Reactions to Magis Training with George Drance

I enjoyed working with George because even though we were repeating some exercises we had learned in the first few days of class, the language he used helped me see the work from a different perspective. I made some new discoveries in the breaking down of the physicality, but what was most impactful for me was how he unified a lot of the work we are doing in all our classes and related it to our work as actors.

This is something that is so crucial in our learning. So often when I tell people outside the theater world about the work I do in school, I hear “what does that have to do with acting?” And sometimes, that voice will start yapping at me while I’m in the middle of a seemingly eternal class. Thankfully, over the years I’ve learned to acknowledge these doubtful thoughts, let them go, develop trust in the work, and believe that it is working, even though my results-oriented brain doesn’t realize it.

Anyways, this thought came to me when we were doing the swinging and blue wave exercises to experience gravity, momentum and suspension, and George reminded us to be honest with ourselves about when we were forcing it (controlled swinging, taking extra steps) versus when we were simply allowing the moment to come and go in its natural rhythm. JUST LIKE ON STAGE. He reminded us that all of the body-mind awareness we are training is part of our conditioning. When you learn to be honest with your own instrument and stay true to when your impulses begin and end, then you can be honest with your scene partner, and by extension, with the audience. I was really able to feel the difference from the doing the blue wave at the beginning of the class, and repeating it again at the end of our exploration. My body was more available, alert and free.

Another exercise that we had already done but sunk in more during this class was using the energy of push, pull, reach and throw to enliven a monologue or scene and connect the intention to my body. Afterwards, however, I had some questions… I can understand how every intention/verb fits into the push and pull categories because these are very similar to the Threaten and Seduce verbs James talks about. But what about reach and throw? Can anyone share some examples (of past scene work we’ve done, or in a known play/film) where the reach and throw actions were used?