All the World's A Stage

All the world's a stage, And all the men and women merely players: They have their exits and their entrances; And one man in his time plays many parts -- William Shakespeare

Every morning, we wake up and start our opening act. We put on our “costumes” and (most of us) our make up. We put on our happy faces and go about our day. We fake a smile when we fight with our friends, have troubles at work, and stressed about our life. We pretend sympathy when we listen to emotional issues from colleagues that we really don‘t empathize with. We agree with friends when they are angry about something when most times we don‘t always understand why they are angry. We see people being dramatic as they are telling a story about some great event - and you know you are always interested in eavesdropping to that ONE story by that ONE person who is frantically waving their arms and laughing so hard they can barely get the tale out.

If all the world’s a stage and practically all teenagers in the US want to be movie stars, why is it so hard to get them to perform at rehearsal or a show???

We say smile and we get frowns. We say jump and they barely raise onto their toes. We say run and they walk slower. BUT give them a water break and it was like we gave them a sip of an energy drink or a bolt of electricity to the brain and they are hyper, expressive, and dynamic. We call them back- And we can hear the a death march music as they trudge back to their sets.

And staff sits there staring at their students, shocked and dumbfounded, clearly fighting the urge to repeatedly smack their own foreheads with the palms of their hands over and over pondering…WHY?? WHY???…

Examples of great performing are all around us. We get captivated by media in every second of every day. Books with insanely popular characters are discussed at length and favorite scenes reenacted in animated discussions. Movies sell millions of dollars in ticket sales daily. American children and teens watch on average 4.5 hours of television a day and I am sure that adults would be right there with them if we didn’t have to go to work. There are few things in life that captivate us so completely as a skilled actor/actress.

So when we have a room full of prospective teen performers…why? We ask. Why is it so hard to get them to perform?

Simple.

Just like any other skill, it has to trained and explained. Not everyone comes out from the womb talented at expressing themselves in the art of acting/performing (except maybe George Clooney.)

Actors and actresses take extensive amounts of effort and time to create their memorable characters…well, maybe except for Bella from Twilight. No one seems to think Kristen Stewart had to stretch much acting muscle for that role.

You hear all the time of actor/actresses taking themselves off into strange or unusual places to find their characters. Heath Ledger for the role of “the Joker” spent a month locked in a hotel room developing his voice, manners,  and mentality. Adrian Brody in, “The Pianist,” an award winning Holocaust movie, was reported giving up everything, including his long time girlfriend to embrace the role. It was his way to make sure when he cried on screen, he was really crying. Just recently, Hugh Jackman was reported dehydrating himself for the first scene in his recent leading role in Les Miserables to create the sunken hollow look of a long time prisoner.

WARNING NOTE: DO NOT TRY ANY OF THESE EXTREME TECHNIQUES AT HOME!!

However, we can learn from these greats that it takes training and something from inside to make their performances amazing. In rehearsals, staffs need to help train their students to perform. It's no different than flag block and rifle basics, but there is a lot of training you can do on your own.

Here are some help hints in becoming a great performers:

~Make up a history or create an emotional example for the character of your show.
                *If you have a happy show about friends, imagine you are a Disney performer and you are best friends with Mickey Mouse and you live in the Magic Kingdom and all day long all you have to do is sit on the Space Mountain ride and laugh.
                *If you are doing a radio tune, imagine you are auditioning for the music video and every time the song plays, you have to be larger than life so that way you get the spot up front and center stage of the video and not the back up dancer in the far left corner.
                *If you have a sad show about losing a loved one, think about what it will feel like when the season ends and how sad it will be to leave your friends or a time a pet has left us or when you had to move away and start over.
                 *If you are in an angry show, think about when your parents tell you to clean your room and you don’t want to or when a staff member tells you to do that feature for the 100^th time and you don’t want to but have to do it anyways.

~Watch movies about your theme. If you are doing a show about Bollywood  look up “So You Think You Can Dance,” Bollywood clips. If you are doing a show about death, watch Meet Joe Black or Six Feet Under. If you are doing a show about clowns, watch a circus movie. If you are doing angry shows, watch WWE wresting. They are great athletic actors! Find your favorite film that relates to your show and practice your favorite quotes from it. Watch the expression the actors/actresses use. Try to copy them.

~ Talk to your staff about what character they want you to portray. The staff knows exactly want they want to see and it will help both of you out to be on the same page. They will give you great examples or words to embrace and express on the floor. Ask them what the music means to them. Why this show? Why now?

~Don’t be afraid to make faces in the mirror. What? That sounds silly, you say? Come on! We all have put on our favorite songs and sang into our hairbrushes like rock stars  Just make faces. Put on your show music and be ridiculously over the top! Cry, grin like a crazy person, or flirt with your reflection! The more you feel comfortable doing it alone knowing how you look and feel, you won’t feel embarrassed or think you look silly in public. You are just perfecting the expression! It’s an art form!

~Make the right choices! Choose to be a performer in the gym and leave the worries of non-guard life at the door. You can pick them up when you leave again. Because, let’s be honest. The judges don’t care if you: just broke up with your girlfriend/boyfriend, are on your period, fought with your parents, had a disagreement with your best friend, broke a nail in warm up, have to finish that English essay, or are missing the newest episode of Walking Dead or Once Upon A Time.

The judges care only about the product you present on the floor and how well it is done. Same for professionals. Do you go to the movies or a Broadway show and it's really bad and say… "Oh, they must be having a bad day. Its o.k. their performance is rough. I feel for them."

NOPE! J Audience members nationwide will be talking about how bad it was and watch how quickly the bad movie gets nominated for the famous Razzie awards. (By the way - Twilight Breaking Dawn Pt. 2 - Huge nominee for the Razzies, in every category!)

Guard shows are mini movies. They all create a theatrical event for you to engage your entire being on. Staff members hope that their innovation, their show design, will be the most memorable, thought provoking, or fan favorite show out there, but it doesn't matter how great the show is if the performers don’t create the magic behind it. After all, we all want to be remembered as great.

Some of the most memorable shows weren't all medalist at WGI. Some of them come from local gyms at local shows. They were remembered because of the performers! It's those amazing people who bring the story to life and cause people to run into the gym when their show is about to go on.

Be that show. Be that performer.