of acting this is where it all comes together and this is the chief skill really for an actor and if you you know if you learn this and take the time to learn this properly then you've got the whole of your professional career then to perfect it like we heard with richards uh in the last episode of the podcast you know he learned the techniques he was a fantastic

10:33student and and you know studied in detail but i can see that over the course of his career um over the last 20 years since i trained him you can really see that in each film he's getting he's getting deeper and deeper and he's getting more and more into the work and it's just getting better and better frankly so you've got the rest it's like my driving instructor said to me when i passed my driving test he said you know john that now you you've passed your test you've learned how to drive and now you've got you know you've learned the laws of driving as it were to a competent level

11:05now you've got the rest of your life to perfect the art of driving so it's much the same with this and i'm really excited about it i'm really excited about presenting this so you know usually i start with sort of the elements of great acting but with this i'm just going straight into the nuts and bolts of what do you do when you get a self-tape how do you how do you how do you be good yeah you know what are they looking for you know they're looking for truth they're looking for a compelling actor who's truthful so to do that you need to have the thinking of the

11:36character and it needs to be in you you know you need to be it needs to be affecting your emotional world it needs to be uh manifesting itself in every twitch of your face every movement every scratch is there and yeah this will teach people exactly how to do that properly yeah especially with self tapes when they can come in thick and fast and you've got a very tight deadline to to get the tape done and dusted can be very stressful for actors i think to try and figure out how they can get

12:06the characters thinking how do they get all the the stuff that's in the scene onto the screen and ready for our casting director to see a moment's notice and i think this does give you that freedom and that very stress-free approach i think of uh of knowing like knowing exactly what to do for me the proof of it is is that early on in the course you hear people the actors will get in touch and say i've got this self-tape and i'm panicking but the further they go into the course and once they learn it you don't hear from them because they know what to do for themselves which is and that's the you know the purpose of teaching is you want to create independent actors who know

12:41their job who can go into any production company go into any set and and uh bring something to it you know i like to think that the actors that have trained in this it doesn't just improve the quality of their acting but it improves the quality of everybody's acting if someone's acting well it's easy for you to act well you know yeah it's everyone's game yeah excellent so and just to clarify again for those who are interested and want to find out more obviously we've got the links to

13:13to those pages to book the courses in the description of this episode but also there's a link to then get access to the the free live intro that you've recorded right yes you can request a free intro session so which is recorded so you can see it in your own time but you need to be quick because the course itself actually starts on wednesday the second yeah and if you book before friday the 27th you also get 15 discount so that'll save you 50 quid amazing perfect so all the links of that are in the description

13:46of this episode so come on down come and find out for yourself come and find out how active embodiment will take your acting to the next level uh and if you don't believe me just go on the testimonials page of the website and look at all those fantastic actors and performers that have trained with me now operating at the top of their game and hear their own personal account of training in this system so come on down you're gonna love it so

14:19so so so Thank you.

14:59Thank you.