Category Archives: Acting

Help, I’ve lost my objective!

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I’ve just had an audition for a role play gig, playing out simulations as part of training programs and I can’t help but get the feeling that I stuffed it up. That I took my eye off the ball and failed to deliver. I didn’t meet my objective in going to the audition or the objective that was asked of me in the audition. I know my stuff in this area, it’s what I do and the acting itself was fine. Yet, I lacked clarity of purpose, focus, objective. The conversation didn’t go where it could have gone. How many times have you felt that way in an interview, a presentation or a crucial conversation? That you have the credibility, information, expertise even, but it didn’t come across or the interaction didn’t turn out the way it could have. How different could it have been if you had clear purpose and no matter what was thrown your way, you kept your eye on your intention and the end goal?

For me, the objective in the scene or role play was simple; “you’re a truck driver, you’ve made a delivery, you are in a hurry and you need to get a signature from the person you have made the delivery to”. Of course, it’s never that easy and it turned out that half of what I delivered was incorrect. So, no signature, the man tells me. That’s when I lost sight of my objective. I played the rest of the scene on one level; as being in a hurry, just wanting to sort the issue and get out of there. The signature part got forgotten.  So, we came to an agreement of sorts and I left. Without a signature. How rich and different the conversation could have been if I had pushed for what I wanted. Conflict, negotiation, exploring options, coming to a mutually acceptable outcome; that’s what it could have looked like and probably what they were looking for. “Did you get the signature, achieve your objective?”, I was asked afterwards. Ah, right, I totally missed it. Sure, you could argue, I flexed in the moment, went with what I was presented in the scene, why would he sign etc. Here’s hoping that’s enough for the sake of the gig, but is it really enough in effective communication, a presentation,  a difficult conversation? How could it be more effective?

That brings us all the way back to objective. This is defined as purpose, aim, point, reason, goal, intention. All excellent words to describe what every presentation, or conversation, needs. It is not just about relaying information, or as someone told me recently, “you just need to know your subject matter and be passionate about it”. That’s only part of it. You need that ‘throughline’, that central theme, context, message, point, reason for being there, that backbone that everything you present is attached to. And for it to be delivered clearly. Why are you there, why is this important, why listen to you, what do you want the audience to do, how do you want them to feel, what changes because of this presentation, meeting, conversation and interaction? Knowing these things reduces your nerves and increases your confidence, hones your focus, allows you to cope with those challenges and questions. To deliver a message that the audience understands and can do something with.

Choose a strong objective. For example, ‘get that signature no matter what’, is stronger than ‘get out of there as quick as possible as you’re in a hurry’. In acting, when we study a script or scene, we explore – what do I want, how do I get it, what’s in my way, how do I get around the obstacles. I’d add to this that context is important and may have been missing in the expectations for my audition; what is wanted from me in this scene, what are you looking for, what’s the purpose of the interaction, what are the learning outcomes, what are you looking for from the participant, who is the learner, what are you ‘testing’ them on and what does success look like. All crucial components of running role plays for learning and development by the way. But that’s another article.

This focus on objective doesn’t mean that it’s all about you. You must consider the audience and their needs. How does what you say and what you are working towards, help them achieve their objectives? The goals of the business?

The same goes for coaching, difficult or crucial conversations. Yes, the conversation can go off in any direction, as we’re human and emotional, but there should be context, a clear goal, something that needs to be achieved and outcomes and actions that address clear objectives. It also must involve the other person; it’s not all one way. This is what influence is all about; facilitating behavioural change to enhance performance through clear two-way communication.  Key to this is focussing on the problem, not the person, which also helps deal with conflict. And yes, you do need to flex in the moment, depending on what is presented to you. I think at least I got that bit right.

Glen Hancox is the director of Actreal, drawing upon acting practices to coach people develop sustainable personal and professional presence, to present and be present. Key to his approach is guiding people to communicate within The Inter-Personal Space, TIPS©.

The Dread of Role Play

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The Dread of Role Play

“What’s in a name? That which we call role play
By any other name would smell as sweet.”

Ok so that’s a fairly poor use of a Shakespeare quote and I’m not sure that just changing the name makes ‘role play’ any more a pleasurable prospect. Doesn’t help that it’s from Romeo and Juliet which is a tragedy. Whatever you want to call it – real play, skills practice, acting out, using this form of practice in learning is crucial for development from childhood onwards. As kids we love it, as adults we dread it. In the workshops I have delivered when those words are mentioned the effect on the room is palpable. Pained or frightened expressions, eyes cast downwards and a shift in the feel of the room. And that’s before I even ask for volunteers. And yet few participants and observers would argue that the biggest ‘ah ha’ moments have come from actually practicing what is being preached. I have even heard the words “enjoyable” and “fun” uttered, to which I would add satisfying and rewarding. So what’s the problem and why the pushback every time?

Well, for a start I think the name is wrong and sets the expectation that people will be acting, that they have to get up in front of their peers and perform a scene. The only acting should be from the actor/facilitator/person playing the other role. The participant should only be ‘acting’ as themselves – acting meaning ‘being’, ’functioning’, ‘behaving’. So it’s being yourself in a particular scenario, practicing certain skills, having an opportunity to try something new or a familiar situation in a different way, getting coaching and feedback. It’s important that this context be set up and there is absolute clarity on the objective before the scenario is played out. When it’s not, I have seen role play gone wrong.

As an actor often I am brought in purely to role play, to play characters and scenarios as part of a workshop and give some feedback from my characters point of view. One workshop recently, granted it was a pilot program, highlighted how not to run role play. After some general discussion on communication and rapport, it was announced that the group would now be role playing, trying out meeting and greeting a ‘customer’. One brave volunteer came up and with little ado she was told to launch straight into it. I was clear on my role but unsure as to what skills the participants were to practice exactly. It was clear this participant had no idea either. She giggled, stopped and started, rewinded, was made to start again and her bubbly personality gave way to frustration and uncertainty. Mercifully the interaction was stopped and the floor was open to feedback, again with little structure or context. The facilitator and group meant well but without a clear aim comments were varied, focussed on framing rather than rapport and increasingly our ‘role player’ appeared to take it as criticism as to how she does her job and interacts with customers. After a well-meaning question from the floor – “why did you decide to deal with the customer that way?” the tears came. Positive comments soon flowed in, about her personality and how well she does her job, what the role play was trying to achieve, but it was too late, the damage was done. She never recovered and left at lunchtime. Thankfully the rest of the days’ role plays went well and the intentions and focus on each interaction was more clearly defined. It became a skills practice and group coaching session, providing participants with a chance to practice specific skills and learning from the workshop. As it should be. Granted this reaction is rare and can depend on the sensibilities of the participant, yet each individual must be considered, learning outcomes clear and each role play pitched appropriately.

In another example, also a customer service workshop, the morning was spent on building skills and models step by step, interacting with the audience to relate to their world and build best practice in that context. The last part of the session was role play (we called it skills practice) and it was framed as a chance to practice some of the skills discussed e.g. asking questions, delving, using a GROW coaching framework. Anyone could stop the interaction at any time to get help, feedback, coaching, and advice on next steps, to try a different tack. Essentially the participant controlled the situation and owned their learning outcomes. The rest of the group were role playing with them, they were their ‘bench’, a ‘phone a friend’ as we worked through the scenarios together. Sure there was still silence when the next volunteer was called for but the room felt ‘safe’ and each role play was a learning opportunity for everyone in the room, including me as I got stuck on the content of their working world. A great chance for the group to upskill me! One lady said after her role play that she could see how following a process made it so much easier work through a situation with a customer rather than just jump to solution, yet still be herself. An audience member said during one role play that she saw what she tends to do and watching it has made her realise she needs to stop assuming the customer has the same knowledge and understanding as she does. Individual learning outcomes, feedback and coaching opportunities for the role players and the rest of the group. And not a tear in sight.

In my experience, you can talk to an audience, facilitate discussion, go through models and frameworks, but it’s the doing where the learning comes and with it an increase in the likelihood of people applying these skills back in the workplace. It’s a playground, back to ‘role play’ we loved as kids and amazingly most people commit fully to it, get involved and to varying degrees get drawn into the world being created.

So, call it whatever name you will but as Juliet is telling Romeo with “what’s in a name”, a name is an artificial and meaningless convention, and that what’s behind it is the important thing. You may never love it but for those using it, do so well and for those involved, see it not as struggle and tragedy but embrace it as learning and who knows, even fun.

My tips for role plays done right

  • Brief the actor not just in content but also learning outcomes, participants and challenge level
  • Set up at the beginning of the session when, how and why the role play or ‘skills practice’ will occur.
  • Explain that it’s not a test, the idea is to play around to see what works and where the conversation and situation goes. It’s learning by doing and will feel uncomfortable!
  • Make clear the learning outcomes
  • Frame up the role plays before beginning. What the focus is, skills being applied, how the interaction will run
  • Involve the whole group rather than the person role playing feeling they are on their own
  • Where appropriate allow preparation time before the role play
  • An option is to break people into groups and one or two people from each group meet the character, with their group as support crew
  • Set up the ‘rules’ around stopping the role play, getting help and coaching from the group
  • Pitch each role play appropriately given the skill and comfort of each participant and the skill being practiced. There doesn’t have to be conflict every time!
  • Structure the feedback. Start with the participant then the group, followed by facilitator and/or actor (role player). Make sure they give ‘what went well’ first.
  • Link feedback and debrief to the skills, frameworks and learning areas covered in the workshop
  • Use an actor rather than role playing with each other. An actor can take on character behaviours, make it real and give meaningful feedback. Participants are also more likely to take it seriously
  • Use real world scenarios and situations that the participants can relate to and apply what they practice in the real world.

I Yam What I Yam – The Power of Self Acceptance

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“I yam what I yam and tha’s all what I yam”, said Popeye the Sailor. Now there’s a guy who has a certain presence, oft associated with bulging forearms and a penchant for spinach. Another screen personality and author Willard Scott perhaps said it more eloquently: “Positive feelings come from being honest about yourself and accepting your personality, and physical characteristics, warts and all”. And then there’s my yoga meditation teacher who talks about people finding the level of comfort they have with themselves.

The point being, there is incredible power in being yourself and being comfortable in your own skin, and mind. The more I research presence, the more I am convinced it starts within, not just the stuff you do with others. Of course how you behave and project yourself to the world plays a key role but you need a strong base or platform to be able to do this effectively. The way I see it, presence is about being totally in the moment, focussed on the person you are with, the situation you are in. And that is very hard to achieve if you are worrying about yourself, how you’re coming across, what others are thinking about you. The more you can eliminate the self focus, the more present you can be, the more presence you project.

To look at it another way, top performers have incredible focus. Magnetic stage and screen actors who you can’t take your eyes off, sports stars who appear to effortlessly cope with pressure and dazzle with their ability, presenters who engage the audience and take them on a journey, even the person at the party you could talk to all night. These people are fully absorbed in what they are doing, not in themselves. This is often referred to as being in the flow, in the zone and it begins with full focus. This doesn’t mean these people don’t work damn hard. A top baseball coach, Joe Girardi, put it this way, “If you think too much, you fail, because the game happens too quickly. The key is preparation… The data has to become instinctual. You can’t think about it in the middle of a pitch.” Daniel Goleman, author of ‘Emotional Intelligence’ and ‘Focus’ puts a more scientific spin on it: “When the prefrontal cortex activates and we start thinking about how we’re doing, how to do what we’re doing-or, worse, what not to do-the brain gives over some control to circuits that know how to think and worry, but not how to deliver the move itself. Whether in the hundred meters, soccer, or baseball, it’s a universal recipe for tripping up”. I know for myself the horror nights on stage were when I was thinking about my next line, how I was coming across, what the audience were thinking and almost watching and critiquing myself from outside my body. Present? No. Stage presence. I very much doubt it.

 

I often talk about shifting the focus from self to the audience when presenting, to manage nerves and engage. I would take this further to say that in life, in business, those that have presence have the ability to forget about themselves and focus on others and in the task they are engaged in. To be able to do this, you need to work on yourself, be comfortable with you are and what you offer to the world.

To borrow from Greek philosophers and the perpetually present William Shakespeare, “Know thyself” and “to thine own self be true”.

Vulnerable Self – The Power of You

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As an actor, exercises in acting class or standing in front of an audience involve and invokes a huge sense of vulnerability. Letting go and trying something completely new or at least uncomfortable is scary and also exhilarating. I remember a ‘risk night’ exercise we had to prepare for an acting class. I was asked to present a classical ballet piece! Now I’m no mover, and I’m sure I looked ridiculous (I even bought long Johns to wear) but once I committed to it and let go I felt liberated and strangely, more confident. Not about dancing per se but within myself. I came face to face with vulnerability and felt courageous as I confronted it.

When we stand on stage in front of an audience it is daunting and we tend to focus on questions like “will the audience like me?” This translates to presentations, pitches, meetings and boardrooms, where the focus is often on ourselves. The question we need to be asking is “Do I really like or believe in myself?” My first acting teaching used to say “if you do not believe in yourself then it is doubtful anyone else will”. He would also add that doubts are normal, healthy even, though somewhere along the line the actor must grow and have faith in their own abilities. So, you need to know your abilities, you need to like yourself but also and fundamentally you must know and confront your flaws.

A famous acting teacher Uta Hagen wrote, “First you must learn who you are. You must find your own sense of identity, enlarge this sense of self, and learn to see how that knowledge can be put to use in the characters you will play on stage”. Of course in the ‘real’ world the character is you, your character, though I would argue that we do portray different versions of ourselves depending on the ‘stage’ we are standing on and the audience we are with.

We all have flaws or things we don’t like about ourselves and it is inevitable that at times we compare ourselves to others. It may be that we wish we had their charm, charisma, and way with people, presence. To achieve presence we need to achieve comfort in our own skin, that quiet confidence people exude when they are solid and secure in who they are and what they offer. It is not the “look at me” people who have a presence about them; in fact it is the opposite. What we are working towards then is to accept yourself with pride, the things that make you different, unique and special. It is how you feel about yourself that is important. Sometime actors with a powerful stage presence are said to bare their soul to the audience, which is the true essence of vulnerability and creates a powerful connection to the audience. We are not watching a character, we are seeing and feeling a human being, complete with emotions and flaws, and that vulnerability is the very thing that seems to attract an audience. Am I suggesting that you bare your soul and express your emotions at every possible opportunity? No, I am making the point that you have something to offer, flaws and all and it the combination of self acceptance and being your true self that gives you presence and the ability to connect with others. Wearing a mask is tiring, often or eventually obvious and on some level a barrier to connection.

Yakim Moni, in ‘Creating a Character’ says “Society has also set up psychological portraits of the ideal person and citizen whom you are encouraged to emulate. If you have been scolded as a child for being overly aggressive, overly withdrawn, overly emotional, overly trusting, then you may feel you are different, imperfect. Perhaps you retreated or covered up to prevent society from knowing your weakness and to protect yourself from feeling pain. As an actor you must look at yourself and into yourself. The work on the vulnerable self will help you uncover and dispose of layer after layer of concealing shrouds…without coming to terms with your flaws, real or imagined, the best in your talent is immobilised. Your ability to express yourself is blocked”.

The journey to building presence, then, starts with awareness of your faults and qualities, your ‘character’ if you like. The next step is how this character interacts with the rest of the world. This means working on your body, speech, mind, emotions and importantly, your behaviour. In the words of acclaimed acting teacher Stella Adler, you must say aloud “I am myself and I have my own standards”.

 

Special thanks to my Actors Showcase teacher Peter Stephenson Jones.

Whats so good about role play?

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Working with actors in role plays and simulations gives people the opportunity to practice a skill, situation or scenario which is as close as possible to what they are dealing with in the ‘real’ world. They are an excellent tool to put models and theories into practice, trying them out in a safe environment and getting self insight and feedback as to what works and what needs to be adapted. It also takes the fear out of facing potential difficult situations, as they are played out first in a simulated environment. To get the best out of role plays the actors need to be briefed on the learning outcomes and also any background information relevant to the case, as this adds realism and credibility.  The extent to which this is required flexes depending on the scenario and can be minimal if the focus is on represented behaviours. The key is for the actors to be able to improvise in the moment, taking on the information and behaviours assigned to the ‘character’ and situation they are playing out then flexing in the moment depending on how the simulation is playing out and being driven by the participant. Scenarios can also be acted out between the actors to demonstrate effective or ineffective behaviours, with the participants giving input into what they would do differently. Forum theatre takes this to the next level as participants jump into the ‘hot seat’ and taking over from one of the actors and dealing with the scenario themselves. The actors are trained to give feedback, particularly in terms of the impact the participants behaviour or approach is having on them. The most effective role plays are facilitated by the person running the workshop to ensure program specific feedback and outcomes. Small groups better enhance comfort levels amongst participants and allow for more practice and feedback from the role player, facilitator and group.

From Gallipoli to Shortland Street

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Press

Release

From Gallipoli to Shortland Street?

NZ Actor Glen Hancox plays forgotten

Kiwi journo in ‘Gallipoli’, sets sights on a Shorty role

 

Melbourne, January 19, 2015:  Melbourne based

Kiwi actor Glen Hancox is set to appear in Channel

Nine’s ‘Gallipoli’, a series to commemorate the

100th anniversary of the Gallipoli campaign. He plays

little known and forgotten journalist Malcolm Ross, the official NZ war correspondent in World War I. Glen hopes to raise the profile of Ross and of himself in his native NZ and create an opening in the NZ entertainment industry, moving from the beaches of Gallipoli to the also legendary Shortland Street.

Glen has been acting for 15 years, mostly in Australia and while he is often cast as a Kiwi character, he has never worked as a screen actor in New Zealand. That, he says, is about to change.

“I’ve been looking for an opportunity to come home for years.” Glen says. “New Zealand is always home and I’d love to play Kiwi characters and tell local stories. It was a special experience playing Malcolm Ross and I was shocked to find so little was known about him in NZ and what has been written was largely critical of his work in WWI. He was hamstrung in so many ways and he left little of his life behind for posterity. In a lot of ways, my role in Gallipoli is also small, but I did my best as an actor to bring him alive and at least represent his presence in history”.

Glen anticipates that the production will be well received in New Zealand, as it has a number of Kiwi characters. He is hopeful the name of Malcolm Ross will also be revived in the minds of New Zealanders. As for Glen the actor he is keen to appear on New Zealand’s most famous street and is approaching the task with ANZAC determination. “I’ve been trying for a gig on Shortland Street and in NZ for a while. Now is the time and I won’t give up the fight”.

Glen can be contacted through his NZ agent Gail Cowan Management, gail@gcm.co.nz
Tel +64 9 360 2654 Mb+64 (0)274 444 296

Showcast Page http://www.showcast.com.au/showcast/View/ViewActorProfile?actorId=20540&d=9McNf8Qgd3BIiFjehvmR4w

Showree l – http://vimeo.com/35614460