An entire book could be written about rehearsing! There are so many variables and so much to say. An actor must know how to rehearse! He must know how to use a rehearsal and what to do in it. He must understand what is expected of him. If he just stumbles through, reading lines and doing the blocking, it is a wasted time; he might as well have stayed home and paced the scenes off in his living room. All too often a director and his actors will come to rehearsals without any real idea of what to do other than run the play, fulfill the blocking requirements, say the lines, get off the book as soon as possible, and pray that it will all magically come together by opening night!
The director, of course, gives “direction,” interpreting the play for the actor and asking for more volume, bigger emotion, deeper feelings, and definitely more passion in the work. After each rehearsal, he reads voluminous pickup notes, which the actors copy down on their notepads—things like, “Joyce, you were blocking Harry in Scene 2. Countercross him! Peter, I can’t hear you; speak up! Danny, I want more real anger from you. Don’t just shout, feel it!” and so on, in a variety of equally helpful areas! Somehow the play opens, however, and the audience seems to enjoy it; everyone is very complimentary, and all the actors feel that they have accomplished the arduous job of creating something. Unfortunately, this kind of rehearsing is the rule rather than the exception. The more professional the actor becomes, the more sophisticated the terminology: the directors and actors behave and talk more professionally, and indeed the actors seem to move around on the stage more comfortably, but it is still the same. For the most part, and with rare exceptions, the rehearsals consist of repeating the lines, blocking, getting more comfortable with the other actors, making the words of the play sound real and natural, working out problems of sight lines and stage picture, and so on. But where is the creative involvement? When do the actors and the director collaborate in the creative process of producing impulsive and unpredictable reality on the stage?
Well, first of all, in order for that to happen, they must all know what they are doing; they must be craftsmen and must have a creative process! Very unfortunately that is extremely rare. I must sound just a bit pompous here, but the reality is that I am sad about the state of affairs in the theater and in films. It gives me no pleasure to know that what I have been saying is all too true! I would rather it be just the opposite, since good work, good films, good theater enrich us all. I don’t mean to suggest that there aren’t any; quite the contrary, there is some wonderful work out there: scores of talented people, good films, excellent plays, and so on. These are the exceptions, however, and what is so painful is that it needn’t be that way. There is a process, a how, many hows, to create reality and exciting work, but for whatever reason most of the actors and directors have somehow missed learning it.
Knowing how to rehearse, either as an actor or as a director, is totally dependent on knowing what you are doing. If you have a specific creative process through which you fulfill material, then you can chart your rehearsals and make the most of each one. I have already said that there are numerous variables, related not only to process, but to medium, time, the specific director, and the other actors. Each of these parameters dictates different approaches and adjustments. Adjusting to the medium in which you are working is very dependent on your knowledge and mastery of your craft, as well as on a certain amount of technical knowledge and experience with that medium.
As I said earlier in this chapter, rehearsing is a very complex involvement, and in order to cover all the ground, I would have to devote an entire book to the subject. I will, however, attempt to deal specifically with each area of responsibility.
Again, so much is dependent on the time involved. Usually, if you are doing a feature film, as opposed to a television film, you have a little more time to devote to rehearsing. This is entirely related to budget. In a high-budget film there is usually much less pressure on the director to move on, so he can take more time with each scene. Television always seems to be on a tight schedule, so there is less latitude in that environment.
If a film has a rehearsal period built into the budget, there will be about two weeks of rehearsals before principal photography begins; however, these will usually be devoted to the principals, the stars of the film. Since the lower-budget films rarely allow for a rehearsal period and the more expensive films usually hire name actors, the actor who has not yet ascended to those heights never gets to be involved in a rehearsal period. Most often, the only rehearsal he gets is just before he shoots the scene. He may receive the script anywhere from two weeks to one day before shooting. He must then work to fulfill his responsibility to the material and to the character, memorize his lines, know what he wants to do with them, and usually do all of this before ever meeting or talking to the director.
So you normally come onto the set of a picture having had only solitary involvement with the script. You report to makeup and, if you are lucky, work within the next four or five hours. When indeed you are called to “do” your scene, you meet the director, shake his hand, and he briefly tells you what the scene is about from his perspective. Pray to God that he sees it the way you worked on it, because if he doesn’t, you have about three minutes to change your approach! After this brief orientation, you step into the set and acknowledge the other actors. The director says, “All right, let’s see it!” at which time you start to “act”: you say your lines, listen for your cues, and attempt to relate to the other actors and to be real.
Meanwhile, the director, with crossed eyes, takes in the action while talking to the director of photography about how he wants the scene covered. He may say that he wants more tempo, or he may ask you to stand closer to the other actor in a position that is awkward and unreal but that fits the frame beautifully. If he is satisfied with the content and action of the scene, and if it can be heard and the cameraman okays it, he calls for a “take.” So you do it! Not knowing exactly what it is that you are doing, you do it anyway. If he says, “That’s a print!” you breathe a sigh of relief, since at this point getting it right has become so much more important than being creative! It certainly wasn’t anything like what you did at home! Now the director goes in for close-ups and other coverage of the scene, and you, the actor, must “match” for the close-up what you did in the “master,” making sure that you hit the same marks taped on the floor, match your lines and movements so they are exactly the way they were in the master shot, and try to retain the same emotional energy and content as before. You do this for three or four different angles, each of which may have three, four, or five takes. Having spent two hours on a scene that might play for two minutes, you step out of the set exhausted and somewhat confused by what has just happened! Furthermore, you haven’t the vaguest idea what kind of work you did.
This is not a very encouraging picture of what usually happens when you start to work in films, but it is pretty much the way it usually is. So what is an actor to do, particularly if he cares about his work? How can you do your work in such an environment? You realize, of course, that there are exceptions. Sometimes you get lucky and work with a director who is sensitive to the actors’ problems and process. When that happens, he gives you more room, is more available to discuss what you are attempting to do, and is more helpful. Whatever the case, you must be prepared to work under any and all conditions. In order for that to happen, you need to do several things: first, get as much technical experience in front of that camera as possible! Know what you are doing; know how to match, move, and use the camera to your advantage; become familiar with frame lines; know how much the camera is seeing and how much freedom of movement you have in each shot. You must also know how animated you can be depending on how close the shot is; for example, if the camera is in a tight close-up on you, any large behavior will seem humongous on the screen at Radio City Music Hall! You must have complete knowledge of, and confidence in, your technical responsibilities. Just that will make you more secure and free you to do the creative work that must be done to fulfill the material. Once you know what you are doing, you can quickly assimilate the technical demands of the shot and be free to deal with the obligations of the piece as an actor. Having worked on the piece at home, you will have identified the various obligations: the relationship obligation, the emotional obligation, and any others in the scene.
The first thing you do when stepping into the set is to listen to what the director wants. Usually it is mostly technical, but sometimes he will give you some information about your character and what he would like to see happen. If that is the case, take it in and fit it into the decisions you have already made. You may have to make an adjustment in one of your choices to accommodate the quality he wants. Once you have digested his directions, quickly acknowledge the technical responsibilities, know where to move and when, find your marks and make note of them, understand where you must be to play the scene and what the camera is going to see, what amount of freedom of movement you have, and so on. Once you have accomplished that, start working for the choices, using your choice approaches to stimulate the emotional life you want to reach.
The craft process from this point on is the same as it is on the stage. You have decided, for example, that the emotional obligation in this scene is murderous rage, so you are working to create a person toward whom you really feel that way, and you are using the Endowments choice approach to create this person in relation to the actor you are working with. If you use charts in your film work, each scene will be blueprinted as to the obligations, choices, and approaches. In addition, you will also have a continuity chart, so you will always know what preceded the scene you are doing and what will follow it. Film acting is hard! It takes time and a great deal of commitment to become a good film actor. For years there was a kind of snobbery, which came mostly from the New York stage actors, that essentially denigrated the talent and ability of the film actor, but that would usually disappear as soon as these “stage” actors began working in film! It is impossible not to respect the people who have become craftsmen in front of that camera.
The goals do not change; they are the same when working in film as in any other medium: you want to be real, unpredictable, organic, and hopefully reach an ultimate-conscious ness state in front of that camera. So how do you accomplish that in light of all these technical restrictions? A very important question! Some actors never answer it! As I have already said, you master the technical responsibilities of acting in film. How do you do that? You work in front of a camera at every opportunity. Take a good camera class, and stay there until you know what you are doing; do student films—you will both learn together! Take almost any film job you can get—industrials, documentaries, educational films, and so on. Don’t let your ego stand in the way of your growth. Do a one-line part in a film if you can. There is no telling what you will learn from that experience. Work with your friends: get a video camera, and do scenes together. Watch films from a different perspective: look at each scene as a “take,” and see what the actor does. In short, overdose on learning how to act for the camera! Once you have done all that, you can become confident that you will not go under out there. You can then devote the greatest part of your energy to the creative process, which starts with preparation—knowing what to do to prepare for a day’s work on a film.
Since you will get very little time to work on the script when you reach the set, it is important to do the bulk of your work at home. Read the material, get an overview of the screenwriter’s statement, the feeling of the screenplay, its essence, and so on. Understand how your character fits into the whole thing, how he affects the other people, how they affect him, and so on. Break down your responsibilities into the applicable obligations. Decide which one of them should be addressed first, and begin to explore the choices that will hopefully fulfill it. Continue to deal with each obligation until you are satisfied that you have the “right” choices and choice approaches; then work with those until you feel confident about your approach to the role.
Make sure to chart the entire process, so that when you get to the studio you know exactly what you are going to do, what you will work for, and what approach technique you will use to create the choice. Draw up charts—an obligation-choice-and-choice-approach chart and a continuity chart. Let us imagine, for example, that you have identified three obligations in the scenes that you will do—a time-and-place obligation, a relationship obligation, and an emotional obligation—and that you have decided to tackle the time and place first. The script tells you that the character is in his library, a place where he spends a great deal of time and where he feels comfortable and secure. He knows exactly where everything is and can reach for things without even looking for them. You, the actor, have chosen a place in your home that makes you feel very much the same way: your study, where you spend a lot of time, feel very comfortable, and so on. You have decided to use Sense Memory as the choice approach and can begin working to create that place immediately. Of course, you will have to wait until you are on the set to create it there, but by working with it at home, you will have done most of the preparatory work, so that you will be able to accomplish your goal much more quickly when you do work on the set.
Regarding the second obligation, the relationship, you are told that your character doesn’t know the other character and that you are meeting for the first time at the beginning of the scene. You are also given the information that you feel uncomfortable and suspicious of him. Armed with all of that, you decide to use the other actor as Available Stimulus. Having never met him, you can use the existing reality and selectively emphasize anything about him that will make you uncomfortable and suspicious of him. The last obligation, the emotional, you identify as a kind of self-righteousness and anger at being put in this position. Here again you anticipate the possibility that you may be able to use available-stimulus realities on the set, such as anything that the director or other actors do or say that could violate your belief structure, making you angry and self-righteous. Or you may have to create or endow the available stimuli with behavior and actions that will affect you that way. In any case, you might decide not to try imaginary choices at home until you have had the opportunity to deal with what is there; and of course, if you cannot use the available stimuli, you can always go to an imaginary choice, when you are there.
As I said earlier, there are so many variables it is almost impossible to cover them all. Each film, each role will necessitate different preparations. I would suggest that you get there early just in case you have to work soon after you arrive. Do the customary relaxation exercises; then do Personal Inventory to see what you need as a preparation for getting ready to get ready. If, for example, you find that you need to work on your ego, pick the kind of ego preparation that will take you to the proper place. After that you may decide to work for a choice that makes you more vulnerable. If you find that these are the only preparations that you need and can do alone, make sure that you don’t prepare too early, or if you do, be sure that you can reinvest in the preparations just before going on the set. At this point, you may have to deal with the actor you are going to work with. If that is the case, seek him out and see if you can find a way to do the necessary relationship work.
Often this becomes an art in itself! Many actors feel that they are too “professional” to do any kind of preparation before they actually step in front of the camera. Others will welcome the opportunity to prepare, run lines, or do whatever is necessary to make their work better. You have to “feel it out,” see if you are working with the kind of actor who is involved with process and wants to “warm up"! If you are, do whatever is necessary to establish the reality of the relationship. Explore his features; look for the things in his behavior that promote the right impulses for you; selectively emphasize things that he says or does that make you feel what you want to feel. You needn’t tell him what you are doing since it can all be done silently while making small talk. If an endowment is necessary, if you have to create sensorially things that do not exist in him, however, you will probably need more time.
If you come across an actor who is obviously not into that “schoolroom acting shit,” one who “says his jokes, takes the money, and runs,” you will have to subtly seduce him into working with you without his knowledge of what you are actually doing. The best way to do this is to start with a compliment: tell him how much you enjoy his work, or whatever, get him to talk about himself—all actors love doing that!—then do your work with him as he talks. While you are doing your process, he is “getting off” telling you about his life, and at the same time he is getting the value of your preparation by becoming somewhat related and involved with you—and he doesn’t even know it! Of course, achieving ensemble will usually he more possible when yon are working with a cooperative actor who is willing to do ensemble-type preparations.
If the obligation is a large emotional encounter and you can get the other actor to prepare with you, go to your dressing room and do some work on the choices that will precipitate the emotional life between the two of you. For example, suppose the scene starts with a violent disagreement over an issue or another person and the level of life is quite emotional. If you do some imaginary monologues talking to the other actor as if he were someone else, you could establish the impetus that will organically catapult you into the scene; or you may find an issue between you that will work as available stimulus. Whatever the case may be, use your time to get ready to work. Once you step into the set, quickly assimilate your technical responsibilities, and begin working for the choices you have decided on. Carry your preparations into the scene and go from there. As you go from take to take and setup to setup, be sure that you stay in touch with the obligations in each section; reinvest in the specific choices and approaches, and don’t allow yourself to get distracted from your creative responsibilities. If possible, try to use choices that might reach into the unconscious and bring some of its life into each scene. As you gain experience with the craft, you will learn to recognize those kinds of choices.
Every director you will work with will be different! Each one has his own style, from no direction to fastidious attention to minute detail! Your responsibility is to know your job, to be able to do what you are asked, and to do it professionally and well. If God is good to you and you get a director who really knows what he is doing, allow him to lead you into what he wants from you. Very few directors in the world have a process that allows them to collaborate with the actor to produce organic and exciting results, but some are bright enough to recognize that you indeed do have a process, and they will clear the way for you to use it. Let them!
Most often, the director will tell you where to move and on what line, and he will give you some input on what he would like to see happen in the scene. Listen to his directions. Be clear about the technical responsibilities. Walk through the moves, make sure that you “nail down” the action of the scene, and then move into your craft process. If the director tells you something that is inconsistent with what you had planned to explore, make his direction clear to yourself, and adjust or modify your choices and approaches accordingly. The rule is that a director will most likely leave you alone if he is getting what he wants. If you are a craftsman and can function in the medium, you will have no trouble with directors. It is almost never necessary to discuss or to show your process to anyone. Unless a director specifically wants to know exactly what you are doing, it is your own business. Once in a while you will be fortunate enough to encounter an “actors’ director,” and if this is the case, he will most likely attempt to direct you creatively by manipulating and suggesting stimuli or affecting you in some desired way. When that happens, let go of your choice and go with where he is leading you. The most important things you need when working with any kind of director is to know what you are doing, to be malleable and open, to have confidence in your craft, and to use it!
Usually, all you have to rehearse a scene in a film is a few minutes, and unless there are problems with it, the director will look at it, make some suggestions, and shoot it. So you must be able to do your work fast! Unlike a play rehearsal, where you can repeat, stop, and ask questions, a film rehearsal does not give you much time. So know exactly what you are going to do in the shot! Be clear about your choice and approach. If possible, begin working before you step into the set. Be ready at every opportunity. If you don’t feel right about your work in a particular take, ask the director if you could do it again, but for God’s sake, learn from the last take, and use the next one. If you need another rehearsal, speak up and ask for it. It is better to use the time in another rehearsal than to waste the film by shooting it when you don’t feel ready. Of course, it is important to know the difference between taking your due as a creative artist and being a pain in the butt! If you really know what you are doing, however, and you need more time, additional input, clarification, and so on, don’t be afraid to ask for it. Remember that the only thing that is really important in the last analysis is what comes out on that film. You can be a “one-take Charlie” and be loved by the producer and the director, but if your work isn’t good, that’s all they’ll remember. Beware of the trap of tension and panic. Under the pressure of a take, your work can go out the window if you begin to concern yourself with the wrong things. If you feel that pressure growing in you, stop and deal with it. Do some Personal Inventory, deal with your demons, acknowledge the distractions, and reinvest in the strongest part of your choice to “suck” yourself back into the scene. If you want to do shtik and play, do so after you have finished working for the day. While you are there, use every moment you have to prepare and exercise your craft!
Home Preparation:
Read and understand the material, break down the responsibilities of your character, decide on your various choices and approaches, and work on them at home. Create a complete chart of your obligations, choices, and approaches as well as continuity chart.
Preparation on the set:
1. Get there early enough to prepare. Do the relaxation-cluster. Do Personal Inventory: find out where you are and what other preparations you need to go on to the next step; do them!
2. Take an available-stimulus inventory: find out what exists in the environment that you can use to promote your goals, and work with it.
3. Find out with whom you are working; do some preparations with them, and get ready for the scene.
4. Refer to your charts frequently so you know exactly where you are and what you must do.
5. Always be aware of the need to establish an ensemble relationship with the other actors, and decide on your choices with that in mind. Encourage ensemble preparations.
6. Understand the director, know where he is coming from, and make the necessary adjustments to get the most out of the collaboration.
7. Stay in touch with how you feel at all times; include your moment-to-moment life in the scene.
8. Use every second of the rehearsal, first to solidify the technical demands of the scene, and then to create the reality craftually.
9. Prepare for the next day. Mentally go over everything you did today, and if necessary write it down in some kind of journal. You may have to do some preparations tomorrow in order to match the emotional state you were in today. Refer to your charts, and follow the continuity. Tomorrow is not only a new day; it is a continuation of today!
10. The goal and the bonus of our work is to accomplish the highest state of inspiration and reality possible. An ultimate-consciousness experience is that, so remember to do ultimate-consciousness preparations and to make choices that will hopefully stimulate responses from the unconscious.
Again, there are many kinds of plays and many levels of production, from college theater to Broadway with a lot in between! Every circumstance is slightly different, and rehearsal schedules and techniques vary with each of the many directors involved. If you get a Broadway play, the rehearsals may last anywhere from three to six weeks, starting each morning and going for a full eight-or ten-hour day. Off Broadway is similar, hut as you get less and less professional, to where actors don’t get paid for their work, you will find that the rehearsal schedules vary greatly. Whatever amount of time you spend rehearsing, it is very important to use those rehearsals creatively. Your process is extremely important to the outcome of your work. Unlike in film, here you do have the luxury of time to explore and experiment. Unfortunately most actors and almost as many directors do not know how to rehearse, so it becomes a process of repetition and acclimation. From the very first rehearsal, you must know exactly what you are doing and what you are going to do! Part of your time will be spent with the director and the other actors rehearsing either in the theater or in some other rehearsal space, but the rest of it should be spent doing your “homework.”
Directors work very differently. Some may start the rehearsal process by having the actors read the play together and discussing its statements and their interpretations. Others will want to get the actors on their feet immediately. Whatever the approach, you must use each and every rehearsal. You must know what you are going to do each day. A good way to start is to see what is there! Find out where everyone is coming from. If you start rehearsing by reading the play, don’t impose any concept in the reading. Read it from where you are in the moment. Listen to what the director says and what he wants, and make notes about it. Listen to, and watch, the other actors; get a sense of how they work, what they do, and what you are likely to get or not get from them. Allow yourself a wide open field to discover what is there to be addressed. Let the material carry you if it will. Often, the actor will get sucked into the current of the realities of the material, and that will be the foundation of choices he makes later on. Know what is there that might work for the obligations of your character, and identify the elements that you can relate to that will intensify the impact of these available realities. Avoid making any “final decisions” in the early rehearsals; allow yourself the time to explore the possibilities. Remember that you are a long way from performance, so don’t push for results of any kind. Relate to the rehearsal period as an adventurous journey into unexplored territory.
If the director starts immediately to “block” the play, it is important that you just note and move through the blocking process. You cannot do more than one thing at a time, so don’t attempt to work for any choices until you have assimilated the blocking. You will be able to organically motivate and impel yourself to move to those places later. It is extremely important to prepare before starting a rehearsal, and if the director you are working with doesn’t do preparations, you must do them for yourself. Start with instrumental preparations. As the rehearsals proceed, the preparations will vary in terms of the demands of each particular rehearsal. Know what you are after, and ask yourself in what kind of place you have to be to accomplish that reality. That will lead you to the kind of preparation yon need.
Early in the rehearsal process, after you have become acquainted with the interpretation and theme of the play, you will identify the various obligations: time and place, relationship, emotional, character, thematic, historic, and subtextual. The chronology of approaching these obligations should be made specific by the play.
After a few rehearsals, when you have gotten acquainted with the play and the people, when you kind of know how the director sees the play, when you have assimilated and recorded the blocking and have allowed yourself to be carried by the material, it is time to start approaching the obligations in the order of their importance and of their relationship to each other. This is a good place to start your obligation-choice-and-choice-approach chart. As you carry the book, your chart will be right there in front of you and will remind you of the responsibilities in each scene. Most often, it is wise to start with the creation of the place. This is where all the action in a scene takes place, and besides being important in terms of the way it affects the character, it is also important because it allows the actor to be someplace else than on the stage. Once he has decided to create a specific place, if he works for it in every rehearsal, it will soon become a reality, so that every time he comes on .the set he will feel as if he were in that place.
After you have figured out the obligations of the play from your character’s perspective, it is important that you do your homework. There is only so much you can do at home since you don’t have the other actors to work with; however, you can explore certain choices, make decisions on which choice approaches to try, and work on character element obligations. From the very beginning of the rehearsal process, look for choice areas that are multidimensional and somehow connected with the unconscious. Attempt to explore your choices in your dream life. If you work on a particular choice before going to bed at night and remember to “play with it in the sleep-wake state, you stand to learn a lot in addition to finding choices that appeal to your unconscious.
At the end of each rehearsal day. find out which scenes the director is going to work on the next day and, if he can tell you, what his emphasis will be. Once you know that, you can take it home and prepare to deal with the responsibilities of the next rehearsal.
In a sense you are doing two rehearsals: first, you are dealing with whatever the director wants to confront, and secondly, you are doing “your” work. That is not to say that you don’t both want the same things. It simply means that often the director is involved in the technical responsibilities of the entire piece and gives the actor “result” directions. He tells you what he wants to see you do, how to relate to the other character, and where to move, and asks you to project, to be fuller, bigger, and so on. It is the actor’s job, when working with a director who does not specifically share his process or approach, to understand and accommodate the directors wishes, while at the same time doing his own craft process to create the realities that impel the character’s behavior in the play.
If nothing is chronologically more important, the best thing to start with is the creation of the place. The actor should understand how the place affects the character and how it stimulates or influences what takes place in the scene. Having identified that, he can choose a place from his own life that brings up similar impulses for him. Before the rehearsal begins, he can usually start to create his place in the rehearsal environment. There are a variety of choice approaches that he can use, the most thorough of which would be Sense Memory. He can do this silently by asking the sensorial questions and responding with the specific sense that he has questioned. If at all possible, and depending on the circumstances of the play, he might bring some personal articles from home that might promote the reality he is attempting to create. If not, he can work for them through his sensorial process. Once he has created the place and has some sense of it, he can step onto the stage and immediately be affected by his place. This frees him to go on to the next obligation.
Let’s say that he has already dealt with the character obligation at home. He has worked for a specific choice that elevates his criticality, a major attribute of the character he is playing. By selectively emphasizing everything around him that he can find fault with, including every person he encounters on the street, he has piqued a critical part of himself. His attitude, behavior, and essence have become critical and judgmental. The rehearsal starts with a carping argument between the characters in the play, and as the scene proceeds they denigrate each other’s character with a barrage of ugly criticism. Our actor has created a place where he lived for several years in a very unhappy marriage. Many arguments occurred in this environment. In addition, he has dealt with the character element of being a critical and judgmental person, so he steps onto the stage with two of his obligations already serviced. The rehearsal involves dealing with the relationship elements and the emotional life that evolves out of that relationship. The director has blocked the scene, and the actor knows where to sit, when to move to the bar and pour himself a drink, and so on.
In this particular rehearsal he has decided to deal with the relationship obligation, which is that of a man married to a woman that he can’t satisfy. The relationship has disintegrated into constant conflict and indictment. As a choice he decides to work for his ex-wife in relation to the actress doing the play with him. His choice approach is Endowments, and the approach technique, Sense Memory. Throughout the rehearsal, he is creating his choice and also using the actress. He does his process before, in between, and under the lines of the scene.
Example:
HE: |
(Sitting in a chair facing the actress who is sprawled out on the sofa.) You drink too much! (Silently) What are the similarities in her eyes? (Responding with the visual sense) What is the color of her hair in relation to the actress? (Another visual response) |
SHE: |
And you are always there to remind me, aren’t you, Paul? |
HE: |
Someone must be there to remind you what a disgusting lush you are! How are their voices alike? (Responding with the auditory sense) |
SHE; |
Did you ever love me? |
HE: |
What is that sound she makes that I find repulsive? . . . What is the depth and quality of her voice when I hear that? No, Sybil, I don’t think I ever have . . . How does that hit you, darling? |
SHE: |
You’re a slob, Paul... do you know that? . . . Look at you . . . You’re a loser! |
What does she smell like? (Responding with the olfactory sense, attempting to re-create the odor of his ex-wife) You may be right, Sybil, but at least I’m playing the game that I’m losing! |
The rehearsal continues, often with a comment or interruption from the director. As the actor navigates his way through, exploring his choice, he will discover if it is taking him where he wants to go. If he feels it isn’t strong enough, or that maybe it makes him too hateful, he may make an adjustment or two with it or in relation to the actress. Knowing what the characters feel about each other, both actors start a relationship preparation before the rehearsal. They may begin with a simple, selfless “Wonder, Perceive” exercise and go into an improvisation, selectively emphasizing things about each other that create distaste, frustration, and conflict.
So for this rehearsal the actor has:
1. Worked on the character obligation (being a critical and judgmental person) as homework
2. Created a parallel place (his own living room when he was married, a place where he had similar experiences) when he arrived at the rehearsal
3. Done the necessary preparations to free his instrument, and worked with the actress on a relationship preparation to stimulate an emotional point of view toward her that parallels the circumstances of the play
4. During the actual rehearsal, worked to get a sense of his ex-wife in relation to the actress, using the available realities in conjunction with his choice. He accomplished this by sensorially doing an Endowment.
Essentially all rehearsals are handled in the same way. The difference is in the various responsibilities and obligations. The choices and approaches will differ, but the process of using the craft is the same. After the rehearsal the actor should refer to his obligation-choice-and-choice-approach chart and make the necessary comments about the effectiveness of each approach. He will decide to either keep the choice, further explore it, make some adjustments to it, or possibly try another. He should definitely listen to the director’s notes before making any final decisions about where to go next with his process. Let us say that the actors have spent the entire morning on that scene, doing it more than once. The actor has had the opportunity to test his changes and adjustments. After hearing the director’s comments, he should make some notes about what his next move will be in relation to that scene just in case they do not return to it for a few days,
It is very important to mention at this point that the actor must allow himself to be irreverent to the scene while exploring the way to ultimately fulfill it. If, while working for his choice, he finds the whole thing humorous, he must honor that and express it during the rehearsal. The creative actor must always “allow and permit” all his impulses to be included in his behavior on a moment-to-moment basis. If he attempts to service his concept of the material, he will short-circuit the reality stimulated by his choice and will end up presenting an emotional life that does not come from a real place. Depending on the kind of director you are working with, it may be necessary to explain exactly what you are doing, making sure that you reassure the director that you understand the result responsibilities of the scene. Inform him that you are both working toward the same goal but that you must have the permission to use the rehearsal to explore the stimulus that will impel you to behave as the character does, from an authentic place. You need only tell him about the irreverent exploration; it isn’t necessary to expose your choices or process to anyone.
Every rehearsal is explored in essentially the same way. You identify the obligations of the scene you are going to rehearse and do as much instrumental and craft preparation as you can prior to getting on the stage. Work for the choice or choices that you have decided to explore in this particular rehearsal, and find out where they lead you. Be open to anything that affects you in the moment, and go wherever it takes you. Keep your charts and rehearsal journals current, noting the effect of everything you have explored. Make notes about future possibilities. You may try as many as eight choices in a scene before you decide on the one you want to use. Remember that’s what rehearsals are for, finding the specifics that fulfill the material. If an actor or director does not use them creatively, the results will be commensurate with the loss of that opportunity. Every play brings with it its own special demands, and the actor must accommodate the special responsibilities through his process. Working with a director can be either a nightmare or a wonderful collaboration. If the actor remembers to communicate with him and has a solid process of work, they will most likely complement each other.
When doing a scene with more than one actor, you will need to establish a relationship reality with all of their characters. Sometimes, if you are fortunate, the available stimuli will suffice. There will be enough of a reality between you and the other actors to fulfill the material, but if that is not the case, it will be necessary to have choices for each and every character in the play. Use the rehearsal process to deal with that obligation, and promote the choices in your offstage relationships whenever possible. Try to get the other actors to do relationship preparations before each rehearsal. If after a fairly long rehearsal period you arrive at the choices that you are going to use throughout the play, repeatedly work for them in successive rehearsals to make them more solid and dependable. After working with a choice for a long time, you begin to discover the “triggers” in it, and it seems to stimulate results at a more rapid pace. If at all possible, encourage the other actors to do preparations. Besides the standard involvement preparations, there are also ensemble preparations. If your goal is to accomplish ensemble in the play, you must be related on that level and use choices that lead you into that kind of relating. The ensemble preparations are discussed in great detail in chapter 3 of this book. Use them!
1. Read the play, either as a group or individually See what is there, what it is about, and what kind of person your character is. Get a sense of the material, the author’s intention or statement, the feeling, the ambience of the piece.
2. In successive readings, allow yourself to be affected and carried by the material. Don’t rush to make choices or to identify the obligations yet. See what the words stimulate for you. It is possible that the impact of the material will suggest some of your approaches to it.
3. Make note of all the available realities when you are in the reading stage. The play will tell you what your character is like, his personality, the way he relates to the world and specifically to the other characters in the piece. It will describe his sense of life, the conflicts he has, and the ones that come to the surface during the play. It will also let you know how he feels in his environment, how he behaves, and why. All this and much more will unfold as you rehearse. It is very important that at the very earliest you explore and make note of all the available-stimulus realities that are there: the other actors and how they look, behave, and relate to you and to each other; your first impressions; the director, his personality and style; which can be an affecting impetus somewhere down the line—the place, the way it smells, looks, and the feeling of the space itself; immediate responses from the unconscious that you may not be able to explain. If you find die stimulus that piques those responses, you will be able to relate back to it.
4. Prepare before each rehearsal. Do the relaxation-cluster: relax, sensitize, and do Personal Inventory. If you are unusually tense, do an Abandonment or some other large commitment preparation. If after the basic preparations you identify further instrumental obstacles, such as feeling insulated, do a vulnerability preparation (e.g., a Coffin Monologue). When you feel instrumentally ready, you can go into the area of craft preparations. Knowing what the obligations are for the rehearsal you are about to do, choose a preparation that will create a foundation of emotional life for the scene. For example, suppose that the character is nostalgic and sad about the way his life has turned out; you might work for a choice that takes you back to a time in your own life when things were more promising than they turned out to be.
5. Identify and understand the various obligations of the material. Know what the overall obligations are—such as your character obligation, which maintains itself throughout the whole play—and what the individual scene obligations are.
6. Decide on the chronology of obligations—what must be addressed first. For example, let us say that the character obligation is so intrusive and powerful that it influences all the relationships to the other characters. Everything that your character relates to is colored by the nature of his personality. He might be a paranoid type of person who trusts no one, so everything he relates to is tainted by his paranoia. Or let us say that the historical responsibilities affect everything the person does, says, or thinks. That will definitely make these obligations more important and determine the order in which they should be attacked.
7. Create an obligation-choice-and-choice-approach chart. It should be built scene by scene. For more detail, refer to Chapter 4.
8. Create the place. Providing that there are no other obligations that must be dealt with first, create a parallel environment before each rehearsal and while you are on the stage, until such time as you actually feel you are in that environment.
9. Do your homework. Work on each part of the play at home, explore various choices and approaches, and experiment with them. Bring your discoveries into the next rehearsal.
10. Work on the ultimate consciousness as part of your homework and rehearsal process. Since having an ultimate-consciousness experience is the pinnacle of electrifying acting, preparing to reach the unconscious should be a part of the rehearsal routine.
(List of techniques that you can use to pique responses from the unconscious and promote an ultimate-consciousness experience:
a. Create places from your own life that are rich with experiences, and relate them to the play.
b. Use affective-memory choices that are loaded with conscious-unconscious connections.
c. Do improvisations with the other actors relating to them as if they were other people in your life, people with whom you have deep psychological and emotional agenda.
d. Go over the scene every night before bedtime, using your choices. Encourage yourself to dream about the work, the play, and the specific choices.
e. Become aware of any suggestions that you get from your dreams or in the sleep-wake state.
f. Before you start a rehearsal, do a variety of ultimate-consciousness preparations, such as Primal Moan, primitive explorations, “I’m Five Years Old,” etc.
g. Encourage activities and thoughts in your daily life that reflect the behavior and involvements of the character.)
11. Inventory each rehearsal after you have finished it. Go over what happened, what seemed to work, what didn’t, where your choices led you, what adjustments need to be made, what comments you heard from the director and the other actors—anything that you want to remember.
12. Prepare for the next rehearsal. Find out what scene the director is going to do and what he will emphasize. Do your homework, and return prepared with your craft choices.
13. Be irreverent to the material, in order to organically explore the choices. While working with a choice through the use of a choice approach, express all the impulses that are stimulated even if they seem improper for the play. That is the way to find :.cut where a choice will lead you. Sometimes a choice will create behavior that is so much more exciting than in your original concept!
14. Prepare with the other actors; do relationship and scene preparations before and during all rehearsals. These preparations will not only get you into each scene, but they will also establish the ongoing reality of the relationship throughout the entire play.
15. Work with your process in each rehearsal. That is what you do on and off the stage. Use the choices and approaches to fulfill the obligations of the play. Repeat the process in every rehearsal and scene until you are secure with those choices. Be open and impulsive; go with your moment-to-moment realities.
16. Establish communication with the director; be open to his suggestions and help. Let him know what you are doing so he understands when you seem to go off on a tangent.
Knowing what to do and how to use a rehearsal is what makes the difference between lucky accident and artistry. The artist sees the picture and begins the creative process to organically bring life to that image. He does this with his talent and craft. Talent without process cannot be depended upon and is usually unrealized.
The laboratory is a great place for the actor to learn how to rehearse! It is where he can and is encouraged to experiment and fail. An actor must have a place to fail! The workshop is the place where he can first learn the craft and then use it in relation to material. Usually two actors will get together and do a scene from an established play. They will attempt to fulfill the requirements of that specific scene, using it as a framework in which to explore their craft. The rehearsals take place outside the workshop, usually in the apartment of one of the actors. They rehearse a few times, or maybe many times, and then bring the scene to class and do it. They are critiqued and worked with, and then they return to a new set of rehearsals, attempting to apply what they have just learned. How they use their rehearsals is every bit as important as if they were doing a play, since it is this experience that will sculpt the process they will carry into their professional life.
The following are examples often separate rehearsals on a scene for a class or workshop. Again I would like to stress the number of variables and possibilities available to the actor. The craft potentials are unlimited and reach into infinity. The kinds of preparations, choices, and approaches that can u -used are numerous. The interpretation is individual. An actor’s emotional state varies from day to day and rehearsal to rehearsal, necessitating preparations that will confront each specific instrumental problem. What we can accomplish with these ten sample rehearsals is to create a kind of blueprint that will map out the possibilities of approach and the usage of the process. As you read each example, imagine the alternate preparations and choices available.
The material I have selected to use as a framework is a play called Split, by Michael Weller. It is a two-character play about a man and a woman who are married and live in Manhattan. He is a teacher and aspiring writer. They are both in their middle to late thirties and seem to have what on the surface is a normal relationship. As the play proceeds, we find out that there are many underlying frustrations and conflicts in the relationship and that it is truly on shaky ground. The play starts at the tail end of a disagreement they have been having.
In the first rehearsal the actors may either read the play together or come together after reading it on their own. If at all possible, they should read it together since many things come out as they do, things they might forget to discuss if they read it separately. If they can discuss their impressions and interpretations in the first rehearsal, they will have a clear understanding of what they agree or disagree on. They can then find solutions or arbitrate their differences so that these won’t come up later when they might have to backtrack and waste time. If indeed they elect to read the play together, they should avoid giving it any conceptual meaning. They should read it in stream-of-consciousness fashion. If something happens and either of them is emotionally affected, they should definitely honor and express their feelings.
When they finish reading it, they might discuss it, talk about why they think the author wrote it and what he was trying to say or communicate. They could also talk about the characters, who they are and how they see them. They should discuss the subtextual behavior, the relationship between the characters, their conflicts, their frustrations and what caused them (there is a great deal of ambivalence between them). and so on. They should include all the other realities of the material, such as the place the characters live in, since later in the play they discuss whose furniture this or that is. After spending most of the first rehearsal discussing the material, they could begin sharing their feelings about their own personal relationships and explore some of the parallels or similarities, discussing the elements that they relate to and can identify with. Perhaps he sees a strong similarity between the way the female character argues and his own girlfriend, and she feels that the male character avoids conflict exactly as her boyfriend sometimes does.
After discussing the play and looking for parallels, they could read it again, stopping to clarify or define things as they go through it. At this point neither actor should attempt to define the obligations except in very general terms. They can, however, discuss their discoveries about the material, acknowledge the thrust of the piece, the author’s statement or point, and some of the relationship elements. They agree that the surface behavior of the characters is a smoke screen for the real frustrations and dissatisfactions which become evident later in the play. They further agree that both characters have something at stake, and they identify it: they want a more intimate and romantic relationship and to recapture what they had at the beginning. They have drifted into that state of routine and apathy that many couples get to. They have both suppressed their frustrations and romantic hunger. The emotional life of each character changes from moment to moment, but the character element obligations can be worked on individually as well as during rehearsals.
Having spent about three hours in this first rehearsal, the actors decide to end it. It was productive, and they both feel that they have some “handles” on the piece. They decide to do about ten minutes of it as a scene.
Both actors may work some on the piece at home; however, at this point they should avoid making too many decisions about the direction they want to go in. Concepts created in the early rehearsal stages can be difficult to overcome later. Early rehearsals are for open exploration and discovery. Each of the actors might “live” with his first exposure to the material and savor the essence of the character, identifying with the realities wherever possible.
The actors should begin every rehearsal with an instrumental preparation: the relaxation-cluster. Once they feel in touch with themselves, they might do a relationship preparation. There are a variety of these, and since it is only the second rehearsal, an ensemble preparation would not be necessary. However, the Observe-Wonder-and-Perceive exercise would get them involved with each other and ready to go on to the next step. Because of the relationship responsibilities of the piece—and it is definitely a relationship play—they decide to start with a personal exploration of each other. Since they will be relating to each other no matter what their choices eventually turn out to be, they must acknowledge the need to be involved and affected by each other. They could just extend the Observe-Wonder-and-Perceive exercise into a more varied exploration of each other. The objective is manifold: first, to get to know each other better, to establish a greater intimacy; secondly, to find out how they feel in relation to each other and how many different points of view evolve as they work together; and third, to discover similarities between themselves and the characters in the play, to find out what kinds of things they can use to stimulate the attraction, the frustrations, the resentments felt by the characters. They do this exploration in the framework of a wonderment exercise, asking each other things that they are curious about and expressing their feelings about each other.
Example:
This exploration process may continue for as long as it is yielding good results. Both actors are finding out things about each other and establishing a relationship, as well as stumbling onto some parallel realities that they can use as Available Stimulus. After doing the exercise they take an inventory, which they share with each other.
Example of the Sharing Inventory:
After finishing the Sharing Inventory both actors launch into a very complete Intimate-Sharing exercise. (For an example of Intimate Sharing refer to Chapter 3.) This exercise should take them into a deeper relationship. If they are courageous and are not afraid to expose their innermost thoughts and feelings, they will acquire a great deal of knowledge about each other; with this knowledge come more feelings and opinions. In addition to being drawn closer to each other, they will create another vital element, and that is familiarity! Intimate knowledge about the actor you are working with provides an intimacy that two strangers do not reach on stage. Even if the actors are using personal choices, they are in fact talking to each other.
During the Intimate-Sharing workout, both actors talk in great detail about romantic relationships and marriage. The actress expresses a great need to have romance in her life, and while she is in love with the man she is living with, she feels that there is a large gap there. She wants much more from him and isn’t quite sure how to get it. She admits during the exercise that she catches herself doing or saying things to her boyfriend that are designed to affect him, make him jealous, impress him, and so on. That’s what the character Carole does in the play. The actor has also felt similar disappointments in all of the relationships he has had. Because this is such an important area, both actors decide to continue the Intimate Sharing, selectively emphasizing their own personal relationships. Each of them expresses his needs, desires, and frustrations in this area. The point of the exercise is to bring to the surface the realities that parallel those of the characters in the play.
Having spent about two and a half hours in this rehearsal, they decide to call it a day and come back the next day. The actress says that as homework she is going to consciously observe her relationship this evening, taking note of the behavioral stimuli that create the responses that are right for the scene. He says that he is going to start identifying his responsibilities and look for the obligations in the material.
Since she is a night person and he is a day person, they have decided to accommodate each other by having both morning and afternoon rehearsals. This rehearsal is in the afternoon. After doing the preliminary relaxation-cluster, they share some Personal Inventory for the purpose of getting to a BEING place with each other. He asks her if she has any ideas as to where she wants to start today’s rehearsal, because if she doesn’t, he does! She tells him that she is open for suggestion, but that she does want to share some of the discoveries she made last evening after rehearsal number two. He agrees to start there:
SHE: |
It is incredible! I started watching what was going on at the dinner table. It was like standing outside looking at the two of us! When I got home I took a shower and got dressed pretty. I tried to look especially good, right? . . . Well, he came in, kissed me on the cheek, and never said a word about the way I looked or was dressed, or anything! I was pissed! . . . But instead of saying anything to him ... I avoided my feelings and said other little sarcastic things! . .. Well, first I realized that I was hurt, then angry, and then instead of expressing it, I redirected it into what ended up as a petty disagreement about something that he told me had happened at his job. All the time I wanted him to see me! I wanted him to appreciate me! But instead of being up front with it, I did all these numbers! You see, I was afraid that if I said what I felt or asked for what I wanted, he wouldn’t give it to me, so I didn’t chance it. That is exactly what Carole does in the play. (The argument they have about poking the carrot is a total parallel.) So if you multiply that incident by a hundred or a thousand. you get the relationship, see? |
HE: |
That’s great ... So how are you going to use it for the scene? |
Well, I could just work to endow you with him, but I’m not ready to make that decision yet. I need more exploration. |
|
HE: |
O.K., I want to start working on some of the obligations of the play, at least from my perspective. First, I would like to start creating the place. The place is always important, particularly in this play because they refer to it several times. There is that thing about the neighbors complaining about the noise. He gets bent out of shape, and they talk about getting out of the city and buying a house in the country. There is that section where they talk about splitting up and he asks her who keeps the apartment: “It was mine when we met, but you did furnish it!” he says. So I would like to create a place out of my own life experience that stimulates most of the feelings he has in his apartment. Would you like to work for a place too, or are you going to do something else? |
SHE: |
Actually, I think that’s a great idea! I’m going to use my own apartment. For one, I did furnish it, and besides, the history of my entire relationship is in this place. |
So they both begin to create a place, he working for an apartment in New York where he lived briefly, she using Available Stimulus, since they are presently in her apartment. He chooses the apartment in New York because he wants to stimulate the feelings that New York brings up in him and also because at that particular time he was living with a woman that he might use as a choice for the scene. They spend about a half hour sensorially re-creating the place, while she emphasizes and selects certain objects to relate to. He suddenly starts the words of the scene, and she picks up the script and responds. He continues relating to the place while saying some of the lines, at all times expressing his here-and-now feelings through what he is saying. When they have completed the scene, they begin talking about their experience with the place. He tells her that he started the scene to see if the place had any effect on his expression, and happily it did! “I felt some of those same old feelings!” he says. “I had forgotten how trapped I felt in that place! It made me feel dissatisfied with my life . . . I’m doing more of what I want to do now, but then I was working as a waiter—which I hated—not acting, and going nowhere! Creating that place really brought all of that back, and I think it fits! . . . What about you?” She tells him that she also felt some things, although not as pertinent as his, but interesting. She felt married and doesn’t understand why all of a sudden relating to her apartment made her feel that way! She did, however, feel more dependent than normally. After some more discussion about the place, they both decide to work for it at the beginning of every successive rehearsal, promising to bring some personal items every time they work in each other’s place. They then agree to spend the rest of this rehearsal identifying some of the other obligations then confronting them in the order of their importance.
HE: |
First, I want to eliminate the things that don’t need to be dealt with. Naturally there isn’t a historic obligation . . . it’s present day! The thematic obligation, or what the author wants to say, is exemplified in the action and interactions of the play and the characters. I don’t know what the subtextual obligation is, so I’m not going to deal with it, at least not now! I think that there is a time-and-place responsibility, a relationship obligation, various emotional obligations in the section we’ve decided to do, and a character obligation. I have already started to work for the place; we are both in the midst of exploring the elements of the relationship; the emotional life in each part of the scene is variable and somewhat dependent on the relationship elements, so I think that I would like to start exploring the character elements. In some respects the character could be me, except that he is an avoider! I think he is conflict phobic and that he sits on his frustrations, redirecting them into his work and his other relationships, as with Jean. |
SHE: |
I also feel that I could be this character with certain important exceptions: I’m not nearly as dependent as she is, and I think her dependence comes from some very deep insecurities and a lower sense of self-worth than I have. Otherwise I think there are some similarities in our personalities. |
They both decide to reinvest in creating the place and to go into various explorations of their respective characters. She starts by doing a litany of her insecurities in an audible or inaudible monologue selectively emphasizing only the things in her life that pique insecurities.
Example:
“I’m not getting any younger!... I don’t work all that often, and I would like to have children. If I’m going to do that, I’d better start soon! Only I’m not sure of my relationship. I don’t know if I want to marry this guy. I’m insecure about my talent—not all the time, but often enough.”
She continues this approach for as long as necessary to stimulate the level of insecurity she wants for the character element. From this point she will continue the inner monologue, taking it into emphasizing the unfulfilled needs in her relationship.
He begins his exploration of the character with a similar approach, a litany of his frustrations done in the same manner as hers. From there, he does a group of imaginary monologues with people in his life who make him feel helpless and like avoiding problems. He takes this into an imaginary monologue with his ex-girlfriend, who constantly forced him into conflict areas. From that point he relates to the actress and picks out the things in her that intimidate him and make him feel somewhat conflict shy. Both actors are working separately in this part of the rehearsal, but at the conclusion of their explorations they briefly inventory and share their discoveries. They both feel somewhat confused about their explorations. Her litany helped to pique her insecurities but didn’t seem to make her more dependent or needy. His experiment overloaded him. He feels he did too much. However, his craftual journey did produce one very important discovery, and that is a choice he feels might stimulate the manifestations of the character elements that he wants to create: his ex-girlfriend made him feel frustrated, conflict phobic, and as if he would do almost anything to avoid those endless discussions about their life and their relationship. In addition to making that discovery, he remembered that his father used to terrify him, and during one of the imaginary monologues he was doing, he retreated into himself as he used to do. That is a fairly good character element, he thinks, so he has decided to use his father as a “preparational” choice. Being less than satisfied with her exploration, she does an “I Want, I Need” exercise with some very good results. It indeed elevates her need level.
At this point, about an hour and a half into their third rehearsal, they decide to try some of the things they have just explored by carrying them into the lines of the scene. Briefly reinvesting in the place, they then go to the litanies. He follows his with a brief imaginary monologue with his father while she silently does an “I Want, I Need” exercise, and then they go into the lines of the scene, not concerning themselves with doing them verbatim. When they finish, they both feel as if there is a foundation starting to be built for the scene. He experienced that trapped feeling stimulated by the place, as well as a tentative-ness and a desire to avoid confrontation brought about by the imaginary monologue with his father. At the same time, relating to his ex-girlfriend supplied some of the relationship elements of the scene. She also had some success with her choices. Her litany made her feel more insecure, and the “I Want, I Need” exercise indeed stimulated some of her life needs; but she hasn’t yet found anyone in relation to whom to be needy or insecure. At this juncture they end the rehearsal.
After the preparations, they talk a little about their homework. He has done some more character exploration and found that certain people in his life, in addition to his father, make him feel conflict phobic as well as stimulating the need to redirect his frustrations into other involvements. He wants to do an Evocative-Words preparation related to about four different people in his life and an experience involving them. She excitedly reports that she has made a humongous discovery about her relationship. She has found out that if she admits that she loves her boyfriend and relates to those elements about him that support these feelings, she immediately feels insecure, needy, and dependent in relation to him. She has further identified many of the same feelings of jealousy that the character has toward her husband. All of a sudden she wanted to know about the girls her boyfriend works with! Both actors are anxious to start this rehearsal.
After sensorially working for the place, each of them does his own personal work; he does his Evocative-Words preparation semi-audibly, while she goes into the “I Want. I Need” exercise. He then starts an imaginary monologue to his ex-girlfriend paralleling the material. She also explores an imaginary monologue with her boyfriend, attempting to stimulate the love and attraction. At this point they decide to do an ensemble preparation with each other in order to get involved on a more meaningful level.
The exercise they choose to do is “You Make Me Feel.” It stimulates a moment-to-moment responsiveness and dependency on each other’s responses. At a point of high involvement with each other, he starts to talk to her as if she were his ex-girlfriend. She, realizing what is happening, responds to him in terms of the way he affects her, while at the same time talking to her boyfriend. At first the conversation seems only to involve the moment they are in, but as they continue, they both begin talking about experiences from their past, experiences that they had with their respective mates. It is like a Believability exercise involving their choices. Each of them responds as if what is being said is coming from his choice. To this point they are improvising; they haven’t yet dealt with the lines of the play. At a crucial point, she picks up some of the words from the scene that happen to match where they are in the improvisation. The carryover is fantastic. The few lines they exchange sound exactly like the improvisation. They then stop to talk about the work. Both feel that they are on the right track for the scene. They make the entry in their rehearsal journal and chart and go over what they have done to this point. It all seems to be building on the last workout, and very naturally so.
After a short break and getting outside in the open air, they return to the rehearsal somewhat rejuvenated and even more excited. He suggests that he would like to do an Affective-Memory exercise surrounding that place and time in his life, because he was so affected just by the place that he wants to see if Affective Memory will sink deeper shafts into his unconscious. She doesn’t feel the need for anything like that since her relationship is current, but she tells him that she can use the time to do some Inner Monologues to her boyfriend, going back and forth between what she gets from him and what she doesn’t get in a kind of antithesis workout. She thinks it might create the ambivalence the character feels in the play. So they both work for about forty minutes on their respective approaches, then reinvest in relating to each other, again as if they were the choices; only this time she begins with “Do you remember? ...” He picks it up immediately, and they start to talk about things that date back to their first meeting. They discuss mutual friends, restaurants they frequented, their early sexual feelings, their first argument, how jealous they were of each other, a fight he almost got into over her, and so on. It creates a nostalgic essence between them and a real affection. They continue on this road, to where the problems began. The improvisation goes on for a while, and then they decide to quit for the day. It has been a very heavy rehearsal. His Affective Memory did indeed open some capillaries into his unconscious, and he is feeling a little’ shaky. The work is making her feel as though she has opened a Pandora’s box in her own life. She has been challenging her feelings about her relationship, asking questions about what she really wants, where her priorities really are, and so on. Both of them are now beginning to experience the organic underpinnings of the life of these characters in this play, and they know it! Before he leaves her apartment he reminds her that there are some material realities that they have not even discussed, like the fact that these two characters are waiting for company to arrive and that there is an urgency here that has not been mentioned so far. They acknowledge the existence of these obligations but decide to deal with them in future rehearsals.
At the beginning of this rehearsal, even before doing the preparations, he says he wants to do an exposure exercise out loud. Is it O.K. with her? She says, “Sure!” but doesn’t understand why. He says he will tell her later. He begins:
“I feel real insecure! ... I mean about my acting ... I know what I’m doing, but I still feel like I’m not doing nearly enough, and maybe not even the right things! I sometimes feel that all this work is some sort of masturbation, and if I were a real actor I wouldn’t need to do all this nonsense; I would just feel it, believe it. . . Isn’t that what an actor is? All this “Method” nonsense ... all it did was confuse me! . . . Last night I dreamt all night about not being able to kiss anyone ... I mean I had forgotten how to kiss . . . Everyone was talking about how wonderful kissing was, and I had forgotten how to do it! I mean, don’t you think that is significant? I woke up this morning feeling like I didn’t know what life was all about, where I was, where I was going, or anything! . . . Sometimes it’s a little hard to take, you know? Well, I guess that’s all I wanted to say.”
They both sit there for a moment, not saying anything. She breaks the silence by saying that was pretty heavy and does he know what the dream meant? He says that he could probably come up with some theories about what it meant but that he isn’t really sure. He knows that if he hadn’t started this rehearsal by sharing his insecurities, he would probably not. be able to work today. He reassures her that he really believes in the work and that she needn’t worry about his commitment, but she says that she wasn’t at all worried.
They do their basic preparations and then begin working for the place. Since the rehearsal is in his apartment today, she has brought a whole shopping bag of objects from her place and begins placing them around. Each rehearsal has essentially started with the re-creation of the place, and each day it has taken less time to do it. He does some of his character preparations, the Evocative Words and the imaginary monologues, while she does an Inner Monologue dealing with all the relationships that she has had in her whole life and what has happened to them, why they failed. She later explains that the thought had occurred to her that if she could get in touch with all that failure in her romantic life, maybe this relationship would become more important to her. When they finish, they jump into another ensemble preparation, this time the five-part exercise, starting nonverbally, going to sounds, then gibberish, and finally words. He wants to try the scene as written, going moment to moment with what they are both feeling, so they do. There are some nice elements in it. They both agree that they didn’t feel married or that the relationship was at stake, but that they did feel that they were somewhere else than in a rehearsal. He says that he wanted to get an idea about how all the work they had done so far was paying off.
She feels that the relationship is not yet real enough for her and that they should try something that would create a greater reality in terms of their respective choices. He responds that he hasn’t made a solid decision about the relationship choice yet! That surprises her since she thought he was using his ex-girlfriend. He tells her that he is considering it, but that he has a great deal of resistance to that choice, since he has closed that chapter in his life; and besides, he wants to see how far he can go with Available Stimulus before working for an imaginary choice. She reminds him that he has already spent at least three rehearsals relating to his ex-girlfriend. He acknowledges that and says he is going to try to get past the resistance he feels with that choice. She asks him why it is such a difficult area for him, and he tells her that he feels very guilty about that relationship. It seems that she wanted to get married and he didn’t! He wasn’t as direct with her as he should have been, and he still feels like he wasted a lot of her time “stringing her along” as he puts it. “Use it!” she says, “It’s perfect for the scene! Don’t you see the parallel here? Suppose you create your ex-girlfriend in relation to me and the issue is getting married, right?. . . Its what she wants, and it’s what you want to avoid . . . You see?... It does parallel their relationship in a way, while at the same time you have quite an agenda with this woman: guilt, anger, the need to avoid, frustration with an unresolvable issue! You see?” It all makes a lot of sense to him, and they decide to use the rest of the rehearsal to sensorially create their choices by using Endowments in relation to each other. After about fifteen minutes they begin to speak, at first with their own words and then with the words of the scene. As they relate to each other through the lines of the scene, they continue to work sensorially to endow each other with the features of their respective choices. The endowment seems to make the relationship more focused, somewhat more intense. He starts to go back and forth between the lines of the scene and his own words, saying things to her about their relationship and how she made him feel when she nagged at him. The actress begins responding to what he is saying in his own words as well as through the lines of the scene. She relates to everything as if her own boyfriend was talking to her. They do the entire scene using the Inner-Outer-Monologue technique, and when it is over, they discuss their feelings about the rehearsal:
HE: |
I felt great about that one! Thanks for suggesting that I confront my feelings about my ex; it really opened a door for me. I felt that because I have been carrying around all that guilt I didn’t want to deal with those feelings, so when I allowed myself to feel all that, it really “dimensionalized” the relationship for me . . . Also, working with Endowments made all the difference. I really felt for the first time that she was who I was talking to. |
SHE: |
Great! I got a lot more from you too!. . . You seemed to be looking way down into my soul. It was very intense, and for the first time I felt there was something at stake between us. I had a little trouble with the endowment process ... I couldn’t remember specific little things related to my boyfriend . . . isn’t that ridiculous? Anyway, I think we should continue this approach, and I’m going to do some homework sensorially! |
They both feel relieved and as if they have “broken the back” of the relationship responsibilities. He, however, brings up a really important point about the work and the parallel to real life. To this point, he says, they have been trying to create the conflict, the frustrations, and the dissatisfactions, but in a real-life situation all those things come out of what people want and don’t get! So maybe they have been approaching the whole thing from the wrong direction. She immediately responds defensively to his suggestion and tells him to speak for himself! Instead of getting into conflict with her, he realizes that either she didn’t understand his point or he hadn’t made it clear.
HE: |
I think that all the work we have done to this point has been wonderful. I don’t want to suggest that we have wasted our time, but let me make my point, O.K.? (She nods.) O.K. ... I think what keeps people in a relationship is that they want something from each other that they keep trying to get! Right? (She nods.) O.K. . . . not getting what they need creates the conflict, etc. . . . and so on into their pattern of relating! So what I’m saying is that I think now we need to backtrack a little and work for whatever stimulates the needs we have in relation to our choices. If, for example, I emphasized everything that turned me on about my ex and worked for all the attractive and wonderful qualities that brought us together, the things that made me want her in the first place, then if those needs and attractions were frustrated by other behaviors and actions, I would naturally want to get back to those qualities and to the relationship we had, right? ... so there would be a striving to change things, and that’s what I think happens in real life. |
SHE: |
Yes, you’re right! I totally agree. I’m sorry I responded like that! |
HE: |
Don’t apologize! We are collaborating here... I think that we are going to ruffle each other’s feathers from time to time, and it’s O.K.! |
SHE: |
Thanks! Yes, yes, I see exactly what we have to do here. Even though we know that they eventually split up, we should essentially work to change the outcome of the play! Except that we fail, right? |
HE: |
Right, but we can’t know or accept that .,. We have to find a way to fight for what we want from each other! |
On that note they decide to adjourn and work the next day. They both agree that there is a lot to think about and work on. As homework they agree to explore some of the possibilities of stimulating these needs in relation to each other and to their choices. Before leaving, they both spend about ten minutes making entries in their rehearsal journals and charts.
This rehearsal starts very quietly. Both actors seem preoccupied, and after a brief greeting they go into their relaxation preparations. Afterwards, instead of working to create the place as usual, they agree to start immediately to confront the issue brought up at the end of the last rehearsal. He has an idea about how to approach it:
They agree to do the work and launch into an ensemble preparation attempting to get involved with each other on a very deep level. At a point in the preparation, they both begin to work sensorially to create their choices in relation to each other and spend as much time as necessary to get a real sense of them. He reminds her to make an adjustment in the sensorial process to create her boyfriend as he looked, behaved, and dressed at the beginning of their relationship. She acknowledges the suggestion. After about ten or fifteen minutes of silent work on the Endowments she breaks the silence by saying, “I love you,” which impulsively brings tears to his eyes. He responds with “I love you too.” They begin to talk about things that are happening in their lives at that time, and a lot of the conversation involves sex and flirtatious innuendo. They laugh a lot. and there is a lot of embarrassment between them. This encounter continues for about twenty minutes, liberally combined with Believability elements, things that may not actually have occurred at the time but that contain enough truth to make them believable. She very subtly begins to interject some slight dissatisfactions, which they both attempt to deal with, at first by ignoring them, and later by avoiding some of them. However, after about a half hour of the improvisation, the tone of the relationship has visibly changed. Both of the characters (actors) are struggling to hang on to what was there in the beginning. Whereas, when they started the improvisation, there was a lot of physical contact, it has greatly diminished! He has moved away from her and now sits facing her in a chair. He interrupts the improvisation to suggest that they go to the scene, continuing what they are doing and adding an Inner Monologue about what they want that they are not getting, and including the way they feel in all these areas on a moment-to-moment basis. Without interrupting the mood they have created, they start the scene. Of course, they are being irreverent to the specific demands of the material in order to explore this choice involvement. They continue this process of Endowment (sensorially), relating to each other in an improvisational frame work, subtly interjecting the elements of conflict that do or did exist in their respective relationships. Having now moved into the words of the scene, they are essentially continuing the improvisation as an Inner Monologue under the lines, relating to what they need that they are not getting, what the other person is doing that they wish he or she weren’t, and so on.
Example:
HE: |
Line:. . . (Inner Monologue: There she goes again. Why can’t she let go of anything?) Line:. . . (Please smile... I love you... I wonder if I said that to her if she’d stop this petty crap?) Line: . . . (Response to her: I love the way she smiles ... It makes me melt. . . She’s at it again ... I don’t want to listen to the same stuff again and again!) Line:.. . (What is it she really wants? ... Is it really getting married, or is that temporary? . . . ) Line: . . . (What will she want after that? . . . ) Line: ... (I hate women . . . No, I don’t! ... I sometimes hate her . . . ) |
This process can continue throughout the entire scene. At the end of it both actors acknowledge a kind of excitement, and at the same time both of them feel a little “overload.” They take a short break, stretch their legs, and have a cup of coffee. They recap the rehearsal and all parts of the process that they have explored, feeling that this was the most successful relationship involvement that they have reached so far. He says that dealing with the early relationship indeed made him want to hold on to what was there, and that instead of working to create the conflict as actors do, he really wanted to avoid it and have everything be wonderful. He also feels that approaching the scene from this perspective piqued his unconscious need for love and romance. The life seemed to be coming from a much deeper place. “There was something really at stake for me!” he says. She agrees almost completely with him. Her experience matched his. She admits having had some of the same sexual feelings toward her choice that were there in the beginning but are not so common in the relationship now. They make some entries in their journal, add a choice to the choice part of their chart, and look at each other as if to say, What now?
With this they end the sixth rehearsal.
After a brief greeting and a cup of coffee, they begin the rehearsal. He asks for a little more time with the preparation this morning, telling her that he wants to do a longer and deeper relaxation, possibly a Logey exercise. She agrees, since she has some things she wants to explore too. Their preparations go on for about twenty minutes. Skipping the Sensitizing and Personal Inventory, he has gone right into a specific ultimate-consciousness preparation. Because of the work he has been doing on his past relationship, he has been dreaming a lot about it, so he has decided to experiment with attempting to sensorially recreate parts of his most recent dream. She works for her place and does some imaginary monologues with her boyfriend as preparations for getting into the scene. When they are finished with their preparations, he suggests a brief ensemble involvement to be followed by sensorial Endowments of each other with their respective choices. She suggests a different kind of ensemble preparation: Double Exposure (see chapter 3). They do about ten minutes of that, followed by “You Make Me Feel.” Without discussing any of their preparations they move into the endowment process, both of them attempting to retain whatever they have accomplished in the other preparations. They work silently but very intimately for fifteen minutes, at which time he starts the scene, picking it up a little past the beginning. Continuing to work with Endowments and expressing everything they are feeling on a moment-to-moment basis, they do the ten minutes they have chosen to do in the play. When they finish, they sit looking at each other for a long moment, and then finally she says that she liked what just happened. He did too: “It seems to be taking on a variety of different kinds of life!” The conflict seemed to be there,-the relationship, which they had spent most of their time creating, was real for both of them, and they agree that there seemed to be a lot at stake that last time through. He acknowledges that his ultimate-consciousness preparation was very important to the quality of his work this time, since he was totally unconcerned with the scene itself: “It was as if acting was secondary to what I was feeling in relation to you!” She asks him more about that preparation and after hearing the specifics says she will do one in their next rehearsal. Having skipped creating the place in favor of his other preparations, he felt that there was something missing, but he did feel as if he were someplace else. They decide to do the scene again with an Inner-Outer-Monologue approach. He suggests trying it that way because he feels that even though he was extremely involved the time before, he isn’t sure that he was expressing all of his real impulses. There seemed to be a part of him which wanted to service the relationship responsibilities of the scene. So they reinvest in the Endowments, using each other at the same time, and after a few moments start the dialogue.
Example:
This process might continue throughout the whole scene or just for part of it. Both actors should continue to work sensorially in creating their choices and at the same time express everything they feel through the lines of the scene. At the completion of the second run-through, instead of having a discussion, they immediately go into the scene again, this time verbatim. Continuing to work for their choices, he carries his moment-to-moment life into an Inner Monologue, and she encourages herself to be irreverent to the material. They do the scene a third time without taking any liberties with the lines, but including everything they feel moment to moment. Then they decide to take a break and inventory the rehearsal.
They are both very positive about what they have accomplished today and feel that the scene is growing in terms of the reality and variety of life. He mentions again that he wants to deal with some of the other responsibilities of the material, but he feels much more secure about it since he has done some homework the night before. He has found some parallels for some of the obligations and has already started to work on them. For the character’s teaching he has decided to relate to a time when he had thought of being a teacher and in fact had done a semester of student teaching. He says that he did some Evocative Words related to that experience and that it really brought back some very rich memories. He has a choice for Jean, and all he has to do about it is suggest her to himself. The urgency of people coming over is easy, he says: since the conflict makes him anxious and he feels an urgency to escape from it, that might work. In addition to all of that, he has a neighbor just like the one in the play, who leaves him polite and dignified notes about how loud his stereo was the night before. He says he will work for each of these things as they present themselves in the scene so as not to overload himself with preparations. She is delighted that he has found choices for these elements and in turn confides that there is a real “Jean” in her life, a woman her boyfriend works with who is “so, so efficient . . . and so, so . . . attentive! It makes me want to vomit every time he starts talking about her. I mean, I’m not jealous . . . yes I am, damn it, but I don’t want to be! Her name is Dawn, so every time either you or I say ‘Jean,’ I’m going to hear ‘Dawn’!” They feel that they have used their time fairly well and neither wants to do any more, so they quit for the day.
Since he had the time, he did his preparations before coming over so that he could spend more time working to create the place and dealing with some of the other realities. Last night, he ran across a picture of the girl that he was going to use for Jean, and he put it in his wallet. While she does the relaxation-cluster, he does another ultimate-consciousness workout, this time starting with a mini Primal Moan and going into an Affective Memory concerning his relationship. She does an “I Want, I Need” workout semi-audibly and goes into an Accuse-and-Indict exercise, which is an imaginary monologue accusing whomever you are talking to of not giving you what you need.
Example:
“You never gave me the attention I needed! .. . You are always so self-involved . . . You never give me physical contact except when we make love! . . . You are just never there when I need you; you’re always working ... You’re a damned Yuppie!”
They come together again, investing in the endowment process, and after a short time start the scene. She continues the “You-Never-Gave-Me” exercise in between the lines (out loud) and he gets very angry with her! It seems that he had some very important success with his primal and affective-memory involvements, and when she starts to indict and accuse him, he takes it very personally and responds with a great deal of anger. The scene takes off in that direction, with both actors mixing the words of the play with their own words. At one point it becomes so heated that he walks out of the room. When he returns, they talk about what happened. It seems that one of his ex-girlfriend’s favorite expressions was “You never” and that when he heard it, it pushed all of his buttons. He admits that he wanted to strike her (the actress)—but not to worry; he has never hit a woman before in his life. That is why he left the room. They are both excited about the rehearsal and agree that they will have to stop taking liberties with the dialogue. She says that the indictment exercise really piqued her dissatisfactions and made her go after him.
They take a short break and resume the rehearsal with a parallel improvisation discussing all the other characters in the play (none of whom ever appears). They talk about Jean, using their own personal choices; they discuss how they feel about her; they talk about the neighbor downstairs, having fun with how he behaves, and about friends they had before meeting each other. Following that, they decide to do an improvisation using their own personal realities and Believability to talk about their first romantic experience with each other, the first time they made love. Both actors use their respective mates as choices and decide to take the improvisation personally. They are doing it to deal with a section of the material where the characters discuss this wonderful weekend they spent in bed right at the beginning of their relationship. They do the improvisation for about seven or eight minutes and go right into that section of the scene. It carries over beautifully! They establish an intimacy and a nostalgia that is very right for the scene. It works so well that they extend the improvisation to the whole scene. Starting from the beginning, they parallel the scene with a Believability improvisation using their own relationships. Wherever they can, they use realities that match the scene and where there isn’t a parallel they use Believability to mirror the material. Throughout the entire improvisation they speak their own words, creating a parallel to the written dialogue, totally emphasizing the personal realities which match each section of the scene. At the conclusion of the improv, they start the lines, just going moment to moment with the life stimulated by the Believability, and go through the scene without working for any of the other choices. The carryover is great. They both feel that it did what it was supposed to. The work is beginning to accumulate! Feeling that they had a productive day, they end the rehearsal.
They start number nine with the customary relaxation-cluster. He does a Being Workout, and she does some in-depth Personal Inventory, after which he says that he wants about an hour to “put the scene on its feet.” “We have been doing a lot of things here, just sitting around and talking. I think it’s time to deal with the responsibilities of the actions of the scene, the things they do. He goes in and out of the kitchen to check dinner, she straightens the room, he makes a telephone call and talks to Jean’s answering machine for a couple of minutes, they pour and drink wine, he looks for a missing wine glass, and so on. These are all things that have to be made real. So I would like to create those realities or at least explore possible choices that will make them real for me.” So she starts working with the available realities of her living room and begins to straighten and clean the place up. He goes into the kitchen and, starting with Available Stimulus, attempts to sensorially create his New York kitchen. Both of them spend about half an hour working for those realities. He goes to the telephone and begins to work to create someone on the other end. His obligation in the scene is to feel discomfort at trying to cancel the dinner invitation and, when he reaches the answering machine, to compensate for not knowing what to say about why he called, by making jokes. He tries several choices, including a couple of answering machines, until he stumbles onto a good one. He had a friend in college who used to leave bizarre messages on his machine, so in an attempt to top his friend he would do the same. He works sensorially to create one of those times. Both actors then work for the odors of a dinner, a roast and potatoes. Finally they deal with creating the wine and the effect of two or three glasses on their physical state. He works for being a little high, and she responds to her exploration by giggling a lot. After about an hour they decide to isolate only the areas that they have just explored and to “walk” the scene without dealing with any of the other obligations. They start by creating the sounds and smells of the food cooking in the kitchen and go from that to creating the kitchen and then the wine. She has some burgundy, so they decide to dilute it with water and use the real thing, or at least the barest minimum of the real thing. At that point they are both working for the effects of the wine and doing the scene, They run through it twice before stopping to assess what has happened in the run-throughs.
After discussing their feelings about it, they both agree that it was awkward. Since they hadn’t dealt with any of the actions and movement responsibilities before, these seemed to get in the way of their personal moment-to-moment realities, and the whole scene felt mechanical. They did, however, have some success with getting high, Neither of them feels concerned with what just happened. They agree that there is only so much you can accomplish in eight or nine rehearsals and that the relationship elements are much more important. They will continue to deal with these realities in every rehearsal from now on but will still concentrate on the relationship for the first presentation in front of the class.
After a short break they reinvest in the preparations, go into a Two-Person Being Workout (see Chapter 3), then do an available-stimulus exploration dealing with how they feel about the place, each other, and what is going on between them, what has changed since the first rehearsal in the way they feel about each other, and so on. Many changes have taken place in a little over a week. They both feel that they have somewhat of a history with each other, a variety of feelings about what they could and couldn’t say to each other, the beginnings of an ability to know and predict each other’s responses, and so on. They also feel an attraction and a curiosity about each other. All of these available realities could work for the scene. They have established elements that parallel to some degree the relationship of the characters, while at the same time building a foundation on which their choices could rest. They start the scene right from where they are and ease into their endowment process. He supplements his sensorial questions with a running Inner Monologue to, and about, the choice he is creating in relation to the actress. While all of this is taking place, they both encourage an irreverent inclusion of all the distractions and all the impulses that occur. Staying with the lines as written, they express the inclusions through the emotional content of the words of the scene. They allow themselves to be affected by each other, and when that takes them on a tangent, they go with it. As they continue their irreverent experiment they begin to trick each other with their inclusions and responses. When the scene ends, they both feel wonderful. It was really fun, unpredictable, and what acting should be! She remarks that they sacrificed some of the conflict and all of the urgency in this last exploration but feels that it was O.K.! She has the idea that she might create the urgency to resolve the argument before Jean and her boyfriend arrive by using an adjustment in relation to her choice. It seems that whenever she has a disagreement with her boyfriend (her choice) and wants to resolve it, he interrupts her or changes the subject or even gets involved in another activity.
SHE: |
That drives me crazy, so I speed up. I get kind of manic when I feel I’m not going to be able to get my point across ... Do you know what I mean? |
HE: |
Sure. Do you want to try that now? |
SHE: |
Why not? |
They begin the scene again. She starts with her own words, re-creating an argument that she recently had concerning her car. He goes along with this improvisation, deliberately interrupting her as well as not listening to her. She, getting more and more frustrated, feels an intense sense of urgency to communicate. At that crucial point of frustration and urgency, she goes directly into the lines of the material, and it works quite well. Feeling too excited to end the rehearsal, they start the scene again, this time working silently for their choices. All of the work they are doing is now being done internally. They are silently doing their sensorial exploration and their Inner Monologues. Whenever either one of them feels self-conscious or conscious of his process in a given moment, he includes it as part of the behavior of the character. Whenever anything is expressed by one of them, the other is affected and responds, and in turn that response affects the first actor until the components of ensemble are realized. It seems as if the choices and the actors are beginning to become indistinguishable, and at times neither actor really knows if he or she is responding to the choice or the other actor or a combination of both. They smile at each other and end the day’s work.
The actors start with their customary preparation, the relaxation-cluster, and go directly into a Being Workout, until they have achieved a BEING state. From there they move into an ensemble preparation, the five-part kind. At the point when they are communicating in ensemble terms, he suggests that they start the scene without doing any other preparation. Both continue whatever craft work they were doing, silently and unobtrusively under the lines of the scene. At the end of the rehearsal they discuss it.
HE: |
I just used you! I wanted to see if all the work we had done in the nine rehearsals would stimulate anything between us. I didn’t work for the place, but I felt like I was there. I didn’t do any character-obligation work, and yet I did have some success with wanting to avoid conflict. I didn’t specifically work for my choice in relation to you. I did, however, do some sensory suggestion in the endowment area. From my perspective, I feel that a lot of the work we have done has borne fruit. I was involved with you, and I felt many of the things that the character feels about the relationship. It was an experiment to take stock of what has been accomplished so far. |
SHE: |
I wasn’t sure what you were doing, but I went with it! It felt pretty good for me too. I did some sensorial work in the endowment area, but I really feel that both you and my choice have become one. I’m not exactly sure when I’m responding to you or to him. Anyway, it was an interesting way to start the rehearsal. |
The actors briefly discuss all they have done and agree that this may be a good time to distill all the choices that they have explored, paring them down to the minimum. They decide to take a few minutes to look at their charts to reassess which choices and approaches could be eliminated and which they will retain, at least for now. He acknowledges that he is ready to start getting ready, having made a mental list of what he is going to do from here.
Most of his work is going to be preparations:
• The relaxation-cluster
• A BEING preparation either by himself or with the actress
• A little character work: some Evocative Words about people in his life who stimulate a conflict phobia
He decides to combine working for the place with an Affective-Memory workout related to specific experiences he had when he was involved with his girlfriend. By doing this he will actually confront three areas of responsibility at one time: first, he will create the place; secondly, he will stimulate the parallel life of that time; and third, he will possibly pique unconscious responses through the use of Affective Memory—all of the above to be done before starting the scene.
During the scene he has decided to:
• Use available stimulus with selective emphasis in the areas that stimulate the desired results
• Do an Endowment, working sensorially to create his ex-girlfriend in relation to the actress
• Go moment to moment with everything he feels
• Deal with the realities of the material—like the cooking, the wine, the telephone call, etc.—as they present themselves
As preparations for the scene, she has decided to do:
• The relaxation workout
• A series of litanies to elevate her need and frustration levels
• An “I Want, I Need” exercise
• A love-hate antithesis related to her boyfriend
• An exercise that will make her feel insecure and dependent, to fulfill one of the character obligations
• Possibly some kind of personal inventory emphasizing her lack of accomplishment at this time in her life
At the beginning of the scene she intends to create the place by using Sensory Suggestion and then go to an Endowment choice approach, using her boyfriend as the choice in relation to the actor. She must also make an adjustment to work for him in such a way as to create an urgency to get something from him that she is not getting.
Both actors begin their preparation process. They work by themselves for about thirty-five minutes, then, without saying one word, obey a silent signal to start the scene involvement. They begin with a Being Workout, immediately followed by “You Make Me Feel” and into the first line of the scene. They work for their respective choices, honoring everything they feel and allowing themselves to respond to each other in the moment. Besides working in the endowment area, they are both doing Inner Monologues and including available realities. At those times when either of them refers to Jean or the dinner cooking on the stove, they both work for the reality by using whatever choice they decided on during the rehearsal process. In this run-through they might stop to take more time with certain stimuli, working to create the reality as they do the scene. They create the cooking odors, the smell and taste of the wine, the physical sensation after the second glass, and so on, by using Sense Memory.
They run through the scene four times in this rehearsal, each time taking advantage of what they have learned the time before, making adjustments and changes in their choices and approaches. Ultimately, after many more rehearsals, the work they do should become very simple—a single question taking the place of ten. Each actor should assimilate the reality as a result of having created the stimuli over a period of time and in many rehearsals. When they finish this tenth rehearsal, they are ready to present the scene in their class, receive critique, and go from there.
Rehearsal Number One:
1. Read play together in a stream of consciousness. Avoid giving it meaning.
2. Discuss impressions and interpretations.
3. Discuss authors intentions, talk about characters, their relationships, their conflicts, etc. . . .
4. Share feelings about the parallel experiences they have had; discuss their personal relationships and how they resemble the material.
5. Reread play, stopping to clarify and define things as they go through it; discuss discoveries about the material.
6. Identify theme of piece if possible.
7. Decide how much of the scene or play will be done.
Rehearsal Number Two:
1. Instrumental preparation: Relaxation, Sensitizing, Personal Inventory
2. Relationship preparation: Observe, Wonder, and Perceive
3. Personal exploration of each other (deeper involvement than Wonder, Perceive)
Purpose of personal exploration:
b. To establish a greater intimacy with each other
c. To discover any similarities between themselves and the characters
4. Sharing Inventory, discussing the things they have learned about each other in the personal exploration
Purpose for Intimate Sharing:
a. To stimulate a deeper relationship with each other and create familiarity
b. To share the selectively emphasized realities that fit the material
c. To express needs and fears
6. Homework assignments:
Actress: to consciously observe her own relationship and draw parallels to the scene
Actor: to begin identifying the specific obligations of the material
Rehearsal Number Three:
1. Relaxation-cluster
2. Personal Inventory (out loud) to get to a BEING place with each other
3. Share homework assignments and discoveries.
4. Create the place (sensorially), a personal place that stimulates a relationship similar to what the characters experience in their place.
5. Start scene, working for the place.
6. Discuss effect of place on scene.
7. Identify other obligations of piece; eliminate obligations that do not apply.
8. Identify character obligations, similarities and dissimilarities.
To confront character obligations:
Actress does litany of insecurities.
Actor does litany of frustrations plus group of imaginary monologues with people who make him feel helpless and like avoiding problems.
9. Inventory results of character-obligation exploration.
10. Actress does “I Want, I Need” exercise.
Actor does Imaginary Monologue with his father.
Purpose:
Actress: to elevate her neediness in order to parallel character Actor: to feel the way his father made him feel in order to parallel the character-element responsibility
11. Run the scene using place and choices for character obligations.
12. Briefly discuss results of last exploration.
Rehearsal Number Four:
1. Relaxation-cluster
2. Discuss homework (on character-element choices).
3. Create the place.
4. Actor does Evocative Words with four different people to stimulate the conflict phobia of the character.
Actress does “I Want, I Need” preparation to deal with character obligation.
5. Imaginary Monologues to choices
Actor: to his girlfriend
Actress: to her boyfriend
Purpose: to stimulate the emotional life of the scene
6. Ensemble preparation: “You Make Me Feel”
7. Begin using their own relationship experiences, talking to each other in their own words.
8. Go into scene from there.
9. Record results in journal and charts.
10. Actor does Affective-Memory exercise to get deeper into the parallel realities and hopefully pique a response from the unconscious. Actress does Inner Monologue with and about her boyfriend, using antithetical approach to pique ambivalence of the relationship.
11. Both actors relate to their choices, talking to each other as if they were their choices, from a “Do you remember?” perspective.
Purpose: to create a background for the relationship, a subtextual history
12. Discuss other reality obligations of the material.
Rehearsal Number Five:
1. Actor does exposure exercise to ventilate his insecurities, a preparation to be able to work.
2. Relaxation-cluster
3. Create the place (sensorially).
4. Actor does character preparations: Evocative Words with the same people, and imaginary monologues.
Actress does Inner Monologue about all the relationships she has had in her life and why they failed.
5. Five-part ensemble preparation
6. The scene as written
7. Discussion of the scene, what was there and what was missing
8. Endowments in relation to each other, working for their choices sensorially, endowing each other with the features of the people they are working for
9. Scene (Inner-Outer-Monologue approach)
10. Discussion of rehearsal
1. Relaxation-cluster
2. Ensemble preparation
3. Endowments of each other (creating their choices at the beginning of their relationship)
4. Improvisation, talking about beginning of relationship, emphasizing the love and attraction (and adding believability elements)
5. Interjecting conflict into the improvisation
6. Scene, using inner monologue about what they want from each other that they are not getting (goes on throughout the entire scene)
7. Short discussion about results of improvisation and scene
8. Charts and journal entries and updates
9. Discussion about the remaining obligations as yet not dealt with, and commitment to doing homework related to those obligations
Rehearsal Number Seven:
1. Actor: Deep relaxation involvement (Logey) into:
Ultimate-consciousness workout sensorially re-creating recent dream about his former relationship
Actress: Creates the place.
Does imaginary monologues with her boyfriend.
2. Ensemble preparation: Double Exposure, followed by “You Make Me Feel”
3. Endowments (both actors)
4. Scene, continuing the endowment process throughout
5. Discussion of run-through
6. Scene, with Inner-Outer Monologue expressing their moment-to-moment life and including the written words. Both actors continue endowment process.
7. Scene verbatim, working for choices and continuing Inner Monologue silently
8. Scene, third time, verbatim, with inclusion of all moment-to-moment realities expressed through the words of the scene
9. Inventory and discussion of the rehearsal
10. Discussion about choice discoveries for dealing with other obligations of material (the character’s profession, other characters discussed in the play, urgency of company coming, etc. . . .)
1. Actress: Relaxation-cluster
Actor: Creates place sensorially.
Does ultimate-consciousness workout: mini Primal Moan, into Affective Memory surrounding personal relationship.
2. Actress: “I Want, I Need” exercise, semi-audibly, into:
Accuse-and-Indict exercise to her boyfriend
3. Endowment process (both actors)
4. Scene, going back and forth with their own words
Actress: Continuing the “You Never Gave Me” between the lines
Actor: Responding to the indictments with his own words and the dialogue
5. Parallel improvisation, discussing all the other characters referred to in play, friends they had before meeting each other, etc.. . .
6. Believability parallel improvisation, talking about first romantic experiences, making love, etc.. . . (Both actors use their choices to talk to.)
7. Scene, with complete carryover of Believability improvisation, going moment-to-moment with what was created by it
Rehearsal Number Nine:
1. Relaxation workout
2. Actor: Being Workout
Actress: deep Personal Inventory
3. “Putting scene on its feet”: Working to create kitchen, food cooking, dealing with movement and actions of scene, making them a reality Actor: Sensorially creates sound of voice on other end of telephone. Actress: Sensorially works for sounds and odors of food cooking. Both: Sensorially create taste and effect of wine.
4. Scene, twice
5. Reinvest in preparations: Two-Person Being Workout
6. Available-stimulus exploration, dealing with how actors feel about each other, the place, what is going on between them and what has changed from rehearsal number one to now
7. Scene from there, using Endowments
8. Encouragement of an irreverent inclusion of all impulses
9. Tricking each other in the framework of the scene, staying with choices
10. Repetition of scene, starting with an improvisation involving an adjustment for the actress related to the urgency in the scene
11. Repetition of scene, carrying all the work into internal involvements (sensorial exploration and running Inner Monologues, with total inclusion of all impulses and distractions within framework of scene)
Rehearsal Number Ten:
1. Relaxation workout
2. Being Workout
3. Five-part ensemble preparation
4. Scene without doing any other preparation
Actor: Sensory Suggestion in relation to choice, plus available realities about actress established during nine prior rehearsals
Actress: Some sensorial work in the endowment area, also using composite of actor and choice
5. Review and distillation of choices used in all rehearsals, referring to charts
6. Decide what choices to keep and use from this point on.
7. Silent preparations for thirty-five minutes
8. Scene, starting with involvement exercises: Being Workout, followed by “You Make Me Feel” and into material, using all their choices and inner monologues
9. Repeat scene four times, stopping to deal with various stimuli as they are presented.
These ten rehearsals form a blueprint for you to follow. The alternatives are infinite. There are endless choices, twenty-five different choice approaches, and the obligations vary with the material selected. If, however, you relate to the examples given in this rehearsal structure, they will help you to use your time very productively. Each rehearsal is filled with creative involvement, and the craft techniques are quite clear. You can use the summary as a chart. As you work with the craft, you will be able to structure your own rehearsals creatively.
No matter what medium you work in, and no matter what the technical demands or restrictions are, if you know what to do and how to do it, you will be successful in everything you do. The bottom line is being a craftsman!