Meeting the Challenge...
I like the fact that every Connections play makes a different demand on us as a company…and Shooting Truth is proving to be no exception. We’re now back in rehearsals after Christmas and holidays etc that won’t stop until our performance at the very start of March. Last night in rehearsals I became acutely aware of the demands that the play places on the actors and in turn the directors…
First of all I have to give credit where it’s due, never have I had such a disciplined cast…I was so proud of all of the people at the rehearsal yesterday for being off text and reaping the rewards of doing some serious work since I last saw them…one of the many upsides of this is that it reveals the gaps and missing links early in the process so that we can address them and make the production so much richer…
The things that I’m most aware of at the moment resonate with so many of our production and therefore are useful for all of you to consider whether or not you’re in Shooting Truth…they’re simply pathways to good acting. So here we go…have a read, see if they are things you usually consider and even if they are, reflect honestly on just how much you consider them and then give them more thought next time you’re devising, rehearsing or performing…some of them might seem obvious, but actually they require much more thought than you might imagine…
1. Having a clear sense of where you are…it’s so hard when you’re in a rehearsal room to imagine you are anywhere other than a rehearsal room…however our environment, the place in which we are standing has a profound effect on our movement, our body language, our thoughts and our interactions…so you need to have a clear sense of where you are in the play…really clear…crystal clear…
2. Understanding why every word you speak is spoken and how your character responds to everything that is said and unsaid…if you think about this for any length of time you will realise that this is a huge, enormous, gargantuan task…but it’s the only way to great acting…you have to have such a deep understanding of your character that you respond with truth, not just respond to what is happening in the scene in a general sense…
3. Finally you have to be brave…really brave, breathtakingly brave…brave enough to acknowledge how high the stakes are, brave enough to meet the demands of your character in relation to the script, brave enough to acknowledge your weaknesses and brave enough to overcome them rather than be defeated by them.
Whenever challenges are met there is a reward…and the challenges I’ve listed above are no exception. In this case the reward is the fulfilling feeling of achieving more than you have ever done before. It’s a feeling incomparable to anything else, that awareness that in that moment you have reached your potential as an actor and an artist, an accomplishment that will not only feel wonderful in the moment but will also ignite a hunger that will inspire and drive you into a successful and delightful future…in what ever you want that future to be…
First of all I have to give credit where it’s due, never have I had such a disciplined cast…I was so proud of all of the people at the rehearsal yesterday for being off text and reaping the rewards of doing some serious work since I last saw them…one of the many upsides of this is that it reveals the gaps and missing links early in the process so that we can address them and make the production so much richer…
The things that I’m most aware of at the moment resonate with so many of our production and therefore are useful for all of you to consider whether or not you’re in Shooting Truth…they’re simply pathways to good acting. So here we go…have a read, see if they are things you usually consider and even if they are, reflect honestly on just how much you consider them and then give them more thought next time you’re devising, rehearsing or performing…some of them might seem obvious, but actually they require much more thought than you might imagine…
1. Having a clear sense of where you are…it’s so hard when you’re in a rehearsal room to imagine you are anywhere other than a rehearsal room…however our environment, the place in which we are standing has a profound effect on our movement, our body language, our thoughts and our interactions…so you need to have a clear sense of where you are in the play…really clear…crystal clear…
2. Understanding why every word you speak is spoken and how your character responds to everything that is said and unsaid…if you think about this for any length of time you will realise that this is a huge, enormous, gargantuan task…but it’s the only way to great acting…you have to have such a deep understanding of your character that you respond with truth, not just respond to what is happening in the scene in a general sense…
3. Finally you have to be brave…really brave, breathtakingly brave…brave enough to acknowledge how high the stakes are, brave enough to meet the demands of your character in relation to the script, brave enough to acknowledge your weaknesses and brave enough to overcome them rather than be defeated by them.
Whenever challenges are met there is a reward…and the challenges I’ve listed above are no exception. In this case the reward is the fulfilling feeling of achieving more than you have ever done before. It’s a feeling incomparable to anything else, that awareness that in that moment you have reached your potential as an actor and an artist, an accomplishment that will not only feel wonderful in the moment but will also ignite a hunger that will inspire and drive you into a successful and delightful future…in what ever you want that future to be…
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