- 1. Thou shalt not block:
Blocking prevents the performance from making any progress. For example, Mary walks into a hairdressing salon and finds out her long lost brother Joe will be cutting her hair. Joe asks her how she is. Mary simply replies 'Good thankyou'. Joe enquires about if she has married. 'Yes' answers Mary. Any children? '2'. The problem here is that the actor playing Mary is not holding a sufficient conversation -- this is the brother she has not seen for 32 years! There should be disbelief, joy and perhaps tears! If you were Joe, you could probably attempt to ask questions that require long explanations. Provided Mary kept blocking, Joe would soon run out of questions and the routine would soon be stuck at a dead end.
- 2. Thou shalt always retain focus:
Never lose sight of the whole point of the exercise. If you've been told you've just found a dead body in a dark alley and need to act out a reaction, you shouldn't just run off from the crime scene and go to the local pub for a night with the boys!
- 3. Thou shalt not shine above thy team mates:
You were put into a team for a reason. You are NOT competing against eachother. Work together! Find out what strategies work well amongst each other. Also remember that each team is unique, so keep flexible and learn to act in such a way to compliment each individual's style.
- 4. To gag is to commit a sin that will be paid for:
Someone attempts to speak their line when their team mate talks over them and steals the audience's attention. This is just plain bad acting. If they have something to say, let them do so. It will probably change the performance for the best. And if your hotshot idea is left redundant after your team mates spur-of-the-moment-AHHH-my-arms-are-falling-off, use it some other time!
- 5. Thou shalt always be changed by what is said to you:
Nuff said.
- 6. Thou shalt not waffle:
Most likely you're performing in front of -some- kind of audience and their attention span isn't prepared to last forever. Get to the point. Sure, you can elaborate on your ideas; by all means do so! Just don't forget that people dont want to hear Little Timmy talk for 8 1/2 minutes on how he missed the bus to school this morning.
- 7. When in doubt, break the routine:
It's like deja vu... over.. and over... and over... Carrie and Brett are sitting on that park bench telling eachother that they miss their deceased mother. 'She was such a great person.' 'Yeah, I miss her.' 'No one could be as kind as she was' 'I wish she came back.' 'She was the most inspiring person on this Earth.' 'I miss her so much.' -- BORING! It's going nowhere! We get the point, so now what? If you find yourself in this situation, do something out of the ordinary! The more creative the better! Perhaps Brett chooses this moment to tell Cassie he has a tumor and only has 3 months left. Or if you've been set a topic to act out, move on with it.
- 8. To wimp is to show thy true self:
Letting the rest of your team do all the work is pathetic. Don't do this.
- 9. He/she who tries to be clever is not while he/she that is clever does not try:
Let it all come naturally. Yes you're acting, but dont let the audience know that! Be real, don't try so hard. The huge effort put in will result in your performance looking fake.
- 10. When thy faith is low, thy spirit weak, thy good fortune strained, and thy team losing,
be comforted and smile, because... IT JUST DOESNT MATTER!