The Daitch Technique

I'm in the scene that is niobien's final project for her directing class, and today we had a rehearsal where Carolyn did something that was fascinating to me. We ran the scene a few times, and then she suggested we go through it without the words, only the physicality, playing it more or less extreme as was needed to convey the story line. I thought this was a wonderful idea that could have a really specific effect on a scene. If you were blocking something that just didn't have the right kind of physical acting, or too much or too little, boiling it down to just that and running through could really help actors hone their performance.

It made me think of the process of the Mrs. Hawking reading, where at the auditions I observed a bunch of people speaking very stiffly-- apparently to many actors, the Victorians are restrained and bloodless to the point of boredom. I could easily see that desire to "act like a Victorian" bleeding over into the physical acting of a role and leading to stiffness there too. But with an exercise to make people only think about their physicality, you could encourage your actors to punch it up, make their movements more intense and meaningful.

I asked Carolyn if she got it from somewhere, but she came up with it all on her own. I'm quite impressed! Especially since I'm not normally a fan of acting exercises. Totally using the Daitch Technique next time I'm directing something where the physical acting isn't quite there. :-)