Acting Re/Defined
That which you do to manage your relationship to an Other—person, object, space, time or self
Acting is—
o Believing—“I AM the character.”
o Feeling—“I feel the feelings of the character.”
o Imagining—“It is ‘as if’ I am in the circumstances of the character.”
o Indicating—“I explain the character to the audience.”
o Demonstrating—“I step in and out of the theatrical illusion to help to reveal choices to an audience.”
o Doing—“I do the things the audience imputes as done by a character.”
o Predicting—“I predict threat/opportunity and act upon that prediction with behaviors coherent to an audience within the context of the imaginary event.”
Whatever path we take initially—body, voice, imagination or feelings—they all must be explored, and we must bring with us as best we can all that we’ve discovered on those paths that inevitably lead to action. An action is that which you do to maintain or change your relationship to an Other—person, object, space, time or your self.
Most of what follows is likely familiar—we know what an action is, what kinds there are, and have a notion about how to play them. Following that brief review, I look at actions and how they are allied to tasks, the general nature of tasks, and finally how crafting actions and tasks lead to performance.
Every actor has their own working definition of performing. Here is one that attempts to be generally applicable to a variety of theatrical events (that is, performances that create an imaginary relationship with those involved).
Performing an action determined by theatrical circumstances to accomplish a task
Let me unpack that. Performing means any act intended to communicate. Our job as actors is to communicate to an audience. That requires a voice that has range, power, richness and clarity. It requires a body that has a full range of motion, endurance, strength and flexibility. These two tools are the only means by which we can communicate a performance. Without effective voice or movement, our work will not sufficiently communicate the play of energy within ourself and between us, our fellow actors and the audience that reveals the theatrical event.
An action is that which is done in order to create change. In theatre (and really in life), all action is directed at creating a positive change in the environment. Even an action that appears to maintain a situation is really an attempt to prevent or forestall a change--usually in response to an action asserted by someone else.
"to accomplish a task." All actions are directed at creating a change--it is "how" the change is to occur. The task is the "what." In most cases, this is what a character seems to want, but it can also be as simple as what the performer is instructed to do (by the director, playwright, or group of devisers). It is not sufficient to simply play an action, such as "push" without having an end toward which the "push" is aimed. More common, if less accurate, names for the task include objective, intention, or goal.
But regardless of the term, ALL tasks are essentially about managing relationships—creating or maintaining them. Actions aimed at maintaining or creating change in a relationship are almost always of two types—transparent and deceptive. We either want an Other to know what we want from them, or we want to deceive them from understanding what we want (for any number of reasons). We'll look at both these types of tasks in the next section.
Theatrical conditions are those elements that comprise the theatrical event. There are two kinds--actual and imaginary. The actual conditions are the ones every actor must deal with in reality--the passage of time, the boundaries of the space, the lights, costumes, sets, the audience, the behavior of fellow actors, etc. All these determine, or shape, guide, evoke, the action. If you must exit through a door and the door is stuck--that's an actual condition and you have to deal with it. If you don't, the audience will feel a disjunction between what you intend and what is happening--and often they will laugh. Sometimes, that's a good thing. The play Noises Off is almost entirely about the disjunction between what the actors/characters intend, and what is actually occurring. But mostly, such disjunctions destroy the fictional world and the audience's so-called "willing suspension of disbelief." And it takes time and energy to re-establish the world of the play. We'll examine establishing and maintaining the world of the play in a future post on analysis.
Imaginary conditions are those fictional aspects of the event--the who, what, and where that the playwright, scenarist, or devising group, etc., concoct. This includes relationships and the implied emotional value of those relationships, whether they are with people (characters), places (the set) or things (props, costumes). The actor's job, our job, is to endow these relationships with value, the resulting energy which then shapes the action of the play. The imaginary conditions are what generate the story, and these conditions are the ones actors, directors and writers spend the most time working out in rehearsal. I’ll attend to both these conditions in more detail later.
Playing Actions and Tasks
There are four fundamental actions out of which all other actions arise: push, pull, hold, release. Each action has two varieties--to and from. There are four basic tasks--attract, repel, sustain and free. The tasks are related to the fundamental actions, but any task may be accomplished by any action. You may push to accomplish the task of freeing something, for example. Tasks are larger in scope and are the aim, objective, intention of the action applied.
[Image: The Action Mandala][i]
Nearly any action aimed at change may be found on the mandala. There are copious lists of actions/verbs available, but it is my suggestion that you begin with one of the fundamental four and then find something more specific as you rehearse. The usefulness of the four is such that it is relatively simple to change to one of the other three. Then in rehearsal, you can begin to sense the specific action you are playing, based on the theatrical conditions--the nature of your partner's energy and yours in the moment--that determine the action. Actions will vary performance to performance because the theatrical conditions alter every show. The tasks, however, usually tend to remain the same (more below).
Call My Agency
At its essence, theatre is about agency. That is, what the audience perceives is someone making choices aimed at creating an imminent change. That is why directors and actors talk about motivation. The audience must perceive that some energy is being organized to affect change, otherwise the behavior is incoherent—it makes no sense within the imaginary circumstances of the theatrical event.
Playable Actions
A great action is specific, do-able, character-relevant, process-oriented and inventive, exciting, inspiring, and risky, appropriate to circumstance, exact, and in the moment
A playable action is anything done to another to affect positive change for the doer. Optimally, this is an actual physical change in space (distance) and time (urgency or delay), but it can also be to prompt a change in potentialbehavior, i.e., intent.
If you begin with one of the fundamental four, you can be sure that it will be grounded in a physical action associated with approach or withdrawal in space.
“pull to” = reduce distance or come closer (either you or the object of the action approaches)
“push from” = increase distance or move away (either you or the object of the action withdraws)
Typically, this is not a sufficient enactment to prompt the change or sustaining of the relationship described by the playwright or devised by the primary organizing artist(s). So, there is the added condition (both actual and imaginary) of time by which the task is to be accomplished. As you know, this is often simply an adverb to the action.
“quickly pull to” = reduce distance in the shortest time possible
“slowly push from” = increase distance over the maximum time possible
In these two examples we can begin to see the more specific nature of the action and can find its identity. In a way, this is the algebra of acting—hunting for the X factor, which in the case of the actor’s work is naming the action.
“quickly pull to” = yank
“slowly push from” = extract
An effective action is one in which there is specificity in space and time, in proximity and duration.
Discovering the specific nature of the action occurs along any one or more of the paths we’ve described.
Body: You may find it in the impulse to move toward or away or staying where you are and allowing your limbs to participate (or not) in that impulse.
Voice: You may find it in the sound of the utterance—in word or vocalization.
Imagination: You may find it as you imagine the situation and conditions under which a prescribed behavior occurs.
Feelings: Or you may become aware of it through your feelings—sensations or emotions—that prepare you to fight, feed, flee or procreate.
Unplayable Actions
Problems in action arise when the actions are:
Abstract—un-do-able to another, such as “think” or “understand.”
The problem in these actions is primarily one of space—there is no space to them, and no clear intention to change an other. They exist in a sort of ephemera and do not imply any movement to or from. They simply “are.” You “are”, too. So you need not do anything special. When you encounter a moment (or even a line in a play) during which a character is evaluating (thinking, or “give me a minute, I’m thinking!”) there is, in fact, a playable action lurking underneath. Thinking is evaluating threat or opportunity—is the thing I’m contemplating a good or bad thing to choose to do. Often, these moments are “holds” (from or to), and the true aim/target of the action is the self. What’s fun for an audience to watch is the struggle to decide—will they stay or go? What are we thinking about? That will generally get us back on track to a playable action.General—unspecific, such as “seduce,” or “convince.”
The problem here is really one of definition. These aren’t really actions at all, but tasks. Seducing is WHAT Don Juan is attempting to accomplish. HOW he does so—butter up (very close proximity, a sustained duration), or stroke, or tickle—is the action we need to find.Judgmental/Manipulative—from an external perspective (either self or audience), such as “annoy,” or “to get her to....”
As I said early in the post, theatre is about agency. If the action seems to arise from some external source other than the doer then the people in the audience may distance themselves from the action[i]. It is as if the actor is simply doing what they are told to do. This is recognizable in some inexperienced actors who cross down right without motivating it (that is, with an energy of agency). There are moments in performances like this—and they are supposed to be creepy. If the person doing the action does not appear to be the agent of the action, we cannot evaluate the threat or opportunity. We can’t know what is intended. This will necessarily prompt urges to withdraw in an audience (or another character on stage). The possessed, drug-induced, hypnotized, inhuman, deceivers—they can be frightening and sometimes funny (or even both—see Richard III). But they are usually easily identifiable.
But rarely does a character intend to annoy. Rather, they do things that we judge to be annoying (as does the character on the receiving end of the actions). For example, a set of behaviors intended to prompt urges to withdrawal meets with resistance, may prompt further behaviors that are more provocative. A child wanting attention may repeat “Mommy” over and over, but when mommy ignores little Sally, Sally may increase her volume and adding a poking finger—that we might judge to be annoying, but from Sally’s perspective is simply a higher energy action, such as “to prod” in order to accomplish the task of gaining mom’s attention. When a character intends to deceive or manipulate—which is a kind of deception--the deception or manipulation must be carefully crafted. The audience must believe that those being deceived/manipulated BELIEVE the deception. If Richard III is so obviously lying that any idiot can detect it, idiotic heads being chopped off likely won’t overly concern the audience. That is certainly an approach to the play, but arguably not what Shakespeare intended. Actions such as “lie to” or “get her to go” are really one step removed from the actual action. They are judgments from the outside, and as a result are difficult to play effectively because we are really trying to do two things at once—the act and the deception.
Result-oriented—an end, not an action, such as “angry,” “shouting,” or “smile at.”
As we know, states of being are not playable—we either are or are not in the state. We may feel angry or we do not, we may be shouting or not, we may be smiling or not. Feelings are states of action readiness. Feelings of anger may prompt urges to approach and attack. Shouting is, like Sally prodding Mommy, an energy increase in attempting to accomplish some task—it is the RESULT of an action and not an action itself (in the sense we mean for actors).Un/Playable Tasks
A great task is active, challenging, complete, leads to specific action, is possible to accomplish, daring, inventive, vivid and coherent.
A playable task is simply some change that can actually be accomplished. The clearer the task, the more readily may the actor evaluate the effectiveness of an action. If the action is not prompting the desired change, then a shift in action occurs.
Stop Making Sense
It must be admitted that there are theatrical events in which sustaining audience's attention is not a high value the artist holds. Richard Foreman, for example, purposefully seeks to disrupt the theatregoing experience, using a lot of non-linear actions that do not necessarily cohere. He will often use non-actors as well to enact these incoherent behaviors. (Foreman, 1992)
But that is not what I am after in these posts.
So, if I want my partner to fill my empty cup with coffee, I might choose a low energy "pull to" that manifests itself in waving your cup in the air. This may prompt not an urge to approach and fill the cup, but a withdrawal (accompanied by a disdainful snort--which is a kind of "push from"). I may then pull to with more energy, which may manifest itself as a "please, bring me more coffee?" Perhaps my partner will comply and bring the pot (hopefully not to pour it on me). In this example, the task is imminently clear, and the sequence of actions unfolds to accomplish it. I'll know quickly whether or not I'm going to accomplish the task, and adjust accordingly. All tasks on stage by an actor, regardless of the nature of the theatrical event (realism to the most non-representational theatre you can imagine), must be similarly clear if they are to compel an audience's attention for any length of time.
Tasks are unclear and therefore, ineffective if they are:
Passive—actions that do not demand a discernible change, such as, “I want Tom to understand,” or “I want Kim to know…” The test of the task is whether or not it may create discernible change in the other. How can you (or the audience) know if Tom understands or Kim knows? To remedy this, ask yourself, “then what?” Once Kim knows, then what? Once Tom understands, then what? What will they do? Once you can answer “then what,” you will have found a playable task.
Easy—actions that do not demand sufficient energy, such as “I want Amy to sit” (if Amy is already sitting). A way to remedy this is to ask, “so what?” Amy sits—so what? Or more pointedly, “who cares?” If nothing really changes, then the task is not sufficient. If you can answer “so what?” or “ who cares?”, then you likely have a playable task.
Incomplete—actions that lack obstacles or resistance, such as “I want to explain to Hermione,” “I want to kiss John.” This often occurs when the formulation is inverted—I want to Y to X. The remedy is to flip (re-invert) the task statement, placing the object in the correct place. “I want Hermione to hold me,” or “I want John to kiss me.”
Impossible—actions that simply cannot be accomplished, such as “I want to be happy.” Any state of being is inherently impossible because they are the RESULT of accomplishing a task, not the aim of the task.
Manipulative—actions that are aimed at “making” or “getting” the other to do what you want, such as “I want to get him to love me.” While there are characters that we judge to be manipulative and do, in fact, fool people (Richard III, Iago, Hedda), the real task in which they are engaged is “I want X to BELIEVE me.” This task keeps the liar/manipulator focused on the other, whereas “getting” and “making” pulls the actor’s focus to the action itself—the getting or making.
Needs and Desires
Often, we actors will mistake the NEED or DESIRE for the task. But NEEDS, URGES or DESIRES engage us in a task and prompt specific actions. We must know the needs, urges, and/or desires of the character—what is often referred to as the “motivation.” Keep in mind that the motivation is ALWAYS to change or maintain the relationship. The relationship is ALWAYS related to creating or maintaining psychophysical balance (of some sort or another).
We will explore this more thoroughly in the next post, next week!
[i] Studies using fMRI have demonstrated that mimed actions and actions that appear to lack intention do not trigger the same level of neurological response in the MNS.
[i] This image was originally published in Theatre Topics, Vol. 9, Number 1.