Lee Strasberg's Coffee Cup Exercise; Advanced Level | Acting Tips With Peter Kalos
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- čas přidán 9. 09. 2024
- Lee Strasberg's Coffee Cup Exercise; Advanced Level | Acting Tips With Peter Kalos
The Mother of all acting exercises, commonly knows as "the coffee cup" -the proper name is "Morning Drink." Many people teach it as "just touch the cup" but it gets you nowhere. Very few teachers take it to the next level. I did this exercise for many, many years with some amazing teachers, and they taught me how to make it PRACTICAL so it's not just an "acting exercise." try with with many variable, you'll be amazed at what you discover.
And to all the actors out there - THANK YOU for watching, please consider subscribing, sharing, enjoying and above all DO THE WORK!
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#peterkalos #melbourneactorslab #themethod2.0
I'm a lee strasberg method actor these exercises are cool sometimes we don't understand why we do them but most of them I think are great
It's not about dong that "exercise" on a set etc- you're not going to do "coffee cup" on a film set- what it trains you is- focus AND making that moment, that coffee cup with that person "personal and private" - how you use it on a set, if you and I are playing father and son etc and our scene takes place in your room- then we spend time making the "props" PERSONAL - that bedside table matter to you, the pillow is YOU pillow- when we look "outside" we see MEMORIES we created in the yard etc - we're not just "staring" st an eye line. That's what all those "sensory" exercise teach you- that skill. Does this make sense?
this is really good man, thank you.
Glad you enjoyed it , I should do more .
I just can't be thankful enough for this incredible work you have uploaded sir.. I've been through many online videos but never came across anything that great and Which is actual helpful for aspiring actors especially... You've got one more subscriber who really admire and respect and of course, grateful for your teaching 🙏
From India 🙏❤️
Thank you- what courses have you done there?
Glad you liked it Sachin- now make sure you do it at least once a week.
I never heard this described so specifically. I had tried this exercise every day for about 2 months last year then stopped. And for some reason tonight I thought...wait..what was the purpose of that exercise again? and how do I translate this on a film set? Thank you - I'm understanding more and I can use my imagination and personal stuff in scenes. Also touching objects on set or bringing small objects like jewelry or a picture of a dearly departed loved one. The other actor/audience does not need to know HOW I get there!😉
OMG Thank you Sharon, I really appreciate this. t took me a few years to understand "doing it as an exercise" and actually using it as a tool. A teacher back in L.A. explained it to me. and then it all made sense. Glad it helped, I have a few more like this to post about other exercises.
Very good
Thank you , I’ll try make more .
I Appreciate you so much 🙌🏾🙌🏾🙌🏾
Thank you.
Brilliant stuff. Did this exercise in class recently and your break down further helps me appreciate the exercise and want to do it more.
Thank you for this- glad it helped. Any other questions let me know.
@@MelbourneActorsLabCZcams Thanks for getting back to me. In another comment, @Sharon Speer mentioned that she practiced this exercise on her own for months developing her skills. Is this beneficial for actors? Private exercise work when they are not in class? I would imagine so. If so, sensory exercise practice for how long when working with yourself?
❤
I never did it the drink with mom or with dad it was just the drink. Sometimes working on place a person might show up but to purposely work on a person with the cup of coffee ☕️. There are many ways and different approaches by many teachers. Stella Adler had many same approaches as strasberg they both were adapted from stanislavsky.
Yes many ppl teach "the cup" but some of the better teachers taught you that it makes all the difference in the world when you add WHO and WHY am I having a drink with etc - otherwise people just sit there touching "the cup" with nothing behind it- try it. Remember, all these are skills- who they come from is great to know "intellectually- and I mention it as much as I can out of respect top them but... at the end of the day you have to learn them as skills so you can actually USE THEM in your work as an actor. Lee, Stella or Meisner at the end of the day is irrelevant. Many carpenters haver no clue who invented the drill or the screwdriver- but they know how to use it- and that's what I'm trying to tell people- stop knowing this stuff intellectually- we're not here to write a thesis on acting, we're here to DO the work. As Stella used to say... "Acting is ACTIVE by definition!"
I had one teacher that said work with the actual sensory object but all the other teachers say no u only try and remember everything about it from when you used it in life
There's no right or wrong answer- they both work- if you don't have access to the "real' object- then it's all based on memory, and even then... it's not about sitting there trying to remember the EXACT thing- what you put in place to create that reality, if it works in that moment, and it helps your "believability" of it all- then in that moment., it works! Hope that makes sense.
@@MelbourneActorsLabCZcams ok I'm sure maybe some of my teachers did it I took almost every teacher at strasberg in NYC. I'm Making a point to do it at hone now everyday I used to ways just do it in class I'm making an effort ro do it at home. I train off and on there it's very expensive too now.
@@christianmonturanoii6539 Make a schedule AND a place where you work on a regular basis, otherwise it wont "just happen"
@@MelbourneActorsLabCZcams ok
This is very helpful, thank you! Quick clarification - do you do the exercise with the physical cup in our hands the entire time (while using our senses/imagination to make that physical cup personal)? Or do we do the exercise with no physical object and use our senses/imagination to create the cup/make it personal?
DO it WITHOUT the actual cup- that way when you're on a set (for example) and I'm doing a scene and I have the actual prop in front of me- I can then "personalise" (imagine the object belonging to someone that matters- ) then I have made that object personal- if you can master this skill WITHOUT the actual object, imagine hoe easy it is WITH it- that's why I say master the skill WITHOUT the object. Does this make sense?
That makes perfect sense. Thank you! @@MelbourneActorsLabCZcams
THANK YOU
you're welcome, hope it helps
Is the whole point of the exercise to sensory feel the cup and the drink? Touch, smell, taste, hear. How would this be carried over to a scene where we have to make other things personal. Sorry I’m still confused.
The aim of this and basically all other "sensory:" exercises is to learn how to make things "personal and private" - a very basic example is this, and we'll use "the cup" exercise: you walk into a restaurant and the two characters are having a drink and they're talking about a friend they miss. If I do "nothing" with the cup or the table I'm sitting on- then it won't feed me BUT if I- as the actor imagine that I would come into this restaurant with my friend that I miss, and I sat at this exact table and we always ordered this drink and drank form these cups etc then I've made this place "personal" it has memories connected to it- so Im taking a "neutral" space and adding (artificial) memories to it, that way the place/ object will "feed" the dialogue when i talk about the person I miss. We do this all day long in life without thinking, so the "body" is capable of working this way. Imagine this, the place you live in today, if you were to move out tomorrow, different parts of your house have different memories and objects you'll take with you also have just as much of an emotional connection etc That's the point of sensory work - we start with "morning drink" because that's something we understand- it's a morning drink with parents- you have those ingredients in you. Does this help?
Jeremy Allen grew older overnight.
Should these excercise be done at daily basis be helpful
if you do these 2-3 times a week, you're ahead of most actors- try it for a year , you'll see what I mean. You'll learn focus, you'll learn how not to mi mick things AND how to "re-discover" things every time. It doesn't just happen its a skill.
@@MelbourneActorsLabCZcams thank u so much for your great work
Peter, should you use lines from a script you are currently working on during morning drink, or should you just use a pre-selected nonemotional, emotional, shakespeare etc?
Ok DON"T do it with something you're working on, because what you're doing then is "looking" for a result. Consciously or sub consciously you'll be looking for things that trigger some kind of emotion or result, and that's not what the exercise is about. Do it with a pre- selected monologue (We used to do it with a non-emotional / emotional / and then a Shakespearean monologue. Alway start with just the event; drinking a "morning drink" in a childhood home, then see what happens when you play around with "variables" like ; is there someone else present? Is it sunny? Is the drink cold? and then FIND the connection to the words. No, IF and only IF by any chance any of these explorations you think it might feed something you're working on, then try and "cut and paste" that discovery at a separate time to something you;'re working on, but don't go into the exercise. I think I shot this before my father passed away, if I did the exercise now, and had a "coffee" with him, it would be a very different result, but I'm not focus on the result... If I do, the body will shut down. And above all- IT'S NOT INTENDED for people to find things that feed them; you're learning skills such as creating a place, how to make things personal and private etc so that when you get on a set, you' can make the set "personal and private" ... hope this helps.
@@MelbourneActorsLabCZcams Awesome - thank you!