Method -- Apollo 2003 * Fall: FIVE APPROACHES TO ACTING (A TEXTBOOK) by David Kaplan, foreword by Stephen Holden, film critic, The New York Times -- recommended by Robert Brustein, American Repertory Theater; Judith Malina, The Living Theatre; Sir Nigel Hawthorne (published by West Broadway Press)
Oh, gods! How do I fight to make sure that they do not speak before they do ACTING. I gave the title "PreActing: BioMethod" to this Acting One directory to enforce this PREACTING!
Yes, they know about "acting is reacting" (do they?) -- but what do I react to, when I start? Oh, this is the time to act! If you won't start right now the public will be in listening mode -- you lost them! Maybe forever.
Do both of us a favor, in your Actor's Text write as much as you can before your first line. Hold this first line back as long as possible doing the PREACTING!
Acting is interpretive by nature. An architect may have an overall vision, but it takes the attention of craftsmen like plumbers, carpenters, sheet-metal men and roofers to bring it to life. I'm quite happy being a craftsman. I don't feel lessened by that at all. It's the facts, Jack. Harrison Ford
Pre-acting = pre-production?
I do not how to stress the importance of pre-acting, if not to repeat myself that this is ACTING! I do not know what else I can do but to prohibit to say first line of your monologue or scene without establishing your 5Ws visual. At least some it. Spending more time in class on "entraces & exits" exerc....
The finale from "Uncle Vanya" (Chekhov):
[ home analysis ]
SONIA. What can we do? We must live our lives. [A pause] Yes, we
shall live, Uncle Vanya. We shall live through the long
procession of days before us, and through the long evenings; we
shall patiently bear the trials that fate imposes on us; we shall
work for others without rest, both now and when we are old; and
when our last hour comes we shall meet it humbly, and there,
beyond the grave, we shall say that we have suffered and wept,
that our life was bitter, and God will have pity on us. Ah, then
dear, dear Uncle, we shall see that bright and beautiful life; we
shall rejoice and look back upon our sorrow here; a tender
smile--and--we shall rest. I have faith, Uncle, fervent,
passionate faith. [SONIA kneels down before her uncle and lays
her head on his hands. She speaks in a weary voice] We shall
rest. [TELEGIN plays softly on the guitar] We shall rest. We
shall hear the angels. We shall see heaven shining like a jewel.
We shall see all evil and all our pain sink away in the great
compassion that shall enfold the world. Our life will be as
peaceful and tender and sweet as a caress. I have faith; I have
faith. [She wipes away her tears] My poor, poor Uncle Vanya, you
are crying! [Weeping] You have never known what happiness was,
but wait, Uncle Vanya, wait! We shall rest. [She embraces him] We
shall rest. [The WATCHMAN'S rattle is heard in the garden;
TELEGIN plays softly; MME. VOITSKAYA writes something on the
margin of her pamphlet; MARINA knits her stocking] We shall rest.
[ chracter analysis in your journals ]
Pre-acting is thought, an intellectial work. What you have to do?
Simposia, Discussion, Feedback
Dionysus: Go with your instict, dude!
Apollo: Study it!
Meyerhold: Try it out!
Stanislavsky: Get into this character's soul!
Anatoly: Do it all!
[ the stage directions for this invisible scene in class ]
But, Anatoly, where to start?
TEACHER. Feel it first.
MASTER. Just Do It!
ANATOLY. Do both.
TEACHER. Anatoly who?
MASTER. Anatoly what?
ANATOLY. It's possible to act from "within" and "without" at the the same time...
TEACHER. What?
MASTER. What did he say?
...
[ preacting? watch good film actors! ]
III. PRE-ACTING
The actor's work consists in the artful juxtaposing of acting and pre-acting.
[ In the Russian theatre, the famous actor Lensky (1874-1908) was a master in the art of pre-acting. In the part of Benedict (in Shakespeare "Much Ado About Nothing") he gave a classic demonstration of pre-acting, which was describe as follows in Russie Vedomosty, 1908, no. 241 ]:
[ from Meyerhold ]
`Benedict emerges from his hiding-place behind a bush, where he has just overheard the conversation about his love for Beatrice which had been contrived especially for his ears. For a long time he stands staring at the audience, his face frozen in amazement. Then suddenly his lips move very slightly. Now watch his eyes closely: they are still fixed in concentration, but from beneath the brows imperceptibly, gradually, there begins to creep
a triumphant happy smile; the actor doesn't say a word, but you can see that a great irrepressible wave of joy is welling up inside Benedict; his face muscles, his cheeks begin to laugh and a smile spreads uncontrollably over his quivering face; suddenly a thought penetrates his uncomprehending joy and in a final mimetic chord the eyes which until now have been frozen with
astonishment light up with delight. Now Benedict's whole body is one whole transport of wild rapture and the auditorium thunders with applause, although the actor has yet to say a single word and only now begins his speech.'
[ camera and pre-acting ]
Critics might argue that this is a perfectly normal instance of the spoken text being enhanced by mimetic embellishments. But note that we intentionally emphasized the last words of the quotation to stress the point at issue.
Pre-acting prepares the spectator's perception in such a way that he comprehends the scenic situation fully resolved in advance and so has no need to make any effort to grasp the underlying message of the scene. This was a favorite device in the old Japanese and Chinese theatres. Nowadays, when the
theatre is once more being employed as a platform for agitation, an acting system in which special stress is laid on pre-acting is indispensable to the actor-tribune."[4]
Forget "the actor-tribune." (Meyerhold, Brecht) But the essense of the PRE-acting is great!
Listen, there are no "wrong" or "right" methods and techniques; the only wrong thing is to do nothing.
Listen, kid, go comedy! Comedy acting is extreme and the extremes. Start with your "comedy monologue" assignment.
[ preacting in comedy = LS, MS; in drama = CU ]
Meyerhold, Stanislavsky and the gods -- scenes are not complete. Sorry, notes only! Anatoly 2004 [ from Comical Page in THR Theory ]
A few words about post-acting. Nornally, it would be the time to reflect, to learn, to grow. Unfortunatelly, most of the bad acting is the post-acting. Like, post-swimming. They show how they would do swimming... In many ways the true post-acting is simular to pre-acting, but with the memories of your personal experience of act. Usually, the lack of pre-acting results in bad acting, because you have to do on stage what must be done before you on stage. Well, noone can skip the natural order and therefore we see what we shouldn't see -- the preporation. Bad acting like everything else bad -- we see something that isn't ready. Oh, yes, acting is the process, but process of creating and not preparing for it.
If believe in acting as a "performance act" only, you might watch an artist preparing the canvas, musician making a violin, or ... Actor "performs" what he prepared himself for -- for creation of something that didn't exist before the moment of performance! If he "performs" something already in existence this is bad acting, because it's nothing but a pizza delivery!
Oh, you heard it before -- delivery, projection, articulation! But this only techniques, only to serve the process of creation -- and not so much for you, but the actor itself: to hear, to feel, to express in full. Does it mean that "pre-acting" is craft? Yes, training, but also the process of forming yourself as an artist. Reading books, studing music and art and many other not directly related thing, including experiencing and understanding your experience, into "material" for acting. Your love experience, if you know how to transform it into art is PRE-ACTING!
What do you say, Anatoly! How can I transform my dinner experience into "preacting"? If you don't know how, you wasted your time on that dinner, my friend.
Listen, you have to live as an artist. You have to experience life and experience your experience. You have to live and notice your living -- and only then you can "write" it in stage. Why do you think we need playwrights, directors, designers for you to act? Because we need to free you for the final act, the love moment with the public, when they leave theatre pregnant with the love child, the show, when we give them back their lives, something they can have with you... Because they didn't do their "pre-acting" -- you did.
Think about it.
You got it! "Thinking" is the major part of Pre-Acting. Thinking about life, yourself, theatre -- and your part, of course.
* BioMethod * The subdirectories (1, 2, 3, 4, 5) are not developed yet! *
Do they do it, the thinking? I think that they don't know HOW to think...
PS
"Pre" in directing means "pre-production" and I only wish that this period could be as important in acting as well, but somehow so many believe that actor's work begins after casting.
Homework
"No Acting, Please," is not a bad advise. What does it mean?
First, acting is not your goal, but a by-product. You want to express, to communicate -- this is what you have to think about.
Second, the degree of concentration. If you are focused on thought and emotion, on "re-living" it as your own experience -- when you do have time to remember about "acting"?
Third, "pre-acting" concept asks for a lot of PRE-"acting" preporation. Yes, yes, the home work. I know that in order for to direct a play I have to spent several months in active preporation (research, notes, and etc.), but in order to get to this stage of pre-production I have to spent several years thinking about this play.
Homework? Yes, I ask my actors-students to keep the list of the roles they would like to play (wish list, short and long). Why? Because you should get ready. You can't play Hamlet or King Lear unless you spent years of thinking about those parts. Maybe your entire life.
It's okay even if you will never play those roles. Everything else you will be playing benefits from that process of preporartion.
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