Moment by Moment - so it goes

I had the opportunity to work for a few minutes with an actress of supreme talent. And what a few minutes it was. This was an audition situation. A rare happening, for me. The director in his wise ways gave a discription of the background of these characters leading up to their meeting, but did not describe what or how the meeting should happen between the two. But this is a director who imagines and thinks in behavior - what the character is doing and thinking and feeling - and speaks as such. Just before we started reading he said "and you two take your sweet time." Music to my ears of course. The main point though to this post is the ability of the actress I was reading with to be present and alive throughout, in big and small ways, and to work specifically in silences and in speaking, deeply and interesting and revealing. As the director was describing the what had been happening to the characters, I was letting it "sink in" and finding in myself what I thought and imagined to be what it was like to be this character. You know, the old "What would you do if you were in this situation?" I knew the characters pain and embarrassment would have to be there, but the action of the scene was going to be these two people rediscoving each other, through that pain and embarrassment. As soon as we started, I knew it would be "easy." Because of the actress I was reading with. And my actor instincts quickly said pay attention and let things flow moment by moment by moment. The directors wisdom about going slow was because he knew the specifics of behavior that existed in the silences, the thoughts, the laughter, the longings, etc. Finding a sudden treasure of an actess like this (although I was aware of her abilities before we started the scene) is an incredible artistic gift. Especially in that kind of situaton. And it reminded me that when you work on stage for an hour and a half with that kind of attention and moment by moment specificity, acting and theatre comes completely alive in the most unexpected and spontaneous of ways - the creative subconcious in full force. But to do what she did in those few brief minutes you have to have all those "things" we talk about all the time - you have to be relaxed, you have to be aware, you have to have actual literal thoughts, you have to allow for sensations to flow through you, you have to speak the lines out of the context that is your body and mind in that very moment...