I was thinking recently about a time I was directing a play, and one of the actors was very hard to hear. The role was a curt, brusque military man—a person who makes his presence felt wherever he goes. Clearly, a person like that needs to be heard!
For several days, I mentioned in rehearsal that I couldn’t hear him very well, and pointed out that I was sitting close to the performing space. Audience members at the back of the theatre would have no chance of hearing him. He nodded, agreed, and kept speaking softly. Sometimes the other actors onstage even had a hard time hearing his lines. As soon as we were on a break, though, his volume popped right up—the softness was connected to something he was doing onstage.
He was playing the character in a kind of reserved way, in general. So we talked about the character’s need for control, his background of commanding troops in the field, his decisiveness. Each time we talked about it, I was convinced that this time it would translate into a bolder (louder) version of the character. Each time, I was wrong.
Finally, I decided to take an “outside in” approach. Instead of talking about who the character is and what he wants, I tackled a specific behavior I had noticed—I asked the actor to take his hands out of his pockets.
Think about a person with their hands in their pockets. They seem casual, relaxed. They don’t look like a person who is about to take action.
As soon as his hands were out of his pockets, the actor’s whole demeanor changed. He had to figure out how to use his body in this new way, so he stood up straighter, walked with more purpose, and, yes, spoke more loudly.
That one instruction changed the direction of his portrayal more than any conversation we had. His habit of putting his hands in his pockets had derailed his approach to the character and undermined all the other work he was doing.
It’s important to know why you’re speaking, and how you want to affect the people you’re communicating with. And it’s also important to identify the physical habits that might be obstacles to effective communication.
We understand other people through their behavior. So if you have a behavior that is sending a message you aren’t intending, you might try starting there.
