Six Acting Exercises to Practise at HomeBy Samantha Marsden, author of 100 Acting Exercises for 8 – 18 Year Olds

Here are six acting exercises that you can practise at home. All you need is yourself and a quiet

space. It can be tempting in a group acting class to over act, or to try to impress others. Acting by

yourself in your own home is the perfect opportunity to focus on the internal work. Many of the acting

exercises below are taught in drama school, and they are suitable for older children, teenagers,

adults, beginners, or advanced, acting students.

Exploring how props and costume affect movement

For this acting exercise you will use clothing and props to see how they affect your movement. Find one prop in your

house. Things that work well include hats, gloves, scarves, coats, shoes, feather boas, walking sticks, sports

equipment, and bags.

Now, sit down with the object in a quiet space and let go of all your thoughts about it, and imagine you’ve never

seen it before. Imagine what type of character might wear, or use this object. Once you have imagined that

character, slowly start to move as that character, either by putting the piece of costume on, or by holding the prop.

Now move around the room as that character, considering how the character interacts with the item. A confident

hockey player, for example, may hold their hockey stick with pride as they march to hockey practice. Or someone

with low self-esteem may have a beloved scarf that they like to hide behind, pulling it right up over their chin and lips

as they walk around the room hunched into their scarf.

Once you have let this object or piece of costume affect the physicalization of a character, choose a different item

and try this exercise again, this time creating a new character with a new item.

Packing a bag with given circumstances

For this exercise you are going to give yourself your characters given circumstances and pack a bag in character.

You can do this exercise with mime, or props. If you would like to use props, find yourself a suitcase, and put

yourself in a space where you can pack it.

The term ‘given circumstances’ was coined by Konstantin Stanislavsky in the first half of the twentieth century. ‘Given

circumstances’ refers to the environmental, historical, and situational conditions a character finds themselves in. All

actors should research their character’s given circumstances, and even when the actor is not consciously thinking

about them, the hope is that this learning will show up subconsciously in their performance.

For Stanislavsky, six questions make up a character’s given circumstances:

• Who?

• When?

• Where?

• Why?

• For what reason?

• How?

Now think of a character and fi ll out the given circumstances for them. No idea is too crazy, go with the fi rst ones

that come to mind. Here’s an example:

• Who? 18-year-old mountain climber with a desire for adventure.

• When? 2019.

• Where? In her bedroom.

• Why? Packing to go traveling to Nepal.

• For what reason? To escape small town life and to prove herself to her family.

• How? By putting things in a suitcase.

Once you’ve fi lled this out make sure your intention is clear in your mind. Here’s a few more ideas of characters and

intentions, just in case you are stuck. You could be packing a bag as you are about to go to the gym and you’re a

body builder with anxiety. You’re packing your bag for a sleepover with the popular kids at school, you're shy, and

you’ve never been invited before. You’re packing your bag to go to University and you’re afraid of missing your

brother and leaving him behind. Or your packing to run away from home as you're furious by your mum’s new

boyfriend.

Now have a character pack the bag. Take your time and do this several times if you want to. Once you’ve

completed this try again with a new character and set of given circumstances.

Don’t rush this exercise or feel that you have to perform. Subtle actions and reactions can be very intriguing, and

these should come naturally if you are playing the given circumstances.

Photo credit: Lydia Ward*

Favourite feature

For this exercise you are going to move around your room, or fl at, or house, imagining different parts of your body

(one at a time) are your favourite body part. Start by imagining your eyes are your favorite feature, walk like this.

Look in the mirror imagining your eyes are your favourite feature, and look at how that changes your movement,

maybe you widen them, smile when you look at them, or tilt your chin down a little to make them appear bigger.

After a few minutes, change the body part so that now your hands are your favourite feature. Walk around like this

and then go to the mirror imagining your hands are your favourite feature, and notice how this changes your

movement. Other body parts to try are, your hair, lips, cheekbones, and feet.

Variation one: See how what you don’t like about yourself can also infl uence your movement. Imagine you don’t

like your lips, you might keep touching and covering your lips, or hiding them under your teeth. No try with different

body parts.

Variation two: Another variation is to do one favourite feature and one feature you don’t like about yourself at the

same time. For example, ‘you like your hair, but you dislike your nose’. Try walking around like this, and then

looking in the mirror.

Variation Three: Perform a monologue, and add in a favourite, or least favourite, feature for your character.

Photo credit: Lydia Ward*

(one at a time) are your favourite body part. Start by imagining your eyes are your favourite feature, walk like this.

like your lips, you might keep touching and covering your lips, or hiding them under your teeth. Now try with different

Circles of attention

This is an acting exercise based on the concept of ‘circles of attention’, as taught by Konstantin Stanislavsky, and

practised in many drama schools.

There are three circles of attention.

First Circle. Stanislavsky refers to the first circle of attention as ‘solitude in public’. This is the smallest circle of

attention where the actor focuses their attention inwards on themselves, or on an object they are holding.

Second Circle. In the second circle of attention, the actor focuses their attention on themselves, and the character

they are interacting with, or a nearby object in the room.

Third Circle. In the third circle of attention, the actor will have a more scattered demeanour as they allow the focus

to spread across the whole space.

How to: Lie down in a quiet space and become aware of your body. If you feel any tensions, become aware of

them and take an in breath and direct it to the tension to realise it. Imagine the breath melting away the area of

tension. Take as long as you need focusing on the breath and the body.

Once you feel relaxed, focus on the small circle of attention. Imagine there is a small circle around you and keep

your attention contained to this circle. You can focus on your hands, feet, or the whole body, so long as this state of

attention is inward looking and contained. If the attention starts to move outside of this circle, gently encourage it

back in. For this small circle of attention, another possibility is to imagine you are holding an object, and then direct

your attention to that object.

After about 5 minutes slowly move onto the second circle of attention. This is a larger circle, extending to about six

feet away. Stand up and spread your attention to nearby objects. Try and notice how your body language changes,

and how you feel when your attention spreads to the second circle.

After about 5 minutes of practising the second circle of attention, move onto the third circle of attention; this is where

you become interested in everything in your room, flat, or house. If there are noises from another room, become

aware of them. Become aware of everything in your room, flat, or house and feel your energy spread wide. Walk

around and notice everything.

Variation one: Either sit, or walk, around the room in the first circle of attention. Imagine a reason why you are in

this small circle of attention. Perhaps you are shy and it’s your first day at a new school, or you have just lost your

beloved cat and don’t want to talk about it, or you are a day dreamer thinking up a brand-new exciting invention!

After a few minutes, shake this character off, and change to the second circle of attention. Find an object in the room

and focus on that object. Think up a story about why this object means something to you, perhaps it’s a book that

your best friend gave you and you miss her as she’s moved to another town, or it’s a childhood teddy that’s makes

you smile, or a hairbrush that you once used to brush a mermaids hair!

After a few minutes, shake this character off and move to the third circle of attention. Scatter your attention across the

room; becoming interested in many different objects. Perhaps because you are looking for something, or you are in

a new room and you are very curious, or you think you heard a ghost!

Variation two: You can apply circles of attention to a scene or monologue. Take a monologue, or a poem, and

apply different circles of attention to different parts of the text.

your best friend gave you and you miss her as she’s moved to another town, or it’s a childhood teddy that makes

The telephone call

This is an improvisation exercise where you will make an imaginary phone call to get something that you want.

Turn your phone off, or on airplane mode, or if you don’t have a phone, borrow one, or use an object that is the

similar size and shape of a phone. A banana will do! Now think of a character and give them an intention of why

they need to make a phone call to get something that they want. Maybe the phone call is to a supermarket because

you would really like a job there, or to a friend because you would like this friend to come over and help you with

your homework, or to Batman because you would like him to come and sort out a crime in the neighbourhood. Any

idea is fi ne. In order to make this exercise effective, act out the listening as well as the speaking. Acting is about

listening and it is often in those quiet moments when an actor listens that the best parts of the performance shine

through. Of course, you are not really listening in this exercise, but you have to imagine you are. Try to imagine

exactly what the person on the other end of the phone is saying.

Photo credit: Lydia Ward*

Sitting on a chair with purpose

This is an exercise Konstantin Stanislavsky practices in An Actor Prepares, where the actor learns how to ‘sit on

a chair’.

Sit on a chair and do nothing while sitting on it. Notice your reaction, do you fi dget, feel uncomfortable, or does

your mind start to race? Try and bring yourself into the moment of sitting on the chair.

Now stand up, have a little shake, and think of a purpose for sitting on the chair. The purpose might be that you are

waiting for an appointment at the dentist, or that you are waiting for an exam to begin, or that you are resting

because you have an injured ankle. Sit on the chair with a purpose for a minute or two. Then stand up, shake it off,

and try again with a new purpose.

As an actor you must always have purpose while on stage, or screen. Whether you are speaking dialogue, doing an

activity, or apparently doing nothing (just sitting on a chair), purpose should always be performed.

Variation one: If you would like to take this exercise further, you can fi nd a monologue and add purposes

throughout. This can vary from trying to fi nd some car keys while saying your monologue, to trying to achieve

something more psychological like changing another character’s mind about something. Take the text of your

monologue and mark it with different purposes, and then perform it with purpose. For more advanced actors you

can try performing different purposes at once.

About the author

Samantha Marsden studied method acting at The Method Studio

in London. She went on to study Drama, Applied Theatre and

Education at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama. She

worked as a freelance drama teacher for eleven years at theatre

companies, youth theatres, private schools, state schools, special

schools and weekend theatre schools. In 2012 she set up her own

youth theatre, which quickly grew into one of the largest regional

youth theatres in the country.

She also writes for The Stage and is the author of the recent 100

Acting Exercises for 8-18 Year Olds, which you can purchase from

Bloomsbury.

*With thanks to [mum name] for sharing photos of Lydia performing the exercises. You can follow her at @littlesongbirdL.

Acting Exercises for 8-18 Year Olds100

*With thanks to Lisa Ward for sharing photos of her daughter Lydia Ward performing the exercises. You can follow her at @littlesongbirdL.