A NOTE TO CLASS

A note to zoom class • September 4, 2023

Today I started reading a book on Kazan and Directing.

This quote hit me: “You have to start from the actor, and you have to find out where the part is

alive for him. Somewhere within them the part must exist.”

It’s one of the reasons we’re working so hard with connecting to everything you’ve selected. If

you have a connection, if you have something that is alive for you, then you bring that to your

work … and you get people to feel differently. They feel what you feel. It becomes your

signature on the part you’re playing.

Working slowly, especially in the early stages of rehearsal, is helpful. Maybe it means simply

giving yourself a break from the pressure of ‘I’ve got to come up with something’. When you

consider how many areas of the technique there are, – relationship to the partner, relationship to

the place, what the images are, what the theme might be, … countless possibilities, – just sitting

with the material and allowing yourself to let what’s there to affect you, is no doubt a great key

to creativity as an artist.

Another issue, which I believe comes from working too fast, is the one of jumping to

conclusions. It’s kind of a stab in the dark, hoping that it might land. Sometimes we not only

make clichéd choices, we make uneducated ones. Greg did it by announcing that the character

was working class and, because of that, this was a really exciting event for him. Even though I’m

not sure what one fact had to do with the other, making a choice like that comes from rushing too

quickly to make actor decisions. I’m almost certain that it comes from the thought either

conscious or not, “If I were working class (which Greg isn’t) this would be exciting for me.”

It’s good actor practice to be able to think, “I have no idea what it must mean to be working

class,” – allowing you to have a jumping off place. Working class is a bit obscure as an example,

but a possible starting place for your work might come from asking yourself the question, “What

do I think the audience will find the most difficult to believe about me?” The answer is in the

facts of the play: I’m a mother, I’m a lawyer, I’m a violinist, I’m gay, I’m straight, I’m Margaret

Thatcher… Giving yourself permission to sit with one of these facts of the play to see what

comes up is such an exciting part of our work.

Vakhtangov: “An actor, at every given minute, must believe in the importance of what happens

onstage.” I would add to that: what happens in the text. You really have to take the time to look

at what is there and have a clear sense of how it impacts your choices. Why does this character

talk about certain events? What does that tell you? You’re not going to get it all at once, but you

want to begin to incorporate all you know.

Another quote from Vakhtangov: “the important thing is not to play an étude well, but to include

as many aspects of our training as frequently and as consciously as possible. This is necessary so

that you develop a subconscious habit of using all the abilities we ‘cultivate.’ This can be

compared to learning a foreign language.”

Learning a foreign language is no doubt a better metaphor than my sport’s metaphors. If you

only use certain words when you learn a language, then you will never know the language. It's a

good actor habit to attempt to actively use all of the tools we have. Talent without a technique is

like having a Porsche with no gas.

I cannot encourage you enough to take your time going through the text. Really figure out what

feeds you. What your relationship is to what is there. “You have to start from the actor, and you

have to find out where the part is alive for him. Somewhere within them the part must exist.”