After struggling against dangerous winter weather conditions, acting trainer Kari Margolis arrived at Millikin University on Jan. 8 for a winter residency. Margolis, creator of the innovative “Margolis Method” for training and directing actors, instructed a group of ten Millikin theatre students throughout the following nine days with the assistance of Millikin theatre professor Denise Myers.
The “Margolis Method” involves a mixture of physical acting training, focusing on the actor’s core and the manner in which an actor uses his or her entire body while acting. In addition, students experimented and explored different physical representations of inner conflict and disharmony.
Sophomore theatre major Jessica Cieply described the technique in her own words, “It’s less about ‘showing’ and more about [physically] doing,” Cieply said. “In the Margolis Method, it’s very hard to be successful by showing. Acting that pulls you in is honest. It reaches you in a way that presentational acting cannot.”
At the end of eight days of physical training and explorations, the students presented a final performance project aptly called, “The Audition,” which explored the various thoughts and fears an actor encounters when facing a panel of directors.
“’The Audition’ was a huge collaborative effort from all of us,” senior Travis Neese said. “It was built out of our techniques as exercises, taking our ideas and having Kari fit them into one cohesive product.”
Cieply agreed, “She would give us techniques to work on with the text during the exercises, then we might show it to others in the class or combine them into a group.”
The performance took place in Old Gym dance studio at 6 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 18, and was open to the public free of charge.
Among the attendees was sophomore musical theatre major Shayla Rogers, who described the differences between this contemporary performance in comparison with other types of theatre.
“The performance was like an abstract representation of the crazy thoughts that go on in your head during an audition,” Rogers said. “You actually got to see the inside of the character and what was going on in their head; and you got to see that on the outside. It was like everything that was going on in their head was through all parts of their body.”
As a whole, the immersion was thus successful not only in instructing the actors partaking in the course, but inspiring individuals both in and out of the theatre department.
“I think the largest thing I took away was Kari’s idea that theatre cannot be read,” Neese said. “It should be something that after leaving, the audience shouldn’t be able to perfectly describe what happened and should instead say ‘You just gotta experience it.’”