4 - The Self Flashcards
You should lose yourself in the parts you play!
A warning to the vain and egocentric actors who rely on displaying themselves in a way to please the audience despite the circumstances of the play
Duse’s “revelation of the soul”
I must find myself in the role!
Why do you look for the self and not the soul?
Soul is concerned with virtue and evil. The self is behavior that would result in self-gratification and the pursuit of happiness
How do you find a strong sense of identity?
Drop the intuitive cliched assessment of who am I, and make the soul available to represent the many different parts you hope to bring to life on stage. Negative, and positive qualities.
Where do you find the basic components of every character we play?
They are inside of us. When are you petty? When are you hateful? When are you dumb? It’s all already inside of me.
When do humans behave badly?
When they have a justification for their actions, because self discovery never ceases. Guilt, or recognition of bad behavior, comes after the fact.
Why do we have endlessly different aspects to ourselves?
Self perception changes from one moment to the next. There are hundreds of different people within you who surface within a single day.
Who am I when I talk to nicole? A casting director? My mom? Nick? Eli? Carrington? Someone with whom I am attracted too? Someone of whom I’m jealous? Someone from whom I need something?
What other factors change aspects of myself?
Have I slept enough?
Am I fed?
The weather outside?
Endless possibilities of external factors.
What is one way that perception can be altered superficially?
The clothes you wear. Perception of self in a tuxedo vs perception of self in basketball shorts and a backwards hat changes self image and thus perception of self.
This changes behavior!
Simply put, what causes change of sense of self?
The influence of circumstances, your relationship to others, the nature of the event, and your clothing.
What does training in self observation or “self-stretching exercises” give you?
A warehouse full of selves that can be called on to fill the complicated characters you will be bringing to life.
Do we as actors copy the behaviors of others? Why?
Never, because in all forms of spontaneous role playing your own being is always at the center of it. You reveal the myriad facets that spring from your own soul and imagination.
Why must we shed the affected mannerisms of every day life on the stage?
If you bring mannerisms in from daily life, you are focusing on them and not the other people in the play and thus cannot be unaffected.
Find a good friend to help point out mannerisms and habits, and use only the ones that are serviceable to parts of the character.
When is observations of others useful to the actor?
When the observation enlightens you about yourself - when you identify with it.
How to use our idols to our advantage?
Pray our taste and judgement will help us find true artists.
Inherit the concept of work of the great artists rather than the outer shape and form of their expression.
