Young actors search for the magic bullet in transforming their fumbling attempts to act and perform and maybe even gain a profession from it all; an elusive career! The most committed will seek out the insightful teachers and the best acting schools with reputations for placing actors in career boosting companies upon graduation. Some will even endure the natural anxiety and depression that comes with a lack of success or even a lack of frequency in successfully gaining employment. Others will see it all as a hobby and no more; a fulfilling addition to their real life work in some other or related field; but nothing more! But to be effective and even successful as an actor, one needs to apply some very clear and simple elements in preparation and presentation that go beyond any theoretical or abstract substance.
The Basics
Two fundamental things are necessary for effective performance:
timing, and
stillness.
Sure it might be assumed that one has a strong vocal quality and a life experience to imbue selected roles with truth and circumstances. And sure, you need to know the theories that give rise to various styles in performance. However, the essential element all actors need is a sense of timing and an ability to hold stillness. We then come back to the duration of the stillness held. How long is it necessary to feed a moment with power and strength by holding the moment?
So all you need is the power of stillness and the confidence to adjust your timing of speech or movement. It's simple. Deceptively simple! Silence and stillness are the two most challenging concepts for an actor's attendance.
The Application
OK. You're in a play and you can't figure out the objective of your character or your actions! Can I suggest you just go still within your rehearsal and think for a moment about what comes next. But go STILL! Find that moment where you have to really be challenged. Your timing might suggest a number of seconds before you turn to the other character or to the audience and then speak or act! This will no doubt suggest the ACTION for you and then the OBJECTIVE!
It's a case of the objective being preceded by the action. And the action is a result of stillness, silence and timing.
The Question
So what do you need to do to get that sense of stillness and timing?
For a start, you need to give up all extraneous events that clutter your ability to find stillness and personal silence. Detach from ambition. Detach from personal relationships. Recognise your destructive personal ego for what it is ... BULLSHIT! Focus!
The Deepening
Spend time in the silence and the stillness before attempting the timing of your durations and speaking. If you really feel the silence and the stillness, the timing will come. You will have processed the necessary reaction time to any event. But in that silence you need time to process what you feel or want as a character.
As an actor, you need to suffer your silence in order to discern what your character is about. Ironically, it also determines what you are about. Acting is a multi-faceted action. Yes, you need understanding of your personal instrument as Stanislavski suggests. However, you also need to know how to be still and silent in order to find the idiosyncratic elements that go beyond linear understanding of where you are going with your character. These idiosyncratic elements are the key to successful and memorable performances.
In Conclusion
So much actor training is as David Mamet suggests, privileged indulgence or at least analysis of acting rather than a specific approach. So do you want to succeed? Stephen Berkoff is a better advisor than most acting coaches that complicate the process so much that it replaces the actual moment of engagement with audiences.
Work on your ability to be still; challenge yourself to find the timing of your responses in your scenes. Just stop and BE...
Cheers
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