The exercise revealed something common amongst actors and increasingly common in everyday life: a short tolerance for psychological discomfort.

Sitting in discomfort is a skill that appears to be increasingly avoided. Whether that be emotional or physical pain, or even the discomfort of being challenged, wrong or just different. Perhaps it’s social media and the increasingly divided world we live in?

I am not sure a what point an GAP Acting Atelier became an idea. Perhaps it was after reading Alison Hodge’s “Acting Technique” or perhaps it was watching students use the technique for fast work in a Mocap Vaults class in Montreal? I do know that it struck me enough, in the middle of the night, to force me to get up and write it down so I could free myself to sleep again.

Listening. Actors are pretty bad at it. So focused are we on speaking, that listening is often neglected both as a practice and as a tool to understand and embody character… what kind of words or responses are you listening for and why? How and why are you listening for what’s unsaid. Is how you listen consistent with character in the context of the scene and the story?