Technique

the Path from Action to Performance

Now that I have examined the first part of the pathway to performance (see previous posts) I can turn my attention to technique—the intellect and training we employ to communicate our performances effectively to an audience. 

The intellect helps actors shape, form, and craft our playing, whereas training optimizes our capacity to organize our energy (behavior) effectively and efficiently.   

In next series of posts, I’ll focus on the intellect and analysis. That post drops tomorrow!

Intellect sometimes gets a bad name (“You’re thinking too much!”  “Get out of your head!”), usually because it is misapplied. The primary reason for this misapplication of intellect is lack of trust, which leads to two mistakes: trying to get it right and judging.  First, there is no “getting it right” in the sense that there is some ultimate answer to a performance.  There are certainly decisions that are made in rehearsal that have to occur in performance, and most actors want to execute their actions as rehearsed.  But evaluating the “rightness” of our work removes us a step from the reality of doing (as Meisner might say), and the audience can see the wheels turning.  Immediately they will feel a disconnect between the intentions reputed to the character in the imaginary world (or simply the intentions of the performer within the mise en scene of the theatrical event) and the actual intentions of the performer—to get it right.  This disconnect inevitably leads to an urge to withdraw in (most) audiences because the intention is unclear. Judging ourselves does the same thing, but in a slightly different timeframe. When we are trying to get it right, we’re actually in the moment.  Judgment occurs after the moment (“Oh, I totally blew that line!”).  This kind of apology is really a way to avoid criticism.  If I are the first to say how bad I was, someone else is less likely to. (This might have been one of my own struggles in graduate school.)

Both getting it right and judging arise from a lack of trust. Either we do not trust ourselves (getting it right) or we do not trust the audience (judging). The only remedy is to allow ourselves to be wrong, and allow the audience to judge us. The consequences are usually small, and at least we’ll be really acting. 

• Technique (intellect, training) is what you employ to communicate your performance

• Intellect shapes/forms/crafts your playing

• Training optimizes your capacity to organize your energy (behavior) effectively and efficiently