Emotional connection is one of the key elements of acting, as taught by renowned acting teachers like Uta Hagen. Sometimes people reduce acting down to only this, and that is not the case. It’s only one of the elements of acting, and certainly not the most important one. However, it is useful to have a tool navigation to help you develop your emotional connection to your character and the script. It is one of the trickiest parts of acting to navigate, due to the social conditioning that makes us avoid our emotions. So I’ve put together this comprehensive exercises list of drama techniques and acting techniques that will help you to develop your emotional connection for actors.

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Do Not Push For Emotion

RULE NUMBER ONE OF ACTING: DO NOT PUSH FOR EMOTION

I know it sounds ironic. I’m writing an entire post about emotional connection for actors… and also telling you not to aim for emotion. Let me explain.

When we start acting often we try to “perform” an emotion. Act as if we are sad or excited. This never comes across well, and results in bad acting. When we learn this, we often then try to “push” for emotion. This is when we try and force ourselves to feel a certain thing for a scene. This results in equally bad acting. So, what do we do?

We need to find a way to open ourselves up emotionally and let ourselves become naturally affected by the scene. We learn techniques that help us to let go emotionally so that, when we perform the scene, they arrive without us having to try and find them. This is part of the preparation process, as taught by Uta Hagen and other great acting teachers.

So, my advice to you? Stop trying. Stop looking for a result. And stop making a decision on what’s right and what’s wrong and trying to achieve that. Just relax. Know there is no right and wrong. Be curious and explore. Embrace authenticity and specificity in your acting practice.

Let’s start from there.

Slow It Down

One of the best things you can do to make an emotional connection with the text is to slow down your reading of it. Often we can race through reading a text and it doesn’t allow our brain to process it properly. So, with this exercise, we can give it a chance to do that.

1. Read your text extremely slowly. Say one word at a time and pause after each word.
2. Observe what sorts of images, sensations, and feelings rise up with each separate word.
3. Slowing down will allow your subconscious to really process the words. As words mean different things to different people, it will also allow you to make a personal connection with the text.
4. Read back through the text at a normal speed. See if your connection to the text has changed at all.

Images and Text

Having specific images for things in the text can also help enliven our imaginations and really draw out our emotional connection to these things. The mind’s eye is often key to emotions. This is one of Uta Hagen’s nine questions – what are the images that arise from the text?

1. Go through the lines of your monologue and make note of any specific places, people, ideas, or just any words that jump out to you.
2. Assign specific visual images that mean something to you, the actor, to words and images in the script.
3. These can be events, people or experiences from your own life. Use substitution to make the text personal to you.
4. Imagine them really specifically and in lots of detail. You can see them in your mind’s eye, or even use your 5 senses to explore them. You can even draw them if you like.
5. This exercise will allow you to create a personal connection to all the concepts in the text.

Talk to Baby

This is a great exercise that can help you find a level of intimacy and gentleness in your script. Don’t worry though – it can be used for any scene, not just intimate or quiet ones. It can be used during scenes of high drama, anger, or joy too. What this does it allow you to stop pushing for big dramatic emotions, and allows you to be still and gentle with yourself so you can really listen to what comes up.

1. Take a T-shirt, jacket, bag or anything else you can find that may be suitable. Fold this up and hold it in your arms like a baby.
2. Deliver your text to the baby. Discover how this may change the sense of connection and intimacy this gives you in the text.

Experiment with Surroundings

A great way to explore the connection you can have to a text is to experiment with circumstances. Think about your text and what the setting is. Are you speaking to a crowd? Speaking to a lover in private? Play around with the antithesis of this setting. If you are talking to a lover in private, how does it feel to shout those words across the room to them in a busy bar? To whisper them in a quiet library? Take note of how this makes you feel. This is part of the character study process, as taught by Uta Hagen.

Experiment with lots of different settings in which to deliver your surroundings. This is a great way to keep your performance fresh, as well as discover different sides to it. Emotional connection for actors is all about imagination and connection!

Physical Un-blocking

Our body can create blocks to emotional connection, specifically in the area of our sternum. Here is a way to quickly unblock this and help your body process emotions more easily. This is one of the key acting elements to develop.

Our body can create blocks to emotional connection – specifically the area of our sternum. Here is a way you can quickly unblock this in order to help your body process emotions more easily. This is one of the key acting elements to develop.

1. Get physical. Sprint on the spot for 30 seconds. Jump. This is a great one to do directly before a scene, as part of your acting warm ups.
2. Once you’re tired, then massage the sternum (the area in between the breast bone) with the heel of the hand. Apply pressure and sit into that feeling. Tell yourself it’s okay for feelings to come out.
3. Take both hands and press into a wall. Really push and then start to speak your speech. Work hard. If you have a line you struggle with, feel free to repeat it. Drive into the wall and the speech.
4. Then return to the heel of the hand on the sternum and sit into it.

Ball Throwing For Rhythm

This is a great one to use if you feel your connection to the text has become stale, or you have fallen into a specific way of doing it. It can help you find new things in your text, and see how you connect to the text rather than how you think you should be doing it. This is a great practical exercise to improve emotional connection for actors and work on timing and rhythm.

1. Take a tennis ball (or similar) and throw it from hand to hand.
2. Speak your lines with the rhythm that you’re throwing the ball.
3. Then play with the rhythm. Change it up. Is there a moment where it feels better to press the ball in your hands rather than throw it? Hide it behind your back? Reveal it again. Throw it high? Pass it quickly? Play around and see how it affects the text.

Instinctive Movement

As discussed before, our bodies can create blocks to emotion in order to protect us from emotions in decides are dangerous. This isn’t very helpful when it comes to emotional connection for actors. So, a great way to overcome this is to do some instinctive movement. This helps us to overcome our smart brain and get in touch with our instincts and how we really feel.

1. Stand in an area where you have lots of space.
2. Start to move each part of your body separately. From the top of your head, right down to your toes, roll, wriggle or move each part of your body. Notice where there is tension. You don’t have to get rid of it, just notice it.
3. Once you have done this to your entire body, start to move. Don’t decide on a movement, just let your body move.
4. These can be small or big movements, it doesn’t matter. Just let your body decide. If it wants to repeat a movement, let it. If it wants to move on, let it. Don’t decide for yourself, just let your body move. Don’t try to be creative or interesting, just let your body do its thing.
5. This can take a bit of practice to get used to, as we are so used to being in control, but after some time it should feel like you can take a back seat and allow the body to do what it wants.
6. You should also incorporate the voice. Let the voice do what it wants. If it wants to shout, let it. If it wants to hum, make funny noises, or growl, let it. Don’t decide or control it. Just make let your voice make noise if it wants or needs to.
7. You are now in touch with your instinct! This is one of your most valuable tools as an actor.
8. If you have a text to work on, feel free to speak your text as you move. As you have made instinctive noises before, allow your lines to come out instinctively. Don’t decide how to say them, just let them come out. Let however you’re feeling drive you, no matter what that is.

Free Writing

This is an exercise that allows you to get in touch with your emotions generally, but it can also be used to connect with a character or scene. Free writing is when you write continuously for a certain length of time without stopping. You simply let yourself write whatever comes to mind. It is a great thing to add to your regular practice in order to open up emotionally and develop emotional connection for actors.

1. Set a timer for 10-15 minutes. Get a pen and paper.
2. Begin to write. Don’t decide what it’s going to be about, just put your pen to paper and begin to write.
3. It can be nonsense, just don’t stop until the 10-15 minutes is up and listen to your thoughts and feelings and let them dictate what you write.
4. After you’re done you may be surprised at the thoughts and feelings you’ve let out on the page but you should now feel more emotionally open. This is a great thing to do before you start doing any character work, as you will already be more emotionally available and ready to connect

You can also use this to work on a character and connect to their experience.

1. Set your timer for 10-15 minutes again.
2. This time decide on an aspect of the character to write about. It could be about them generally, it could be about their family, or it could be a particular scene in the script.
3. Begin to free write about it. Don’t worry if you go off-topic, just let yourself write. Anything you come out with reveals something about your connection to this aspect of your character or the play.
4. Write for the whole time without stopping and, at the end, see what has been revealed about this element of the play and your connection to it.

Learn More About Free Writing

Sense Memory

Sense Memory was created by Lee Strasberg in order to help actors use personal experiences from their own life in order to connect with their characters’ circumstances. A lot of actors think you simply have to remember an event that happened in your past and the associated emotions will arrive. This is not the case. As I said before, we cannot face our emotions head on or they will run away from us. No, we have to coax them out. Sense Memory is created in order to do this. It is a complex technique that requires lots of practice in order to inspire emotional connection for actors. Here is a brief overview:

1. Sit in a chair and relax fully, releasing all tension from your body.
2. Once fully relaxed, bring forward a memory from your past. It must be older than seven years old.
3. Recreate the memory in as much detail as possible. Use your 5 senses to explore the memory and be as specific as you can.
4. Notice what emotions this memory brings up, and what elements of the scene trigger these emotions.
5. If you need to feel these particular emotions in a scene in future, recall the sensory experience from the memory – for instance a certain smell or the sight of a particular object that triggers that particular memory for you. With the memory, the emotions should arise too.

This is a very brief overview and this skills takes a lot of work and practice. Check out my post on sense memory here if you really want to go into it and add it to your toolbox.

How Do I Feel?

This exercise helps us to link our authentic feelings to the lines in the script. It is designed specifically to encourage emotional connection for actors. It features in Harold Guskin’s book “How To Stop Acting”. Its aim is to stop us from pushing for emotion and being fake. Instead, it encourages us to get in touch with our true feelings and apply them to the script.

1. Have your text in front of you.
2. Take a look at your first line. If it’s long, feel free to take part of the line for now.
3. Lift your eyes off the page and speak that line.
4. The second you’ve finished speaking your line, ask yourself “How do I feel?”. I mean it, say “How do I feel?” to yourself, out loud.
5. Answer yourself and say how you feel using an “I feel…” statement. For instance, “I feel sad” or “I feel tired”. Remember this is not how your character feels in the scene, but how YOU feel in this moment. Try not to think about it too much or search for the right answer. Just speak as soon as you finish your line and see what comes out.
6. As soon as you’ve said how you feel, speak your line again. Try and use the same tone with which you used when speaking your “I feel…” statement.
7. If it doesn’t feel right or you don’t feel that you were being honest, you can ask yourself how you feel again, and repeat the line and the process until it feels like you mean it. Or you can carry on through the text.
8. Do this for every single line in the text in front of you.

Guskin Breathing

During the physical unblocking, I spoke about how the sternum can block a lot of emotions. Here is another skill that can help you loosen that area and let your emotions run free. It is a great one to combine with instinctive movement, so that’s what I’ll do here, but you can also use it before you perform a scene in order to connect with the emotions in it fully.

This exercise is also taken from “How To Stop Acting” by Howard Guskin, hence the name!

Disclaimer: This exericse involves breathing quickly, so practice at your discretion. If you begin to feel lightheaded or faint, STOP. It is your decision how to approach this exercise and you must listen to your body and how it feels. Make sure to take regular breaks and don’t do it for too long at one time. If you have an illness or disorder that affects your breathing then give this one a miss. Your safety and wellbeing must come first, always. Get used to putting it first yourself now!

1. Place your fingertips on your sternum. This is the area in the centre of your breast bone.
2. Start to pant or breath quickly. Try to move your sternum up and down. You are not breathing from your diaphragm, your chest or shoulders but from your sternum.
3. Pant quickly so that your sternum feels like it’s shaking or vibrating.
4. When you feel an emotion start to arise go into instinctive movement, as described above. Don’t overthink this emotion. It can be any emotion at all, and it can be even the slightest spark or hint of it. Anything that comes up is fine. (HINT: Feel frustrated or upset because it’s not working? That’s an emotion! You may have simply assigned it a meaning, but it doesn’t need one. Go with frustrated or upset and explore that!)
5. The more you practice this, the more easily and quickly you will be able to release that tension around your sternum. Some people can even touch the area and feel emotions arise. Some people describe it as a sensation of a door opening in their chest.

Happy Birthday

This exercise is loosely inspired by Strasberg’s Song and Dance exercise. It is designed in order to help you express your instincts and feelings without giving you much time to think about it. It combines emotional connection for actors with instinct and play.

1. Jump up and down on the spot.
2. As you jump, say the words to happy birthday. Seperate them by syllable, with one syllable per jump. So, as you jump, you say “Hap.” “Py.” Birth.” “Day. “To. You.”.
3. As you jump, throw your hands out in front of you, as though throwing something away.
4. As you do this allow your feelings to express themselves through your movement and voice. You must keep jumping, keep throwing your hands away, and keep saying the words separated by syllable, no matter how tired you get.
5. If you get frustrated, allow this to colour your voice and movement. If you get tired, upset, or excited, if you find it funny, let any of these things affect what you’re doing. They could stay the same for a while or they could change from syllable to syllable. Just listen and express.
6. Feel free to transition this exercise into the instinctive movement at any point and explore any of the emotions or instincts that come up.

Here Is An Example The Song And Dance Exercise

I Feel….

This is different to the How Do I Feel exercise described earlier. This isn’t to do with the emotions linked to the script. It is designed to help you recognise and get in touch with the fact that we have all emotions in us all the time, it is only a case of turning our attention to them. It is common as actors, even as humans, to say we don’t feel certain things. We say “I don’t really get angry” or “I hardly ever get sad.” or “I never feel happy anymore.” As actors, this can be a problem for us because it means our full range of emotions is not accessible to us. Well, don’t worry. I’m here to assure you it is, and any emotion you can feel is at the tips of your fingers. This can really help you feel encouraged when developing emotional connection for actors.

1. Jump up and down on the spot. Throw your hands and arms out in front of you on each jump, as though you are throwing something away from you – the same as the last exercise.
2. As you jump and throw your arms forwards, start to say the words “I feel ______ because…”. So, for instance if we’re trying to connect with the feeling of sadness we would say “I feel sad because…”. If it’s anger, we would say “I feel angry because…”.
3. Finish these statements, and every time you say one, give a different reason. These could be personal to you or they could be things to do with the wider world, but they must be true to you. You’re not allowed to make anything up or say something you think you should feel that way about. It must be true.

For example, whilst jumping and throwing your hands forward you could say:

“I feel sad because I miss my mum.”

“I feel sad because it’s raining.”

“I feel sad because I can’t access my sadness.”

“I feel sad because so many people are lonely.”

“I feel sad because I am lonely.”

4. Keep going until you really are feeling the feeling you’re talking about. Don’t worry if it takes you a while to get there. When you do, feel free to keep making statements, or you can express the feeling. If you feel sad feel free to give yourself a big hug. If you feel angry, stamp and shout and let it out. But know and recognise that you have located that feeling within you.

Tapping

This is a bit of a variation on the last one, and it is inspired by EFT – emotional freedom technique. It is designed to get you in touch with what you’re feeling in that moment and develop emotional connection for actors. You can do this sitting down or standing up.

1. The first thing to do is decide a specific thing you’re going to tap about. Maybe you’re struggling with something in particular. It could be something like “I don’t have enough time to learn my lines” or “I can’t connect to my character” or “My boyfriend doesn’t understand me.” Something acting-related is great, but it doesn’t have to be that. Just pick the thing that’s bothering you most at the moment.
2. Now we are going to tap specific areas of our body in a sequence. Use both hands to do both sides of your body at once. With your fingers tap these specific areas in this order. :
   • Inner eyebrows
   • Outside corner of eye socket and temples
   • Underneath eyes
   • Cheekbones.
   • Beneath nose
   • Chin
   • Collarbones
   • Ribcage under arms (lift your arms up and do this one by one)
   • Top of head.
3. The first time you go through this sequence say the reason you are struggling and follow it with the phrase “and I completely love and accept myself”. So, it could be “I can’t connect to my character and I completely love and accept myself.” Repeat the phrase each time you tap a different area.
4. Once you have done one cycle of the sequence, what we say will change. Now, each time you tap somewhere you are going to say how you feel. You can also make statements such as “I can’t cope” or “I feel stupid”, if things like that feel appropriate. But you must try and express your inner experience in that moment. They don’t have to be negative! Just be honest.
5. Change your statement each time you tap somewhere else. Say something else you feel or think. You can even express how you feel about the last statement you made. So if you said “I feel stupid” your next statement could express how you feel about that.
6. Try turning your “I feel” statements into “I am” statements, such as “I am sad” or “I am stupid” or “I am brave”. You can return to your “I feel” statements if you get stuck.
7. Keep going over and over the tapping sequence. Some big emotions may start to come up and that’s okay, just keep saying how you feel or what you are and how you feel about it.
8. At some point, you should start to feel as though you’ve worked through your feelings and come out the other side. At this point I want you to make one last round of tapping. This time I want you to say positive things about yourself. Each new place you tap, say a different thing about yourself that is positive. And know that they are true! It takes a lot of courage and strength to do this exercise, so that’s a good thing to include amongst all the other wonderful things about you.

Conclusion

Well! That’s quite the list! You now have 14 different tools that will help you form an emotional connection to your character and develop emotional connection for actors. If you take one thing away from this post, please know that the most important thing is not to push for emotion or try and force yourself to feel a certain thing. All you need to do is get in touch with your own emotions, open yourself up to new ones, and then honour and respect whatever comes up for you.

There is no wrong answer!

If you want to learn more about not pushing for emotion and how we can achieve it, check out my post on concentration here.

Thank you so much for reading my post and I hope you’ve found it helpful. Please feel free to message me if you have any questions.