There comes a time in your life when you have to get up and speak in front of others. I accept that many people would let the floor open up and swallow them rather than do so, but most of us were persuaded to do a bit of show-and-tell at school. What did we learn? It can be fun. You can discover you have a gift you didn’t know about. You might hate every minute of it and feel yourself blushing.
Actors have the same experience, although they can hide behind a character and use their imagination. One thing that you quickly discover is that your hands can feel very awkward. Teenagers are particularly affected; in fact, many seem to grow special elongated sleeves that cover their hands, so you can’t see anything but the ends of their fingers.
There you are, acting away, when you suddenly notice these clumps hanging off the end of your arms, so you ask a perfectly sensible question. “What do I do with my hands?” Not an easy one to answer because, of course, the problem is not the hands. You can’t give them separate instructions from the rest of the body. It’s really about being self-conscious in the space. What’s the solution?
I try to trick performers into a more natural performance by giving them other things to think about so they stop worrying and focus on what they are doing. Why am I here and what do I want to happen?
Students love this game, which also looks at hands. I choose a student to stand up and give the class a sort of talk. “What’s it about?” they ask. I don’t mind, I say, “Tell us about your favourite football team, the history of your town or your pet rabbit – just talk to us.” Then I get a bit sneaky, I add something else.
I ask them to work with another student. I pick one and ask the second student to be just the hands. “How do I do that?” they ask. I show them how to stand behind the speaker and slip their arms under the speaker’s arms. The speaker tucks their hands and arms behind their back.
It takes them a little time to realise that they have to work together, but the results are usually hilarious because the speaker doesn’t have complete control. That is concerning, but at the same time, it’s releasing. Imagine the speaker starts talking about a rabbit. The “arms” will hopefully pick it up and start stroking it. Once the “hands” realise they have power in the situation, all kinds of things can happen. They might beckon someone in the audience to come and stroke it as well, get their finger stuck in its mouth, and the speaker has to adapt as things change. The speaker can have fun too. They might say, “Be careful, everyone; this rabbit does enormous poos, and I think one is about to happen!” It’s fun to see what the “arms” decide to do next.
I always let them swap over and explore another scenario, but I guarantee that after that class, they’ll worry less about their hands because they are free.
