TODAY I HAD occasion to call on Rakhmanov in his home. He was in the midst of some rush preparations. He was gluing, cutting, designing, painting. The room where he was at work was in great disorder to the horror of his wife.
“What are you getting ready for?” I asked with interest.
“A little surprise. You may be sure I am not doing all this for fun. It has its pedagogic purpose. By tomorrow I have to make not just one, but a whole mass of banners,” he explained with great zest, “and they must be not just any old banners; they must be beautiful so we can hang them on the walls in our school. What a job! And Tortsov is coming himself to see them. Then we’ll hang them and they will show very effectively just what our whole system of acting is about. You know, if you really want to get a good idea of things, my boy, you have to see them with your eyes. This is an important fact and it is also a useful one. Through drawings and through what you look at you are better able to take in the whole thing and also the relations between the different parts of the system.”
After that Rakhmanov began to explain to me the reason for the arrangement he planned. We had now reached the high point in our school course.
“Of course, we have gone through the work only in the most general terms,” Rakhmanov hastened to remind me. “We shall come back a hundred times, in fact all our lives, to review what we have learned. So far so good. And tomorrow we shall cast up our accounts and see how far we have progressed. That’s what you will see!”
He pointed with pride and an almost childlike glee at the pile of material lying in front of him.
“Everything we prepare here today we shall install tomorrow at the school. It will all be in absolute order and it will be clear as day tomorrow what we have accomplished in these two years.”
A constant flow of talk helped Rakhmanov work.
Two property men from the theatre came in to help. I was drawn into the work and stayed on until late in the night.
Today Rakhmanov announced to us that all the flags, banners, streamers would be exhibited on the right wall of the auditorium. That entire wall would be given up to the dual representation of an actor’s internal and external preparation.
“So you see, my friends, on the right you have the preparations of an actor and on the left the preparations of a part. Our job is to find the proper place in the scheme for each flag, banner, streamer so that everything will be in order according to what you have been taught and attractive to the eye.”
After he had finished speaking our attention was centred on only the right wall and we saw that it had been divided into two parts. According to Rakhmanov’s plan one was to be devoted to the factors that go into the preparations of an actor’s inner qualities and the other to the preparations of his physical attributes.
“Art loves order, my friends, so let us place on the shelves of your memory all that you have taken in during your time here and which is now floating around inside your heads in an unsorted mass.”
The flags were all carried over to the right side of the auditorium, with Vanya taking a lively part in the work. He had removed his coat and taken up a large and beautiful streamer on which were inscribed the words of the Pushkin aphorism—“Sincerity of emotions, verisimilitude of feelings in given circumstances, that is what our mind requires from the playwright”. With his usual impetuousness he was already on top of a ladder and preparing to nail the banner in the upper left-hand corner. But Rakhmanov hastily checked him.
“Good gracious, what are you doing?” he cried. “You can’t hang that up there for no reason at all! That’s not the way to act!”
“But it looks fine there! Is wear it does!” declared Vanya with enthusiasm.
“It doesn’t make any sense, my boy,” said Rakhmanov in an attempt to convince him. “When do you ever put your foundations on top? What are you thinking of? After all the Pushkin saying is the basis of everything. Our whole system is built on it. Don’t forget that! It is what you might call our creative basis. That’s why we have to put the banner with our motto down below, and in the most prominent place, and not just under the one part, but across both parts of the wall as it is equally a factor in the process of living a part and that of clothing a part in physical terms. Let’s see, where is the place of honour? Down here right in the very centre of the wall. Hang the words of Pushkin here!”
Paul and I helped Vanya stretch the banner out across the space indicated and we were getting ready to nail it on the very bottom of the wall, but Rakhmanov again interrupted. He explained that at the very bottom, across both halves of the wall we should place along narrow streamer of a dark colour and with the words An Actor Prepares. As it bore on everything else on this wall it must run all across it.
“This banner should encircle all the other banners. Think what that means!”
While Vanya and one of the property men tacked the banner in its rightful place Rakhmanov and I watched Nicholas, whom we had appointed official draughtsman to draw the plan of the grouping and artistic arrangement of the flags.
“But you, Nicholas, my boy, you have taken part of the ground work, the basic floor plan, that banner with the inscription Action, and put it way up at the top! What in the world are you thinking of! It must go down right beside the Pushkin motto, it is on a par with that in importance in our work.”
“Gee, I can’t tell these things apart. They’re all the same colour,” Vanya called out as he struggled with another long banner.
“That is also a motto, it is what you might call the third fundamental, The Subconscious via the Conscious,” said Rakhmanov designating its place down at the bottom of the wall to the right of the Pushkin axiom.
“That’s fine. Now we have the fundamentals all lined up for both sections of this wall. Now we have to choose what goes on the right and on the left of the upper part. To the left let us put Psycho-Technique, and to the right External Technique. There are the banners. They each represent one half of how an actor prepares. Isn’t that a big job! And now you may be sure you’ll find all the rest of the details here. Look at that flock of little flags. They are all made of the same colour and in the same shape. They are the elements that go into the make-up of the Inner Creative State. Look, there is the Sense of Truth, Emotion Memory, Attention, Units and Objectives.
“But hold on there,” Rakhmanov’s face clouded. “You can’t put them up yet, you are missing a step.”
“What have we missed?” several of us asked.
“An important, very important factor in both parts of an actor’s preparations is the triumvirate with which you are already familiar: Mind, Will, Feelings. These flags are of prime importance as you will come to realize in good time,” Rakhmanov went on as he supervised the placing of the three flags in a line over the banners which indicate the two aspect’s of an actor’s training.
Now the large number of smaller pennants bearing the names of all the elements we had studied in our course were left over.
“Hang them in a row, next to each other to look like a striped awning!” ordered Rakhmanov.
Without further reflection we began to hang all the element pennants relating to psycho-technique (Imagination, Attention, Sense of Truth, etc.) in the order in which we had worked on them, but when we came to those having to do with external technique we stopped, not knowing where to begin.
“You made your start in that with the Relaxation of Muscles,” Rakhmanov suggested helpfully. “As long as a person’s muscles are as taut as wet ropes he is incapable of action. Tense muscles are taut cables, engendered emotions are of spider-web consistency. A spider web cannot break a cable. So hang Relaxation of Muscles as the first element in external technique.”
Next to it we placed Expressive Body Training, which included gymnastics, dance, acrobatics, fencing (foils, rapiers, daggers), wrestling, boxing, carriage, all aspects of physical training. Plasticity was put on a separate flag, and then came Voice (to include breathing, voice placing, singing).
Speech filled the next spot. Under this heading were included enunciation, pauses, intonation, words, phrases—the whole speech technique. Following this came External Tempo-Rhythm. Other flags were hung in the same order as on the left side and corresponded in physical terms to the elements in psycho-technique.
Just as we had hung over the Logic and Coherence of Feelings we now put up a pennant for Logic and Coherence of Physical Actions. And External Characterization balanced Inner Characterization.
On the side of external technique there followed External Stage Charm, Restraint and Finish, Discipline, Ethics, Sense of Ensemble.
All there was now left to do was to add three flags: one above each group of elements—on the left Inner Creative State, on the right External Creative State, and then the third above these two entitled Over-All Creative State. Topping them we had left one long pennant without any inscription on it.
Next Rakhmanov had us get a roll of tape to lead from flag to flag indicating the inter-relationship of the various parts of the technique.
The three flags indicating the triumvirate of inner motive forces—Mind, Will, Feeling—had to be taped upwards to each and every one of the small pennants in the upper row, the elements of inner and external technique. Just as these in turn had to have their tapes leading upwards to, on the left, the inner creative state and, on the right, the external creative state, both of which were united by tapes to the over-all creative state above them.
Actually this produced such a labyrinth of lines that the import of the main design was lost. So it was decided to sacrifice the minor lines and, for the sake of clarity, let a few indicate the general relationship.
“What a mess you do make!” fussed the old porter who came in to sweep after us while Nicholas copied down the final plan of our design.
Tortsov walked in accompanied by an elated Rakhmanov. He examined our arrangement of flags and pennants and exclaimed:
“Wonderful, Rakhmanov! It’s clear and pictorial. Even a stupid person would get the idea. You have really produced a picture of the ground we have covered in two years. It is only now that I can explain in systematic form what I should have said to all the students at the beginning of our common work.
“After I pointed out to you the three main directives of dramatic art we began our closer examination of how to live a part, to study hard to prepare ourselves for it. Our two years’ course has been devoted to just that.” As he spoke he pointed to the long banners across the bottom of the whole wall.
“From my passing comments throughout you have learned the fundamentals on which our so-called system of acting is based.
“The first of these,” Tortsov explained, “is, as you know, the principle of activity, and indicative of the fact that we do not play character images and emotions but act in the images and passions of a role.
“The second is the famous saying of Pushkin which points out that the work of an actor is not to create feelings but only to produce the given circumstances in which true feelings will spontaneously be engendered.
“The third cornerstone is the organic creativeness of our own nature which we express in the words: Through conscious technique to the subconscious creation of artistic truth. One of the main objectives pursued in our approach to acting is this natural stimulus to the creativeness of organic nature and its subconsciousness.
“We do not however study the subconscious, but only the paths leading up to it. Remember the things we have discussed in class, which we have been searching for throughout our work together. Our rules have not been founded on any unsteady, uncertain hypotheses concerning the subconscious. On the contrary, in our exercises and rules we constantly based ourselves on the conscious and we tested it out hundreds of times on ourselves and others. We took only incontrovertible laws as the foundation of our knowledge, our practice and our experiments. It was they alone that did us the service of leading us to the unknown world of the subconscious which for moments came alive inside of us.
“Although we knew nothing of the subconscious we still sought contact with and reflex approaches to it.
“Our conscious technique was directed on the one side towards putting our subconscious to work and on the other to learning how not to interfere with it once it was in action.”
Tortsov then pointed to the left half of the wall and spoke of its being devoted to the whole process of living a part.
“This process is of such importance in acting because every step, every movement in the course of our creative work must be enlivened and motivated by our feelings. Whatever we do not actually experience in our own emotions remains inert and spoils our work. Without experiencing a role there can be no art in it. That is why we began with this when we initiated our course.
“Does this mean that you are fully cognizant of all this implies and that you can put it into practical form?
“No. That would be an improper conclusion. For this process is something we continue throughout our working careers as actors.
“Your classes of drill have helped and will help you. But the rest can come only from future work on roles and experience on the stage.
“Our second year was devoted to the external aspect of acting, the building of our physical apparatus. To this you have assigned the right half of the wall.
“When I am in a theatre I want first of all to understand, to see, to know, and at the same time to feel with you all the infinitesimal shades and changes of your emotion in your part. So you must make your invisible inner experience visible to my eyes.
“It often happens that an actor has all the fine, subtle, deep feelings necessary to his part and yet he may distort them beyond recognition because he conveys them through crudely prepared external physical means. When the body transmits neither the actor’s feelings to me nor how he experiences them I see an out of tune, inferior instrument on which a fine musician is obliged to perform. The poor man! He struggles so hard to transmit all the shadings of his emotions. The stiff keys of the piano do not yield to his touch, the unoiled pedals squeak, the strings are jangled and out of tune. All this causes an artist great effort and pain. The more complex the life of the human spirit in the part being portrayed, the more delicate, the more compelling and artistic should be the physical form which clothes it.
“This makes an enormous call on our external technique, on the expressiveness of our bodily apparatus, our voice, diction, intonation, handling of words, phrases, speeches, our facial expression, plasticity of movement, way of walking. To a supreme degree sensitive to the slightest twist, the subtlest turns and changes in our inner lives while on the stage, they must be like the most delicate barometers, responsive to imperceptible atmospheric changes.
“Your immediate objective then has been to train your physical apparatus to the limits of your natural, inborn capacity. You must still go on developing, correcting, tuning your bodies until every part of them will respond to the predestined and complex task assigned them by nature of presenting in external form your invisible feelings.
“You must educate your bodies according to the laws of nature. That means a lot of complicated work and perseverance!”
Today Tortsov continued his review using the chart on the wall of the school auditorium.
“You are aware of the fact that we have not one single, but three motive forces in our inner life—Mind, Will and Feelings—three virtuoso performers,” he said as he indicated the three flags.
“They are like three organists before their instruments, and above them hang the little pennants like the pipes of an organ, to give out resonance through all the various elements which are included in the make-up of an inner and outer creative state.”
Before continuing Tortsov made certain rearrangements in the order of the little pennants. He pointed out that they should be in the sequence in which they come into play in the broader phases of our work.
The way he explained this was:
1. The creative process starts with the imaginative invention of a poet, a writer, the director of the play, the actor, the scene designer and others in the production, so the first in order should be Imagination and its Inventions, The Magic If, Given Circumstances.(These and many others of the terms used are defined and described in An Actor Prepares—EDITOR.)
2. Once the theme is established it must be put into an easily handled form, consequently it is broken up into Units with their Objectives.
3. The third phase comes with the concentration of Attention on an Object with the help of which, or for the sake of which the objective is achieved.
4. To bring life to the objective and the object an actor must have a Sense of Truth, of Faith in what he is doing. This element is fourth in the series. Where truth exists there is no room for conventional routine, for lying pretence. This element is inextricably bound up with the extermination of all artificiality, all cliché and rubberstamp acting.
5. Next comes desire, which leads to Action. This follows spontaneously on the creation of an object, objectives, in the validity of which an actor can really believe.
6. Sixth place goes to Communion, that intercourse in various forms for the sake of which action is taken and directed towards an object.
7. Where there is intercourse there is of necessity Adaptation so they must hang side by side.
8. To help stir his dormant feelings an actor has recourse to Inner Tempo-Rhythm.
9. All these elements release Emotion Memory to give free expression to Repeated Feelings and to create Sincerity of Emotions. Therefore these are in ninth place.
10. Logic and Continuity were last. Of these Tortsov said:
“In every phase of our work, whether we were speaking of inventions of the imagination, proposed circumstances, objects of attention, units and objectives and the other steps, we constantly had occasion to speak of logic and continuity. I can only add that these are elements of prime importance in relation to all the others and to many gifts which actors possess and which we have not been able as yet to study in detail.
“Can we do without logic and continuity in anything we do?” asked Tortsov. “Let me see you do this problem: Lock that door and then go through it into the next room. You cannot do it? In that case try to answer this question: If it were absolutely dark in here now, how would you put on this light? Cannot do that either?
“If you wanted to impart to me your most cherished secret, how would you yell it out to me?
“In many plays the hero and the heroine do all in their power to come together; they suffer every trial and torture, they struggle desperately with obstacles; yet when the desired end is achieved and the lovers embrace, they immediately assume a chilly attitude towards each other, as if everything were over and the play already finished. How disappointed the public is to find that, after believing all evening in the sincerity of his and her emotions, it is disillusioned by the coldness of the principal actors, because they had not planned their parts with logic and coherence.
“At all other points creativeness must be logical and with continuity. Even illogical and incoherent characters must be represented within the logical plan and framework of a whole play, a whole performance.
“I have spoken at length to you about logic and continuity, of action, the imagination, given circumstances and other kindred phases of our work.
“If I were now to speak of logic and coherence as applied to thought and speech I should be only repeating much of what we have been working on in our second year’s course.
“Yet what disturbs me is that I am so far unable to talk to you about the most important aspect of all in this subject: the logic and continuity of feelings.
“Not being a specialist I dare not approach this topic from the scientific angle. Even from the practical angle. I must frankly confess myself still insufficiently prepared to give you anything properly tested out in my own experience.
“All I can do is share with you the results of certain very elementary means which I use in my own work as an actor.
“My method is this: I set up a list of actions in which various emotions spontaneously manifest themselves.”
“What sort of actions, what sort of list?” I asked.
“Take, for example, love,” Tortsov began. “What incidents go into the make-up of this human passion? What actions arouse it?
“First, there is a meeting between ‘her’ and ‘him’.
“Either immediately or by degrees they are attracted to each other; the attention of either or both of the future lovers is heightened.
“They live on the memory of every moment of their meeting. They seek pretexts for another meeting.
“There is a second meeting. They have the desire to involve one another in a common interest, common action which will require more frequent meetings, and so on....
“Later:
“There is the first secret—an even greater bond to draw them together.
“They exchange friendly advice about various matters and this makes for constant meetings and communication. So it develops.
“The first quarrel, reproaches, doubts.
“Fresh meetings, explanations to dissipate the disagreement.
“Reconciliation. Still closer relations.
“Later:
“Obstacles to their meetings.
“Secret correspondence.
“Secret rendezvous.
“The first present.
“The first kiss.
“Later:
“Friendly lack of constraint in their manners towards each other.
“Growing demands on each other.
“Jealousy.
“A break.
“Separation.
“They meet again. They forgive each other. So it goes on....
“All these moments and actions have their inner justification. Taken as a whole they reflect the feelings, the passion, or the state which we describe by the use of the one word love.
“If you will carry out in your imagination—with the right basis of detailed circumstances, proper thinking, sincerity of feeling— each step in this series of actions, you will find that first externally and then internally you will reach the condition of a person in love. With such preparations you will find it easier to take on a role and a play in which this passion figures.
“In a good and amply worked out play all or most of these moments will be in evidence in some degree. The actor will look for and recognize them in his part. Under these circumstances we will execute a whole series of objectives and actions on the stage, which in their sum total will add up to the state known as being in love. It will be brought about step by step, not all at once or in general terms. The actor in this case performs actions, he does not simply put on an act: he experiences what he does as a human being, he does not indulge in theatrical pretence, he feels instead of imitating the results of feelings.
“Most actors do not penetrate the nature of the feelings they portray. For them love is a big and generalized experience.
“They try immediately to ‘embrace the unembraceable’. They forget that great experiences are made up of a number of separate episodes and moments. These must be known, studied, absorbed, fulfilled in their entirety. Unless an actor does this he is destined to become the victim of the stereotype.”
Tortsov opened his remarks today by suggesting the following:
“Suppose you have just waked up. You are still drowsy, your body is stiff, you have no desire to move, to get up; you feel a slight morning chill in your bones. But you make yourself get out of bed, you do some setting up exercises. They warm you, limber up the muscles not only of your body but of your face as well. Proper circulation starts up in all your limbs down to the extremities.
“With your body in supple order you begin on your voice. You tune it up. The sound comes full, clear, resonant; it is placed forward in the mask of your face and floats freely out to fill the whole room. Your sounding surfaces are beautifully vibrant, the acoustics of your room throws your tones back to you, tempting you to further efforts, more energy, activity, greater liveliness.
“Clear diction, the clean cut phrase, vivid speech seek thoughts to produce, to round out, express with power.
“Unexpected inflections, rising spontaneously from within, are ready to form more incisive speech.
“After this you move into cycles of rhythm and sway back and forth in all kinds of tempi.
“Throughout your whole physical nature you sense order, discipline, balance and harmony.
“All the parts which contribute to your external, physical technique are now flexible, receptive, expressive, sensitive, responsive, mobile—like a well oiled and regulated machine in which all the wheels, rollers and cogs work in absolute co-ordination with one another.
“You find it difficult to stand still, you have the urge to move, to perform some act, to fulfill and express the dictates of the human spirit inside you.
“Your whole body is poised for action, your steam is up. Like children you do not know what to do with your excess energy, so you are ready to use it up in anything that may happen along.
“You need an objective, an inner urge or order which calls for embodiment. If it comes you will throw your whole physical organism into its fulfillment, and do it with all the passionate energy of a child.
“This is the physical readiness which an actor should be able to evoke when he is on the stage. It is what we call the external creative state.
“Your apparatus of physical technique must not only be highly trained but also perfectly subordinated to the inner dictates of your will. This bond between the inner and outer aspects of your nature and their reciprocal action must be developed in you to the point of an instantaneous, unconscious, instinctive reflex.
“When our three musicians—the Mind, the Will, the Feelings—have taken their places and begun to perform on their two instruments on the left and on the right side of our wall, then the external and the inner creative state will proceed to act as sounding boards to catch the tones of all the individual elements.
“What is now left to be done is the gathering of them all into one whole. When this is accomplished we describe it as the general creative state, combining as it does the double aspect of inner psycho-technique with external physical technique.
“When you are in this state every feeling, every mood that wells up inside you is reflexively expressed. It is easy to react to all the problems the play, the director and finally you yourself put forward for solution. All your inner resources and physical capacities are on call, ready to respond to any bid. You play on them as an organist on the keys of his instrument. As soon as the tone fades away on one of them you pull out another stop.
“The more immediate, spontaneous, vivid, precise the reflection you produce from inner to outer form, the better, broader, fuller will be your public’s sense of the inner life of the character you are portraying on the stage. It is for this that plays are written and the theatre exists.
“No matter what an actor is doing in the creative process he should at all times be in this overall state, of inner and outer coordination. He may be saying his lines for the first or the hundredth time, he may be studying his part or reading it over, working on it at home or at rehearsal, searching for tangible or intangible materials for a part, thinking about its inner or outer aspect, its passions, emotions, ideas, acts, its general outer appearance, his own costume or make-up—in all these major or minor contacts with a part an actor should without fail put himself into the general creative state which embodies both sides of his technique.
“Unless we do this we have no approach to a role. These things should be permanently established as normal, natural attributes of our second nature.
“This is the culminating point of our second year of work together and the general course of how an actor prepares himself.
“Now that you have learned how to achieve this creative state we can go on to the next step of how an actor prepares a whole part.
“All the knowledge you have acquired in these two years will be crowding your minds and hearts. You may find it difficult to settle it all into the right niches.
“Yet when all is said and done these various elements of an actor’s make-up which we have been studying constitute nothing but the natural state of human beings and they are familiar to you from actual life. When we go through an experience in our own lives we naturally find ourselves in this state, which we seek to re-create when we are on the stage.
“In both cases it consists of the selfsame elements. Unless we are in this state we cannot, in our own lives, give ourselves up to the experience of our inner emotions or their external expression.
“The amazing thing is that this familiar state which is produced by normal means under natural conditions, vanishes without a trace the instant an actor sets foot on the stage. It takes a great effort, much study, the development of habits and a technique to bring to the stage the life of every human being.
“That is why we actors are obliged to engage in unflagging, systematic exercises and training. We must have patience, time and faith. It is to this that I summon you. The saying that habit is second nature is nowhere more pertinent than in our work. Habit is such an absolute necessity that I shall ask you to signify it by putting up two final pennants with the words Habit, and Training (both inner and outer). Let them hang on this wall where you have put the other elements which constitute the creative state.
“For all its many components this state is a very simple human thing. Amid the material surroundings of canvas backdrops, flies, wings, paint, glue, cardboard props it is this state that breathes life and truth into the stage.
“We have not finished the whole survey of an actor’s preparation, but when that time comes and the first entire role is ready the walls will be covered with flags right up to the ceiling.”
“But you have made no mention at all of the huge streamer with no inscription on it which hangs across the whole top of this wall,” I said.
“Oh, that is the most important, most impelling reason why we do all our work on the physical truths and the ultra-real and ultra-natural components of our nature.”
“Excuse me, please,” broke in Grisha, “but then why have we been bothering about all these lower factors if the important object does not lie in them, but in this something or other higher up?”
“Because you cannot climb to the top at once,” answered Tortsov. “You need a ladder, or steps. It is by means of them that you reach the top. I give you these steps. They are here before you in the guise of these illustrative flags. But they are only preparative steps leading to that all important, loftiest region of all art—the subconscious. Before, however, we can come to the edifying part we have to learn the simple things of right living.”
As Tortsov was leaving and had already reached the door of the auditorium, it opened and in came Rakhmanov with the two pennants he had just mentioned: Inner and External Habit and Training.
“You have now reached the status, more or less, of specialists,” Tortsov began, “and this gives me the opportunity to speak of something of capital importance—the subtlety of nature, its way of working in the theatre.
“You may ask what we have been doing up to now if not this. I shall illustrate what I mean by an example.
“When you want to make a rich, nourishing bouillon you prepare the meat, all kinds of soup greens, you add water, put the pot on the stove and give it a chance to simmer for a long time, so that the juices can be extracted, or else you will not have any bouillon.
“Yet this will all be to no purpose if you have not lighted a fire. Without it you will have to eat the contents of your pot separately and in their raw state, and drink the plain water.
“The super-objective and the through line of action constitute the fire which does the cooking.
“In ordinary life our creative nature is indivisible, its component parts cannot exist of and for themselves. Yet on the stage they fall apart with extraordinary ease and it is very difficult to reassemble them. That is why we must work out the means of reuniting all these parts we have been studying and harness them in common action.
“This is the great work that lies ahead of you when you come to prepare an entire role. The elements you have prepared must be transfixed by a through line of action carrying them along to the common goal of the overall objective of that role. Off the stage this happens in normal fashion, even if we are entirely unaware of such things as separate elements, through actions, super-objectives.
“How do we accomplish on the stage this process of prime importance?
“Under these elements we group, on the one side, natural capacities— talents, endowments, attributes, assets—and on the other side we put the means which are favourable to our technique as actors.
“You already know that we use the word super-objective to characterize the essential idea, the core, which provided the impetus for the writing of a play. You know too that the through or unbroken line of action is made up of the minor objectives in the life of a character in a play, on the stage.
"So choose as deep, firm, and well grounded a line of action as possible for your part, play or sketch (if this last is substantial enough to have an overall objective). As if you had a threaded needle in your fingers now pass it through the elements already set up inside you, the objectives you have prepared in the detailed score of your part, and string them on the unbroken line leading to the supreme goal of the play being produced.
“You will perfect this process and the practical means of accomplishing it as you work on a role.”