The Map of Me
The Map of Me is a quick and enjoyable drawing exercise; you can’t get it wrong. It is easy, simple and totally personal to you. No-one else could make it or fully understand it. This exercise can be private work, whether you draw when alone or in a group, and it can also be shared with others if you wish. (I find that people really enjoy explaining their map to a friend in the group and hearing the stories from other people.)
The Map must begin with the present moment of your life. The circle with the initial letter of your name represents that unique moment, which has never happened before and will never happen again.
Then we widen the web of connections, built around us, to the world outside the room: to the people and places that are important to us. Aspects of our life such as money, ambitions, plans, journeys, homes, loves, problems, decisions come into this. The fascinating part of the work is the discovery of what really matters to us. Often new insights come up, surprising us and revealing hidden depths. Every time I draw a Map of Me I find new things often connected to future adventures. Lots of ‘????’ appear!
The Map of Me on its own is a valuable experience, I think. How few times are we free to explore our own present lives and maybe share them with others?!?
The Map of the Character
As actors, the Map will lead us on to making a Map of the Character (to follow). The Map of the Character will give us insights into the different world of this imagined person: what George Eliot calls the ‘equivalent centre of self’ of another human being.
In this way the function of the Map of Me is to demonstrate the acute importance and emotional power of the people, places, ideas, aspirations, and memories in our own lives. As we drew those squiggles that represent these connections, we felt the emotions attached to them. So, in acting, we need to allow the connections of the imagined character to be as powerful, as essential to them, as our own are to us.
This is the aim we started out with in acting:
To allow the present situation of the imagined character to MATTER as much to us as it would to the character at that moment.
For more articles, please visit here. You can also find further information on this exercise in my book.