When I was at drama school, I frequently got the note that I needed more ‘weight.’ When I asked if that meant I needed to eat more, I was told no. Rather, I needed more ‘gravitas’ on stage. Sadly, I was unable to find anyone who could articulate a sound methodology by which this might be achieved.
Years later as I struggled to define the same issue I in my own students’ work, I began to see a pattern in those with gravitas and those without, which in turn forced me to create a solution.
My drama school teachers were correct in that actual physical weight had nothing to do with it. But it also had nothing to do with stillness, which was another suggestion offered. After half a decade of trial and error with my own students, I had finally developed practical tools with which to transform them in a way that I hadn’t been able to transform myself years earlier.
It turns out that drama school had been teaching me about gravitas the whole time but nobody found a way to put it all in one place for me. So here is the three-minute lesson I wish I’d been given on the first day at drama school. I hope it helps if you’ve been struggling with the same note.
Gravitas in
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