Wise Words From My Acting Professor

In my Movement for Actors class this week we worked on sitting in chairs. Yes. Sitting in chairs. How to sit in chairs effectively. This may sound absolutely ridiculous but you see, as an actor you cannot be "eaten by furniture" as my acting professor, Denise Myers, tends to say. If you are not engaged in the core while sitting in a chair onstage, you are being eaten by said chair. You have to be in control of the chair. You need to know before you use it, the different ways you can move in it. 

Now you may be thinking, what if my character needs to slouch in the chair? How can I still have an engaged core and good posture while doing that? Well it's hard to understand through words but look at the difference: 

Slouched, with unengaged core

Same position, engaged core

Do you see it? Which one is going to give you more presence on stage? I'd like to suggest the second. 

Now, our assignment was to deliver our monologues from a chair. We had to stay in the chair throughout the entire monologue so it was our job to find ways to use the chair to the fullest. One girl in my class ended up in the position above at one point in her monologue. However, before she began, she said, "I was working with how to slouch without really slouching in the chair and using my core but I don't know if I'm going to do it right so yeah I'm scared that's not going to work out." My professor responded with a brilliant phrase, 

"Don't brace for failure, await fulfillment." 

I don't think anyone could have said it better. And with that the girl went on to just do what she could. There's is no use in going into something thinking you've already messed it up. Take advantage of the time you have to rehearse and practice your craft where you can take risks and experiment to see what works out. That's what it's all about.