The Williamson Technique

The Actor's physical life is more one of interaction, rather than of reaction.

This technique has one simple core: an actor's every moment must occur in the entire inner physical life of the actor's body. That is it. This inner occurrence is experience. Without it, there can be no truthful moment.

The body is the channel, the heart, through which the actor's art must flow. Therefore, during the process of acting, the inner life of this channel is transformed. This work is for the body as the life of the actors travels through it: The Physical Process for Acting.

The physical process of acting occurs in three stages:

First, Sensory Connection

The body's five senses establish a sensory contact with the
people and environment of the immediate real or imaginary
world.

Second, Experience

The body receives these contacts transforming its entire inner
physical life. For example, in the respiratory system, there is
an immediate release of constrictions-restrictions-and the
breath becomes free, responsive, and instinctive.

Third, Behavior

The body produces instinctive behavior, motion and/or sound
that it is unique and truthful to the transformed inner life.

This physical process is one of unmonitored instinct occuring
in an unconscious instant. Behavior continues the connections
process, creating new experiences. This is the ever connecting
circular process.

A brief view of Physical Technique in Communication
(And in the craft of Acting)

In physical communication, a person’s body has two activities: first, to establish a full connection to ones’ immediate environment and the people in it (in the craft of acting this means to the world of the play and the other characters). In physical technique, this means that the body opens and takes in the sensory world around them and the people who are apart of that surrounding. This gives a person an uninhibited experience of their world. Second, a person’s body sends out behavior that is the result of the experiences that have been taken in. Behavior is the person’s truthful response caused by the experience that they took in; that response is the gestures and sound (speech) that a person makes. At the Lodge the total focus is on these two physical activities: (1) how the body opens and takes in and (2) how the body sends out behavior (which is firmly connected to the experiences that body has taken in). All of our technique classes, the private time of taking walks on the land, the group discussions, are all directed toward the role the human body plays in these two activities.