A New Year's Revolution

The #ACTforActing New Year’s Revolution
 
New ways to open up, be present and do what matters with The Working Action Group!
 
There are lots of ways of describing the past year…
 
But whatever else it might have been, and whatever else might have been going on, 2021 was the first full year of operation for The Working Action Group and the first full year of growing the #ACTforActing project – using the principles of Acceptance and Commitment Training to bring character psychology into the twenty-first century and place psychological flexibility and care for well-being at the heart of the acting process.
 
We think we’ve achieved quite a lot in that time. We’ve run more than 150 hours of online sessions, finally got some in-person workshops under our belts and designed and delivered two cycles of our 8-week introduction course. In doing all of that, we’ve explored a range of exciting material, discovered some innovative new techniques and developed our own acceptance and commitment skills along the way. Throughout the year, we’ve managed to keep our feet moving in the direction of what we believe to be important and meaningful in our work.
 
However, as we look ahead to 2022, we want to go further. We want to take #ACTforActing to the next level and we want to share the ideas and processes of psychological flexibility – the ability to open up, be present and do what matters – with as many people as possible.    
 
That means not only continuing with what we’ve been doing but providing new and more accessible ways to engage with our work and develop your skills. We know that not everyone who wants to get involved can attend weekly sessions. Moreover, many of our regular members would like more opportunities to work on their ACT skills at times that suit them.
 
With this in mind, we’re now inviting you to join The Working Action Group’s #ACTforActing New Year’s Revolution! The aim of this new initiative is to give everyone the opportunity to develop their psychological flexibility and to learn basic #ACTforActing techniques in ways that are more… well… flexible.
 
So, what’s the plan?
 
Sign up for our newsletter and each month you’ll receive a free selection of audio and video recordings, reading materials, worksheets and links to other resources. You will also have the opportunity to track your progress and to contribute to our research projects by completing online quizzes and questionnaires.
 
In addition, you will be invited to regular online drop-in sessions. These will include:
 
The Psych-Flex Gymnasium: Sessions in which we will explore the core processes of psychological flexibility through a range of experiential exercises.
 
ACT Matrix Movie Nights: Opportunities to deepen your understanding of ACT processes by seeing how they play out in the characters and narratives of popular movies. We’ll pick a different film each time and we’ll be open to your suggestions.
 
Sorting Shakespeare: Close readings of Shakespearean text, using the ACT Matrix to ‘map’ and interpret the thought processes in some of the most famous – and complex – soliloquies found in those plays. Again, we’ll be taking requests.
 
These sessions will all run on a pay-what-you-can basis and, if you can’t attend live, you will be able to access the recordings for a nominal fee.
 
And that’s not all!
 
In 2022, we plan to supplement our regular classes and courses by offering intensive one-day training workshops at various points throughout the year. These will focus on specific aspects of the #ACTforActing work, operating both as standalone courses and as opportunities for those who have taken part in other workshops to hone their skills and deepen their understanding.
 
These will include:
 
Meeting the Matrix: An Actor’s Guide to Psychological Flexibility
Psychological flexibility is at the heart of ACT. This one-day course will introduce one of our most important tools – the ACT Matrix – and explore it in relation to the ‘3-ACT’ structure of the #ACTforActing project: its use for developing the psychological flexibility of the actor (ACT 1), its use for the analysis of character (ACT 2) and its use as practical tool in the rehearsal room (ACT 3).
 
Human Behaviour, WTF? An Actor’s Guide to Functional Analysis
‘Actioning’ is one of the core techniques taught in UK drama schools, but many acting students find it difficult to ‘action’ texts effectively and to implement such analysis in their work. This one-day course will introduce actors to the concepts, tools and techniques of contemporary functional analysis – a coherent, credible and evidence-based methodology for interpreting human behaviour. By asking “what’s the function?”, we will explore how these principles can be applied to scripts and demonstrate ways in which such an approach can enhance and simplify established methods of text analysis.
 
And
 
ACTing Shakespeare: Speeches, Soliloquies and the ACT of Self-Discovery
An intensive one-day workshop investigating how #ACTforActing principles can be applied to the interpretation and performance of Shakespearean text. We will also examine how the study and analysis of such texts can also lead to a fuller understanding of the psychological processes that play out in our own lives and experiences.
 
We’ll be announcing details of these workshops – and others – in due course.
 
And that’s STILL not all!  
 
Alongside all of that, we’ll continue to run both online and in-person development workshops with our regular members and to work towards showings, sharings and performances of our practice-based research projects.
 
Projects we aim to develop in 2022 include:
 
Self-taped: ACT and the Actor
This is a project drawing on the practice of Character Analysis at Drama Centre London. Through the creation of devised and self-authored monologues (or scenarios), we will explore flexible and inflexible ACT processes by examining their impact on the lives of professional actors. These pieces will stand as artistic works in their own right, whilst also serving the psychoeducational aims of The Working Action Group and the #ACTforActing project.
 
The ACT of Love: Eros and the Psyche
This is a project drawing on the practice of Theatre Analysis at Drama Centre London. By juxtaposing texts from different cultures and periods, and combining them with devised material and original writing, we will examine popular narratives, attitudes and concepts concerning the nature of romantic love and explore how they influence our efforts to forge meaningful relationships and our attempts to lead purposeful lives.
 
Siege Mentalities: Troy and the ACT of War
In this long-term project, we aim to create multiple pieces and performances that respond to narratives and characters associated with the Trojan War. By exploring both classical and contemporary texts and harnessing the results of these explorations in the creation of new adaptations and original material, we hope to offer fresh perspectives on these ancient, awe-inspiring and influential stories.
 
To become a regular member of the group and to have the opportunity to get involved in these projects, you can either complete our introduction course or gain a grounding in the #ACTforActing work by attending the drop-in sessions over a period that suits you.
 
If any of that sounds interesting, please sign up and we’ll be in touch with more information.