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Act Like a Human Being

7/27/2014

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My mother used to say that to me when I was misbehaving, act like a human being. When I say it to actors it doesn't quite mean the same thing my mother intended, but it all comes down to the same thing, behavior. How are you behaving? How are you being? Sanford Meisner said an ounce of behavior is worth a pound of words. Behavior is what makes and actor watchable. So while you must train to learn how to move technically in front of a camera, once you are there, on your mark, using subtle movements, not blinking and keeping your forehead still, how are you behaving? My guess is less like a human being. Here are my top ways to keep your acting human:
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Fight to win but consider what will happen if you lose

There is always something you're fighting for in a scene. We want to root for you. But we need a reason to care, we need to know that you are just like us. We need to see your struggle, see that you have moments of doubt and regret. You cannot rely on the script to provide a "to be or not to be" soliloquy to explain your inner turmoil. You must express it truthfully and fully while you continue to fight. We want to see that your reason for fighting is human, your job is to make the audience see that your intentions are human. The best example is My Best Friend's Wedding. Julia Roberts is doing a horrible thing (breaking up an engagement) yet we root for her. We want her to win because she expertly portrays a look of terrible heartbreak every time losing becomes a possibility. 

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Keep the love alive
When another character double crosses or betrays you in a scene, the easy generic choice is to just do angry. Many actors become one dimensional and sub human by deciding, that "someone did me wrong, I'm pissed". Consider that anger is a secondary response in humans and always stems from hurt, loss or abandonment of some kind. The only way someone could actually make you angry in the first place is if you cared about them, trusted them and had a personal stake in how they treat you. That doesn't go away when they betray your trust. Love lives on. Simply responding with anger is not enough. Adding hurt is not enough either. You must also show through behavior that you do still care. That is the ultimate pain of human existence. That makes you compelling to watch. 


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Breathe
You are not a robot. Holding your breath hurts you in many ways. Firstly you need oxygen to survive. So does your character. Not breathing also stops emotion from flowing through you freely and keeps part of your brain focused on yourself rather than something outside of yourself. Your characters breathe, if they are real people. Deep breaths and sighs are some of the best true behavior you have because people are immediately affected by them and they occur naturally when you are stressed in some way. Breathing is not something to plan, it is what you must allow into your acting. It is undeniably human.  

Remember that at the end of the day an audience will forgive many things when they are rooting for the character. We want to feel like extraordinary things are possible for everyday human beings. We want to win vicariously through you. That's what makes all this show business worth doing.

Robyn Kay teaches Meisner Technique classes at the Robyn Kay Studio in downtown Toronto. To hear more about classes contact her at 416-312-9188 or [email protected]

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Interested in starting class?? Summer Promotion on now!

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Drop in class every Sunday night 5-8 pm! All levels of experience are welcome.

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Come in for an audit and see what the Meisner Technique can do for you.
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Get Out of Your Head. For Good. 

7/21/2014

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Everyone knows how to be a good actor right? Its easy. Just get out of your head. Go ahead, do it. I'll wait....Are you out of your head? Probably not. Because as simple as the concept is, actually doing it can be one of the most difficult things for humans to do, and impossible the more you TRY to do it. You are your thoughts, your behaviors reflect where your focus is. So the more you focus on being out of your head, the deeper you bury yourself in the thought of it, the more trapped you become in your thoughts. That is death for an actor. So hear are some ways to get out of your head:
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1. Dance I said, dance. 
Any kind of movement will do really but dancing just may be the most fun. Too many actors come in to my studio completely stiff from the neck down. Too many people end up glued to their chairs, keeping their instincts quiet. Moving around immediately ignites your instincts and allows you to feel. Emotions are awakened through heavy  workouts, long walks and dancing 

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2. Children and animals
They say never work with children or animals. They steal the show. Why? Because they are always instinctual. Never in their head or confined to societal norms. They have no filter. They are compelling to watch. So play with a kid, or pet some animals. Roll around on the floor with a dog for ten minutes or play superheroes with some kids. That sense of play that we all had as children is instinctual and vital for your acting.  

3. Meisner Technique acting classes
In order to get out of your head you must focus 100 percent on something outside of yourself. You must get your attention off yourself completely and leave yourself alone. Great acting can only happen when you completely allow everything going on in you to go on, never being aware of how you look, or how cool you are or how relaxed your forehead is. This is not easy. 
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Getting your attention off yourself is a muscle. A muscle that must be worked like your bicep or your gastrocnemius. You must actively train yourself to focus fully on something else. The quickest and most effective way to accomplish this is through Meisner Technique acting classes. Think of class as a gym for your instincts, working moment to moment, consistently working the muscle of getting your attention off yourself. Think about it. You would not expect your tushy to tighten up by sitting on the couch an thinking about it. Well neither will the muscle of getting your attention off yourself. Building a strong foundation in a technique you can rely on is the way to keep you out of your head and keep your focus where it needs to be, when there a million other places for your focus to go. 

Interested in trying out the technique? Summer promotion is on now: $250 tax included for a 4 week session. There is also a beginner class starting August 4th for $149. There really has never been a better time to learn a technique that can take you to the next level of your acting, no matter where you start from. Here's people are saying:
For more information or to book a free consultation with Robyn Kay please call us at 416.312.9188 or [email protected]
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5 Ways to Ensure Success

7/20/2014

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Alright, I will give you the secret to success right now, right here. The secret is that there is no secret. There is no one right way and all ways take hard work, discipline, focus and flexibility. There is no such thing as a get rich quick and there is no overnight success. The long way is the short way. This is all good news. This is why they say "if at first you don't succeed, try try again". You must become a collector of "No" and fail more than you succeed. For in the journey towards success, is not only a means to an end, but an end in itself. If that's not meta, I don't know what is. Here are 5 things to consider:

1. Do it when you don't feel like it. 
If you keep waiting for it to feel right before you start, you will die waiting. Yes, die. No matter what you are trying to achieve, you must just start. It will feel awful. You might complain like a teenager having to hang out with her parents. In public. The more you do this the more you will feel like doing it. Its true. We are creatures of habit, so the more your efforts become habit, the more you will crave doing it. Go to the gym at 6 am for 30 days and I swear you'll start looking down at people who sleep in.  


2. Surround yourself with people more successful than you. 
Some people love hanging out with unattractive people. It makes them feel pretty. The problem is the more they hang out with the unattractive, the more they pick up their habits, the more they start to blend right in with them. You cannot soar like an eagle whilst you are surrounded by turkeys. All around you there are people who are achieving more, booking more jobs, getting in better shape. Be around them. Listen to what they say. Sitting at the pub listening to your unemployed friend's theory on how the credit card companies are out to control him will not make you richer. If you can't find any real live people, there are many teachers and mentors who have written books and talk about success all the time. Pop some popcorn and have a drink with one of these videos.
3. Constant training
Get to class. I cant stress this enough. Actors need to be in class all the time. You need to be growing, you need to be pushed by a coach who will not just tell you how great you are. You must learn to express and allow your emotions truthfully and fully. In any industry you are in, you must be learning new things on a daily basis. The world is changing at an alarming rate. What worked 5 years ago will not work today. If you don't think that is so, you must be still writing in Grafitti on your palm pilot and calling people you met off Myspace on your shiny new Razr. If you cannot find the right coach there are resources online www.tedtalks.com. 
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4. Be uncomfortable
Any or all of the things on this list will make you feel uncomfortable if you do them right. You must push out of your comfort zone to start achieving things that you never have before. Actors must push to sit in the uncomfortable space where they are being emotionally affected by another human being. At the gym you must lift weights that feel uncomfortable in order to build muscle. In your daily life you must constantly take risks to stay young and feel alive. Talk to a stranger, call in to a radio station, go to an open mic and sing something acapella. Risk looking bad. The rewards will blow your mind. 

5. Don't make it personal
Life is about something bigger than you. People will tell you all sorts of things to bring you down or lift you up, depending on what they need from you. Whatever they say says more about them than you! That is very important to know if you wish to be successful. Whether feedback is positive or negative, take what you are getting without making it mean anything about you. Consider criticism and think it through to see if it may help your work. Accept compliments but go home and work harder. Your pursuits are a constant process and nobody is responsible for your success but you.  
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Robyn Kay is an acting coach and founder of the Robyn Kay Studio in downtown Toronto. Meisner Technique classes run continuously with drop ins every Sunday night. For more info please contact Robyn Kay at 
416-312-9188 or [email protected]

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Go naked. For the sake of greatness.

7/13/2014

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It has often been said that all the greatest things in life are happening right outside your comfort zone. In order to grow you must be willing to feel uncomfortable. You must do things you are afraid of because the greatest of risks bring the greatest of rewards. So I want you to go naked. Drop pretense. Drop social conventions, expectations and working for a result. This ocean of risktaking can be scary as it is more vast than the human eye can see. So why not take some babysteps? Here are a few things you can start doing today to get you in the habit of running towards greatness in the uncomfortable.
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1. Walk around naked
Ok, please don't just do this anywhere- but in those places where it may be appropriate to let it all hang out, why not give it a go? A spa, a sauna, a nudist colony. We spend way too much time being comfortable in our clothes. Even spending a Sunday morning walking around the house naked can take you out of your comfort zone and change your experience of life. 


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2. Leave the house without your phone


Our phones have become, like clothing, an extension of ourselves. Any slight sense of discomfort, we reach for our phones. Alone in a public place? Well lonely no more when we can stay connected 24 hrs a day. You can continue your game of Candy Crush or post an extremely happy looking selfie to Facebook, lest anyone think for a second that you were either unpopular or not "living the dream" every waking moment. Well we see through it. This newfound smartphone connected world leaves us more disconnected and dying on the inside than ever before. So try leaving the house without it. See if you can be with yourself, make eye contact with actual other people, even meet someone in a bar without using tinder. Oooh. 

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3. Go to acting class
Whether you are an actor or not, acting class will take you out of your comfort zone- if it is a good class. The great Rosalind Russell said “Acting is standing up naked and turning around very slowly.”  A good acting class will teach you to focus on something outside of yourself so that you are free to express your truth. The deepest truth of ourselves, through imaginary circumstances. Dropping the pretenses of the social world and just being seen for who we truly are takes naked to a whole new level. Wanna experience it? Drop in class is every Sunday 5-8 pm- 
Click here to reserve your spot!

Robyn Kay is an Acting Coach and founder of the Robyn Kay Studio. For more info on classes and private coaching reach her at 416-312-9188 or [email protected]

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You could fall in love tonight. And other reasons to come to drop in #acting class...

7/6/2014

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Ok so Super Sunday evening is upon us yet again and I am looking forward to seeing you. So what exactly happens at a Meisner Technique drop in class?  Drop in class is much like my regular weekly adult classes. We work on the fundamental repetition exercise for a solid 3 hours and all levels of experience are welcome. It is great for beginners and non actors and great for actors experienced in all techniques. Why should you even come? Here are just 3 of my top reasons:

1. You could fall in love. In fact, if you're doing it right, you will. It is quite a common occurrence to see 2 actors go through an entire relationships worth of emotions in a matter of 20 minutes or less. This is part of the fun of the Meisner technique! You get to act on your emotions without thinking rationally about the future. You truly live every moment having no regrets about the past or worries about the future. Its like eating pasta before we realized carbs were evil. So come in and fall in love, kiss someone, scream at them till you're sad, cry it out and if after all of that he/she is still with you, it could be meant to be. Then you get to do it with someone else. 

2. You need to be expressing creatively every day. Actors need to constantly be acting. You cannot walk in a room and dazzle a casting director with your dangerous compelling performance if you have not acted in front of other people for 2 weeks. So if you haven't done any acting today, here is an opportunity to work your muscle. You can't expect to stay strong without going to the gym, acting class is there for you to get a workout. 

3. Begin to see greatness in other people. The basis of the Meisner Technique is listening- actively listening to the person across from you. No cell phone to look at, no text message to decipher, no photo to "like". You simple listen and react to another living breathing human being. The more you do that, the more connected you become to humanity and the more fulfilled you will feel inside of yourself. If you still need to find yourself, it just may happen while your attention is focused on another person. 


So I hope to see you in class tonight. 5-8 pm $20 480 Adelaide West, Toronto. To RSVP CLICK HERE
For more info on classes CLICK HERE
To contact Robyn Kay email [email protected] or call 416-312-9188





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summer special is back!

7/2/2014

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So the weather finally caught up and it is finally summer. Woohoo. I know you're very excited. But before you take a sip of that beer, before you go hang out on that patio, just wait. Answer this question for me. Are you working hard enough on achieving your dreams? Think about that for a second. Your dreams. I'm not talking about the things you know you're capable of. Going to auditions, booking a few commercials, working on some music or a play. I'm talking about your dreams. Do you even know what your dreams are? What do you want out of life? What do you want from your career? What are your, dare I say, goals? 


Most of us become satisfied with mediocrity too easily. You are capable of greatness. Why are you settling for less? By the principles of physics we know that what isn't constantly improving is consistently deteriorating. So what can you accomplish this summer. I would like to make it easier for you to learn some new skills this summer. To make this summer completely life changing in your life as an actor. I am now offering the summer special price of $250 tax incl. for a 4 week session of Meisner Technique acting classes. It has never been easier to learn a new technique, to completely reinforce your acting arsenal. For the entire months of July and August, you are eligible for this deal. Come audit a class today. The Meisner Technique may be the bridge that could get you to your dreams. Anything less is beneath you. If you dont believe that, you need this class more than ever.

To book a coaching/consultation with Robyn Kay or to register for class go HERE

To book an audit class, go HERE


Happy summer:) I truly hope it is your best ever.

Robyn Kay teaches Adults and children the Meisner Technique at her studio downtown Toronto. To contact Robyn Kay call 416.312.9188 or [email protected]


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    Robyn Kay

    Acting coach, an artist and an advocate for truth. 

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