What I wasn’t taught in school…
As an actor, I know how to prepare a role, analyze a script, dive deeply into the physical and emotional life of a character, train, expand my skillset, warm up my body, my voice…
But a major gap in my training, what I wasn’t taught in school, was:
How to close the container.
I was not taught how to step gradually out of character back into myself safely, easily, and without burnout or exhaustion.
Most of actor training focuses on how to go deeper into a character, not how to return to yourself. This gap plus “substitution” (a standard in American training), is why a lot of actors tend to “lose" themselves in a role. Which you can safely do during a performance when the story and script act as a container. Where it gets tricky though is when the show, the audition, the shoot, is over and you are thrust back into “regular" life.
How do you let go of character?
I, like most actors, developed my own rituals and practices. But I wasn’t until I became an intimacy practitioner that I started to really value them. A touchstone of that work is setting and then closing the container. Often called closure, de-roling, or cool downs, this is the process and practice of letting go of the character, the story, or the experience, by reconnecting to body, to safety, and to self before stepping back into our daily lives.
Why is this important?
Performing and acting requires a certain amount of stress and effort; acting will always stressful when we are telling intense and raw stories. Auditioning especially so, as we actors are often asked to prepare the most exposed moments of a characters journey. We’ve got to jump in to the deep end quickly, effectively, and often for only 5 mins or less, and then back to our everyday lives!
If we’re not closing the container when we’re running from audition to audition, performance to performance, or even from audition to regular life, we might still feel (and be) stressed. Have you have felt that adrenaline rush long after you leave the audition, the show, or the shoot?
For me, if I knew I had multiple auditions a day, I’d stay revved up and push through any discomfort or tiredness. And my body would continue to produce adrenaline so that I could confront that stress, only stopping when the day was over and I finally felt safe at home. At that point, I’d be so drained that I couldn’t do anything but zone out.
So we need those closing practices to reconnect to safety, to turn off that adrenaline and recover, even just a micro amount. Otherwise there’s a good chance that we are carrying extra stress with us into our everyday lives, only to collapse at the end of each day. Closing practices are integral to preventing exhaustion and burnout.
They also help acting, auditioning, and performing become more sustainable for us. Audition and pilot seasons can be pressure cookers! The stress can be so acute and exhausting that we often need to take a break or a vacation afterwards. But if we’re able to take back that energy when we’re in it, then we might be able to go to that extra audition, put that other side on tape, not need to take a vacation or break…
Recovering as we go by using closing practices can enable us to sustain the work. This is especially useful if you’re in the middle of a creative process, like halfway through a shoot or a run of a show!
So what tools and practices do you use to step out of character?
Are they effective and sustainable?
How and when do you close the container?
This month’s Free Info Session is all on Closing Practices, how to figure out the most effective tools for you, how to jump in and out of character sustainably, and how to open and close a container just enough when you’re in the middle of a creative process. Sign up here.