HOW TO RUIN A PERFORMANCE
1. Assume that if you simply say the words as earnestly as possible, the rest will take care of itself. Don't take any responsibility for what the scene is about or what you and your partners want to say about or through the scene.
2. Don't concern yourself with the kind of world or human experience the scene depicts; just concentrate on covering the words.
3. Don't concern yourself with the physical or sensory aspects of the character's experience; just focus on attitudes.
4. Avoid thinking about or doing any private work on the character between rehearsals. You don't have time, and it's no fun, anyway.
5. Spend all your preparation time practicing your "line readings," how you're going to say each line, again and again.
6. Interpret your role in terms of emotions, adjectives, qualities, moods or "colours." Don't concern yourself with what the character wants or does.
7. Find a few mannerisms and play them relentlessly.
8. Assume your character never develops, changes or grows.
9. Avoid any sense of personal connection to your character's experience.
10. Memorize only your lines and not your cues.
11. Don't bother listening to your partners on stage; assume the spaces between your own speeches don't matter to your character.
12. Concentrate on the audience's reactions instead of your partner's reactions.
13. Treat the props as just props; don't worry about what they mean to your character or your partners in the scene.
14. Evaluate the satisfaction you get from the scene by how many lines you have or how good an impression you made on the audience.
15. Never warm up.
