Why do we do what we do? Why do we opt to spend our time communicating with other people's words and living other people's lives?
I have discovered that acting has more to do with communicating and sharing who you truly are than pretending to be something you are not. In the work you are free to completely tell the truth. You can follow impulses you would otherwise ignore and stand up for where you are coming from in a more forceful way.
Let's discuss the scene with Caitlin and Alex. Both actors had lots of discovery last week and brought this back. It is so loaded emotionally that it has all kinds of traps an actor can fall into.
We needn't repeat ourselves. Each day, every take provides us with an opportunity to continue to explore.
Initially both Caitlin and Alex were doing what was needed of them as actors. They did bring back the emotional content of the scene, but the first page or so the class wasn't completely drawn in. It wasn't until Alex honored what he was feeling in the moment and trusted he could deliver the emotions and let that go that things started to cook. He got up. He left her. Which is exactly what she was experiencing as a lover. The rejection was expressed. When he honored his impulse and stopped being kind it forced Caitlin to rise to the occassion and literally pulled her responses out of her. It welcomed the conflict she was experiencing and she could stop being the generous actor and became a woman full of unfulfilled needs.
When Alex crossed back to her and they kissed, we felt the sorrow of this father's loss, but it became apparent we were witnessing a love story every bit as much as a painful memory. By that point the potential was electric.
I am so thrilled with the ways in which everyone is revealing themselves in their work. We learn where to go by continually going on the ride/journey.
Process...process...processs
x
Jen
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