Table of Contents
Presence, charisma and awareness of our own body language and voice
This page is based on Carsten Schleuß's workshop “Präsenz und Ausstrahlung”. Carsten not only is a flexible actor and improviser who can create a realistic scene from any proposal but he is also a teacher who focuses on explaining the principles behind improv.
Length: 3 hours
Punctuality: Due to the nature of the topic, every participant must do the exercises to be in the moment, I recommend to close the door after 20 minutes.
Goals
Body language is the key component of our communication with the audience and other players. After this workshop, each participant should have a deeper awareness of its effects.
The key skills to learn are:
- Awareness about the effects of your body language and your position in relation to other people
- Understand the messages that you tone voice conveys
- See the influence of your body language on your status in relation to other players
Recommendations
- Ask the students to explain their expectations before starting the workshop. This helps you understand what they are looking for
- Ask for feedback after each games to see if the students grasp the goals of them
- A short break of 5 minutes after 90 minutes gives smokers the opportunity to go outside and reloads the energy of the group
Punctuality Gift (Group ritual, not part of the workshop's topic)
Warm-up to be in the moment and accept other's ideas
- Super heros war: All the players are standing in a circle
- Each of them they say their name in a neutral voice
- Each of them they name an object starting with the first letter of their name in a neutral voice
- Each of them say a sentence describing a superpower with that object in a superhero voice
- Each of them present themselves saying their names and describing their superpower
- At the end there is a slow motion superhero war with those superpowers
Warm-up to be fearless about mistakes
How our mood affects our body language
- Walking with different moods: All players walk randomly
- tired after lunch
- feeling undervalue, small and shy
- undecided
- goal-oriented
- with a stick in our back
- maximum presence in the room
After these games, the group must exchange their impressions and feelings. Can my body language influence my mood?
Learn to communicate clearly in difficult situations
- Talking in a loud environment: The players are stading in two rows. Each player of the first row gets a random sentence from a book and they have to communicate this sentence to their partner in the second row.
- Mimics aren't allowed
- Every person can try different strategies like
- Louder / Quieter
- Slowly / Faster
- Breathing quietly
- With a strong articulation
- Eye contact / Tunnel blick / Tunnel ear
- Emphasis with the body, gestures
- Use the pause of other people
- Short sentences
- More pauses
- Confirm that the message was understood
- Repeat key words
- Emphasis on important word
- Internal actitute “I have something important to say!”
- With more energy
- Stand silently in front of the audience: Every player just enters the stage, finds the spot where he is comfortable and he waits in silence for 30 seconds. Then the audience gives their impressions about what message they got and the player talks about his experience
Show status using our body languages
The group enjoyed these games