RetroDag

Two years ago, I coached a former student remotely. I was in Norway, she was in Romania, and our sessions took place on Zoom and in Romanian, of course. She was admitted to Romania’s only master’s programme in Film Acting.I am now thinking back on what I did well during those Zoom sessions, and I am writing it down here because it will probably be useful not to forget what worked.So, these are the things I did well:- I did not rush the process;- I allowed myself to be guided solely by Meisner’s principle: “To live truthfully within the circumstances given by the author”;- I set clear, pragmatic, realistic and achievable goals from one session to the next;- I followed the principle of taking the next step every day;- I tried to periodise the training so that peak form would coincide with the competitive stage — the entrance exam;- I always used Stanislavski’s “Magic If”, which I translated for myself a long time ago roughly like this: What if what is written in the text were really happening to you — beyond acting, beyond what you think you “should” be doing as an actor?- I was realistic and honest in the feedback I gave at the beginning and end of every session;- I worked to establish a daily routine for the actor-athlete, and I succeeded;- I challenged her and pushed her limits, while always maintaining a balance between my demands and what she was capable of at that particular moment;- I was not at all interested in “how” she acted. I was not concerned with anything aesthetic, or with whether something was “right” or “wrong”, but only with whether what she did and said was believable and understandable;- I was more interested in what she did than in what she said;- I encouraged her to find her own answers, but above all to ask her own questions;

– I never offered solutions, only suggestions;

– I always communicated honestly and as an equal;

– I told her what she was consciously doing well and what was not working. But I said nothing about the other good things she was doing unconsciously, because I was afraid of spoiling them. I simply made sure that she did them every time;

– I alternated technical training with physical, emotional and purely rational training;

– I was constantly aware of what she was doing, of what she did not yet know, and also of what she was beginning to understand;

– I enjoyed every second of our sessions.In my role as a Zoom acting coach, this round was a success: the student was admitted, with a score of 9.66 out of 10, to Romania’s only master’s programme in Film Acting, taught by professors Adrian Titieni and Emanuel Pârvu.

Those were two great weeks.