The Best Rehearsal

A couple of weeks ago we were rehearsing a short scene for an independent movie. After a few go-throughs we realized that we were acting the scene very well - but we weren't really experiencing the imaginary situation as people, as actors. So we thought it through again, finding the simple and most meaningful aspects. We talked about human behavior, logic, desires, hopes, conditions, all in simple terms and ideas. And lo and behold, we became people again in the scene, and not "acted people." It became honest, easy, personal, alive and creative in very small ways. And relaxed. It was a much more true rendering than what we had achieved prior with our "good acting" skills. Now, I have known this state before as an actor. In it you are impulsive, spontaneous, incredibly relaxed, connected, and wholly present. Finding this again was like a huge "oh yea!" for me, something I hadn't forgotten but which I had got away from in the kind of work I have been involved in most recently. There is so much cliche and fake energy and bad acting that is prevalent on stage these days. We are all guilty of it at times. Much of it passes as "good" just as we thought we had been good until we realized we were actually just "acty." So in these last two weeks I have been highly sensitive once again to what is possible and what can be when actors want what we dare to call "truth."