Exercises and warm ups-

Today with Olga we done various exercises with our mouths and different techniques to help with our auditions. We were given a set of tongue twisters and songs, which we would do. 

To prepare for rehearsals, auditions, or performances, actors need to do three types of warm-ups. Physical, vocal and mental…and the mental, which is focusing your attention on the work will actually be combined with the physical and vocal warm-ups. To do all of this should take you no more than 15 minutes.

First you need to do a physical warm up. While you do this, you can work on your focus and concentration, by paying attention to your breathing and to the feeling in your body and muscles. When you find yourself thinking about other things, simply come back to your body or your breathing.

Your physical warm up should take you briefly through your entire body, with the goal being to reduce tension; because tension and stress can stop you from breathing, thinking, feeling, and responding—all things that are essential to good acting. Because the voice is housed in the body, the physical warm-up is also essential to preparing your vocal apparatus.

After you do a physical warm-up, it’s time to do a brief vocal warm up. The goal is release any tension, prepare the vocal apparatus, and work your range. As in the physical warm up, keep breathing and keep your focus on what you are doing and experiencing.

Remember, warming up will make your performances better; it will make you auditions better. It is a simple strategy that will improve all of your work. While it will take a few minutes, it will pay you dividends. So take responsibility for your work and warm up before every rehearsal, performance, and audition. 

'The Fire exit must be clear' is another exercise which we were shown by Olga. Within this exercise you have a list of different expressions and for each one you have to say a line given to you, without showing your teeth and furrowed brows. The meaning of the sentence changed every time we changed our expression because our facial expression and physical posture was changing with the expression.

At the end of today were told that Christian Burgess Director of Drama at Guildhall School of Music & Drama, was coming in to have a chat to us and a Q&A. This was a helpful source as it gave us inside knowledge and viewpoints from inside a drama school. He gave us some advice and the one that I felt was most important was when he said "All the panel want is to see you" he elaborated on this and was telling us not to pretend to be something were not and just be ourselves. Christian is a very down to earth man, and is not what I stereo typed the typical director of a drama school to be like. At the end he was very generous and said he would organise free tickets for us to see Guildhalls' upcoming show 'Lulu' which we are going to see on Monday the 30th of November.