Learn the acting technique called “The Kitchen Sink Method.”

Welcome to the Kitchen Sink. Pull up a sponge. If you are afraid of dishpan hands, then feel free to slip on a pair of yellow rubber gloves. But be prepared to take the plunge into the sometimes clear, and yet, often murky world of acting.

In Act One: Everything and the Kitchen Sink, you or your students will be introduced to an acting technique called “The Kitchen Sink Method.” You will learn character development through the sensory recalls of sight, sound, taste, touch, smell, and spirit. This curriculum will cover the basics of theatre like blocking and stage terminology, as well as the importance of observational skills, pantomime, voice control, accents, body language and audition tips. There will be fun improvisation games, acting exercises and homework assignments along the way designed to encourage you or your students to step outside of their acting “comfort zone” or bubble.

About the author

Cheryl L. Weston has been involved in theatre, either onstage or backstage since she was eight-years-old. She majored in Acting, and Speech and Theatre Education at Missouri State University. In addition to her years of involvement in community theatre, she’s also starred as an extra in numerous feature length films and played a lead role in several locally produced films in the Ozarks. She’s also appeared in two national television commercial campaigns for the Assemblies of God and Paint Zoom Extra.

Since 1996, she’s been the drama director at Graceway Baptist Church in Springfield, Missouri where she’s had the opportunity to direct and coach many people, young and old, over the years. So, it was inevitable that she’d develop her own acting “technique” or style, which emphasizes observation and recollection of the sensory stimuli that surrounds all human beings. She currently teaches Drama and serves as the assistant Speech and Debate coach at Gloria Deo Academy.

About her method

Cheryl Weston (1968) is an amateur actress and life-long Speech and Theatre Education major at Missouri State University. Her early acting experiences were influenced solely by the Stanislavski technique of method acting with a dash of Stella Adler thrown in for good measure. While she still relies on those acting principles from time to time today, Cheryl realized that she had developed her own style of acting over the years, a style that she fondly calls “The Kitchen Sink.” She found that she depends more on her five senses to trigger certain emotional memories in her own psyche. Simply stated, “sense memory” is the uncanny ability to store certain impressions, experienced in everyday life, by way of the five senses. These impressions are stored in the subconscious. The actor can learn to recall these sensory impressions from the subconscious by concentrating on the stimuli associated with them.