“Body is a temple” – Do you remember the words of greatest filmmaker Satyajit Roy’s ‘Joy Baba Felunath’ cinema. There have a deep relationship between body and mind. The pain of the mind does effect the body. Stella Adler said, “The actor has to develop his body. The actor has to work on his voice. But the most important thing the actor has to work on is his mind.” One of the most valuable tools of the actor is himself. An actor uses voice, body, and mind to create a character. So we will focus on three aspects of acting: Body, Mind and Voice. Yoga is a way to develop control over body movement and breath. It can make artiste aware of his physical body and emotion. As an actor you really have to be able to use your whole body. Yoga helps me to release the tension. Yoga helps to create an actor’s flexibility and strength. It also helps you refocus. Because focus is more important not only in our daily lives it helps to build up a character. Stanislavsky talked about his psycho-technic very seriously. Concentration is an important technique to build up a character. The fifth chapter of An Actor Prepares is about concentration on the stage. He said that “in order to get away from the auditorium you must be interested in something on the stage.” This is usually a difficult thing for actors to separate themselves from the audience. Meditation is a powerful tool for improving concentration. You can able to know your inner substance. A study published in the journal of Psychological Science demonstrated that meditation helps individuals focus their attention and sustain that focus. Yoga helps to break physical limitations of an actor. Yoga is not just a physical practice. There’s a breath practice. After all actor’s work would be “believable.” This means that his actions, movements, and voice will be appropriate to the character.
Grotowski studied Hinduism, to work on the different techniques of yoga. In rehearsals in Grotowski’s Poor Theatre the actors used Yoga asana, often somewhat modified. Most of the exercises seem to be based on the principle of Yoga exercises. So theatre and Yoga are very connected by actor.
