For actors and other performers, warming up is essential. Whether it’s in rehearsal, before a show, or between projects, warm-ups can help prevent injury and allow you to give your best performance.
With so many ways to build a warm-up, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed. If you’re looking to tweak your practice or stay motivated, here are five quick tips for personalizing your actor warm-up.
REMEMBER: BODY = VOICE
Whatever project or role you take on, you’ll need access to your full “instrument”. When you build your warm-up, be sure to include exercises for your body AND your voice.
A voice actor still exists in a physical body, communicating with more than just their words. Physical warm-ups will help you access your breath and vocal agility.
For a non-speaking role, physical specificity and precision become especially important, allowing you to communicate story and emotion. A strong vocal warm-up, with or without text, will help with clarity and connection.
The best warm-ups get you in touch with your body and your voice, and leave you free to connect emotionally with the audience and your fellow actors.
STRIVE FOR BALANCE
Just as it’s important to target body AND voice every time you warm up, it’s vital to include generalized warm-up exercises IN ADDITION to the ones for specific areas.
Your part requires its own unique vocal, physical, and emotional preparation. Just make sure to give yourself an overall warm-up first.
Professional athletes and dancers know they need to train for strength, cardio, flexibility, balance, and endurance.
They understand the need to be well-rounded and prepared for anything.
Actors require the same!
Your general warm-up should include everything from strength to flexibility, projection to diction. Only then should you focus on what you need for that day’s rehearsal or performance.
A balanced warm-up gives you a foundation so you are always fighting fit and performance ready.
SWITCH IT UP
What you need from your warm-up will change day to day and project to project.
Do you have to prepare for a fight scene or a five-page monologue? Did you get enough sleep? Are you sick or injured?
While the ritual and routine of always doing exactly the same warm-up might work well for you, don’t be afraid to adjust it if circumstances change. If you find a strict routine stifling, get ahead of that feeling by adapting and evolving your warm-up each time.
Just make sure your warm-up works for YOU.
A successful warm-up keeps you engaged with the warm-up itself, and prepares you mentally and physically to focus on your upcoming performance.
Ideally, your personalized warm-up will also be fun!
STAY SILLY
Take the work seriously, not yourself!
You already know actors have to take risks, including being willing to look ridiculous, in rehearsals and in performances. Don’t be afraid to extend this rule to your warm-ups. Not feeling self-conscious is an important skill to develop and practice.
Give yourself permission to be absurd. As long as you follow safety rules and and don’t interrupt anyone’s work or downtime, feel free to play and experiment.
Grab your tongue and try to recite a monologue. Lie on the ground, juggle badly, recite tongue-twisters. Life’s too short to worry about looking silly. Plus, you’ll give your fellow performers courage to loosen up, relax, and try new things too.
WRITE IT DOWN
Actors have more than lines to remember!
Do yourself a favor and write down everything you want to recall, somewhere you can find it later on. A hard-bound notebook or digital text file are ideal.
It’s a great way to track your development, influences, inspirations, sentimental memories, and acting tips and tricks.
Jot down a new tongue-twister, that yoga modification to protect your wrist, the adaptations your pregnant cast-mate uses to cope with a changed center of gravity.
Note the stuff you like, the stuff you hate, the things you don’t understand. Even the stuff other people found useful or useless. File it all away for later.
Believe it or not, after your show ends, that unique warm-up or pre-show full-cast hype song can eventually slip your mind.
Write it all down!
Did any of these ideas spark your imagination? Do you have more to add? Let us know! Follow Quietly Dramatic on social media for more tips, and share this article with your friends and followers if you found it helpful. Thanks for reading!
