Getting the Energy Flowing

So much of the time, we hold ourselves back. We hold back from emotional or potentially hurtful situations. We hold back from getting involved in other people’s business. We’ve developed strategies for getting back to a “normal” place when things get too out of hand. For some, the strategy is to laugh it off, for others shutting down is the option and moving away from whatever is causing the uncomfortableness.

Of course, none of this is very helpful in acting, where the actor is expected to go through the emotion, not avoid it! So how do you do this?

Something that came up in last night’s class was the idea of getting the energy flowing in order to move past the block that we put up. For one student, even moving in the “wrong” direction (dealing with how frustrated he was about being in his head) ended up being positive because it got him moving. From standing it is almost impossible to go into some connected, meaningful place. But it is possible if you’re already moving in some direction.

Another helpful thing to do is, if you’re working on a repetition exercise, repeat quickly, with equal or more energy than you’re getting from your partner. Once you start repeating quickly (meaning, remove the pause we take to consider what is coming in), it is possible for you to repeat without deciding how to do it. The energy starts to flow back and forth once you get out of your own way. And once the energy starts to flow, surprising behavior starts to emerge. Take that behavior personally and you’re on your way!

Be careful, though. Repeating quickly isn’t the same thing as robotically or by rote. As I said, repeating quickly means take the pause out that comes between hearing the other person say something and you repeating it back. Another thing that will help this is really saying what you’re saying. It doesn’t matter how you say it, as long as you’re really saying things.

Feedback from Nancy Bishop’s 2-day on Camera Workshop

Here’s what some students had to say about the recent 2-day on-camera workshop from Nancy Bishop:

The workshop was amazing and working with Nancy is so much fun. She’s smart, easy-going, and mostly knows the business and what the directors want. I learned a lot from her and she made me believe that that I really have what it takes to audition, play roles in front of the camera and show the casters that I can do it. And if I don’t get a role, I still know that someone might be interested someday 🙂

Her positive attitude gave me the courage to go and audition today in Prague Film School in front of the camera and many people. I did so and I wasn’t expecting anything. I went there just to enjoy the casting and I did enjoy every bit of it though I was a little bit nervous 🙂


On camera workshop with Nancy was fun and mind-opening, especially for a beginner actor like me. I have a different approach now on how to analyze scenes before going to auditions, also understood how important it is to ask the “W” questions to really understand what’s going on in the text. Scanning through her book ‘Secrets from the Casting Couch’ between the 2 workshop days was also supporting and helped me to get the most of it in such a short time. The book is a must-read for every actor who wants to learn how to act effectively in front of the camera as well as learning how to self-promote yourself as an actor. I would love to have another opportunity to work with Nancy in the future, which would be a great way of honing my acting skills.


The workshop with Nancy was a great experience because she guided us through all the stages of casting, she showed us individually our pitfalls and she provided valuable feedback on each and everyones performance !
With the book as reference and the personal training from Nancy I think each actor improved his/ her changes hugely to being succesfully cast !


Nancy Bishop’s Workshop was amazing and I had a great time learning from her! It was really interesting to work with talented international students on different kinds of acting exercises and than watch our performances on TV. We could not only see what we’d done, but we also could hear a comments and advices about our work from the view of the great casting director. I learned a lot about actor’s archetypes, actor’s little acting secrets, and how to make a good impression while auditioning. All the information I learnt at Nancy’s workshop is very important for every actor who wants to know more about the craft and improve his/her skills at auditioning.


I found it out very helpful, a lot of things I used in my monday shooting immedietly and it worked just great. I can recommend it to every actor, who wants to go/be in fron of the camera one day, but I think it can be useful for theatre actors also.


I am very excited about the workshop with Nancy. It was GREAT, AWESOME and threre was very pleasant atmosphere. I am really interested in next workshop with Nancy. It is amazing experience.
It definitely helps you in audition. You get bigger confident if you stand up before a camera next time. Thank you for this!!! I had great time.

Auditions for the new Prague-Playhouse-Production “A Christmas Carol” on the 18th of September

If you are interested in the combination of singing and acting, please come to the auditions for the Prague Playhouse’s upcoming production of Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol”. The show will go up mid-November and play until the end of that month. Rehearsals will start at the beginning of October.

Auditions will be on Sunday 18.9. between 14:00 and 16:30 hrs. (2 to 4:30 pm) at the Prague Playhouse Acting Studio, Frantiska Krizka 1, 3rd floor in Prague 7. Please prepare a one-minute-monologue and a christmas carol to show your ability to tell a story through the song! To schedule an audition, please text/call Laura on 776 605 227!

We are doing something a little different with this one: We are going to have a small cast of players which will function as something like a Greek chorus: They will sing 19th century christmas carols as mood/commentary on what is going on in the play. When the scenes require it, they will step out of the chorus and act all of the characters in the play (besides Scrooge). It should be fun and challenging ensemble work for actor/singers.

We are looking forward to seeing you at the auditions!

Feedback from the Summer Intensive Course

I would like to thank you that I have the opportunity  to learn this method of acting. In my opinion it has benefits in real life as well.  Sometimes it was demainding but I think it strengthened us. I think it was good that we have Brian at the beginning and Boris taught us the second half. For me this was really great experience. I met new people (I think we had special moments with the others), I obtained new informations about acting  and I learned how to act.  Acting in this way is so amazing! If I knew someone who would like to be an actor, I would certainly recommend your school. I am really glad that in Prague is your school and the chance to learn this method.:) THANK YOU BRIAN:) THANK YOU BORIS:) GREAT EXPERIENCE!!!:)


The Summer Intensive Program was a great time that I spent with awesome people who shared the same interest in acting as me. Two well experienced teachers Brian and Boris, were those who helped me to realize what acting is truly about. They guided me all way long on the exciting “emotional roller-coaster” that I got on the 1st day of the course. Together with my friends we made a little progress every single day and learned the basics of the Meisner Technique, which is a renowned acting method famous for its efficiency around the world. The twelve days were full of emotional freedom, new attitudes and interesting ideas, and I truly recommend it to everyone, who is either serious with acting and wants to learn more, or who just wants to explore this art and have fun. All in all, the Summer Intensive Programme rocks! =)


Completed the intensive summer programe in Prague Playhouse. Such an amazing experience which will be hard to drop. I look forward to continue on this path, since I found it so amazing. Thanks to the fellow actors/friends for helping me. I really enjoyed every day spent with you to the fullest. I also thank Brian Caspe and Boris Tanko Wilke for teaching me and more.You make me smile.You make me smile.You make me smile 😀

Acting class photo shoot July 10th at 21:00!

If you are a current member of the Prague Playhouse Acting Studio, then you are welcome to come by the Studio on July 10th at 21:00 for a photo shoot. We will be taking pictures of exercises to put online (there will be a redesign of the website as well) as well as up at the studio.

We will also be taking headshots for actors to use in getting work.

Please bring a black or white button down shirt for the photos and possibly one other change for the headshot photos.

Text vs. Behavior

As students are working through our scene work (we’re working on “Key Exchange” by Kevin Wade), we are coming up against the inevitable problem of remembering the text while still maintaining contact and connection with your partner. While I wouldn’t go so far as to call the text our “enemy”, it is certainly true that text, even at the best of times, can serve to get in the way of the moment. Even when actors are completely comfortable with the words, simply the knowledge of where the scene is going or what the other person is going to say can be enough of a reason to stop listening to what is happening around you. The scenework we’re doing in class tries to show students how to move the focus from remembering and saying words back and forth to each other towards actually working off of each other the way we would do in a repetition exercise.

To that end, we use repetition exercises when working on scenes. After doing the first reading, students are asked to go off and memorize the scene. There are various ways of doing this, but the best ways are ones that don’t impose any one way of saying the lines (ie, it’s bad if you always emphasize one word in a phrase). How you say the line will come from what your partner is doing in the moment and how that works into the circumstances that you are living out. When the partners come to work again, we can start with something that looks like a first reading, but when one partner says something that the other person doesn’t believe (and that happens when the person who’s speaking is only doing so because that’s what it says to do on the page: “oh, I’m supposed to say this bit of text now, so I’m going to say it” rather than in response to anything their partner is doing), the line or phrase gets repeated back and forth until it touches some true place in the person who’s line it is. Then the partners move on to the next line.

A variation on this would be using a repetition exercise to get into the scene. That is, start with a repetition exercise and forget about the text. When you are connected and working truthfully off of your partner, throw in a line of the text. It can be from anywhere in the text, just something that fits with what is going on in the moment. Repeat that line back and forth or, if it already causes a response in you, say the next line. As soon as one partner has to go up into his head to get the next line or to think of what should happen next or how you messed up, go back to behavior. Behavioral repetition will bring partners together and connect them. Text will tend to put you in your head and move you apart. Only say text, then, when you are connected and go back to behavior when you get disconnected.

This way, you will build up a habit of being connected all the time regardless of how the scene is supposed to go.

Contact is key

As we enter the last two weeks of the Spring Term, we have started working again on text. It is amazing how having the words you need to use with your partner given to you makes actually listening to what they have to say (and really saying what it is you have to say) so difficult.

Again and again, we come back to this: The contact with your partner is the most important thing. It is more important than the lines you have to say. It is more important than any accent or external characterization that you have thought up. It is far more important than how you think the scene “should” go. The contact with your partner, which you get from really putting your attention on him or her, really listening to what they say and how they say it, really picking up on their behavior even at its most subtle, will allow you to take the pressure off of how you’re saying the words.

With a script that is even remotely well written, when actors simply listen to each other and respond instinctively to each other, the scene comes alive. When we let that be at the foundation of the scene, then we always have a core truth to fall back on. Then on top of that core truth we can add all the bells and whistles which move the actors from a simple doing of the script to really performing it.

But without the foundation, the scene feels flat. It feels like work. It misfires and sputters like an engine that’s out of tune. It doesn’t feel like fun, like you’re on a roller coaster. It might even be boring to you to go through it!

So actors, when doing a scene (and there is a large portion of work that is technical and requires your intellect as well as your intuition that happens before you “do” the scene), forget about everything else but listening to your partner. They will give you everything you need!