Be grateful, it’s good for you and your career!

In these Thanksgiving times, I am reflecting about gratitude and what it means for actors. Over the years, I found that actors often spend a lot of time and energy complaining. I hear things like:

• The movie business is not fair!
• I don’t have enough auditions.
• If only they would give me my chance!
• Agents and Casting Directors are too hard to reach and don’t respond to my calls and emails.
• Nobody understands my talent!
• I don’t have enough money.
• My part is too small, I can’t show my talent in this role.
• The script is bad.
• The director I work with is not creative enough.
• The theatre is too small, I should be on Broadway, not off Broadway...Nobody will see me here.

However what these actors fail to realize, is that by complaining and looking at the negative aspect of things, they give energy to negativity, and by doing so, they make negativity stronger, and attract even more of it. Like attracts Like, which means that «what you focus on, you get more of». 

Conversely, gratitude will attract abundance. The energy you give to others and the universe by being thankful, is going to come back to you ten fold.

When you are grateful, not only do you please others and spread good feelings by saying and meaning Thank You, but you also reap the benefit of abundance energy coming back at you like a boomerang. If you focus on abundance in your life, you will grow more of it. It is like giving sun and water to a flower. It will bloom.

So instead of focusing on the negative, why don’t you try focusing on the positive in these times of Thanksgiving? You have a few weeks to practice, and then wow to make it a daily habit for ever!

To help you, here are the opposite statements to those above turned into 10 simple gratitude statements that you can use every day. Try this for a month and see the results for yourself.

1. Anyone can make it in the film industry, unknown people have become stars, I am thankful to have a chance at it. 
2. I am grateful for this audition, I am going to have fun and play in front of these people!
3. I am grateful to follow a path in an artistic career. Any opportunity to act is a piece of happiness!
4. I am grateful have technology that makes it now possible to share my news directly with casting directors and agents. How amazing!
5. There are a few selected people in the world who genuinely like what I do, my ‘special circle,’ and I am so grateful for their support and encouragement. I thank them for coming to my performances and faith in me. I will keep them informed of what I do, because they are my best allies.
6. Food in the fridge, a roof over my head, a clean bed and hot water in the shower makes me part of the richest people in the world! I feel so lucky.
7. No part is too small, because there is a human being behind any part. I will let this person come alive in me. I am so thankful to play!
8. This script has potential if I bring life in the subtext, the silences, the behavior. I am thankful to have work.
9. The director is not saying much to me and this gives me the freedom to bring my creativity to the role. I am grateful for this opportunity.
10. This theatre is intimate. I can have a close relationship to the audience. I am thankful for that specialness.

And I am thankful to you my readers, to be able to share my point of view on acting, on life as an actor and on the world. I am grateful to be of service to you, and help you regain balance in your creative pursuit.

Happy Thanksgiving times !

Yours truly,

Emmanuelle Chaulet

author of A BALANCING ACT

>>>>>>>>>>>>>To get more of this, purchase the book here!<<<<<<<<<<<<<

What is in YOUR way?

What is in my way? Polar opposites

When an actor works on a part, they usually ask these 4 questions to play their character: Who am I? What do I want? Where am I? and When is this? 

«The final question an actor has to ask after that is, What is in my way?

Beyond the obstacles found in the given circumstances, one can always find something deeply personal holding an actor back from his fullest creative potential. It could be simple stage fright, a special resonance to the story, perhaps a fear of success, or a Disowned Self that is inhibiting progress. It could be a fear of judgment and the anticipation that important people will be in the audience such as casting directors, peers, reviewers, or even mom and dad. Sometimes it is an inner child that has been traumatized, or a fear of failure, or maybe expectations from others, expectations from the actor himself, a feeling of insecurity or many, many other hidden fears.

Being an actor is about putting yourself on the line. The actor is the instrument, not the violin, nor the canvas or the brush, not even primarily the physical body as in the case of an athlete or a dancer, but the entire self, the emotional, physical, mental, energetic and spiritual self. Acting is the act of transforming oneself into a work of art, and in that process the entire bioenergetic system of the person will undoubtedly be affected. As the delicate interconnected nervous, emotional, physical and energetic system embodies someone else, imagining different surrounding circumstances, suddenly, its blueprint changes and gets challenged. Sir Anthony Hopkins appropriately says it in his interview with Oprah, the body doesn’t know that it is fiction. With this transformation comes an immense amount of normal anxiety and stress. Whether it is acknowledged or not, the entire nervous and energetic systems are put under tremendous pressure, and the subconscious usually reacts by trying to protect you and pull you back. This often results in a huge block preventing you from performing the role freely. This block appears in a myriad of questions, smoke screens and hidden fears that the subconscious launches to stop you from going further in the transformation. Questions like: What is the director going to think? Am I good enough? Am I trying the right thing? Am I guessing what the director wants? What will my parents think? And my teachers? My partners? The reviewers? Can I still love myself

if I play this villain? Do I look good? Is my voice okay? Can my wife still love me if I play this loser? Is my pain painful enough and readable for an audience? And for the director? Do I have enough energy? Can I come back to be myself again after this role? What if I couldn’t get back? Why didn’t I get the lead role? And so on,»

                                                (Excerpt from A BALANCING ACT, page 151-152)

Read more on how to clear these blocks. There are many different tools that can help you.  The book A BALANCING ACT outlines the different methods.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>To purchase the book click here<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

The tiny missing piece in your acting training (yet it is huge!)

• Have you ever felt that you understood the character perfectly and had a complete and accurate intellectual analysis but something was missing in order for you to show it on stage and in your body?
• Have you ever noticed that there was a huge gap between character analysis and performance?
• Do acting teachers tell you things like: 'don't anticipate, get in the moment, stop watching yourself!" and yet, you have no idea how?
• Do you feel things like : "But I do feel it, and think it!" yet it is not readable by an audience?

If you ever had these common performance issues, then you will find a very clear answer in the book A BALANCING ACT.

There is a very simple missing link that can help you transform your intellectual understanding of a rôle to the actual performance and incarnation of this character.

This missing link is the understanding of how the energy system works in the mind and body. It is the mind/body/spirit connection. Energy is carried through your intention. Simply put, "you think, therefore you are".  However, when you apply this on a role, it is very important to carry it in the body, and change your energetic blueprint to become and "wear" the energetic blueprint of the character. This is achieved through mental exercises that connect your thoughts, your energy system, and your body. When the energy changes, your body changes too. It is actually incredible to watch on another actor. Their face, their attitude, their breath, their rhythm change when the energy changes. It is the powerful effect of energy vibration on the body.

A Balancing Act will give you the missing tools and knowledge, that can translate INTENTION into actual TRUTH IN PERFORMANCE.

A Balancing Act is a book that explain how it works in simple words, and will give you tools to apply this knowledge in the acting realm.

.>>>>>>>GET THE BOOK NOW!!<<<<<<<<<

To me the most beneficial aspect of the energy work is beginning the character development process with a clear system. With this clarity you can begin work with an open mind, body, and energetic system. I currently use Emmanuelle's techniques in all of my performances."

Sean Demers, actor, playwright, singer

Emmanuelle Chaulet’s work with the actress whom I directed was transformative. After their work together, Jude’s command of her character was indelibly set into place. As her director, my work with her on character ceased. I could then only step back and watch with profound engagement as she located – performance after performance – the heart of the role, conjuring her character with confidence, clarity, humor and grace. Emmanuelle Chaulet is an alchemist.

Richard O’Brien actor, director

"It is rare to find a subject that urgently needs to be discussed and about which too little is written. The need to train the entire being of the performing artist is just such a subject. Emmanuelle Chaulet's A Balancing Act is a godsend to performing artists of any sort. Knowing how to Energize allows us to endure and even thrive during the rise and fall, the constant state of transformation, the juggling of feelings, styles, jobs, and colleagues while maintaining an even keel."

Lisa Dalton, Co-founder, International Michael Chekhov Association, Award-Winning Actor/Producer/Director and Co-founder and Certifying Board, National Michael Chekhov Association 

For more testimonials click here. 

Summer reading that will get you ahead while lying down on the beach...

August is here and hopefully, beach time...

While on the beach lying down on a beach towel, closing your eyes, you can still work on your craft and learn new tricks...

How about learning about invisible mental preparation?

The beauty of mental preparation is that it is done in an invisible fashion, hidden behind closed eyes...

Most actors will do obnoxious warm ups that make you look like a weirdo in the waiting room or are down right impossible to do at a casting:

• strange warm up sounds
• intense stretching
• moving around
• lying down on the floor 
• pretend you move like an animal 
• tongue twisters
• big gestures
• rehearsing lines

What if you could do an invisible warm up, just sitting down on a chair, closing your eyes, and yet be as efficient, if not more?

Wouldn't you like to know that you can be super productive, while looking perfectly normal?

That's what the power of imagination is. The power of energy preparation.

In the book A BALANCING ACT, you will learn:

• how to prepare while closing your eyes
• how to connect with the energy of your character
• how to activate the creative actor within you
• how to separate from the voices in your head that constantly criticize or judge you while you perform
• how to create the given circumstances in the present and with your senses
• how to ground your work so it doesn't stay in your head but expand in your body
• and how to remain balanced throughout your work and career..

and much more... SPECIAL OFFER:  $20 instead of 24.95 during August. Free shipping

To me the most beneficial aspect of the energy work is beginning the character development process with a clear system. With this clarity you can begin work with an open mind, body, and energetic system. I currently use Emmanuelle's techniques in all of my performances."

Sean Demers, actor, playwright, singer

Emmanuelle Chaulet’s work with the actress whom I directed was transformative. After their work together, Jude’s command of her character was indelibly set into place. As her director, my work with her on character ceased. I could then only step back and watch with profound engagement as she located – performance after performance – the heart of the role, conjuring her character with confidence, clarity, humor and grace. Emmanuelle Chaulet is an alchemist.

Richard O’Brien actor, director

"It is rare to find a subject that urgently needs to be discussed and about which too little is written. The need to train the entire being of the performing artist is just such a subject. Emmanuelle Chaulet's A Balancing Act is a godsend to performing artists of any sort. Knowing how to Energize allows us to endure and even thrive during the rise and fall, the constant state of transformation, the juggling of feelings, styles, jobs, and colleagues while maintaining an even keel."

Lisa Dalton, Co-founder, International Michael Chekhov Association, Award-Winning Actor/Producer/Director and Co-founder and Certifying Board, National Michael Chekhov Association 

For more testimonials click here. 

Energizing your work

The Energetic System: A New Acting Tool 

"Those indescribable, unspeakable things that the actor has accumulated in his soul while working creatively on his part will be conveyed only though Radiation. So an intangible means of expression may become the most tangible part of the performance, revealing the play, the part, and the actor’s individual face behind them." —Michael Chekhov 

Frost © Jean-Pierre Rousset

"Actors spend considerable amounts of time training their bodies, voices, and emotional responses. Ignoring the energetic system is like ignoring the part of the iceberg lying below the water line. By working only with the visible, actors are denying themselves an extraordinary potential and a useful set of tools for their craft, leaving to instinct and luck what should be trained the same way they train their speech, movement and emotional response. Furthermore, they need to balance their energetic system and recognize the impact that intense emotions have on their bodies and well-being. My mission was now to develop a technique for actors, exploring how to use this extraordinary new tool.

What did I discover, and why does energy awareness matter for an actor? 

I first discovered that the energetic system is another sense to be added to the five senses that I had worked on so much at The Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute. It is another part of the actor’s toolbox.

The energetic system — or energy system — is composed of energy centers and of many other elements we will develop further. Sensing with your energy system can be as powerful, if not more, as sensing with your sight, touch, smell, etc. We intuitively use the energy system when we casually talk about sensing the good or bad “vibe” in a room, or emanating from a person. We already somehow know that we possess extrasensory perception about the space around us or other individuals. This perception tells us information beyond the visible, information connected to the world of energy.

I learned that everything has a vibrational rate; objects, people, animals and thought patterns. We are all vibrating at different frequencies. The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines vibration as “a rapid to-and-fro motion of the particles of an elastic body or medium that produces sound,” and also as “emotional emanation or atmosphere that can be instinctively sensed.” Deepak Chopra defines vibration as “the frequency of brain activity in the cerebral cortex.”

I also found out that the creative state is completely linked to the state of the energy system. With a clear energetic system, the person reaches a higher state of vibration and therefore greater creative potential. Michael Chekhov had already talked about the higher self and the state of creativity. I understood the explanation behind this mysterious creative state: it is simply a level of vibration of the energy system that can be worked on as easily as one works on a muscle. By simple exercises, “energy workouts,” one can raise one’s vibrational level and clear the energetic system to a state where imagination, intuition and creativity flow freely.

The real breakthrough for me was to realize that emotions are so clearly linked to the energetic system. In the first book I read about chakras by Caroline Myss, I discovered how each chakra (or energy center in the human body) is linked to sets of emotions and issues, and how working on and affecting each energy center will have an effect on the related emotion and issues. Reciprocally, Deepak Chopra demonstrates in his book, Ageless Body, Timeless Mind, that emotions felt and expressed in real life (or for that matter on the stage) induce chemical reactions in the brain of the subject, and have an effect on the energy system, which in turn activates the glandular system. Sometimes it can even create an imbalance in the body such as thyroid disorder or other conditions. Research has shown that emotional outbursts can affect the immune system. An outburst of anger creates a depletion of the immune system for over six hours. Conversely, a feeling of joy and love will boost the immune system for six hours and increase the IgA levels, the body’s first line of defense against viruses and bacteria. More research by the Institute of HeartMath has even demonstrated that aspects of the DNA molecule can be altered through intentionality. These studies demonstrate that emotions and focused intention impact the physical and chemical structure of one or more of the bases in the DNA molecules. Scientists of the Institute of HeartMath define emotion as “energy in motion.” Furthermore, and as Gary Zukav states in his latest book on emotional awareness, The Heart of the Soul,

 “Your emotions, whether anger or happiness or any other, do not depend upon what is happening outside of you, but upon how your energy system is processing energy.” 

And also,

“As energy is processed at different locations and in different ways, different emotions result.” 

Emotions affect the energy system in an incredible way, and conversely, the energy system has an impact on emotions and feelings.

 Finally, I also discovered through my studies of RYSE® with Nancy Risley that one has conscious control of the energetic system, and that one can intentionally change its state — or map — by doing different mental exercises. 

The mind, spirit and body are intimately connected and related. Working on one will affect the other. By using mental exercises, one is able to impact the energy system, affecting one’s emotional state, and the body will react accordingly. For an actor these discoveries are of utmost importance. Getting angry, fearful, sad, or happy is part of the daily task an actor must accomplish in his job. We understand then, especially nowadays when Hollywood and television create more new monsters, serial killers, and catastrophic movies than ever before, that acting has become a very risky job and can take its toll on the performers’ health. We also understand that energy is an essential part of the actor’s toolbox."


This was an excerpt from the book  A BALANCING ACT, by F. E. Chaulet

To read more, get the book today!