Five Minutes To Act

“Every action you take is a vote for the type of person you wish to become. No single instance will transform your beliefs, but as the votes build up, so does the evidence of your new identity. This is one reason why meaningful change does not require radical change. Small habits can make a meaningful difference by providing evidence of a new identity. And if a change is meaningful, it is actually big. That’s the paradox of making small improvements.”  -James Clear, book Atomic Habits

“Sometimes life beats down and crushes the soul, and art reminds you that you have one.” -Stella Adler, book The Technique Of Acting

For the actor…

You can act every single day if you want to. Only got five minutes? That’s okay. You can…

-read a monologue out loud to yourself

-read a couple pages out loud from a scene; play all the parts (This is where having an anchor play really helps.)

-take a scene and start to break it down into beats

-take one beat and come up with some possible actions for that character

-do one of Uta Hagen’s amazing acting exercises

-do a sensory exercise (you in the desert; you in the freezing cold; you holding a hot cup of coffee; you walking with a bowl of soup that’s too full, etc.)

-observe someone

-observe yourself

-do a vocal warm up

-stretch your body

-stretch your mind…use your imagination, daydream, THINK BIG!

These are just some ideas off the top of my head. No doubt you can think of many others and better ones. The point is, no matter how busy the day, how much of a shit show it was, you can still find a little time to act. That way, right before your head hits the pillow, you can feel good that you acted today. You at least did that.