The Whelan Tape Technique
Step 1: Get a monologue or scene.
Step 2: Prepare to record.
Step 3: First recording:
Actors record a scene onto tape, without emotion or interpretation.
- The actors must say the words normally in the recording – Don’t act.
- Tape is played back whilst the actors 'act out' the scene.
- Act the scene without saying the words.
- You can see the emotion and drive of the scene by walking around the space, not saying the words but hearing the recording in the background.
- First reading - only make simple choices like moving to or away from another character.
- Impulse – the actors respond in the moment.
- Be bold with impulse.
- Impulse shouldn’t be about showing the audience what is happening.
- Don’t just impulse – what is the intention?
- The director should be making notes - but keeping the ideas away from the actors so the imagination is free.
Step 4: Record the same material again:
Actors record a second reading of the scene allowing it to be affected by their impulses from the previous enactment.
- Don’t fall in love with what you did the first time – it is a mistake to feel satisfied with the first image (2003, p. 40)
- The scene is played out to the tape, but the actor is encouraged to make bigger emotional choices.
Step 5: Record again:
The process is repeated but this time all the actors copy the actions of the speaker.
- You may find a tiny bit of expression recorded in the script.
- The director should tell the actors to tone it down - don’t speed up too much - no interpretation.
- Gives the effect of watching a shoal of fish.
Step 6: Record again:
This is where the actors start to be more experimentative and enact using everything they’ve learnt so far.
- Mirroring movements
- Bold choices
- Don’t be explicitly obvious in what you’re doing as it is cringe (e.g. point to the stars in the sky)
- Guard the concentration - stay present - don’t apologise to the audience - don’t feel sorry for yourself!
Step 7: Record again:
This time the director gets to pause the run.
- The director can pause the tape when they see something interesting, and the actor must stick with the emotional choice they have made.
- The actors must radiate when the pause occurs - do not stop!
- Radiating means continuing the acting that is happening but there is no text - you should always do this as it gives out performance energy.
- Don’t withhold any impulse!
- Allow the impulses to happen – you’re not consciously trying to make it monotone.
- This is when the actor can find what we find interesting in gesture (this normally goes bad) - a sense of doing too much acting.
- Having fewer gestures can be much better when it is simpler.
Step 8: Actors Recite the whole thing.
The final stage is where the text and action are married for the first time.
- By the time you come to do the lines you virtually know them
- Quite often you find yourself not knowing what the text is, but your body remembers to turn to look at someone, which prompts your memory.
- We use this technique for every scene in the play - there is no discussion about what any given scene is about - no interpretation just constant play.
- There is no good or bad at this stage - rehearsals are about discovery.
- Phelim says if we were to say something was good then we would be encouraged to do it again - this would stop us from remaining open, playful, and inventive.
- He will not block anything - the audience will tell us what works.
Experimentation within the recordings:
Repel – the actors move away from each other.
Impel - the actors move towards the other.
Compel – the actors remain at the same distance.
Index the context of the scene
- Give the scene a name – (describing the whole scene)
- Breakdown the text:
- Go through all the events – What happens? What are the characters’ intentions?
- Find evidence (a solid opinion) of what is happening.
- Events help you structure the play to create meaningful units - a clear sense of the point (these are necessary). The actor then has the freedom to play with text.
- Look for turning points in the script.
- How you enter a room shows the effects of the scene
- A subject change isn’t a change of event or an event.
- If two characters have the same intention the scene doesn’t work
- Emotions and intentions aren’t the same thing – the character can be looking at something with a different emotion that is “normal”.
Now the time to experiment …
Phelim’s theatrical language – The Natural World
‘Everything must have a movement quality or must change from one to another’ (Scheinmann, 1977)
Moulding – Earth
- Actors move as if the air is thick.
Radiating – Fire
- The actor thinks of an image.
- This gives performance energy into the space.
- This is where a feeling of heart from the chest radiates into the space.
Floating - Water
- Perform as if your body is floating.
- The air is light and supports the body.
Flying – Air
- Perform as if your body is pushed by the wind like a plastic bag.
- Movement is quick and there are many changes of focus.
Phelim noted …
Atmosphere
- Take movement into an atmosphere of doubt or reunion or virtually anything.
- Air is filled with quality, and you must respond accordingly.
Game Playing
- Games and movement qualities provide the parameters within which we are to have total freedom to improvise (in class, we played physical games like ‘two-step.’)
- So long as the actors enter a shared atmosphere where they watch, listen, and respond to each other - anything will work.
- There are no mistakes - we must respond to whatever happens as if it were meant to happen.
Bibliography
Chamberlain, F. (2003) Michael Chekhov. London: Routledge
Scheinmann, D. (1977). Shakespeare, Stilts & Sticky Tape | Total Theatre Magazine Print Archive. (Online) Available at http://totaltheatre.org.uk/archive/features/shakespeare-stilts-sticky-tape. Stockholm by B. Lavery (2007)