The Actor and the Target
The Actor and the Target introduces actors to Declan Donnellan’s theory that actors should not look into themselves for acting solutions but should always address their actions to a target, to something outside of themselves. Targets can be real or imaginary, concrete or abstract but they must always be there and they are always in the process of changing.
Donnellan also explains the value of making sure that the stakes are high and of recognizing that there are dual or complimentary aspects to these stakes, a positive and a negative side to each one. Another interesting idea he discusses is that instead of trying to ‘be’ the character, the actor is better off seeing and hearing through the character’s eyes and ears. In other words, instead of trying to become a character you are trying to experience his or her situations and reactions.
The Actor and the Target is worth reading…but the writing style is not for everyone. For every fascinating bit of advice, the reader has to dig through a lot of dense and often confusing writing. While the information is not easily accessible and not always clear, some people will find the writing style particularly interesting, as they work hard to uncover the nuggets. I can’t help feel that I would like to work with Donnellan and hear him explain his ideas in context rather than read them in his book but since that isn’t possible…this is the next best thing. Despite my concerns about the writing, I still found the information and approach to acting very intriguing.
Donnellan provides some very interesting ways of looking at acting, but I think this is a book best suited for people with experience. Your work will help you to better understand his concepts and to get through some of the writing that might be difficult to decipher for a beginner. This is a worthwhile book particularly if you like your advice wrapped in mystery and philosophy.
-the hunger in each of us to act and be acted to is genetic. For we direct, perform and witness
performances every night
-eating, walking, talking, all are developed by observation,
performance, and applause. We develop
our sense of self by practicing roles we see our parents play and expand our
identities further by copying characters we see played by elder brothers,
sisters, friends, rivals, teachers, enemies or heroes
-acting is a reflex, a mechanism for development and survival
-our quality of acting develops and trains itself when we simply pay it
attention
-the difference in quality between one performance and another is not
in technique alone, but in the surge of life that makes that technique seem invisible;
the years of training must seem to evaporate in the heat of life
-even the most stylized art is about life, and the more life there is
present in a work of art, the greater the quality of that art
-this is not a book about how to act, this is a book that may help when
you feel blocked in acting
-talking about acting is hard, because “talking about” tends to make us
generalize and generalization conceals the uniqueness of things. Good acting is always specific
-there will always be a gap between what we feel and our ability to
express what we feel
-living well means acting well.
Every moment of our lives is a tiny theatrical performance
-rather than claim that ‘x’ is a more talented actor than ‘y’, it is
more accurate to say that ‘x’ is less blocked than ‘y’. The talent is already pumping away, like the
circulation of the blood. We just have
to dissolve the clot
-two basic symptoms recur, namely paralysis and isolation – an inner
locking and an outer locking
-when acting flows, it is alive, and so cannot be analyzed; but
problems in acting are connected to structure and control, and these can be
isolated and disabled
-we can divide the work of the actor into two parts, rehearsal and
performance
-here the actor’s work will be divided into the visible and the
invisible work
1. All the actor’s
research is part of the invisible work, while the performance is part of the
visible work
2. The audience must
never see the invisible work
3. The rehearsal
comprises all the invisible work and passages of visible work
4. The performances
consists only of the visible work
-the actor’s flow depends on two specific functions of the body; the
senses and the imagination
-it is dangerous to take our senses for granted
-the actor’s senses will never absorb as much in performance as the
character absorbs in the real situation
-finally, this graceful acceptance of inevitable failure is an
exhilarating release for the artist.
That we will never get there is an excellent starting point,
perfectionism is only a vanity. The
actor needs to accept the senses’ limitations in order for the imagination to
run free.
-the actor relies on the senses; they are the first stage in our
communication with the world. The
imagination is the second
-the imagination is the capacity to make images. Our imaginations make us human and they toil
every millisecond of our lives. Only the
imagination can interpret what our senses relay to our bodies. It is the imagination that enables us to
perceive
-our capacity to imagine is both imperfect and glorious, and only the
paying of attention can improve it
-without our ability to make images we would have no means of accessing
the outside world.
-we forge the world within our heads, but what we perceive can never be
the real world; it is always an imaginative re-creation
-the imagination is a muscle that develops itself only when properly
used
-we develop our imaginations by observation and attention. We develop the imagination when we use it and
pay attention; the imagination improves itself when we simply see things as
they are
-we can only nourish our imaginations by not getting in the way; the
less we darken the world, the clearer we see it
“I
Don’t Know What I’m Doing”
-actors often use the same words when they feel blocked: “I don’t
know…..what I’m doing; what I want; who I am; where I am; how I should move;
what I should feel; what I’m saying; what I’m playing
The Target
-what may appear to be a general sweep is really a finding, discarding,
and re-choosing of a multitude of different points
1.
There is always a target
-you can never know what you are doing until you first know what you
are doing it to
-for the actor, all ‘doing’ has to be done to something. The actor can do nothing without the target
-the target can be real or imaginary, concrete or abstract, but the
unbreakable first rule is that at all times and without a single exception
there must be a target
-an actor cannot play “I die” because there is no target. However, the actor can play: ‘I welcome
death’, ‘I fight death’, ‘I mock death’, ‘I struggle for life’
-the actor cannot act a verb without an object
-all an actor can play are verbs, but even more significantly, each of
these verbs has to depend on a target
-this target is a kind of object, either direct or indirect, a specific
thing seen or sensed, and, to some degree needed.
-what the target actually is
will change from moment to moment. There
is plenty of choice. But without the target the actor can do absolutely nothing
at all, for the target is the source of all the actor’s life.
-when conscious, we are always present with something, with the target
-the audience does not laugh because you change the target. The audience laughs to see the target change
you
2.
The target always exists outside, and at a measurable distance
-the impulse stimulus come from specific images outside the brain and
not inside
-the eye refocuses on different targets, as if trying to find not just
the memory, but as if trying to uncover the specific location of that memory
3.
The target exist before you need it
-‘discover’ always helps more than ‘invent’
-if Irina feels blocked, if Irina feels that she ‘doesn’t know what she
is doing,’ it is because she does not see the target. The danger is extreme, because the target is
the only source of all practical energy for the actor
-actors are nourished and energized by what they see in the world
outside
-it will help Irina more to transfer all inner functioning, all drives,
feelings, thoughts, and motives, etc.
from inside and relocate these impulses in the target. The target will then energize Irina just as a
battery that gives power when needed
-it helps Irina more to imagine that it is the target that gives her
these strong reactions. Irina gives up
control and entrusts it to the things she sees.
The actor abdicates power to the target
-we do not exist alone; we exist only in a context. The actor can only act in relation to the
thing that is outside, the target
4.
The target is always specific
-a target cannot be a generalization
-we each see different targets, even when we happen to be looking at
the same thing
-the external world is always specific.
The thing that is outside, the target can only be specific
5.
The target is always transforming
6.
The target is always active
-not only is the target always mutating, the target is always doing
something. And whatever the target is
doing must be changed
-the active target locates energy outside us so that we can then bounce
off of it, react to it and live off it; the target becomes an external battery
-so, instead of always wonder ‘What
am I doing?’ it is more helpful to ask ‘What
is the target doing?’ Or better ‘What
is the target making me?’
-‘I’ tends to be a dangerous word for the actor and is best used with
caution. ‘Me’ is usually more helpful
-the more energy the actor can locate in the target, the greater the
actor’s freedom. On the other hand,
stealing energy from the target actually paralyzes the actor. If Irina tries to take power from the target
and keep it in herself then she we will become blocked
-for Juliet, the scene is not about her and what she wants; the scene
is about the different Romeos that she sees and has to deal with. Irina’s energy does not come from within,
from some concentrated internal centre; it comes only from the outside world
that Juliet perceives
-the target is all
-for all practical purposes then, there is no inner source of
energy. All energy originates in the
target
-the target is neither an objective, nor a want, nor a plan, nor a
reason, nor an intention, nor a goal, nor a focus, nor a motive. Motives arise from the target. A motive is a way of explaining why we do
things. Now ‘why’ we do things may be
interesting. But relentlessly asking
‘why’ can tie the actor in knots
-nor is the target my ‘focus’. Focus
is a misleading word. Focus sounds as if
it has a lot to do with the target
-the target is the master. But
the ‘point of focus’ sounds more like a servant
-choosing a point of focus can conceal the outside world and all its
nourishing stimuli, for it tends to relocate inside the actor those energies
that are more helpfully located outside
-we cannot control attention, that’s why it is so useful, and so
alarming
-all Irina can do is see things and pay attention
Fear
-it is Fear that cuts us off from the target. Fear severs us from our only source of
energy; that is how Fear starves us
-Fear is without a single exception, destructive. The more Fear stalks the rehearsal room, the
more the work suffers
-a healthy working atmosphere, where we can risk and fail, is
indispensable. Fear corrodes this trust,
undermines our confidence and clots our work
-sometimes, this Fear comes wearing a mask; arrogance is a favorite
disguise and mannerism is another
-we can always infer that fear is fat and healthy whenever we
experience ‘block’
-fear can be dealt with. But
first all our Fear needs to be acknowledged and seen. Only by seeing Fear can it be thought about,
objectified and overcome
-all problems of block get cured in the ‘now’
-fear does not exist in the ‘now.’ So he has to invent a pretend time
to inhabit and rule. He takes the only
real time, the present, and splits it into two fake time zones. One half he calls the past, and the other
half he calls the future. And those are
the only two places he can live. Fear
governs the future as Anxiety, and the past as Guilt
-block can only start in the past and the future
-Fear cannot breathe while the actor remains present
-we cannot try to be present, precisely because we already are present
-it is Fear that gets us to do bad work, so the fear of working badly
becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy
-when panic strikes it helps to remember that the simple act of paying
attention is calming. In fact, only
attentiveness brings peace
-the actor who is disappointed by his partner’s performance – ‘I don’t
believe Juliet loves me enough for me to play the scene’ – needs to see the
Juliet who does love him enough. It is
the actor’s challenge to believe, more than his partner’s problem to convince
him
-to use words well I need to imagine what my partner hears and does not
hear. I need to imagine what is heard
and what remains unheard. I need attend
only to the target
-my only business is with the target.
When, in the midst of talking, I stop to listen to how I am speaking, I
invariably confuse both whoever I am speaking to – and also myself. My own words start to sound fake. Indeed, my words must become fake at the
precise moment I detach them from the target
-but even the most brilliant script is unintelligible if it is not
connected to the outside world, if it is detached from the target. Every word, in fact, needs to be caused by
the outside world
-when all around seems dead, it is a delusion. Fear has doped us till we no longer see the
target changing and moving
-fear splits you into another delusory double: you, and the other
‘judging’ you, the ‘doing’ you and the ‘watching’ you
-the actor makes exactly the same mistake by believing his relation
with the outside world is an inner own able state. My sight is not a valuable possession. My sight is an essential resource I share
with whatever I see
-it is more constructive to throw ourselves on a target than to monitor
ourselves
-freedom is everything, but independence is nothing. Independence
is born of fear
-but trying to renounce all dependence is folly. We need the outside world. We need oxygen, food, and stimulus. We need targets
-however oppressed we may be, we can still retain a spark of freedom
that makes us human. Strangely, we often
find the prospect of real freedom quite frightening
-many acting problems derive from the simple paradox that we hate the
thing we need
-we cannot control reality, but we can control our fantasies. Except our fantasies don’t exist; so we’re
not really controlling anything at all.
But the illusion of control is deeply reassuring
An Escape
-‘trying to do’ is itself part of the problem
-the rules of the target will hold good fro you however much you try to
break them. You ca n try to defy them,
but you cannot change them. They are
beyond your control; and only because they are separate from you, outside you
and free from you, can the rules help you
1. There is always a target
-how can this help practically, when you are blocked? Well, this must also mean that you cannot be
alone, however hard you try. Even if you
abandon the target, it won’t abandon you.
There are plenty of targets out there.
All you have to do is see them.
You cannot annihilate the target; you cannot destroy the world
2. The target exists
outside, at a measurable distance
-there is a measurable distance between you and the target. You and the target cannot fuse. You are separate. You cannot find the target inside you
-space and time do exist. Fear
cannot destroy them
-bad news for the character is always good news for the actor
-this enabling distance is crucial for it ensures that Irina can let
Juliet try as hard as she likes, and Irina can never rest assured that Juliet
can never accomplish what Juliet wants
-this enabling distance provides the actor with an obstacle to
overcome. If there were no obstacle to
overcome, there would be no quest: death.
Every living moment contains an element of quest
-the actor can never complete what the character wants because the
character can never complete what the character wants
-Juliet never gets what she wants.
She never achieves her goal, or finishes her journey. Incompleteness or separation may be the
character’s enemy, but they are always the actor’s friend
-creation keeps us apart, however much we may try to unite. We are not fused, and can never become
fused. Fear often makes us believe we
are fused. We must never forget that a
specific distance always separates us from the target, and this gap can never
be destroyed
-the space opens a distance, a distance that enables. As soon as there is a distance, there opens a
potential path
-even the most rudimentary path has two points, the beginning and the
end: me, and where I go. Fusion
paralyses; distance moves
-where there are two points there is a possible path, and we can always
imagine moving along a path. And as soon
as we can move, we can also breathe
-fear then sells the franchise to make little factories to create more
of himself; like a retrovirus that confuses the protecting cell into behaving
as a destroyer
3. The target exists before
you need it
-we cannot see a target. The
target does not need to be created. As
soon as we feel lost, the target is already waiting to be found
-nothing exists in the past because the past does not exist. This is comforting because the target is
ready and waiting of you to see it. The
target is already there on the surface; it is not buried in some deep place
where only clever people know how to dig
-what I see is already there, I cannot fabricate it. I can neither create nor invent; I have to
find
4. The target is always
specific
-fear smudges the differences between things
-fear makes us scared to see the specific, because the specific will
diminish him
5. The target is always
transforming and 6. The target is always active
-the target must always be changing and the target must always be doing
something active. If it doesn’t change
or if it is completely still, it’s dead.
If it can’t move, it isn’t a target.
So the blocked actor knows to search for something that is: specific, moving, outside, changing,
active, waiting to be discovered, and needing to be changed
-he knows now not to look for
something that is: general, still, internal, constant, passive, needing to be
created, and unchangeable
-which is precisely what Fear has led him to expect
The Stakes
-every living creature at every moment of its life has to deal with a
situation which will either get better or worse. This better or worse might be infinitesimally
small, but there will always be some degree of better or worse. All we can be sure of is change
-for you, for me, for the tiniest amoeba and for Juliet, there will
always be something to be lost and something to be won. And whatever we say or do will be in order to
make the situation better and to prevent it from getting worse. This quest motors the actor
-the more closely we examine the target, the more we will see that it
splits. And it splits into two halves of
equal size. The target always divides
into a better outcome and a worse
-Juliet, like all of us, lives in a double universe: she has double
vision. Juliet sees a Romeo who
understands her, and also a Romeo who cannot understand her, a Romeo who is
strong and a Romeo who is weak
-the stakes are so important they have their own double rule. The unbreakable double rule is as follows:
1.
At every living moment there is something to be lost and something to be won
2.
The thing to be won is precisely the same size as the thing to be lost
-Irina needs to see what is at stake.
The stakes are not woolly or vague; the stakes are specific and they
must come in perfectly paired twos.
Remembering this shape of ‘two’ rather than ‘one’ is crucial for the
actor in difficulty
-the positive friction with the negative is precisely what sparks the
actor
-both the positive and the negative are present at the same time, both
the hope and the fear, both the plus and the minus.
-indeed a better question than ‘What
is at stake here?’ is ‘What do I
stand to gain and what do I stand to lost?’
-actors often experience a paralysis because they have been looking for
a ‘one.’ The search for ‘one’ is a wild
good chase; there is no magic ‘one’ that will solve everything. Life comes in opposed ‘twos’
-this rule of ‘two’ is as easy as riding a bicycle and equally difficult
to explain in words
-a declaration of love is terrifying because the joy of being loved
back must exactly mirror the terror of being rejected
-why do we have an inbuilt resistance to seeing the world in these
twos? One answer is very simple. We don’t like pain. We don’t like pain in our bodies. We don’t like pain in our heads. And these ‘twos’ make pain.
-for example, we tend to see the good in people we like and we tend to
see the bad in people we dislike. It
makes for a more comfortable world view.
It isn’t an accurate world view.
But it is less painful. And we
are prepared to pay a lot for our comfort
-but to be near Juliet, we need to be near not only her joy, but also
her pain
-if Irina feels that what she is doing isn’t sufficiently exciting,
compelling, fascinating, important, then she may try to make her words, her
actions seem more exciting, compelling, fascinating, important. And an actor may feel that the best way to do
this is to disconnect from the outside world and press harder on the pedal
-instead the actor need to see the big two, both what may be lost and
also what may be won
-the stakes are always two directions in conflict. There is always something to be lost and
always something to be won
-acting is not a question of how we see things; acting is a question of
what we see. For the actor, we are what
we see
-how can the actor shift the soaring stakes onto the character?
-the stakes for Irina and for Juliet must be distinguished and
carefully separated. The stakes for Irina
and Juliet are quite different. How can
Irina make the stakes low for Irina and high for Juliet?
-first, the actor needs to transfer all that is at stake from what the
actor sees, into what the character sees
-so Irina needs to travel through Juliet to see what Juliet see in the
outside world. Irina must not stop in
the character. Instead Irina must see
through a transparent Juliet to see on the other side what matters to Juliet
-the actor must not see into the character but instead sees through the
character. The actor’s sight must pass
through the character as if the character were transparent. As if the character were a mask
-the actor sees through the character’s eyes. Only if the actor sees what is at stake for
the character will the character live
-Irina needs to assume that this precise symmetry exists as a given,
and then undertake the task of finding it.
The splitting of the one into two can release energy in the actor as it
does in nuclear fission
-what is at stake involves anxiety and hope, and to exactly equal
degrees
-one of the principal reasons we go to the theatre is to see people
face situations where the stakes are toweringly high. Theatre helps us explore extreme feelings in
a controlled situation. We may not like
the stakes so painfully high in our private worlds, but we go out of our way to
see other people experience these polarized intensities
-the target is not how we see things.
The target is what we see. The
split is the stakes
‘I Don’t Know What I Want’
-‘What I want’ comes from the target.
I have to see something before I can want it. ‘Wanting’ comes from the thing I see. What Juliet wants comes from what Juliet
sees. Seeing what Juliet sees is what
matters. ‘Deciding what Juliet want’s
misses out the crucial step of seeing.
Working out ‘what my character wants’ is different from ‘seeing what my
character sees’
-Irina needs to play as if from the inside of Juliet looking out. Irina does not want to play Juliet as if from
the outside looking in
-Irina is playing as if through Juliet’s eyes. Irina is an artist. Irina is not delivering a lecture on
Juliet. Irina needs to experience what
Juliet experiences. Irina needs to see
what Juliet sees in the moment - and not with the benefit of hindsight
-the word ‘need’ helps the actor far more:
-Irina can play that
she wants to kiss Romeo or she can see the lips that need to be kissed
-the second is more likely to help
-desire originates in the target and not in the character’s will
-‘need’ makes it clear that the target has something that we cannot do
without, whereas ‘want’ can imply that we can start and stop wanting with a
concentrated effort of will. ‘Want’ I
can turn on and off like a tap, ‘needs’ turns me on and off at its will. ‘Need’ more usefully reminds us that we do
not control our feelings
-one of the chief reasons we go to see a great play is to see someone
making a choice that will change their lives
-needing and doing cannot be divorced.
Before we can finish with want/need we must reconsider ‘doing’ or ‘action
Action and Reaction
-a reaction follows an action, because reaction is the consequence of
an action
-indeed, everything we do must be a reaction to something that has
happened before
-all our apparent actions are in fact only reactions to what the target
is already doing
-when I seem to start off something, in fact I am merely responding to
something else
-so when I act, this ‘something else that goes before’ is crucial
-the actor reacts to an action that is already occurring somewhere
else. The actor never originates a
totally independent action. ‘I see the target playing an action, and as a
reaction, I try to change the target’s action’
-the image is ‘about’ who or what he is addressing. All text is a tool to change what the target
is already doing
-what we say is never about what we say; what we say is about who we
are talking to. What we say is a tool to
change our hearers
-if I always have something to win and something to lose, then
presumably what I am doing must also split in two. For I must always be trying to bring about
what I want to happen. And at the same
time, I must always be trying to prevent what I don’t want to happen
-we are always playing two things at once. But these two things are highly specific and
precisely opposed. We must play in
doubles because there is always something to be lost and something to be won
-life is about uncomfortable twos and not the safe ones. The conflicting energies in the target will
decide what we feel and do. The action
is what the target is doing. The
reaction is how I try to change the target so that instead it does what I need
it to do
-a character is not a fixed point but rather a series of journeys in
opposite directions. But these opposing
journeys are down highly specific paths
‘I Don’t Know Who I Am’
-‘Who am I?’ is an Everest of
a question, unlikely to empower the actor in the short span of rehearsal
-Irina needs answers that are alive.
She needs questions with answers that shift
-‘Who would I like to be?’ is
even more useful when asked with a near opposite such as ‘Who am I afraid I might be?’
-a crucial thing to remember about character is the simplest: the actor
cannot actually transform. But the quest
for transformation is as vain as the quest for perfection
-the only thing the actor can transform is the target. And the target is permanently transforming
-although Irina cannot make Juliet change, she can see through Juliet’s
eyes all the things that seem to change around Juliet
-change may happen to us.
Change, however, remains absolutely out of our control
-we can never make life. We let
life pass through us by not binding ourselves to the target
-we can either show or see, but we can never do both, for the one must
destroy the other
-seeing is about the target, showing is about me. Showing is in fact a false opening of
oneself, because showing is about trying to control the perception of others
-as soon as we show, we pretend.
And pretending is not acting
-nothing really worthwhile can be owned. There is life. There is love. There is grace. But we can neither create nor possess a state
of any of these. These visitors breathe
through us, with us and in us the more we keep ourselves open
-we cannot change our state by an effort of will. Change does happen to us, but we change only
when we see things more as they really are.
It is to do with a change in direction
-Irina can only do who Juliet does, and she cannot do what Juliet does
until she sees what Juliet sees
-it is no less than a journey through Juliet to see what is at stake
for Juliet in what Juliet sees
-the actor has a greater potential than the mere virtuoso, for the
actor’s senses and imagination opens a lens upon an endless universe
-when acting is free, it seems uncomplicated; when acting is blocked it
all seems very complicated
-Irina needs to step through Juliet’s senses, to see, touch, hear,
smell, taste, and intuit the changing universe that Juliet inhabits
-I can see things, or I can try to control how things see me. I cannot do both at the same time. Who I am is what I see
The Visible and the
Invisible
-who I am depends on the targets I see.
We each see different targets.
Our experience of life alters the targets that we see. The specific target is prepared and refined
in the invisible work
-the visible mind is that part of the character that an actor can play;
and the invisible mind is that part that the actor cannot play
-Irina will rely on her general training and specific rehearsal, which
are far more likely to help her act well, but with careful preparation she can
make it a lot more likely that her brief stage time will brim with life
-Irina must never be conscious of her invisible work during the minutes
that she actually plays Juliet
-the actor must forget the invisible during the visible work, and trust
that the invisible will remember itself
-ultimately the actor’s invisible work is synthesized by the actor
-preparation takes many forms; whatever ignites the imagination is
useful. Whatever deadens the imagination
is to be avoided
-it will help Irina to find out as much as she can about Juliet’s
world, her given circumstances. The big
proviso is this: research is useful only until the actor starts to fret that
‘something has to be got right’
-what other characters say about Juliet says far more about them than
about Juliet. Whenever we talk about
other people, we give ourselves away
-Irina will empower herself not only by investigating what actually
happened to Juliet in reality, but also by imagining Juliet’s own world of
make-believe. Rather than trying in vain
to change herself into Juliet, let Irina instead imagine how Juliet would like
to change things
-one of the best ways for Irina to learn about Juliet is to see how
Juliet sees herself
-it is useful for Irina to imagine Juliet looking in a mirror. The two big questions for Irina are first, ‘Who would Juliet prefer to see staring back
at her?’ and second, ‘Who is Juliet
afraid to see?’
-so Irina comes up with an idea, and then is told: ‘But don’t play it!’
Exactly. The invisible work manifests
itself by grace, where it will, and when it will. Any attempt to control it by showing its
workings, any attempt to expose it in public, and the invisible vanishes. The invisible never abandons us permanently,
but returns when we stop trying to control it
-there are several exercises that can develop and strengthen the
invisible mind. In the exercises of
extremity, the rehearsal room abandons all good sense, and an actor plays the
scene with a given extreme purpose
-so Juliet can play a scene with her mother, once as if she were trying
to amuse her (extremely), again as if she were trying to frighten her
(extremely), again as if she were trying to humiliate/seduce/teach/heal,
etc. Sometimes the effect is merely
strange, but occasionally a line or a look or a move can ring out with
undeniable life
-in that moment, something living passes into the invisible work. Irina must then forget the exercise, but it
is remarkable how traces persist. When
Irina comes to play the scene, this invisible work will have affected what she
sees. There will be more history and
depth in the mother she eventually sees.
There will be a greater quality of specificness in the image of her
mother. The target develops itself
without our conscious control
-this rich and specific target is always ready when Irina needs its
energy in her precious moments of stage time
-the way the invisible mind influences what the visible mind sees is
mysterious. We have to trust this
process and tolerate our ignorance
Identity, Persona, and the
Mask
-basically our identity is how we want to see ourselves. In order to convince ourselves of who we are,
we have to convince other people as well.
Although of questionable benefit in real life, the identity can be a
useful tool when acting
-my identity is not who I am.
But neither is my un-identity who I am.
All we can say is that both of these taken together offer a strong clue
to a person’s fears and hopes, both conscious and unconscious
-we can go much further and suggest that most of a human being’s energy
might be spent in promoting the identity and suppressing the un-identity. For the human being, the war between these
two is bloody and exhausting: for the actor, considering this permanent
suppression of one and promotion of the other releases vast hoards of
imaginative energy
-we cannot describe ourselves or others without implying the existence,
whether actual or potential, of the exact opposite qualities
-if my identity is both how I wish to see myself and how I wish to be
seen, then the persona is the means I use to interact with the outside world
-in literature, the word persona refers to the person who tells the
story
-this persona was separate from the ‘self’, which he used to describe
who we really are
-it is easier to describe the persona by what it does
-the more the performer is able to surrender to the persona, the more
the persona will adopt and even adapt the actor. It is as if the persona itself has done the
background research and lends its findings to the actor
-the persona works similarly.
With apparently scanty information the actor can give a performance
rooted ni a make-believe world of great complexity
-the difference between the persona and the mask is elusive
-the major difference between the persona and the mask is that the
second must have a concrete element, normally a partial covering of the face
-if Juliet has a costume, that might work as a mask. If Juliet wears make-up, that might also
serve as a mask. Essentially, any
concrete object, worn by the performer can be a mask as long as the performer
only wears it when playing
-if Irina only wears the shoes when she is trying to see and move as
Juliet, then the shoes have started to function as a mask. If the shoes start to behave as a mask, each
time Irina puts them on she will feel that she moves differently. The shoes become a kind of switch to turn on
her performance
-the mask has to be treated properly.
For the mask will lose its fragile power for us if we use it
indiscriminately. We abdicate power to
the mask so that we can feed off it
-the mask not only alters the actors appearance - the actors limbs
start to respond differently to stimuli
-the mask silences the actor’s personal identity. The mask gives the actor permission to do
forbidden things - it’s not the actor’s fault, the mask did it
-the masks power is only proportionate to the actor’s ability to
recognize it
-what probably happens is that the mask acts as a trigger to a
partially hidden or entirely unknown part of the actor
-this transformation is in fact a release of something that was already
there. It is only an apparent
metamorphosis, as the mask has activated a latent persona in the actor
-we may love or loathe strangers on sight because we unconsciously
recognize in them a buried piece of ourselves
-a hidden persona recognizes itself in the mask, perhaps in a split
second, and the actor permits the mask to unlock the cupboard in which that
persona is locked
-self-consciousness can be the actor’s deadliest enemy
-at times of fear, it is worth remembering two things: first your
problems can normally be shifted onto the character, and second that you can
normally defeat Fear by copying his armaments
-what happens when I talk to myself?
Well, then myself must be a target
-there is a difference between the “I” who rebukes and the ‘me’ who is
guilty. Between the ‘I’ and the ‘me’
there opens an enabling distance
-the ‘I’ who speaks is always the same, but the ‘me’ who I see is
always different. I remain the same, but
I see me changing. The ‘me’ is a target
and will obey all the rules
-Irina can see what Juliet sees when Juliet sees herself. Irina cannot transform herself and become
Juliet, but Irina can see the different Juliets that Juliet sees
-crises forces us to see ourselves anew, and drama tends to deal with
crises, so actors often play people who learn to see themselves anew
The Matrix
-history is also described as a matrix
-a matrix view of a role acknowledges that we can fly off the handle
for no apparent reason, fall in love for no apparent reason, get on with
someone for no apparent reason, or feel frightened for no apparent reason
-‘why’ is a word that insists all things have their knowable
cause. ‘Why’ implies that something
happens and because of that, something else happens
-but real life is not so well organized as we would like. One of our mistakes in rehearsal is to insist
on a rationale and a coherence that real life simply does not possess. Life is more random and chaotic than we dare
to see
-some of these reasons we will never know, maybe for some events and
feelings, there simply are no reasons
-the past is something being generated in the present
-as the stakes rise, my sense of who I am starts to change. As the stakes continue to rise I can come our
with ideas, visions and words that I did not know I held within
-the stakes can climb so high that I no longer know who I am. If the stakes fly higher, my manicured
identity will drop away like the skin of a chrysalis. As the stakes soar it seems inside less that
we are incorporating imagery from the past and more as if we are discovering
something that from now on will always have existed
-when the stakes go up, Time disobeys the rules we have invented for it
-there is nothing as unpredictable as the past
‘I Don’t Know Where I Am’
-like all the spider legs, ‘I don’t know where I am’ repeats the same
word twice ‘I”. Structuring things around ‘I’ doesn’t help
-it is important first for Irina to discover all that Irina can do in
the space
-once Irina has discovered the opportunities and limitations of her
body in space, only then can Irina set about the quite different task of
discovering what the space will permit Juliet to do
-Irina has one space and Juliet has another. Irina must not be a victim of the space, but
Juliet must be the space’s victim. Irina
needs to discover what liberties and constraints the space permits and imposes
upon Juliet
-what will all these targets permit Juliet to do?
-because the target is un-creatable, it is also indestructible. All Irina has to do is see that space that
Juliet sees
-seeing isn’t complicated; it is only block that is complex
-‘I don’t know where I am’ seems like a gut reaction, a simple and
emotional expression of fear
-the balcony, the night and the image of Montague each imposes rules on
Juliet
-these targets restrict, constrict, mold, limit, and impede all that
Juliet wants to do. And out of this
conflict is born the energy of the performance
-Irina lets Juliet do whatever she likes in the space, if Juliet is
independent of all the targets that constrict her, then Irina will block
herself
-the actor must renounce all independence of the space, and search
instead for all the constraints and escapes offered to and imposed upon the
character’s body by the space
-you cannot be lost in space.
There is no such thing as a void
-Juliet’s body is always in conflict with the space. She can obey the space or try to disobey
it. The space imposes a rule, which
Juliet may or may not try to break. The
character’s prison is the actor’s freedom
-the target must be independent of Irina in order to release her;
Irina’s freedom resides entirely in acknowledging that the target is her
master, her servant, and her guide
-‘character’ is a kind of space I inhabit. It may help Irina to imagine that character
is external, like the protective shell of the crustacean, as opposed to the
inner skeleton of a vertebrate
-so Irina should search for what is already there outside, rather than
try to build things inside. Let Irina
find rather than invent. Let her imagine
that the decisions have already been taken; she only has to discover them
-let Irina investigate what the chair demands. That specific chair will also ask her to sit
on it in a specific way. It will make
concrete demands on her body. The chair
will tell her how to move in respect of it - languorously, nervously,
expansively, tightly, square in the seat or half-committed on its arm. Juliet may sit on it with tenderness or
reverence or suspicion
-it will help Irina to see herself less as a creator and more as an
inspired explorer out to solve the mysteries of the chair. The artist finds, rather than creates and
controls. To say we discover rather than
invent is not humble; it is realistic
-the space presents rules. Some
of these rules Juliet may obey - it may be unwise for her to fling herself over
the balcony. But other rules Juliet may
try to disobey
-characters often break the rules of the space. When the stakes go up we often try to
transcend the bounds of our. In real life we try to break unbreakable rules,
and continual failure doesn’t stop us trying
-for the actor the space is artificial
-but the actor has to enable the character to believe utterly in the
space, Juliet needs to be completely convinced by the reality of her
surroundings
-a space which Juliet can love and hate, cherish and try to destroy
-at all costs the actor must never let the character invent the
space. The space must be there ready for
the character
to see
-you cannot play that you are the king, the court has to play that you
are kind
-if the actor does not believe the court sees him as king, then he will
never be free enough to play the king
-the space always says ‘no’
-the space through which we move always resists us; even the air is in
conflict with our bodies. These resistances
create friction and friction produces fire, with both heat and light. It is important for Irina to experience as
many of these resistances as possible
-however, the more we concentrate, the more we lose ourselves inside
and become insensible to these tiny resistances. Juliet is molded by her space as the coast is
sculpted by the wind and sea. The cliff
does not decide its form alone
-we know Irina cannot achieve some internal change of her state into
Juliet. However, Irina can see the
elements, spaces and resistances that have formed Juliet, that have nourished
and deformed her, and that still try to rule how she moves
-for the actor the space is never empty, the space is always charged
with meaning. For the actor, the space
is never neutral; otherwise the actor would become neutral and lose energy
-our conflict with the space ends only when we are dead. And when we die we merge with the space
-uncovering the resistances will help Irina move as Juliet. But if, instead, Irina makes consciously
creative decisions about how Juliet should move, irrespective of the space,
then she will block herself
-like everything else, the space is in flux
-Irina never transforms, Juliet never transforms, the ‘I’ never
transforms; it is everything else that changes, like the inconstant moon
-we do not transform, the space does.
We are not in control, the situation is
-their passion needs the obstacles to express itself. The balcony makes an action; it separates the
two. The lover’s reaction is to try to
bridge that divide. This struggle to
reach the one we love is recognized throughout the world, for it is the barrier
that helps us to feel what they feel.
There is no love without separation
-much of an actor’s work is to distinguish between what is to be disobeyed
and what is to be obeyed
-drama deals with disobeys
-most of the fiction we read, films we watch, and newspaper we buy are
about people who disobey authority
-the actor discovers where the character is by seeing the space as the
character sees it, as a set of rules to be obeyed or broken. Only the changing target locates the
character. The world is discovered
rather than created, found rather than imposed
‘I Don’t Know How I Should
Move’
-where I am, and how I should move are indivisible
-for this to happen you need to have not just an attentive mind, but
also an attentive body. Of course, the
mind and the body are not separate entities
-the body needs to be kept in good condition. It helps to be fit, and to keep the body
flexible. The actor’s body is maintained
in condition not to feel or look good, but to remain vigilant and sensitive to
outside stimulus. The body needs to
connect fluidly to the senses so that the target registers immediately
-Irina’s body needs to be so vigilant that is seems her central nervous
system immediately and automatically connects her muscles to the target. Ideally she will respond without actually
thinking. Her very muscles must be open to
the target
-how me move, like everything else we do, is entirely dependent on the
target. We do not move in a vacuum. We move only because of something else; we
move only in the context of something else.
A move or a gesture is as much a reaction to an action as any piece of
text. We move to achieve something. We move to change the target
-‘there’s you, there’s me, and there’s the space’
-the ‘you’ becomes Romeo, the ‘me’ Juliet, and the ‘space’ the balcony,
the orchard, the family within, Verona beyond, everything in Juliet’s concrete
world
-in performing we may overlook fundamentals in trying to grasp
something more sophisticated
-the exercise can expose controls that sabotage the actor. This invisible control blocks the actor’s
instinct to interact with the outside world.
This control is one of Fear’s children
-when the stakes go up we all start to ‘try’. But only Juliet should be ‘trying,’ and not
Irina
-All Text Attempts to Alter a Perspective
-I want to change what you believe is the foundation of all text
-Juliet cannot do anything she likes.
She is always constrained by the specific given circumstances
-the space starts to impose itself actively
-the use of the words ‘the space’ helps Irina see and explore concrete
targets and their significance. And she
must make Romeo see these concrete targets as she sees them. As far as Juliet is concerned, Romeo must see
the world as she sees it. In particular
he needs to see the precise differences between things in the same way as she
sees them
-Juliet must struggle to get him to see things as she sees them, to see
differences as she sees them, to prioritize as she prioritizes
-the text is best seen as an inadequate tool; when the stakes go up,
even the most sublime poetry fails to express what we feel and need
-the actors must be free to see their partners, to change their partner’s
point of view
-the need to touch wakens the tranquilized body. Perhaps most of the energy released in the
exercise will be discarded. But often
something alive remains
-space and character are oddly interlinked. You cannot work on character independently of
the space
-for the living being, behind apparent immobility there is always
movement
-yet stillness and silence are tremendously powerful. Like symmetry they are ideals for which we
yearn but never find in their purity
-but it is risky to start immobile; it is dangerous to begin from
inertia. Stillness is discovered in
movement. And movement does not
originate within. We move because of
what we see
-when we see an actor who seems to be expressing something fluidly,
what we are actually seeing is an actor who has the grace, or talent, or
training, not to block
-the root of mannerism is always the same: the mannered actor is cut
off from the target. Mannerism afflicts
naturally talented people when Fear cuts off from the unpredictable target
-the studied performance that, with the best possible intentions,
appears artificial, results from the boring old fear that the outside world
will not be there when we need it. And
so the actor declares his independence of what he may or may not see in the
heat of the moment, and seals himself off
-he wants to leave nothing to chance - he will prepare everything, so
that he won’t be caught out of control.
He will defend himself from the unpredictable. Quickly, however, his fortress becomes his
prison
Control
-when we try to escape Fear by using Control, we end up more and more
ensnared with Fear
-the principle is simple: we stop ourselves moving because Fear
maintains us in a state of control
-the first step in liberating the body is to acknowledge the degree to
which we keep it caged. Accepting the
seriousness of a problem is the first step in changing it. Fear maintains his status quo by encouraging
us to deny that the problems exists
-the exercise is not to wake her sleeping muscles, but to help her to
recognize that she is secretly injecting them with anaesthetic, like a crazed
nurse
-we squander masses of energy braking, suppressing, curbing, limiting,
deadening, and confining the muscles
-these exercises draw the attention to secret inner locks. The only key we can use is attention, but
attention fits all locks like a miracle skeleton key
-‘ground energy’ can also help.
Imagine that all energy wells up from the ground
-it is important that as the actor stands, the knees remain
flexible. We have many pressure points
in the body where we can lock off the flow of energy. The knees and the neck are only two of the
busier junctions. The neck needs to be
kept free of tension and the knees need to be kept unlocked
-this exercise cannot be performed in the head. Like all exercises it can only be experienced
sensually
-it helps to imagine that the energy wells up from the ground because
far too often the actor unconsciously believes that all useful energy trickles
down from the brain
-like movement, respiration is one of the seven characteristics of all
living things
-why do we force ourselves to breath at odd times?
-the target tells you exactly how much breath you need
-for we retain breath when the situation is dangerous. This is a reflex; it is not a conscious
decision. So we breath according to the danger we perceive in the situation, in
other words, according to the stakes we see in the target
-a thought is a target, it needs to be recognized before it can be
acted upon. A thought must be seen before
it can be uttered. And like any target,
a thought must obey all the rules. In
particular the thought is always transforming itself. A thought never remains fixed; a single
thought will modulate itself, will continue to change, as a variation on the theme
-the paucity of breath is only a symptom; its cause starts
earlier. Irina runs out of breath
because she has not properly seen the specific stakes in the target
-but this is not a decision for either Irina or Juliet. This decision is taken by the target. The decision is taken by the sight of
Romeo. Consciously deciding when to
breathe can scupper the actor and sink the imagination. It is only what we see that makes us breathe
appropriately
-like the body, the imagination needs patience, training and
endurance. We train the imagination only
by letting ourselves see. Attention is
our best coach
-second, she needs to train her breathing technically to support any
long thought. Her breathing muscles need
to be fit
-Part of Irina’s invisible work needs to be the training of her
body. She needs the physical capacity to
meet any of these demands on her breathing whenever they might occur. Irina needs to be free of the worry that her
body is not ready to do what she wants it to do. This work had to be done early in her
invisible work and as a part of her general training
-the actor needs discipline in order to be free
-all the actor can do is to have faith that, when needed, the lines
will be there. An obsession with
certainty destroys faith. We cannot have
certainty and faith; we can have either one or the other. Nor can Irina be certain that her feelings
will be ready on cue. But she can have
faith
‘I Don’t Know What I Should
Feel’
-we cannot express emotion.
Ever. Emotion, however, expresses
itself in us whether we like it or not.
We cannot ‘do’ an emotion. We
cannot ‘make’ an emotion. We cannot
‘show’ an emotion. Our emotions express
themselves only through what we do
-‘emotions’ and ‘feelings’ are imprecise labels for a wide variety of
somethings. More confusingly, our names
for specific ‘feelings’ or ‘emotions’ often mislead
-they happen to us without our permission and we are not responsible
for them. What we can control, however,
is what we do
-emotions are diverse and fight each other, like the Gods of Ancient
Greece. This means we are in a state of
inner war, or at best an unstable truce
-this inner conflict pains us so much, that we only permit ourselves a
partial glimpse of the battlefield.
Given the choice, we would far prefer the conflict to take place well
outside us. Indeed this is one of the
very reasons we go to the theatre
-and if I cannot be certain about what I feel, how can I be certain
about what Juliet may ‘feel’? ‘What is
my character feeling?’ has no practical answer for the actor
-Irina is an artist and her job is the polar opposite of passing
judgment. Any attempt by Irina to know
what Juliet feels is doomed. So anything
that Irina has managed to manufacture within herself from working out what she
thinks that Juliet feels must also be false.
Exhausting maybe, but still false
-first of all, Irina must face the hard fact that she can never
directly control character or feeling.
She has to walk away from the twin delusions that we decide who we are
and that we decide what we feel
-she can help herself as always by remembering the target
-we may well be in a general state of wanting but this feeling demands
to be experienced in a specific image.
Sexual desire needs flesh to know itself. Whatever the stimulus may be, it is always a
target; the target is the catalyst for the release of feeling. No feeling can be triggered without a target
-and all of these Romeos that Juliet sees simply don’t add up to a
coherent Romeo. He is a mass of
contradictions. These pictures
contradict and fight each other; the targets make for conflict
-Irina can never sum up Juliet’s attitude to Romeo. All Irina can do is see the different Romeos
that Juliet sees
-as always, the target must be specific. Juliet may see a Romeo she wants to hit hard,
and a Romeo she wants to kiss equally hard.
Ultimately, seeing the image will generate all the feeling that Irina
needs to play Juliet
-practically speaking, all of the actor’s feelings are generated in
what they see. Feeling cannot be generated
by itself. The feeling will follow the
target, but the target will never follow the feeling. Any attempt to generate feeling independently
of the target will paralyze the actor
-he knows that it is a great vanity to believe that we can feel to order
-insofar as love is an emotion, Juliet can never directly express it
-if she tries to stimulate some imaginary ‘emotion center’ she will
produce absolutely nothing for herself but misery; Irina will emote, show and
lock herself in at home
-trying to show emotion obliterates the target. And ironically, trying to show emotion
empties the performance of all emotion
-an indicated emotion is a desperate gesture of control. This desire to control feeling is born of
fear
-it is not possible to control only what we want to control. When we try to control what is ‘bad’ we often
control what is ‘good’ too. All control
has a habit of running out of control
-monitoring is a form of control.
As soon as she tries to monitor what the audience sees, she will also depress
her own talent
-the actor does not control, while the character does
-whenever we try to show emotion, it immediately becomes fake. We often notice that when we try to show our
love to others, it doesn’t really work.
Love manifests itself through what we do
-but ‘love’ is another highly inaccurate label to cover a multitude of
feelings and connections
-an unconscious control is destructive
-a taboo is an example of an unconscious control, and our cultures
appear to thrive on them
-a taboo is a collective unconscious control that organizes social
relationships within a law that appears instinctive rather than imposed. Drama can question all these laws both
legislated and unconscious, which is why theatre often finds itself on the
wrong side of politicians and priests
-although Irina must not control how she is seen and understood, Juliet
must try to control how she is seen and understood. Irina does not try to control the audience’s
perception of the scene, but Juliet must try to control Romeo’s perception of
Juliet
-there is a lot at stake of Juliet in Romeo; she has to glean a lot of
information from what he says and from what he leaves unsaid. She must learn to interpret his face and his
gestures, she needs to see if he is lying to her, or lying to himself, or
genuinely trying to tell the truth. She needs to see if he is generous,
shallow, bright, constant. She will feel
these things by observing them
-For example, Juliet must teach Romeo who she is. And she needs to pay attention to Romeo in
order to succeed. Shed needs to search
his face and his words, to discern what he understands, and what he only thinks
he understands. But if she just
expresses herself at Romeo he will understand little
-what we feel makes what we do more difficult, never easier. So Juliet’s feelings for Romeo must impede
what she does to him. So that whenever
Irina plays on these lines - whether to amuse, seduce, teach, warn, confuse,
possess, reassure, caress, soothe, frighten, or excite Romeo - her love for
Romeo makes doing these harder
-the actor must separate what the character feels from what the
character does
-an actor can never play an emotion, but an actor can play as if
impeded by an emotion. In fact, it is
impossible for an actor to act anything without emotion obstructing it
-not only does the actor need to polarize feeling from reaction, the
actor actually needs to set these two at loggerheads
-if Irina feels that she has to pump up her inside she will only
paralyze herself
-what we feel is always larger than our means to express it. This becomes more evident the more that we
feel. The more the stakes go up, the
bigger the pressure within and the bigger the pressure outside
-the actor never manufactures what the character feels. The character always tries to control what
the character feels
-ever when people appear to express intense emotion, what we actually
see is not that person expressing feeling but rather their desperate
controlling it
-the gesture is always smaller than the feeling that precipitates it
-when we lie, we can get this relationship the wrong way around. Then the inside is smaller than the outside;
the content shrinks within its form.
Whoops of joy at meeting sound phony if there is not enough affection to
fill them
-when there is a gap between the inner and the outer, when the frame of
control is larger than the impulse of feeling, there is a lie. It may not be a serious lie, but it is a lie
all the same
-there is no life without some pressure. And the same must be true for living feeling. It needs pressure to be seen. Emotion needs to be restrained before it
becomes visible
-the image for Irina is that the runaway horses are what she feels, and
steering is what she does. The more our
feelings rise, the more we pull on the reins.
Irina knows that although she cannot manufacture what Juliet feels, she
can do what Juliet does. Consequently,
although Irina cannot create the horses, she can pull on the reins. She cannot make the feeling but she can exert
the control
-Freud felt that our dearth of memories from below the age of five
proves that we block out our earliest feelings precisely because they are so
engulfing and subversive. We do not like
to remember the envy and rage of childhood
-somewhere we know everything
-we cannot act on all our feelings; sometimes we have to say ‘no’ to
the impulses we feel. But this conflict
hurts our heads. We hate the pain of
conflicting feelings; so inevitably we try to control what we feel
-it is exhausting to keep saying ‘no’ to ourselves, so we pretend that
we are free of certain awkward feelings.
We delude ourselves that certain thoughts and impulses do not exist
inside us. Screening what we feel seems
to be a by-product of civilization
-we police our imaginations all the time. Our thoughts and feelings are part of
us. Certain feelings and thoughts we
learn to hate, and we do not like to hate part of ourselves
-For example, we can rename our feelings, or imagine that it is not
ourselves but others who harbor these ‘bad’ emotions
-at the theatre we see others feeling what we dare not admit we feel
-we like our homes to be safe, so we need our theatre to seem dangerous
-censored feelings are normally a great problem for the actor. But admitting and accepting that we each
carry around the memory of unacknowledged and unowned intensities is useful
-it helps the actor to imagine that we each have the potential if not
the experience of all feelings. Each of
us is capable of feeling everything .
Perhaps each of us has felt everything, sometime, somewhere
‘I Don’t Know What I’m Saying’
-we may want to tell the truth, but words lie; they have no
option. Feelings and words live in
different dimensions
-words can start to do wonderful things only when we realize that they
can hardly do anything at all
-where Irina fears her emotion is too small to support the text, Juliet
will feel her emotion is too huge to be constrained within the tiny confines of
words
-a vital distinction between Irina and Juliet: Irina’s challenge is
that her text is too good. Juliet’s
problem is that her text is not good enough.
The more things matter to us, the more banal all available words seem
-words not only give expression.
Words also deny expression. And
the more that the stakes rise, the more the words tends to strangle the feeling
-the gestures and moves distill the message of ‘No! It’s not that; it’s
this!’ into something like: ‘It’s not your generalized idea, but my highly
specific idea that matters’
-one of the objects of all message exercises is to let the physical
energy of the message flow directly into the text
-for Irina, the scene becomes less about how she sounds, and more about
what Romeo hears
-the reaction is only born in the target that Juliet sees. Irina can never transform herself into
Juliet, but Irina can react to the world as if she sees it through Juliet’s
eyes
-thought is a series of targets.
When I think something, I see it as a target. All thoughts are targets. And all thoughts must obey all the rules of
the target
-thought has a very particular quality for the actor, and that is the
quality of interruption
-every new thought forces us to discard an old thought, a thought which
will, in turn, be forced from our attention by an even ‘better’ thought,
jostling itself into position. Thoughts
are ambitious and continually elbow each other out of the way - and no two
thoughts are ever the same
-development is unavoidable. We
cannot say the same word twice. We
cannot have the same thought twice
-each thought is not equal to its predecessor. Each thought thinks it is ‘better’ than its
predecessor
-Irina will be more free if her thought acquires the quality of
interruption. This quality comes from
letting the thoughts run free, as a target that may come and go whenever the
target pleases; the target does not come and go whenever the actor pleases
-the more the text is born in external stimulus, the better. The more the text can be broken down into
reactions to different targets, the more Irina can feel free. The more she permits herself to depend on a
multitude of tiny, or huge, emphatic or elusive targets, the freer her
imagination will run
-only the target and the target alone dictates the rhythm, speed, and
energy of everything that we do
-when we appear to interrupt, it is in fact a new target that has
interrupted us
-‘interrupt’ does not mean ‘go fast’
-interrupting is about the transition from one thought to the next, and
going too fast will cut the actor off from the target. Interrupting has nothing to do with speed
-if the actor just speeds up in general, the target will be
smudged. We do not control our
speed. Only the target controls our
speed. What we see dictates our rhythm
-we tend to listen more when the stakes rise. As the stakes rise, we also begin to sense
the other’s underlying thought impulses.
As the situation becomes more important, we struggle to predict what
will happen
-our production of predictions and possibilities goes into
overdrive. As the stakes rise, we have
more dreams and nightmares about the other’s next words
-it is more likely that the soaring stakes stimulate the imagination,
and the scenarios that we invent multiply
-when I think, I reject one thought for another; I drop one thing I see
for another thing I see. Thought is a
process of discarding photographs
The Imaginary Text Exercises
-like everything else we do, all that we say happens because of
something else. All text is a
reaction. All text must be a reaction to
some originating action that the target is already doing
-all of these pieces of imaginary pre-text give Juliet something that
she must change. They are a helpful way into the scene
-all text says ‘No!’
-Juliet seems to be agreeing with Romeo. There seems to be no conflict
whatsoever. However, there must be
conflict, otherwise there can be no life
-everything that Juliet says to Romeo must have a form similar to the
following: ‘No! Do not believe that, believe this!’
Make-Believe
-‘We try, we fail, we try something else’
-the human condition is one of living with permanent loss and permanent
rebirth
-it is our life’s work to keep up with reality, for the target cannot
stand still
-to possess someone is to try to change them, to marry someone is to
try to change them, to see someone is to try to change them
-a human being is a ‘make-believer’, or more precisely, a
‘belief-changer’. Humans are permanently
altering belief, either other people’s, or their own
-indeed, Irina can work on every word of Juliet’s text by using the
following simple message: ‘No! Don’t believe that, believe this.’
-again ‘that’ is more general and ‘this’ is more specific
-whatever we do, we are trying to change the target, and a surprising
amount of what we do is an attempt to alter belief. In particular, all text is an attempt to
alter belief
-passivity does not exist
-a human being cannot do nothing.
A human being is never inactive
-human beings are always trying to get what they want. Even at our most altruistic moments this
remains true
-as a general rule, however, we do exactly what we like within the
constraints of the given circumstances
-deeds count more than words. We
learn more about people from what they do than from what they say
‘I Don’t Know What I’m
Playing’
-everything moves and changes whether we like it or not
-life is one long improvisation.
Plans never quite work because all plans are ultimately dependent on the
outside world. And reality is full of
surprises
-Irina should give herself rules, but not too many. There should be only enough rules to empower
all the actors to see something new in the moment
-above all, the atmosphere of the rehearsal must be safe, so that the
performance may seem dangerous
-let Irina think less about what she is playing and see more how the
target shifts
-the advantage of the above ideas is that at least they take the form
of paths. They give Irina a journey from
the beginning of the scene till the end, and a journey takes us from seeing one
thing to seeing another
-through rehearsal and performance Irina will discard these voyages for
others that live more, but they are at least voyages and not states
-development is unavoidable and stasis cannot exist
-Irina will start to see in her partner and all the other externals, a
shifting, ambivalent and highly specific set of targets. A set of targets that propel, impel and compel
Irina into free and vital performance
-not only can we never fully know all the reasons why we do something,
but also we can never be certain of the full meaning of what we do
-many things about ourselves we can never know. Nor can we ever know for certain all the
consequences of what we do. Nor can we
ever be absolutely sure of the story we are telling, because what appears to be
a single story is always many stories. To
be truly responsible we have to admit our ignorance
Time
-time is out of our control. It
is the actor’s friend because it powers the third rule that the target exists
before you need it
-as the stakes increase, so the time available appears to
decrease. In other words the more there
is to be lost or won, the less time there seems to be
-the actor in the invisible work should always have enough time. The character in the visible world should
never have enough time
-the character is always trying and failing to keep up with the
situation
-emotions, like adjectives, cannot be played, for they are expressed
without targets
-‘What do I stand to lose and win at this specific moment?’
-images are targets: they live independently of us. All images take on a life of their own
-a useful principle for the actor is that there is no such thing as a
description. Pure description simply
doesn’t exist
-the more we stress something, the more we imply its co-existing
opposite
-conflicting emotions tear Juliet; she doe not feel only one thing at
once
-time is the actor’s friend but the character’s enemy
-the more we can accept the mastery of Time and resolve to live
exclusively in the present, the less we block ourselves. However, the more we declare our independence
of Time and shelter in the past or the future, the more we become blocked
Three More Uncomfortable
Choices
-the fifth uncomfortable choice:
creativity or curiosity
-curiosity is more liberating; curiosity is connected to attention and
the target
-all human beings are creative, but our creativity is a symptom and not
a cause. We do not control our own
creativity, any more than we can control our feelings. We can, however, control what we do
-the sixth uncomfortable choice:
originality or uniqueness
-nobody can play Juliet like Irina, because nobody can see quite like
Irina. When Irina sees through Juliet’s
eyes it will be a unique pair of Juliet’s eyes.
Every actor who plays Juliet will see through a different pair of eyes,
because each actor is a different and unique human being
-trying to create something original is doomed to failure
-whenever we try to be original it is evidence that we have lost
confidence in our uniqueness
-like attention or presence, uniqueness is given to us, it has to be
accepted and is out of our control
-the more we try to be ‘new’ the more repetitive and reactionary we
become. We are new. We cannot be otherwise
-if ever we start to feel that we have ‘seen it all before’ we should
try to sneak up and catch ourselves unawares.
Then we will see that the problem is not in the outside world, but
originates from inside ourselves; we are losing our curiosity
-whatever Irina sees is new.
Whatever Irina tries to make new is as old as death itself
-the seventh uncomfortable
choice: excitement or life
-the target is the source of all her energy. It is fatal if Irina tries to excite herself
into life
-we have imaginations to connect us with the outside world. When we fear our dependence on unpredictable
creation, we use excitement to impersonate life
-if she tries to revisit that state the next day, it will have vanished. Because what happened was never a state, it
was a relationship, a direction. All
states die; and they rot fast
-if Irina feels she has to make an exciting choice, she will invariably
block herself
-the hunt for the exciting and new makes reactionaries of us all. Seeing things is life enough
-the performance that seems unspontaneous seems dead
-we use anaesthetics to take away pain.
Civilization excels at manufacturing anaesthetics
-we devote a lot of time and money to reassuring ourselves with anaesthetics
of every sort. Indeed one of the main
reasons we go to the theatre is to witness characters and situations in which
the anaesthetics does not work so well.
One of the similarities between Tragedy and Comedy is that both reveal
the anaesthetics wearing off
-but the character that Irina plays may see a lot more than we do. We desperately need Irina to see, however
briefly, a more real world, where joy and pain are felt for what they are
Postscript
-everything we make is ambivalent.
We obscure this ambivalence with sentimentality
-to treat something sentimentally is to claim it has only one
meaning. Sentimentality tries to divide
the good guys from the bad guys, and wipe up the messy ambivalence of
life. Seeking certainty, we shun
ambiguity; and that is precisely when we become sentimental
-at the beginning of rehearsal we may analyze the plot and its
meaning. Agreeing the story we want to
tell may provide a beginning, but ultimately we will not tell stories until we
are prepared to let them run free
-the wise storyteller knows that the story will have many different
meanings to different people at different times
-the wise actor learns not to try to control what the audience
sees. The target needs to be discovered
and seen, that is all. The target
generates the impulses to act. The shape
of the scene is living and mobile, its form is determined by the shifting
nature of the targets
-she can prepare herself so that in performance the images she sees are
not superficial and simplistic, but rich and ambivalent
-seeing specifically what is outside will send the actor deeper into
the character than thinking what is inside
-when we see the world we create it; we never see what really is. Every time we open our eyes we have made a
world of art. That is as near to the truth
as we get.
