Acting Studio--A Way of Working

Acting is the craft of living fully and truthfully under imaginary circumstances.

Assumptions of the Creative Process

Almost every creative endeavor involves a process. Whether or not this process is followed consciously and/or unconsciously, it seems to exist and could be defined like this:

Inspiration: The need and desire to create.

Intention: Know what it is you wish to do.  Know what you want to accomplish.

Process: Take the necessary steps in order to fulfill your intention.

Execution: Manipulate the materials in such a way that they fulfill your intention.

Expression: The result of Inspiration, Intention, Process, and Execution are shared with an audience.

When observing a performance you are witnessing the result of some kind of process.  

We will be employing a defined acting process (a way of working) that should prove extremely useful whether on stage or in the audience.  With a subtle shift in perspective, this process can also be beneficial to any creative endeavor be it illustration, sculpture, architectural design, writing--you name it.

Relationship is at the heart of what we are about. Drama, (real life with the boring parts cut out) relies upon relationship with "an other" or it is nothing.  At any and every moment you are in relationship either with a person, object or event.

1. Relationship happens when you engage with another person, with an object, or with an event, situation or environment.  We'll call that which you are engaging with  "the other."
2. The sensitivities and sensibilities we are looking to explore, investigate, sharpen, and articulate will focus on the moment to moment interplay, or "relationship" between you and "the other."
3. Our focus is to investigate the responsibilities of an actor: simply put it is the art of engaging "the other" fully and truthfully under imaginary circumstances. That's it. That's our job.

If living our day to day life is described as living fully and truthfully under perceived circumstances, then the major difference isn't so much about being somebody else but rather how well we are able to focus and engage your interest, need and relationship with another person, object and/or event under an infinite array of imaginary circumstances.  You will be creating a dynamic, engaging and authentic "point-of-view."

The Importance of Entering into Imaginary Circumstances

Malcolm Gladwell writes in his book “The Tipping Point” that while our genes and our upbringing do play a role in shaping our behavior,

”(T)here are certain times and places and conditions when much of that can be swept away, that there are instances where you can take normal people from good schools and happy families and good neighborhoods and powerfully affect their behavior merely by changing the immediate details of the situation."

"(W)hen it comes to interpreting other people's behavior, human beings invariably make the mistake of overestimating the importance of fundamental character traits and underestimate the importance of the situation and context."

"Character, then, isn't what we think it is or, rather, what we want it to be.  It isn't a stable, easily identifiable set of closely related traits, and it only seems that way because of a glitch in the way our brains are organized.  Character is more like a bundle of habits and tendencies and interests, loosely bound together and dependent, at certain times, on circumstance and context.  The reason that most of us seem to have a consistent character is that most of us are really good at controlling our environment."

Ah-ha!!!!  Change the environment or given circumstances and you can alter a person's character or as I prefer to call it "persona."  An approach to developing persona and an actor's ability to be fully engaged and truthful in that persona is to offer a wide range of circumstances in which to submerge the actor to see what engages, propels and stimulates him or her.

An Approach to the Acting Process--Key Points:

1. Authenticity: “To live fully & truthfully under perceived circumstances.”
2. Acting: “To live fully & truthfully under imaginary circumstances.”
3. Tell the truth. Be invested in what you are doing. Be what you wish to seem. Acting is telling the truth. If you are hungry to tell the truth you are setting the stage for wonder-filled things to happen.
4. "Generality is the enemy of all art"--Stanislavsky
5. Be interested rather than interesting.  An actor's job is to invest in affecting the other person rather than seeking to elicit a response from the audience.
6. Status.  In each and every interaction a see-saw of "status" can be witnessed, described and defined.  This is an incredibly helpful tool in "thin slicing" the dynamic relationship of every encounter and interaction.  (See Keith Johnstone's application of this in his outstanding book, "Impro.")
7. The Art of "doing."  While emotion, movement, attitude, gesture are visible manifestations of a performance experience witnessed by the audience, they are merely affectations and not goals in and of themselves--they are the witnessed result of having a definable task at hand, a goal, a need that motivates the actor to take action moment to moment in order to affect, change and influence "the other" in the scene.

“I think that if you have a talent for acting, it is the talent for listening.” -- Morgan Freeman

“Listening is the most important element of performance.” – Judith Weston

“Talk to a person.  Listen to a person.  Be a person, not a character.” – Judith Weston

“Just talk and listen.” – Sidney Lumet

Breaking it Down

A primary aim of our class experience is to discover, encourage, and cultivate our “authentic selves.” This is achievable by stripping away the many layers of socializing, imprinting, conventional and polite behavior we are prone to adapt for any number of reasons throughout our life.  Once freed from these artifices you enable yourself to follow your more basic instincts, living moment to moment to moment.  The other aspect of the class is to develop a way of working, to establish a creative process for the actor.  This will also aid you to more clearly understanding and articulating what you observe in performance.

Student’s role: YOU ARE the medium AND the message. It is vital that you come to class prepared and ready to play. What you get out of the class will be directly proportional to what you put into it.  Attitude is critical. Use whatever you are feeling, thinking, wondering, to take you deeper into the activity of the moment.  Engage.  No matter what, keep working!!!!  More often than not, it's when you keep working through a desire to give up that you suddenly find yourself liberated.  The more you give over to the opportunities to explore the uncharted territories of yourself, the more you will gain from the experience.

My role: To create environments, situations, and activities for you to explore what makes you tick. I will coach you through the experiences, encouraging you to take risks, to heighten your awareness in the moment, and to free yourself up to play. I will keep the experience safe, honest, and positive.

The "4 C Cycle"

Interplay with an "other" in the dramatic universe can be understood and defined as a continuous cycle of the   following actions or stages:

1. Consider your Choices of Action
2. Choose an Action
3. Commit to that Action
4. Consequence of that Action
5. Repeat

Benefits of Using Our Comic Sensibilities in the Acting Process

While this is not a class on "comedy acting" per se we will be using the "comic realm" as our playground.  For the purposes of our sessions together we should understand "comedy" as "a way of looking at and defining aspects of human behavior."  This "comic" perspective necessitates that we work specifically, with specific goals and as a result provides us an opportunity to determine with specificity whether these goals were met and how we might go about strengthening our actions.

The comic realm, broadly speaking, operates with elements of surprise, incongruity, conflict, repetitiveness, and the effect of opposite expectations.  This will become clearer as we play the games and improvisations. The comic realm can also heighten the liberating aspects of our personas and relationships as we teeter on the edge of disaster.  Such teetering helps us to never take ourselves too seriously and gives us greater permission to go places emotionally, physically, and relationally that we might not normally go.   The spontaneous, overt reaction a comic realm seems to elicit from the participants is incredibly helpful for both player and observer in seeking to realize a "full and truthful behavior under imaginary circumstances."