Daniel on Improv from the Heart
(Katie, Jeff and Rachel Pan - 2011)
DANIEL TALKS ABOUT IFH
Improv From The Heart has been one of the most valuable workshops I have ever participated in and has been extremely helpful in getting in touch with my “emotional-body”.
Being in touch with the emotions helps a performer “tie-into” one’s fellow performers on stage and helps to direct your character to relate in a “real” and convincing way.
The main thrust of Improv From The Heart is the use of the Meisner Technique which is one of the foundations of the performing arts. And the using of the Meisner’s Repetition Exercise helps to get one into PRESENT MOMENT and “out-of-the-mind” and all of its diversions. It forces you into real contact (emotional connection) with your partner and away from the intellectual constructs we usually overlay on contact with others.
The workshop IS a challenge to your “safe-sedentary-self” and it is not an easy comfortable process. But the openness that is felt within oneself by the end of the six weeks is very rewarding and well worth the effort.
Not only for your acting abilities but for your own daily interactions as well. The workshop helps you feel “more open” to others and more aware of your surroundings.
Improv From The Heart has been one of my own foundation blocks for my work in Improv Theater.
Daniel Stevenson, Retired Contractor, Oakland, CA.