Shy to the point of being standoffish? A theatre practitioner shares four stage exercises that you could practise to be more expressive and open. We would never have survived in the world that Shakespeare’s characters occupied, where people carried swords on their person and whether or not you get what you seek is always a question of life and death. A world where the only way you know something is to be there, at that place, in that moment, alert, with all your senses tingling. A world where anything you say and do is noticed and acted upon by people around you, equally alive and invested in that time and place that they stand. What an energy.
You had to have your wits about you, to get results: you had to be alive. There had to be passion in your every word or deed: how else would you get someone to side with you to scare someone off, to protect yourself, to take some thing from someone else, to win someone’s heart, to capture a kingdom, to seek a blessing? It all mattered terribly.If you failed, your life as you knew it, ended.
Unfortunately, the world we live in today has the potential to deaden our senses. to deaden our senses.Living and communicating, most of our time, in the virtual world of social media and mobile communication has in many ways, removed us from the real physical spaces we inhabit -making us almost zombie-like to anyone watching from afar. The second killer is our routine and everyday existence, where we operate with a particular set of motions, activities, behaviours, which turn into a habit -to the point that we forget what it is to be any other kind of person. Drama exercises have the potential to help you be more open, responsive, present in the moment to those around you, engaging and expressive. Theatre is a collaborative medium, and usually these are exercises that we do with a group of people, learning and working with each adapted other. Here, I’ve a few of them into something you can do, for yourself, without anyone else having to know that you’re doing it.
Remember: It’s okay for you to be silly, and enjoy yourself while doing them. No one needs to give you permission to have fun.
Feel good
Learn this little poem with the breaks as indicated. “Oo I feel so good like I knew I would Oo I feel so good.” (The Oo and the oo in good are pronounced the same). Start by saying in front of the mirror. Find a rhythm to it that you enjoy, snap your fingers to it if you want to.
Repeat the lines in a loop without a break and change something about the way you say it each time: loud, soft, whisper, sing-song like. Listen to yourself saying it -what do the words mean to you? Without changing the line, you make the words mean more, each word, mean so much. Bring your imagination into it, pretend you’re saying it after doing something naughty, and you don’t want anyone to hear, pretend you’re saying it to the whole world after you’ve ensured world peace.
Discover that there’s no limit to how much fun you can have with the way you express yourself. Use this to just know that you have it in you to communicate things in various ways to others, just by what you want to achieve with the saying of a line.
Wear a person
Here’s a week-long character-study exercise condensed into 10 minutes while you’re waiting in a public space. Look around you, find someone unlike you. Watch them out of the corner of your eye –how do they stand, where do they put their weight, where do they look, what do they do with their hands, their fingers, what makes them move, react to people and the environment around them, are they speaking, how do they speak. Everything and anything you notice can become something you try for yourself.
Start mirroring what they do, one thing at a time. Look hard for detail, see what it is like to adopt their gestures, their `ticks’, how different is it from how you behave and habitually do things. What in you is being used that wasn’t being used earlier? Do this solidly with a few people, over time, mix and match from two people, three people. Make up a totally different way of behaving.
No one needs to know you’re doing this, just you. It’s your little secret and have maximum fun with it. Suddenly, you’ll be awake to the world around you, the real world, and really understand how different people can be, how different you can be.
Stand your ground
Stand, feet apart (shoulder width). You’re relaxed, your joints -knees, ankles, elbows, shoulders and neck -are all loose. Feel the ground under your feet, feel it pushing up, holding you up, if there was no ground, you’d be falling, right? Now imagine a thread, pulling you up from the top of your head, into the sky. It is tight, and pulling up. Your head goes straight, your neck longer, your spine, longer. The ground still holds you up, your shoulders and body stay relaxed during all this. What is it like to stand, walk, sit, but always held up by this imaginary string? Walking, standing, sitting -how much do you think about how you do this. Let’s change it all and discover the difference.You can do this anywhere, anytime, no one except you will notice.
Listen more
When you are in conversation with someone face to face, try this. When they are speaking, listen to them with your eyes. Make eye contact. Recognise that they are present there in front of you. Imagine their words coming in through your eyeballs. While you do this, repeat the words they say in your head. Maybe not all of them, but the ones that register. See how the information is entering -what do you start picking up on that you haven’t before?Remember how many times people interrupt you with what they want to say instead of actually hearing what you have said? We all do it, you do it. Listening more helps you communicate better.You’ve first heard them, taken it all in, and now can speak to them. Try these for a week or two, see what differences they make.Ultimately you begin to understand what it is like to be you, a lot better. Jehan Manekshaw is the co-founder and director of Theatre Professionals, an organisation that runs The Drama School, Mumbai and the Young People’s Theatre Programme for the education sector.
