Theatre skills offer a powerful approach to great communication! No, I am not talking about learning how to present, to project or to manage gesture and voice. I am talking about bringing your awareness to yourself and those around you. Your body, your breathing, your intention. Really good actors don’t act, they be. They become the character, understanding them from the inside out. Feeling into them rather than thinking into them. So often our meaning making processess get in the way of good communication. Patterned responses take over and we respond or react from habit rather than exploring what we heard, weighing different perspectives and sitting in the (frequently uncomfortable) liminal space. Theatre skills start with getting present: where am I in space, in my body, in relation to others? It takes practise.

Sometimes when we think about doing acting exercises the questions, thoughts judgements in our heads go crazy. How do I get into my body?  I feel stupid doing those exercises.  I am just not that kind of person.

I have a question for you.  Does it feel stupid because you are wondering what everyone is thinking about you as you do it?  Or because you are judging yourself as you do it?  You may have many reasons that I can’t imagine.  If you can dig deeper than “I just don’t like it” what do you come up with.  I am more interested in the questioning and the feelings that occur as you feel your way through them rather than finding a definitive answer.  In fact I’m not even sure that there is one.

Growth comes from noticing where we are and wanting to expand and extend from there. A sunflower that doesn’t push through the hard casing of the seed and the darkness of the soil, does not get to blossom in the sun.