Betsy Polatin - The Actor’s Secret: Techniques for Transforming Habitual Patterns and Improving Performance (Alexander Technique)

Electronic Edition: ISBN 978-1-58394-683-1

Copyright 2013 by Betsy Polatin. All rights reserved. No portion of this book, except for brief review, may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwisewithout the written permission of the publisher. For information contact North Atlantic Books.

Published by
North Atlantic Books
P.O. Box 12327
Berkeley, California 94712

Cover design by Brad Greene

The Actors Secret: Techniques for Transforming Habitual Patterns and Improving Performance is sponsored by the Society for the Study of Native Arts and Sciences, a nonprofit educational corporation whose goals are to develop an educational and cross-cultural perspective linking various scientific, social, and artistic fields; to nurture a holistic view of arts, sciences, humanities, and healing; and to publish and distribute literature on the relationship of mind, body, and nature.

North Atlantic Books publications are available through most bookstores. For further information, visit our website at www.northatlanticbooks.com or call 800-733-3000.

MEDICAL DISCLAIMER: The following information is intended for general information purposes only. Individuals should always see their health care provider before administering any suggestions made in this book. Any application of the material set forth in the following pages is at the readers discretion and is his or her sole responsibility.

The Library of Congress has cataloged the printed edition as follows:
Polatin, Betsy.
The actors secret : techniques for transforming habitual patterns and improving performance / Betsy Polatin.
pages cm
Summary: The Actors Secret is comprised of explorations and exercises developed from the Alexander Technique, a practical method for self-improvement and neuromuscular reeducation; Breathing Coordination, an approach that increases breathing capacity and awareness; and Somatic Experiencing, the body-based approach to healing trauma.
ISBN 978-1-58394-682-4 (pbk.) ISBN 978-1-58394-683-1
1. ActingStudy and teaching. 2. Alexander technique. I. Title.
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2013014090

v3.1

This book is dedicated to those who have the courage
and willingness to pursue change in themselves.

I am very grateful to the teachers, mentors, and guides who have shared their wealth of knowledge with me over the years. This knowledge has come through books, hands-on experience, sensory feedback, deep inquiry, and observation. I am grateful to the pioneering innovators of somatic work, who had the courage to explore the unity of body, mind, and spirit. Thank you to those visionaries who encouraged me to learn and teach this work.

The exercises in this book are a synthesis of my physical, mental, and spiritual training throughout my life of learning from many fine teachers. My teachings and exercises have been influenced by F. M. Alexander, Carl Stough, Peter Levine, Rivka Cohen, Patrick MacDonald, Marjory Barlow, Frank Pierce Jones, Helen Jones, Tommy Thompson, David Gorman, Rob MacDonald, Margaret Goldie, Pedro de Alcantara, Kelly McEvenue, David Garlick, Frances Cott, Richard Schwartz, Jessica Wolf, John Baron, Deirdre Fay, Raja Selvam, Diane Poole-Heller, Bessel van der Kolk, and spiritual and meditation teachers. Many, many thanks to all.

A very special thanks to Boston Universitys College of Fine Arts School of Theater faculty, my wonderfully skilled colleagues whom I have the pleasure of working with on a daily basis. Much love and appreciation to all my students whose lives I have had the privilege of sharing. A special thank-you to Harry Miller Hobbs II, Clifton Dunn, Dayna Cousins, Ben Thompson, Liza Burns, Hannah Burkhauser, and the entire Boston University School of Theater acting class of 2010, for demonstrating the exercises in the photos in this book.

Thank you to Chia Messina, photographer, for capturing a wonderful moment for the back page photo. Thank you to Ion Sokhos, photographer, for taking all the beautiful photos in the book. Thank you to Nina Ryan for her clever and insightful editing and for her early encouragement and interest in the book. Thank you to Janet Banks for reading a draft and telling me, You have a winner. Thank you to Daria Polatin for contributing her superb writing and editing skills, which, combined with her knowledge and understanding of my work, helped create a more seamless read. A very heartfelt thank-you to North Atlantic Books and my editor, Jessica Sevey, for taking on this book. Thank you to copy editor Christopher Church, and to the designer of the book cover and interior, Brad Greene.

Thank you to all my loving friends and family for their unending support and encouragement, especially to Daria and Ruby, my daughters.

After my first Alexander lesson, I walked out of the room thinking, This is still me, but not the me I always knew. Actually, a very different me than I knew when I walked in. This brief experience of an altered sense of self excited and daunted me at the same time. I had moved through an opening, pulled aside an inner veil, and been exposed to radical new possibilities and choices of how I sensed myself and saw the world around me. My body felt less constricted, my mind was less worried, and my senses were more vibrant and alive. The colors of the world seemed brighter. As I walked along the street that day, I knew I was still me, but a different me: a new me.

I have continued exploring and teaching this experience of an expanded self through a unique combination of approaches. In my forty years of teaching and coaching, I have witnessed many students discover their habits and feel their way through their own veils of delusion and resistance into new worlds of artistic choice and experience. One successful woman I taught said after a lesson, I thought I had all there was to have in life. On the surface, she did. She had a successful career, a good family, money, friends, and happiness. But after studying with me in hands-on sessions, she said, I see there is so much more to life that I didnt even know about: aspects of myself I had no idea existed.

Actors express their version of the same idea. I thought I understood this role, but when I stopped doing what I was sure was so right, the performance opened up in a way I never imagined. This book is written for you, the actor, who is able to lose his or her own habitual identity and become another person in behavior, body, voice, and being. Actors transform themselves to tell a story while an audience watches. In performance, every word, gesture, and movement of an actor tells a piece of the story to the audience. Even with a natural ability and imagination for this kind of transformation, most actors need coaching, guidance, options, and tools to meet the challenges of acting with full awareness. An actor asks the questions, Do I believe I have full body, mind, and spirit living in the life of this play? Do I believe wholeheartedly what I am saying and doing? Do my body movements accurately convey the situation? Am I willing not to know what happens next? Am I present and aware? If the answer to any of these questions is no, something needs attention. This book provides many opportunities for an actor to expand his or her awareness, and it can lead to positive changes in acting and everyday life.

The Actors Secret comprises explorations and exercises that I have developed mainly from the Alexander Technique; Breathing Coordination, the work of breathing expert Carl Stough; and Somatic Experiencing, the trauma work of Dr. Peter A. Levine. I bring together these three different techniques to help you explore your own path of discovery to the experience of an expanded self. This unique combination of approaches provides revolutionary new training and resources for the actor.