There is a philosophical question that asks: If a tree falls in the woods but no one is there to hear it, does it make a noise?
Obviously the answer is yes. In nature and in life, we don’t have an audience to observe and validate everything we do. We just do. Actors, however, are not that trusting. They seem to think that the only thing that counts is if they hammer home a moment in the script or slather everyone in the audience with emotional jelly. But there is a better way.
First of all it is axiomatic that if you do something you will feel something. You cannot prepare for that feeling. Haven’t you ever said, “Wow! I didn’t expect I would feel that way,” when something happens to you? Or haven’t we all practiced what we wanted to say in that final break up conversation with a beau, only to have none of what we prepared come out in the actual moment? Suddenly our prepared remarks seem as if they are from a script, not the heart. A feeling must be something that is totally in and of the moment. We have all talked to people who have the annoying habit of speaking as if they are surrounded by a revolving wall of mirrors. “Who are they talking to?” we ask in our heads as we
Leave a Reply