It’s generous to embarrass yourself.
At drama school we’d often get the instruction from our tutors to be “loud and proud, strong and wrong”.
It’s an encouragement to be bold in your failures and loud in your attempts.
If you weren’t committing fully to a scene: “Loud and proud!”
If you were unsure what choice to make in a scene: “Strong and wrong!”
Being lukewarm in your choices as an actor doesn’t help anyone; we need to see clearly where the problem is. Or indeed be blasted away by whats working.
This has served me well in the classroom too.
The years of actor training and rehearsal rooms have conditioned me to put myself out there more than most kids are used to.
I have less rules about how I need to be and I have a very low threshold for trying things out.
Yes, it means I’m often wrong or look a bit silly.
And that’s great. LET me be the ‘wrongest’ in the room.
By modeling ‘loud and proud, strong and wrong’ I want the kids to see how safe they are to try things out. After all, how could they possibly look as silly as THIS guy!?
It’s not about being zany for attention’s sake. Or being weird to be different.
It’s about whole heartedly trying.
“Loud and proud, strong and wrong” is about giving it your best shot.
Because really trying is a whole lot harder than flailing your arms about to be different.
Be bold in your failures and and loud in your attempts.
