Acting
Of all the disciplines that form the actor training program, none is more vital, enriching and transformative thatn the Alexander Technique.—Harold Stone, Associate Director, Theater Department, The Juilliard School
Actors have been using the Alexander Technique to enhance their performance for over a hundred years. F.M. Alexander was himself a Shakespearean actor who developed the Technique when he developed voice problems. The use of Alexander’s technique by actors and musicians spread rapidly. It is now a fundamental part of actor training in many major drama schools and music academies: RADA, LAMDA, The Guildhall, the Royal Academy of Music, the Royal College of Music, and the Trinity College of Music. It is also central to the training of actors at Juilliard in New York and ACT in San Francisco.
“At the core of an actor’s training is the process of learning to respond truthfully in the moment to imaginary circumstances. Constriction of the body in the form of fear and performance anxiety causes a hyper-responsive nervous system over-contracted muscles and an unbalanced skeletal system. As a result, timing becomes erratic, lines and actions are anticipated, and emotional responses become forced or faked. The Alexander Technique can serve as a powerful catalyst for opening the actor’s instrument to the deepest resources of available responses in the moment of performance. The results are a blend of vulnerability and absolute commitment that can create riveting moments in the theater.
The Alexander Technique offers the actor a very specific psychophysical process, a means of guiding a performance toward a deep sense of attunement with each moment as it unfolds. The study of the Alexander Technique is a gradual, in-depth process of re-education, requiring time and repetition. As the actor rebuilds a more reliable kinesthetic feedback system, he or she grows to be a more consistent, mature and dynamic performer, vividly contributing to the magic of the overall theatrical event.”
By Meade Andrews & Saura Bartner
Article on teaching Alexander to Actors by Constance
San Francisco Actor Training Resources
Constance at the Academy of Art University
Andrew Utter, Mother of Invention Acting School
Theatre Bay Area
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