What is Acting and How Do You Do It?
This is no. 3 a series of ‘letters’ that I am writing for people interested in the craft and uses of acting as a creative journey, as fun, personal expression, understanding of self and others and as a marketable, socially necessary, skill.
I have written about this in my book ‘Essential Acting’ (pub. Routledge) and expanded the work in the second edition of the book, but I am still learning so much and wanting to share what many people have found useful, so this blog is a great opportunity to do that.
Last week I was teaching at a wonderful Theatre School: The Lir, in Dublin. Every year since the school opened in 2009 I have taken an intensive 3-day workshop with the new intake of BA students there, as a starter to their 3 years training. 16 talented enthusiastic young actors.
So, what is the most important thing for them to experience, test and remember?
We could start with a job description: what is acting?
But first… Let’s start with what it isn’t!
This is important because in all of us there is, I believe, a basic unexpressed idea ( which can creep up on us at times of stress) that to act what we have to do is to force ourselves to feel some emotion which we are not actually feeling. Then, from that untruth, impose some physical expression of that generalised wash of emotion into our voices and bodies so as to force our audience and scene partners to believe in us, all the time knowing that we ourselves don’t believe a word we are saying.
And this is so painful! Such a waste of time, energy and life for everyone concerned. If you agree with Louis Jouvet, the great French actor and director, that, ‘the audience shares the experience of the actor,’ then what a nasty, tense experience the audience and the other actors will inevitably have with this ‘struggling-to-feel’ actor.
Stanislavsky, who certainly had these unpleasant moments during his search for practical systems of training for actors, called this mistaken effort.
THE ACTOR’S STATE
The Actor’s State feels like: ‘I am trying to get this right.’ (or I am trying to play the scene/the character/the speech.)
The key word here is ‘trying.’ I distrust that word! In my experience it means that I am spending my energy on not-doing, postponing, avoiding, hiding from the real work, making excuses for committing to action, while exhausting myself in the internal struggle. ‘Trying’ is boring and inefficient; doing is quicker, more fun and has results. Mistakes are welcome openings to learning
So, the most useful thing is to understand this natural mistake, and forgive ourselves instantly and completely. Stick that label ‘The Actors State’ onto our horrid sensations of inner panic, self-distrust, physical tension — clenched bum, held breath, frozen shoulders, clenched jaw, shouty voice etc. — and realise that this is no fun at all and move into…
THE CREATIVE STATE
The Creative State feels like: ‘I am solving this problem.’
This is the answer to my opening sentence about acting: what is it?
Judi Dench gives the best definition: ‘acting is telling someone else’s story to an audience.’
How do you do it?
You transfer your attention, through action, to the truth of imagination. (Always retaining an lesser underlying awareness of the simultaneous truth of daily life, so you stay sane within the world of the play). You are just solving the problem which confronts the character in the Given Circumstances at that moment.
Wow! This is so simple…..will you distrust this easy, enjoyable, effective answer? Maybe you are so used to the sensation of struggle that you almost need the pain to convince yourself that you are really acting? If this is fun, logical, free-flowing energy, effortless emotional engagement in the scene, feelings of truth always changing, developing, fascination with scene partners and the ever-new narrative with its surprises…..can it really be me acting?
What’s happened to my usual feelings when trying to act? Feelings like:
- What can I do with my hands? O help, what’s my next line? I should be feeling something.
- I’m not feeling what I should be feeling
- I’m not feeling anything
- I’m a failure
- I must and I can’t…
- I must try harder
- I’ve stopped breathing
- I don’t know what’s happening…
- O I felt just right a minute ago, but now I shouldn’t be feeling that…
- While I was congratulating myself on that good moment I wasn’t being the character, so now I’ve made another unforgiveable mistake…
- Everyone knows I wasn’t being truthful, I’ve stopped breathing again, my feet are glued to the floor, I’m hating myself…
You know the answer to those sad words: you were in the Actors State.
And you noticed that all those questions were centered in ME. Attention was trapped Inwards; there was no time or space to focus the Attention Outwards, onto the problem of the scene… which is, of course, the problem that the imagined character you are playing is focussed on.
So, the answer is that when You, the actor, are totally engaged on solving the specific problem of the character at each changing moment of the story, then you are truly ‘playing the character.’
You cannot ‘BE’ another person, real or imagined. That is not the job… it is impossible anyway, so why waste time attempting it? This is one of the many lazy generalised clichés about what acting is. You need to be able to play Romeo or Juliet more than once! It is useful to be alive at the end of the play. We function in ‘theatre truth,’ not everyday truth; this being largely a question of Time…. It is like a field of flowers condensed into a little bottle of perfume.
Now I find a saying of John Keats makes the transition to the Creative State clear to me. He says:
‘I believe in nothing but the holiness of the heart’s affections and the truth of imagination.’ – John Keats
If you agree that the affections of the heart… the truth of love… are holy, then to fake or distrust them is wrong.
The ‘truth of imagination’ is something we have all experienced: as we imagine or think of something our brain will instantly accept that ‘unreal’ experience as real, actual, and the body will respond physically to that idea. As I imagine/remember a scary event such as sinking in deep water, I can feel my heart-beat increase and a general sense of flutter through my body, with some clenching in my tummy. Equally, thinking of the canal by The Lir in Dublin in the morning sun, with seagulls flying, at once calms me, the body can relax and be warm and safe and a smile comes as I write about it.
It is interesting that the unpleasant feeling was very Inward: my attention was on myself, my fear and panic because I am frightened of deep water, having been as a child in a convoy for 17 days during the Battle of the Atlantic in 1943, always needing to be ready to get into the lifeboats, in an atmosphere of fear.
The happy feeling was when my attention was focussed Outward on the beauty of my surroundings. What does that tell us about this necessary transition from one State to the other?
In 2 words, the answer is ATTENTION OUTWARDS.
When I teach this idea I use the analogy of my two hands: my Right hand represents the Truth of Daily Life, which is, at this present moment (10.45 on Monday Sept. 25th 2017) sitting in my workroom at home in London feeling the rhythm of my fingers tapping on the keys of the laptop, seeing the screen, hearing voices in the garden, feet cosy in warm socks, remembering to release muscles which crouch down when I get tense with the mental effort of finding words and needing to correct all my dyslexic typing mistakes…solving that particular problem! The Truth of Daily Life (note that I don’t say ‘of real life’ because both truths are real) is always with us; as actors we welcome and need it and will never lose control of it. We know we are on a stage, in front of the camera, in a rehearsal room. We are aware of the practical demands of the job: safety, audibility, reliability, professional behaviour, mutual respect.
But we also have another hand! My Left hand, nearer my heart, represents the Truth of Imagination; the transfer of my Outward Attention to this Truth — the imagined situation of the imagined character at each changing moment of the story — is how I enter and remain within the Creative State. And I can do that transfer at any time, by simply deciding to do it, by an act of my will. This is in my control. (In the same way I can put my Right hand behind my back and take action only with my Left whenever I decide to do that; my Right hand is still there, I don’t have to cut it off! ) I need to forget my vanity….which I call my modesty, fear, uncertainty, inexperience, ‘not being ready yet,’ ‘not feeling right’… add your own favourite excuses here! I think this is what is meant by humility.
Look at the imagined situation, the Given Circumstances of the scene: what is the immediate problem of the character? For instance, you are not Juliet being rejected by her family in Act 3 sc 5, but IF you were, what would you DO to solve her problem?
That is the Magic If which makes the transfer so natural and reliable.
‘Your ‘if’ is the only peace-maker; much virtue in if.’ – Touchstone, As You like It, V iv.
What you do, as Juliet, is what the playwright tells you to do; as you do that, the emotions that Shakespeare’s imagined Juliet would feel become yours. You share the immediate experience of the character. Nowadays I suppose that you, as a woman of 2017, would not kneel down in front of your angry father and say, ‘Good father, I beseech you on my knees, hear me with patience but to speak a word.’ You might stand up, look him in the face and tell him you were leaving now to be with the person you love.
That physical/verbal action is the difference between what you personally would do and what the role requires you to do; yes, there is that difference but it’s not a difficulty, it is simply the job that you are doing today.
I have found a useful way of clarifying a scene situation: we call it a Map of the scene (and of the character). I have drawn an example of this Map on page 8 of the 2nd edition of my book and I am going to write and give examples of Maps in future letters.
To finish this letter…
What is it that we are aiming for as actors and what is it that directors, teachers and audiences want from us?
The aim is to allow the imagined situation of the scene to matter as much to us as it would at that moment matter to the imagined character.
The key word is the verb: ALLOW, not force. The script opens the door to imagination, the Magic If turns ideas into action, the energy flows Outwards, the fun is the solving of the problem = playing the character moment to moment… behaving as if you did not know what will happen next.
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