Hellen Keller said, “The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt with the heart.” Each guest’s heart is the target for the outstanding interactive performer. It isn’t as difficult as it may seem. But, you can’t be superficial. You can’t rely on performance tricksContinue reading “Aim For The Heart”
Tag Archives: Performing
Shakespeare For Today’s Actor
I’ve been working a lot with Shakespeare lately. Teaching, performing and writing about his plays. I realize now how much this training and performance experience adds to work with contemporary scripts and in working as an interactive character. Doing Shakespeare well means the actor is portraying a bigger than life character with unshakable commitment, believabilityContinue reading “Shakespeare For Today’s Actor”
More Behaviors and What They Suggest
The definition of ‘interactive’ is a two-way flow of information, allowing people to influence or have an effect on each other. It’s commonly accepted that, as humans exchange information with each other, only 7% is done with words. Another 38% is in vocal tone. And the greatest factor in human communication (55%) is body language.Continue reading “More Behaviors and What They Suggest”
Eliminate Reasons To Hold Back
Here’s a quick thought about what we do and the creative process. Sure, in our work we have to “color inside the lines”. That’s part of the whole process. We are part of teams that help us prepare performances and evaluate what happens in rehearsals. The final product belongs to many contributors. Still, I runContinue reading “Eliminate Reasons To Hold Back”
“Yes, and…”
The Goal – Each guest becomes a unique, contributing partner in the word of our story. Every time a guest interacts with a character, their feeling of being a valued part of this new world grows deeper and fuller. They go on to explore their new environment, inspired, confident and emotionally connected to this imaginaryContinue reading ““Yes, and…””
It’s Personal
The kind of connection we want between a character and a guest is a personal give and take. A two-way interaction. In the example in last blog entry, we got where the guest makes an emotional connection with the dinosaur. That’s one half of our interaction. Imagine, now, the character incorporates the natural human cuesContinue reading “It’s Personal”
Recover A Scared Kid
A quick tangent. As I was writing, I traced these interactive character ideas back to the one standing rule, “Do whatever it takes to Recover A Scared Kid”. When a character unintentionally scares a kid, performers usually do one of three things: Fumble around until someone moves the sobbing kid away and the meet andContinue reading “Recover A Scared Kid”
What You Observe – Apply The Why
Let’s review. As humans we have very sophisticated programming to be social – to interact. At the beginning of every interaction you have two choices. Keep your attention on yourself or place your focus on the other person. If you focus on yourself, you become self-conscious and introspective. You miss the cues those other humansContinue reading “What You Observe – Apply The Why”
How Connections Are Made – First Step
You are wearing a character costume in an immersive environment. You’re staged in one place and there is a queue of guest waiting to meet you. Your job is to connect and have a fantastic interaction with every guest. The most fundamental way to connect with another person is to share eye contact with them.Continue reading “How Connections Are Made – First Step”
Connections
We are created with a deep, instinctive drive to belong, to love and to be loved. Connecting is a fundamental human need. It is so ingrained in us, we make the decision to like or reject someone in a matter of seconds. It’s a survival mechanism. We are hardwired to do that. To our instincts,Continue reading “Connections”
Interactive Characters 