Episode 225: Guildhall's Ken Rea Returns

Ken Rea's Outstanding Actor Masterclass About Ken: Professor Ken Rea is a theatre director, internationally acclaimed acting teacher, and author of the bestselling book, The Outstanding Actor, Seven Keys to Success Starting out in New Zealand, he worked with the country’s leading theatres and in television drama. In 1973 he formed the Living Theatre Troupe, one of New Zealand’s most important experimental companies. He went on to study theatre in China, Japan, and India, then moved to Europe, where he studied with leading European teachers. As Professor of Theatre at the renowned Guildhall School of Music & Drama, Ken has trained some of Britain's top actors and film stars, including EWAN MCGREGOR, LILY JAMES, JOSEPH FIENNES, DOMINIC WEST, JODIE WHITTAKER, DAMIAN LEWIS, HAYLEY ATWELL, RHYS IFANS, MICHELLE DOCKERY, FREDDIE FOX, SIMON RUSSELL BEALE, ORLANDO BLOOM, PAAPA ESSIEDU, and DANIEL CRAIG. Ken is in regular demand internationally and has previously taught at the national drama academies of China, India, New Zealand, and Italy, and he has given courses in the UK, Canada, Indonesia, Germany, USA, and Singapore. As a journalist, he has been a regular feature writer for The Times and was for 15 years a theatre critic for The Guardian. As a public speaker, Ken has given many large-scale presentations in the worlds of business and the arts. He also trains top executives throughout Europe in presentation skills and personal impact. He is about to launch his major online course: Ken Rea Teaches Acting.  How do I get better work? And it's a really interesting question so you don't feel stuck in your career. Ask yourself what would that next level look like for you. Let's think about the acting itself. What would that look like? And so that immediately gives you a target. I want to be like this. So you know where you're going. So the next question to ask yourself is, where do you feel you are now? Which then shows you the gap between now where you are and there where you want to be. Then the next question you could ask yourself is, what would you like to have more of in your work?  You know, for example, would you like to have more personality in your acting, more sense of danger in your acting, more gravitas, more presence, more charisma, more twinkle in the eye, more playfulness? And that immediately is going to take you out of your comfort zone. Progress happens not inside that comfort zone, but just outside it. That's the life of an actor, to be comfortable being uncomfortable. And that's your life as an actor, constantly taking risks, working outside that comfort zone.  How can you be out of your comfort zone and still enjoy that, you know, and love performing? If you want to be more playful, more twinkle in the eye, more dangerous, what is stopping you from bringing that into the work that's stopping you from being out of your comfort zone? And what can you do about that? It takes a certain amount of comfortability in being yourself to know that you can go emotionally to a specific place and also know and play there, and it is out of your comfort zone and in a danger zone and in a scary zone, a risk zone, as you put it, but also always knowing that you have that anchor in yourself that you are able to handle it. Am I going to be good enough? Will I be found out? And I think as you get older, you make it about them, not about you. I find what works for me is, is to get the right mindset. It's about them, the energy going outward and forward with the focus on them, on what I can bring to them. Prepare meticulously. Outstanding Actor So I think the preparation is important and the mindset.  You know, you can coach yourself a lot these days just by trying things out on your laptop, on your phone, recording, and playing it back. Start to experiment with things. Be very specific in your choices.  Using contrary action as an actor. And it helps get that kind of volcano principle, you know, just the rumbling underneath the volcano before it erupts. Before it explodes, which creates, as you mentioned before, a sense of danger.  Danger, I tend to think of that as you set up a tension between yourself, the actor, and the audience, thinking, "Oh, wow, where's she going with this? What's going to happen next?" Because audiences love to be thrilled and surprised, don't they? We lose that sense of playfulness that is the source of our charm, our creativity, and our imagination in adult life. And so a lot of the journey of the actor is to go back the wheel turns full circle back to that, to find at the adult age. I think that it's more fun to play the game if you know that you are capable and can handle whatever circumstance comes your way in life.  Knowing you are capable, I think, is such an important part of being a good actor because you need to feel safe. So a good question to ask yourself then is okay, if there is fear, what is the source of the fear? Ken’s New Exercise  Ken’s Secret Weapon Exercise And I think a lot is about paring away the clutter. I use that phrase a lot, you know, just to find a simplicity and an energy that comes from a calm center but is fully concentrated. As the actor, you play with the other actor, but you're also playing with the audience and have to make sure they're enjoying being there.