Open Forum

Favorite exercises to get actors to experiment with a wider variety of tone and pitch in their lines? I am especially looking for ways to help them break the habit of dropping pitch at the end of their lines. Our production is coming up in just a couple of weeks, and they're having trouble across the board. Thanks!

Favorite exercises to get actors to experiment with a wider variety of tone and pitch in their lines? I am especially looking for ways to help them break the habit of dropping pitch at the end of their lines. Our production is coming up in just a couple of weeks, and they're having trouble across the board. Thanks!

Favorite exercises to get actors to experiment with a wider variety of tone and pitch in their lines? I am especially looking for ways to help them break the habit of dropping pitch at the end of their lines. Our production is coming up in just a couple of weeks, and they're having trouble across the board. Thanks!

I have sat in the audience and rang a bell everytime it happens. It helps them realize the problem and keeps them thinking about it. Then, they make the correction so they don't get "called out" by the bell.  When they stop thinking about it, the bell starts ringing again. With some students it has taken a few rehearsals to break the bad habit, so I'll train a promoter to listen for the issue; that frees me up. 

Favorite exercises to get actors to experiment with a wider variety of tone and pitch in their lines? I am especially looking for ways to help them break the habit of dropping pitch at the end of their lines. Our production is coming up in just a couple of weeks, and they're having trouble across the board. Thanks!

One exercise I use is called "kick the box". I bring in used cardboard boxes and have one for each actor on stage. When they come to the last word of each line or sentence I tell them to kick the box, HARD. (making sure that nobody is in the direct line of fire) This makes the actor tense up enough so that the last bit of air escaping when forming the word is punctuated.

You can always dial that energy down once they get in the habit of pushing a little harder at the end of the line. It has worked for me very well.

Warren

I have sat in the audience and rang a bell everytime it happens. It helps them realize the problem and keeps them thinking about it. Then, they make the correction so they don't get "called out" by the bell.  When they stop thinking about it, the bell starts ringing again. With some students it has taken a few rehearsals to break the bad habit, so I'll train a promoter to listen for the issue; that frees me up. 

Favorite exercises to get actors to experiment with a wider variety of tone and pitch in their lines? I am especially looking for ways to help them break the habit of dropping pitch at the end of their lines. Our production is coming up in just a couple of weeks, and they're having trouble across the board. Thanks!

Favorite exercises to get actors to experiment with a wider variety of tone and pitch in their lines? I am especially looking for ways to help them break the habit of dropping pitch at the end of their lines. Our production is coming up in just a couple of weeks, and they're having trouble across the board. Thanks!

Favorite exercises to get actors to experiment with a wider variety of tone and pitch in their lines? I am especially looking for ways to help them break the habit of dropping pitch at the end of their lines. Our production is coming up in just a couple of weeks, and they're having trouble across the board. Thanks!

Kicking the box is a great exercise to shift the energy upward toward the end of the line. I also use the "dropping in" exercise for connecting personally to the words/lines themselves. I feel that if the actor is truthful and connecting emotionally to the text, than the inflection and intention often comes naturally. They can also take a few lines out of context and do some Meisner repetition with them. Let me know if you are interested in the "dropping in" exercise and I can go into more detail. All of these exercises ultimately and ironically take the text a bit out of context which I think helps the actor hear the text in a new way. It make it fresh again!

Break A Leg!

Favorite exercises to get actors to experiment with a wider variety of tone and pitch in their lines? I am especially looking for ways to help them break the habit of dropping pitch at the end of their lines. Our production is coming up in just a couple of weeks, and they're having trouble across the board. Thanks!