PUT THE CIRCUMSTANCES IN YOUR STOMACH

I had a student who, with some work, was able to stop trying to “get it right”, let go of his controlling choices, and allowed himself to just be “him”. He expressed to me that it felt good to just be himself and not try so hard.

However, he found that, in performance, he was left with a blank slate. His scene work was uneventful and uninteresting for him.

He wasn’t having fun. And since his experience is the viewer’s experience, neither was the audience.

After you do a scene, ask yourself, “Did I have fun?”

Please don’t misunderstand me when I say that. Some actors might think I’m saying that you have to be “funny” or “entertaining”.

So what do I mean by “fun”?

It’s when you leave an audition and think, “Wow! I didn’t expect THAT to happen. All those unplanned moments were so exciting!”

“Fun” is surprising yourself.

And how do you surprise yourself in a scene?

By accepting the circumstances of the scene and then letting them affect you.

That is the “fun” of being an actor. Getting to live in someone else’s conditions, and experience things that you didn’t expect.

So many actors can go their whole career thinking that acting is something you create, rehearse, perfect and then serve to people. They see themselves as “in control” of the whole scene.

However, the writing of the scene is in control. You are only responsible for your own selfish journey through the scene.

What the actor, who was experiencing the “blank slate”, needed to work on was his “scene comprehension”, in other words, his ability to read a scene and understand its content.

When you get a scene, make sure to take in what is REALLY HAPPENING IN THE SCENE. I don’t mean in some deep psychological way. I just mean what is literally happening.

For instance, there may be a scene where what is literally happening is:

-In a restaurant, a man is professing his love to a woman.

What background information will affect this?

-The man hurt her in the past, and is terribly sorry.

What clues does the script give as to his behavior? What new information is he taking in and how does he react to it? What real life activities are they involved in? How might the setting affect his behavior? How would you feel in these circumstances?

Remember, it is really happening. Don’t look at it as a “scene”. Don’t put quotes around everything you do. REALLY do it.

Remember when you were a kid, and you’d think, “I love Wonder Woman! I wanna save the world like her!”

And then you’d do it!

You didn’t have any other needs but to experience what that would be like for yourself. You weren’t concerned how an audience might respond. It’s getting back to that kind of childlike playing that I want you to achieve.

Yes, it’s selfish. Yes, that can make you feel like an asshole. Who cares! It’s all to benefit the scene.

When given a scene many actors are too involved in:

· trying to be clever with a scene

· imagining what they believe the casting people want from the scene and the character

· coming up with a similar scene they’ve seen in the past that they can imitate

…that they miss what is there on the page for them.

They make choices based on the above concerns, thereby leaving no room for allowing more real and honest choices to come through.

In order for a scene to be fun for you, and to have power and detail, you must make sure to feed yourself with the elements, facts, and circumstances of the scene.

When I see an actor give a dispassionate or detached performance, I suggest that he has not fed himself enough information before performing the scene.

The reason I say “feed” yourself information, is that when considering the circumstances of a scene, make sure to store the info in your stomach.

Do not put the info in your head. If you do that, it can become something that seems like mathematics or schoolwork. Yuck! And, once it’s in your head, you will then feel a responsibility to manipulate the information, with your brain, into something that can be seen by the audience. You will want to prove to the audience that you understand the circumstances, and you will become involved in “showing” instead of just “being”.

On the contrary, it is not up to you to know how this information will look in your performance. You must want to be surprised by how the information affects you.

Please don’t misunderstand me, and think that I am saying that you must work hard to figure out all the circumstances. It’s a very simple process. In general, I’d say that after you’ve read a scene twice, you probably understand all the circumstances. It’s not complex. There’s no need to over-think it.

Don’t approach a scene with your mind. That turns it into a math equation. It is ART. Art is felt, not thought.

So, put the info in your stomach and trust your gut to do with it what it will.

I want you to go into a performance with a full stomach and a clear mind.

Don’t act from your head. Follow your gut instincts!

And have fun!