peta LiLY
  • Home
  • Workshops
  • Shows
  • Clown, Dark Clown, Theatre Practice Blog
  • Contact
  • FAQs for the Clown & Dark Clown course

secret weapon

1/13/2015

0 Comments

 
Ok this post is not exclusive to clown or comedy. It's for performing, acting, devising, interviews, auditions and before sitting down to write copy. Or your ACE grant application.

Everyone knows about the inner critic. Or critics. I once worked with a woman who had a whole committee panel on her case. We know the critic is a bad thing so we resist it, right? When a friend is resisting your good advice, have you noticed that you try a little harder to make them hear you, to convince them?

I am going to describe here an exercise I learned from Dina Glouberman. It's in her book 'Life Choices, Life Changes.' Yup, it's on Amazon. In Dina's book she sets out the clear steps but let me just outline it for you here.

But have you ever really turned to face the voice of your critic? (Or does it just grumble in the background as  a mood or limiting body feeling?) Take a moment to visualise it, characterise it (as a cartoon character, fussbudget, headmistress, ogre)? Have you ever taken a moment to generously suppose that your critic intends a good outcome for you? Yes I know they are not expressing it very well, that's why you have to get good at communicating with it and negotiating with it. If you can assume that they want the best for you - that you succeed, that you are happy or safe in your life, then you can thank them for their good intentions for you. This should calm the charge around the critic voice.

For full power this exercise is done in two chairs and you swap back and forth to hear and speak and respond as yourself and also as the critic, each in his turn. See the book, above.

Now it's up to you to re-language. Say your critic were to respond by saying that what they wish for you is 'that you avoid making a fool of yourself' you can make that more specific and useful by rephrasing as 'so that you do well'. I have known people to get from an extreme critic give a vitriolic:  'You are so worthless you would be better off dead' - translation: 'I wish for you a cessation of suffering'. Great, an elimination of the suffering the critic's voice has been imposing will free up so much more flow in your life.

So next you say - 'Thanks for your intention and all your efforts. I want you to know that I have a different way to get that goal now'. Or: 'Your way of speaking to me is not helping me get what you want for me.' Or: 'The goal you have for me is not one I choose to pursue.'

You are re-framing your aims and setting a clear boundary.

Now you can reward the poor old critic who has spend endless energy on your behalf with either  a holiday or comfortable retirement. Tell them where you are sending them, get their agreement, notice how they feel, pack their bags. Some critics need never be called upon again.

Some people, doing this exercise, realise that their critic has skills that could be useful. Years ago I discovered my critic, Miss Swift, was great at clear-sighted organisation, something my bohemian self was in need of and grateful for.

And then you make a deal - 'Here's what I ask: that you go on holiday and stay away. But may I call on you and make an appointment for 10 minutes to get your advice if I need it?' (You choose the time slot and the hour and day).

Done. Critic transformed into resource. Go create.
0 Comments

    Scroll below to click to topics/'categories' in previous posts​​.

    Peta Lily is a performer, theatre maker, director, playwright, script doctor, teacher and Creative Mentor. She pioneers a unique body of practical research in Dark Clown. Her paper The Comedy of Terrors - Dark Clown & Enforced Performance was delivered at Bath Spa University. The work is cited in Clown - a reader in theatre practice by Jon Davison, Palgrave MacMillan. 

    Categories

    All
    Absurd
    Absurdity
    Acceptance
    Actions
    Adversity
    All Over Lovely
    Anais NIn
    An Die Musik
    Archetypes
    Aristotle's Poetics
    Arnold Mindell
    Audience
    Autobiographical Theatre
    Awareness
    Backstory
    Bim Mason
    Breathing
    Buster Keaton
    Carlo Boso
    Carthasis Of Laughter
    Catharsis
    Chaplin
    Character
    Chastity Belt
    Chinese Clown
    Circo-therapy
    Circus
    Circus Lumiere
    Claire Dowie
    Clown
    Clown Doctors
    Clown Egg Register
    Clown Genius
    Clown Poem
    Clown Power Symposium
    Clown State
    Clown State Process
    Colin Watkeys
    Comedy
    Comedy Craft
    Compassion
    Conditions For Comedy
    Confessional Theatre
    Conflict And Pain
    Corpsing
    Costume
    Coulraphobia
    Courage
    Creativity
    Crystal Lil
    Curiousity
    C-words
    Dark Clown
    Dave Pickering
    Deadpan
    Design
    Devising
    Dina Glouberman
    Documentary
    Dramaturgy
    Emotions
    Enforced Performance
    Ensemble
    Evil Laughter
    Facilitation
    Failure
    Failure As Success
    Flow
    Gaulier
    Gender
    Genres
    Getting Your Message Across
    Half-Masks
    Hamlet Or Die
    Hara
    Heart
    Honesty
    Horror
    Imagework
    Implicate The Audience
    Impro. Clown. Clown State
    Inner Critic
    Innocence
    Intention Of The Dark Clown Work
    Interview
    Interviews & Auditions
    In The Now
    Invocation
    Journals
    Keith Johnstone
    Laugh At
    Laughter
    Laughter To Implicate
    Lisa Wolpe
    Mamet
    Marx Brothers
    Mask
    Mask State
    Mime
    Monika Pagneaux
    Name Game
    Negative Emotions
    NLP
    'not Doing'
    Okidok
    Pantomime
    Pema Chodron
    Performance
    Perseverance
    Peter A Levin
    Philippe Gaulier
    Pip Simmonds
    Play
    Plot And Character
    Poetry
    Power
    Preparation
    Process
    Props
    Rehearsal
    Reviews
    Rhythm
    Rule Of Three
    Rumi
    Satire
    Sedona Method
    Self Compassion
    Shakespeare
    Shame
    Shows
    Sobbing
    Solo
    Solo Theatre
    Stakes
    Stand Up Theatre
    Stand-up Theatre
    Storytelling
    Strange Forces
    Taking Laughter To The Limits
    Tarot
    Teaching
    Teaching Hygeine
    TED Talk
    Theatremaking
    'The Circus'
    The Death Of Fun
    The Fool
    Tibetan Buddhism
    Timing
    Tips For Learning Lines
    Tonglen
    Topless
    Tragedy
    Trickster
    Trilogy
    Troubled Laughter
    Truth & Fiction
    Truth & Lies
    Useful Principles
    Warmup
    Wendy Darling
    'what If'
    Women And Clowning
    Women Clowns
    Writing
    Yoshi Oida
    Zen

    Archives

    August 2019
    June 2019
    March 2019
    November 2018
    September 2018
    March 2018
    January 2018
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    September 2016
    July 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    November 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015

    RSS Feed

workshops & shows 


Join Peta Lily Theatre Workshops on Facebook

Like Peta Lily Shows on Facebook

Follow @peta_lily on Twitter

Curious about Dark Clown? get your FREE ebooklet when you sign up to the mailing list - see the form to the right!

Something else? If you are looking for a director / creative mentor / workshop leader for a bespoke workshop for your company or organisation or any other matter - click on CONTACT in the banner.

* By signing up to the mailing list you agree to receive mailings about workshops, shows, publications and very occasionally other news, usually only about a half dozen mailouts a year. You can always choose to unsubscribe at any time – there is an unsubscribe link to click on in each email I send. Your information will not be shared with any third party.



Picture

    JOIN THE MAILING LIST & GET YOUR FREE ebooklet

    * By signing up to the mailing list you agree to receive mailings about workshops, shows, publications and very occasionally other news. Your information will not be shared with any third party.
    iCloud email addresses don't always work with the mailing system
Submit