Assignment 2: Acting 104

  • This week’s assignment has TWO PARTS.
  • The first part is to memorize the short script below.
  • People who were in Acting 101 will already have memorized this once; but we’ll be doing something new with it this coming week, so be sure to take the time to memorize it accurately again.
  • Phen scroll down to see if the other assignment.
BLAIR-JAMEY-SCENE1Download

PART 2 – CRYING EXERCISE

  • This assignment is optional, but I would highly recommend doing it.
  • The assignment is to find an opportunity to sit down – or stand up, or whatever – and cry for a while this week, aiming to cry as long and hard as you can. Some actors find this assignment valuable enough that they do it every few weeks.
  • For some people, crying is not difficult or unusual; I remember meeting one person who told me that they “cry at stop signs” …and they demonstrated it by sitting down and crying freely in front of me. If you’re that sort of person, you may not need any prompt to start you crying.

Need some help?

  • For everyone who “cries at stop signs,” there’s at least one person who has not cried in a few years and feels all dried up, so to speak.
  • If you are that person, one approach some people find works well is to watch a movie, or a TV episode that has made you cry in the past, or made you feel like crying, and just sit down and watch it… and this time, let yourself cry as hard and as long as you want or can.
  • When talking about this assignment, people will sometimes ask, what the difference is between doing the assignment and just letting yourself cry for a while. In a sense there’s no difference; but there can be… if you’re used to crying for a minute or two, then forcing yourself to stop, you will likely find it unusual to go all out.
  • The students have jokingly called this assignment “ugly crying”…. one student described it as really letting go and “crying from the bottom of their heart.”
  • Needless to say, you may want to explain to other people what you’re doing and while you’re doing it… Or choose a time when you’re alone and don’t have to be concerned about other people’s responses.

Optional: Watch a video

Some people prefer the method in this video.

It’s fine, of course, if you’re doing the exercise, to pause the video as needed to give yourself time to do the exercise. 

Part 3: “Songs, books and movie scenes”

The third part is to set aside some time to cry, in association with a song, book or movie scene. Again, we’re not trying to “make ourselves feel sad” and “force crying” when doing these exercises, but instead are giving ourselves space and permission to cry if it turns out we’re able to.

To do this exercise, set aside an hour two to read a chapter in a book, watch a scene in a movie, or listen to a song that has made them cry in the past.

Make sure you have privacy for the time you set aside, so you won’t feel inhibited by how other people (friends, housemates, family, or whatever) might react.

Then if you feel like crying again, let yourself. An interesting variation can be to let yourself cry “long and hard” so you can experience an crying on a deeper level than many of us tend to.

The first time(s) I did this exercise, I found myself crying, and decided just to let myself cry really hard. After doing the exercise a few times (at home, alone, by myself) it became more possible for me to spotaneously cry in scenes I was playing.

When doing these exercise, I recommend planning on doing some activity you find fun or relaxing or pleasant afterwards.  An example might be walking in a park or watching a really funny movie.

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