Acting Lesson; Hey! It’s About Listening

Jeff’s Jots

Air Date 05-07-2020

Acting Lesson; Hey! It’s About Listening

• More than half of great acting is listening

• Listening is 1) hearing, 2) Processing, 3) Reacting

• Know the three phases of communication for listening in a scene

1) Information-The content of the message

2) The emotion with which the information is delivered

3) The perception of the delivery (subtext, empathy, perceived purpose) When all three phases are processed then your character can fully react!

Reacting within a scene can have a varied rate:

• Partial or full comprehension can extend or shorten the response • Rate can vary by your characters’ makeup and choices

• What phase demands the most attention?

How do you use this information in a constructive way? Keep it simple:

• Experience what is being said

• Hear how it is being said

• Discern why it is being said Additional factors to include:

• Relationship to the other

• Circumstance you are in

• Additional influences

The best listening in a scene, any scene is shifting your energy between your character and experiencing new information (verbal and Non-verbal) with the other.

Your assignment: observe the ways in which actors in a scene are listening to each other and evaluate their believability.