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Acting Class Assignment 1: watching someone

The first part of this assignment is to watch someone for a short time (i.e., a minute or so),without them realizing they are being watched. (No, I'm not asking you to stalk someone! Just watch them for a little while.) The person you're watching might be a friend, family member, coworker, or stranger. They can be of any age and either gender.

For example, you might watch him or her engaging in some common activity, such as:

· watching T.V.
· talking on the phone
· taking out the garbage
· eating breakfast
· flirting
· arguing
· getting frustrated
· making a meal
· putting on their coat and hat as they leave for work

... or some other everyday activity.

Don't just watch, but listen and try to tune in with all of your senses. Notice how the person you are watching stands, gestures, moves. If he is sitting, are his knees apart or together? Ankles crossed? Foot tapping? Is she totally sprawled out? If she's talking on the phone, what's going on with her hands? Face? Posture? If you can hear any words, what's his or her tone of voice?

The next step is to "become" the person you were watching and do your best to recreate his or her actions. Whatever you saw the person doing, make an effort to recreate it, allowing yourself to "become them" on as many levels as you can -- i.e., to stand like they were standing, gesture like they were gesturing, feel what they were feeling.

You may need to do the exercise three or four times to get the hang of it. Remember, the goal is to recreate their exact actions. (If the person you are watching coughs twice, frowns and scratches his or her nose, you do exactly that. If she screams into a phone, scream whatever words she screamed.

It's okay to use props if you want, when you're practicing. If your subject was reading a newspaper, try the exercise first use a real newspaper. If he was eating ice cream, use a real bowl with real ice cream when you first try recreating it. Then try it again without the prop.

Have fun with the exercise, and go easy on yourself if you don't immediately feel able to recreate their actions as accurately as you would like. It may take a few tries. You can always watch them again, or watch someone else and try again. In a beginning acting class, we are "waking up" some skills many of us haven't used for a while. The skills are there, we just need to dust them off and start using them. Just do it as well as you can, and have fun with it.