There is a book by theatre academic, Paul Allain called The Art of Stillness: The Theatre Practice of Tadashi Suzuki. Indeed, learning stillness as an actor is an art, and it requires dedicated practice.
Performatively there is a real power to stillness. As noted in the review above: “it brings you in”. Never underestimate the effect it can have on an audience. Less is often more–but but only if it’s a concentrated, powerful, energised stillness designed to affect the audience in a profound way.
It is an essential tool for any actor to have within any performative context.
The importance of stillness isn’t exclusive to the teaching practices of physically-based methodologies. In fact, renowned acting teacher Howard Fine privileges stillness as one of the most important skills an actor should focus on in their daily practice:
“Start with stillness. To be able to make yourself absolutely still—including your body—for any period of time, means that physically what you will do will be by choice, not by habit.”
Integrated Actor Training provides a rigorous methodology for developing and practicing stillness and allows actors to clearly identify habits within the body. Once you are able to find stillness, and build that within your body-knowledge, you are so much freer to make clear and authentic choices for your character.
INTEGRATED ACTOR TRAINING 