September 2004 Archives

See today's modification at the end of the August 04, 2004 entry: Cold Reading Technique. Daily Practice.

Rehearsal Technique: General/Specific Insights/Principles

Insight: This commitment to "being in the moment" takes some getting use to, and it's forcing me to change my "idea" of rehearsal, i.e., the effects on rehearsal on performance are less direct, generally, than I imagined, if I'm to take this "being in the moment" advice seriously (i.e., Hook: The Actor's Field Guide, Playing the scene, p. 57). In the loft, rehearsals are fun, surprising, and more often than not -- lately, a lot more often than not -- energizing and uplifting, and up to this point, a source of great comfort & security, i.e., 'if I can do that (what I did in rehearsal) tonight, I'll be fine.' During exploration, during rehearsal, I seem to be producing a reasonably good internal structure to support Shrdlu, i.e., what he wants, how he's going to go about getting it.

At it's best, rehearsal is quite inventive . . .

and that's The Art Of Performance. Rather than take into performance an internal structure I've created during the most recent rehearsal, somehow take into performance the inventive process that's in play during rehearsal -- creating structure "on-the-fly." Exactly how to do this, I'm not sure -- but this is the target. I'm sorry that The Addiing Machiine will close in two days because I want to further explore the relationship between rehearsal and performance, and learn how to bring this 'inventive,' 'imaginative' process into performance, subject to the constraints of performance. Anyway, that is my future mission next time I get a reasonably sizable role.

Some notes: certain physicalities need to be rehearsed so that they can be, as flawlessly as possible, brought into performance, e.g., killing the mosquito on my arm before launching into the heart of Shrdlu's story (how he killed his mother). If I can really 'imagine' the bite at the right time (for some reason, my 'sense memory' of what it feels like to be bitten by a mosquito wasn't there last night . . . weird), and if I can slap my arm at the right spot, somehow this physical action takes me right where I need to go, and most interestingly, I've never had to use 'personal history, personal memory' to bring to life what I think is true of Shrdlu's experience at that moment (it was like 9/11, the killing really came out of the blue for him). Anyway, if I can do that simple physical action, it makes my job so much easier.

Also, being-in-the-moment does create more structure than I anticipated it would. It may all be like riding a bike -- the more I do it, the more I learn to trust that this "on-the-fly" structure will be there for me.

Problems: Last night, a very appreciative audience member was almost hysterical with laughter: the smallest of phases were meet by almost gales of laugher-- I didn't expect this at all, and I found myself quite distracted by it. This is where a hell of lot of rehearsal is invaluable: even though I was the most distracted, the most aware, of the audience that I've ever been, somehow my body seemed to carry on despite a fairly serious conscious preoccupation.

Solution: My mistake was 'fighting' the laughter, wishing it would stop so I could 'act.' The thing to do, and I've seen great comedic actors do this masterfully, is go with the audience, go with the laughter. Just when I thought acting could not get more complicated, I now see I need to factor in audience reaction. I think that by fighting the laughter, I missed an opportunity to become 'emotionally yoked' to the audience, and worse, that was the major source of the distraction. Fascinating.

Post-script: sense memory. Sense memory, I suspect, is support by neural architecture that's much more available to conscious control than is 'emotion memory' (where the extensive pathways from the 'emotional' brain to the higher centers run primarily in one direction, i.e. they run primary from the emotion supporting structures to the neo-cortex). Here it may be possible to do something during performance that will elicit the memory of a particular sensation in a way doesn't take undue attention and effort.

Rehearsal Technique: General/Specific Insights/Principles

Today, the show was listed in TheatreMania.com. Tonight was load-in/technical rehearsal at the Medicine Show Theatre, in the same 549 West 52nd Street building as, and one flight above, the famed Ensemble Studio Theatre.

The Medicine Show Theatre is a beautiful, professional black box theatre, clean and fully equipped w/a computerized lighting and sound system. When I saw it, I was scared to death -- I suddenly missed the grungy little Impact Theatre, with its sweltering basement dressing/waiting room that flooded with each summer thunder shower that washed through Brooklyn last July.

Problem: as usual, I find the first time rehearsing in a theatre, under performance conditions, distracting -- and it's all the dark and the bright lights: I feel I am looking into nothing, as opposed to rehearsing at home, during the day, when I can see the loft and easily transform it into a graveyard -- and Elysium.

Possible solution: tomorrow night: under the lights, in the graveyard scene, find something in the theatre to focus on, what Uta Hagen calls The Forth Side, A Challenge for the Actor (p. 152). Tomorrow at home, work the beats as usual, but first read through this "The Forth Side" exercise and create 2-3 imaginary objects and then see if I can pin them on something tomorrow night.

Problem: trying to "do something," i.e., what I've rehearsed, moments I wanted to create. This (almost) never works. I'm not going after what Shrdlu wants, I'm going after what I, the actor, wants. Instead, put all my attention on Mr. Zero, the environment, and on what (and on how well) "Shrdlu" is getting what he wants, and then I, the actor, will get what I want.

Reminder to help me do this : re-read Ed Hook's advice (The Actor's Field Guide), Playing The Scene, p. 57. The Art Of Performance: Just let go (& gently remind myself about what I want) -- also, avoid self-monitoring (p.98).

And at night and before I go on, mentally rehearse what Shrdlu wants -- cela doit faire le tour.