Problems!

As you can see, I rarely finish an essay these days. I only just get started. Mostly it is a time factor limitation and I hope to change things up in order to devote more time to writing soon. But my mind, my thoughts are often there still - on the work of the actor, helping, theatre, etc. There are so many things for an actor to consider (and to write about), and here are some of the "problems" in no particular order. 1. How to turn the fiction of a play into something personally meaningful. I don't for one split second buy into the thought that an actor need not have a personal interest in his/her activities on the stage. For I truly believe that if the actor is not personally caring and alive in a given role then there is no real art being made, none taking place. 2. How to teach the body to respond impulsively, fully and spontaneously to the commands given to it by the mind while one is onstage. Most plays completely lack any sense of designed spontaneity and too many actors cannot function fully while on stage, resorting to cliches and time tested habitual behavior which robs the work of nuance and meaningful human behavior and expression. 3. How to make the senses of the spectators and actors come to response, come alive and full during a performance. 4. How to repeat... An action, a gesture, a thought, a sensation, over and over and over in rehearsal and in the exact same way and keep it spontaneous each time. 5. How if you are able to achieve most of the above do you venture further along toward Stanislavsky's concept of "spiritual theatre," a place where the subconscious takes over the creative process and the strands of cumulative human experience which tie us together begin to become more and more evident and we literally know it, feel it, believe it.