The Power of Silence: 3 Exercises to Improve Your Acting

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Practicing scene work without words or with very few of them

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is one of the best acting exercises you can give yourself.

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Learning to use your physicality, your emotional

reactions,

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your voice work, and your environment

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is what will turn you from someone who just says words

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real good into someone who embodies compelling

characters,

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relatable, believable ones, from words and way better

acting.

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And you can still do the storytelling with it

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while also becoming a better actor.

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So in this episode, I'm going to tell you

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why you should consider practicing scenes in this way

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to make your performances better.

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And I'm going to give you three different improv exercises

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that you can use to build up this skill.

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You can even do some of these exercises

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on your own solo improv style.

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Hi, I'm Jen DeHaan, and this is Your Improv Brain.

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I have taught and coached improv at a few different

theaters,

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and I now have a studio where I perform and produce

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improvised comedy podcasts like "Grak Public Access."

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I really enjoy sharing what works for me in acting,

performance,

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improv here in this show in case it might help some of you

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out there, because we all are so different.

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So maybe my different will be similar to your different.

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Be useful.

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I don't know.

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On that note, this topic of not using dialogue

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might lead to a concern for some of you.

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What if you have difficulty reading nonverbal cues,

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or tone, or subtext?

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Or maybe you only do audio improv like I do a lot of.

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Does this kind of work?

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These exercises leave you behind,

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because I don't know about you, but I

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love the style of improv that I do, this really verbose one,

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because it's so highly verbal.

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I like using words.

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And I do a ton of audio-based improvising, too.

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But stick around, because by the end of this episode,

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I will answer that question and concern directly

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and show you why this idea and these exercises can actually

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be a huge benefit for your learning, too.

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It's so easy to rely on words and improv.

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And it's fine to use a lot of them in your scenes.

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I love a good mid-scene monologue.

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I love a quick back and forth witty banter.

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I also love getting right into the skin of a character,

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right into their skin suit, and add that element

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to the scene simultaneously with the dialogue.

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I love the feelings of that character

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and seeing the world through their eyes,

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through their point of view, and vocalizing them

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in very specific ways can be fun.

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Generally, all of it is better than just being me, myself.

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And it's often a lot easier to get there,

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to get into Skinsuit Town, if you allow yourself

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to adopt your character's physical and verbal

characteristics,

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to express what they're feeling with your whole self,

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including your vocal tone and so on,

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and to actually use that imaginary world

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that you have developed, use that in the scene

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to its fullest extent.

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And to do that, you often have to take your time.

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You have to let the scene breathe a little,

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and you can't rely on the dialogue entirely.

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This is a very useful tool for one of the really common

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problems in improv, which is rushing scenes.

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When you take the dialogue away,

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you are forced to slow down.

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You get to live in that scene.

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You can breathe in that character.

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It's kind of like a slow burn.

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And the relationship and the story

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can build layer by layer through the actions

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and the reactions, even before a single line is ever spoken.

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You're showing.

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You're not telling.

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So a lot of this connects to that well-established acting

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advice show, don't tell.

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And I actually believe that you can and you should do both.

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Show, don't only tell.

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You can show and tell.

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But when we over-rely on that telling, that's the issue.

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Our scenes can kind of feel flat.

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But by practicing the showing part,

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we are making that telling part, our dialogue,

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that much more impactful when we do use it.

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And as an aside, remember that showing

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is through vocal tone and expression as well.

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But how do we practice this?

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So I am going to give you three exercises

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that you can take to your next rehearsal or even

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try on your own to get reps in this.

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So our first exercise is about stripping the language down

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to its absolute basics.

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And that's so you can't use dialogue to express

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the meaning, the story.

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You still have words, but you're using everything else,

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including tone, to express the story.

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So exercise number one is at least it's not gibberish.

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Yay.

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This one is nice and simple.

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Two people up to do a scene.

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The only thing that those two players

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are allowed to say for the entire scene

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is the next letter of the alphabet

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or the next number in a sequence or letters or numbers.

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So one version of this is where player one says A, player two

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says B, player one says C, and so on, or one, two, three.

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And that's it.

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But the way I like to run this scene, very common way,

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is where each seam partner can use multiple letters or

numbers

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in a row if they wish.

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This is a better version.

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I like it better because you can bring the cadence

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into the fold, the speed at which you are saying words.

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So let's use this version for the example

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where each letter or number represents a word.

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The goal is to communicate everything else, the

relationship,

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the environment, what's happening with only those things,

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no dialogue, no words.

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You can say the number or the letters in an emotional way.

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You can express your story with tone and volume

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and cadence as well, how fast and slow you speak through

pauses.

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And you can use your body, your facial expressions,

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and your spacework to build the entire world around you.

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It forces you to communicate on a different level.

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If you're practicing on your own,

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you practice telling the story as a monologue

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to an imaginary audience.

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You're practicing exactly the same skills, adding tone

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and meaning minus the relationship

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with the seam partner, of course.

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You build that story on your own.

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And one quick note before we move on to the next exercise.

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This exercise is pretty much the same as any gibberish

improv

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exercise where you kind of invent a language on the spot.

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You might have noticed by the name that I gave this one.

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For me, I'm someone who really dislikes gibberish

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as you can tell.

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So this, to me, is an improved version of the exercise

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because you remove that element of needing

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to invent the sound of a language or kind of relate it

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to an existing language, which can be a problem as well.

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So this way, you can get out of your head.

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You can get out of your own way more effectively

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and just focus on what we're learning for this task,

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at least good acting and storytelling.

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So that exercise uses verbals and turn taking.

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Our next one removes dialogue entirely

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at the top of the scene.

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So exercise number two, no words at the top.

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Quite literal and to the point.

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So for this one, you're going to build

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the entire base reality of your scene

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without using any words at all.

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You could set a timer for say 30 seconds

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or even a minute at the top of the scene if you want.

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And for that amount of time, no one can say anything.

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You have to use your space work, your physicality,

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and looking and reacting to your scene partner

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to do all of that storytelling

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for setting that base reality.

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And once the timer goes off or your coach gives a signal,

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players can start using words

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and continue the scene as they would normally.

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And the dialogue that follows should, of course,

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build upon that reality already created

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with the silent non-dialogue scene work.

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But the players don't need to start talking right away.

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They can wait until they're ready.

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So one of the coolest parts of this exercise

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is seeing what your scene partner interpreted

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from your shared silent world.

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Their idea of what was happening might be very different

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from yours if you're inside the scene

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and making those connections and sort of justifying

anything

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that might not work is often very rewarding, fun stuff,

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and it's a great learning experience as well.

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These exercises, all of them can feel a little strange

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at first, but I think that they're worth that feeling.

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But if you're getting value out of this episode,

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please click the like button to let me know

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or come to the improv update discord and chat with us

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and subscribe wherever you're listening or watching

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so you don't miss future episodes that come out every week.

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I also have downloadable resources

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that include more exercises just like the ones

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in this episode and they're at my website,

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improvupdate.com/downloads.

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And there's a free improv worksheet as well

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if you join my newsletter at that site.

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And if you already get it,

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it's linked at the bottom of each message.

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All right, so our final exercise gives you words back,

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but it makes all of them incredibly precious.

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So exercise number three,

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if you say more than three lines,

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you might explode to bits.

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A verbose title for an exercise against verbosity.

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Neat.

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I have done this exercise many times

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with the great teacher Shannon O'Neill.

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I mean, legendary teacher Shannon.

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I think I'm supposed to attach legend to the name somehow.

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Anyways, she might have come up, by the way,

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with a different name for this exercise,

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not might she absolutely did.

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And I don't remember what she called it.

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Definitely, so not what I'm calling it here,

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but I doubt that she'll see or hear this anyways.

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So it has a new name now.

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So for this exercise,

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you'll do a scene for a set amount of time.

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It might be three minutes, it might be five minutes,

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whatever you want to do, but here's the catch.

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Each scene partner is only allowed to say

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a preset number of lines.

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For example, in a three-minute scene,

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each player is only allowed to say three total lines each.

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So six lines across the three minutes, three each.

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You have to make those lines really count.

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You have to use everything else at your disposal

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to make that story work, to make the scene interesting.

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Your body, your emotional reactions,

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the environment, the way that you say your sentence,

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and that also valuable sentence,

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that is to communicate what's happening

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in the very, very, very long spaces between those lines.

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It will feel way longer than a minute.

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Your tone, your cadence, your volume,

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this teaches you the power of economy in language.

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And it can also lead to some really cool

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and detailed physical dialogue

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as you try to communicate maybe complex ideas

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without speaking.

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So you have to use your acting.

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This is all about the acting.

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And by the way, you can spend all those three lines

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right at the top of the scene if you want,

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but you have to still go the full rest of the scene, right?

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Make yourself do a challenge, that's really fun too.

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If you're doing this one on your own,

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generate a suggestion from an app

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or pick a random word in a book, set a timer and go.

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But of course you can't do a monologue.

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You've only got say three lines

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or whatever you set up for yourself.

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I recommend imagining your scene partner's responses

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and see if that works for you.

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Start with your space work, say your line as you would

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as if somebody else was there,

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but then imagine your scene partner's reactions,

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words or not, and keep going,

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leaving those big long pauses to do your scene work.

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Keep imagining your partner's reactions to it.

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How might they respond to whatever you're sending out

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and proceed as you normally would in a scene

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with another person?

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So your mileage might vary on that suggestion.

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Doing this style of improv really works for me though,

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I think because I have a visual imagination

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called hyperfantasia, I can do scenes like this quite

easily

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all the time to practice improv or do solo recorded work.

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But maybe it works quite differently for people

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who don't have a visual imagination.

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So I'm not too sure,

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but you might need to adjust this one accordingly.

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But if you do try it out, let me know,

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leave a comment about how this works

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and what your revisions are, iterate, work on it,

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see what works for you.

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Our brains are all very different and I love that.

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I love figuring this stuff out.

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It's why I'm here doing this thing.

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Now you have some exercises to try out,

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but the very nature of what these exercises are,

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bring us back to that question that I posed for some of us.

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What about that gosh darn subtext?

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So those of us who have difficulty understanding

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subtext body language, tone,

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they might hear, we might hear about these exercises

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and feel some dread, a pit in our stomach.

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And yes, that is very valid,

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but you don't necessarily need to use or understand subtext

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and such to communicate in this way.

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So here's the thing, those of us who don't really get

subtext,

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we sometimes also, or another thing,

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some of us need more time to process some of these things

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or perhaps we just don't see or pick up on it at all.

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That's fine.

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At the same time, we're often particularly good

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at something else to compensate,

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at noticing things, at seeing them still.

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We might just not be able to process

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or fully understand it yet.

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But improv is great because whatever we make up

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in lieu of an actual understanding

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about these things that we see is still valid and correct

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in our scenes and improv.

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So focus on whatever you notice or hear.

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And remember that in improv,

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however you respond and interpret is valid

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for your character in that scene, it's still correct.

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Because humans with different forms of processing

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and neurotypes, et cetera, exist in real life.

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We're here.

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So they can exist in fictional stories

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and on stage as well.

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So what's also great is you can show

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and you can tell as needed in a regular scene.

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It's always okay to ask your scene partner

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what they meant by something.

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And if you don't know what that strange glance was about,

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it's always okay to ask in character.

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What the hell, Gary?

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Why did you look at me like that?

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Something like this is a useful move when you need it

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and I guess you're telling you're not showing,

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but that helps make that part of the scene clearer

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for everyone, including the audience.

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So that question, if you have difficulty

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with the subtext tone, et cetera,

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these signals, processing time, whatever,

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does this non-dialogue based exercise work leave you

behind?

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No, it doesn't.

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Because it's not really about subtext in these things,

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it's about the overall context.

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It's about observation, feeling and listening.

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It's about what you can see, about what you can do,

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about what you can hear beyond the dialogue,

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whatever you want to interpret that as,

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and how your character feels and responds.

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So you can lean into whatever your strength is

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in observation and listening and process it

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in whatever way or whatever speed

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you normally do day to day.

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So this work is for everyone

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and it makes all of us better, more grounded performers.

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You might have to ask for things in different ways

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for these exercises, play around a bit,

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but in a normal scene, the telling side of show and tell

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is perfectly fine whenever you need it as a tool.

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So I guess I'm coming to this as the show and tell mindset,

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which might bring on an improv controversy.

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I don't know what people care about, but a quick note,

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I will be doing an episode all about using pauses

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effectively in your scenes, in acting

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and in character work later on.

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And that will build on a lot of these similar,

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same whatever ideas.

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A lot of these ideas will keep going with them.

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We'll be embracing pauses

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because it's such an important part of acting.

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And it's also helpful for various brain types,

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such as those with the auditory processing differences

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like mine, so we can accommodate our processing needs

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and be better actors as a fairly noteworthy bonus.

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So thanks for tuning in.

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I'll be back next Monday for the next episode

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and to apologize for the show and tell improv controversy.

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I hope.

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After all, I'm Canadian,

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who got to use the now canon improv phrase,

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get to Skinsuit Town in this episode

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because it becomes canon if you use it twice.

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Call back, bye for now.

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Sorry.

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You have been listening to Your Improv Brain,

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a StereoForrest production.

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This show is created and is written, edited

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and produced by Jen of StereoForest.com.

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You can find show information, show notes, transcripts

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and contact information at the show's page

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at StereoForrest.com/improvbrain.

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Thanks for listening.

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(upbeat music)

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(birds chirping)

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