University of Michigan Press, 2012 CONTENTS Acknowledgments xiii Introduction: Human Behavior Is the Core Business of Theater 1 The Measures Taken 2 Theory and Practice 3 How We Solved Our Problems 4 Two Time Frames: Play within a Play 5 Agitprop: A Theatrical Metaphor 6 The Actor Is Essentially a Performer 7 The Basic Elements of Real-Time Acting and Theater 7 Real-Time Acting for Postmodern Theater 8 What Is in This Book? 10 How to Use It 11 part 1: premises and inspirations 1. The Dilemmas of the Actor: Who Is He and What Is His Task? 15 The Actor s First Paradox: What Is Real? 15 Acting Is a Mysterious Craft... but It Is a Craft! 16 The Simultaneity of Acting and What Is Acted 17 Who Is the Actor 18 Quadruple Identity 20 Intuition 21
University vi of Michigan CONTENTS Press, 2012 Different Acting Conventions 21 Embodiment 22 2. The Heart and Soul of the Actor: Stanislavski s Approach 24 Drama Is Action 24 Physical Action and the Four W s Plus Two: Who, What, Where, When, Plus Why and What For 25 Interpretation: Text and Subtext 26 Objectives, Superobjectives 27 Imagination, Magic If, and Emotional Memory 27 The Actor s Second Paradox: Acting Consciously 28 The Actor s Third Paradox: The Difference between Rehearsal and Performance 29 Feeling and Thought 31 Feelings and Thoughts Are Intertwined 32 Playing the Result: Misunderstandings about Feeling and Thought... 32... and How to Avoid Them 33 How to Play an Emotion 35 Motive 36 Direct Motives 37 Indirect Motives 38 Avoiding Speculation About Motives 39 Intention 40 Speculation about Intentions and a Confusion of Words 41 3. The Actor as Eyewitness to Social Processes: Brecht s Approach 43 Not This, but That 43 The Actor as Eyewitness: The Street Scene 44 Gestus 45 Gesture and Attitude 46 Motives Lie Primarily outside the Theater, Intentions within the Play 48 Amazement and Wonder 49 The Alienation Effect 50 The Chinese Actor 51
University of Michigan Press, 2012 CONTENTS vii part ii: acting in real time 4. The Technique 55 Presence of the Actor 55 Double Function of the Actor 56 Feelings and Thoughts of the Character/ Feelings and Thoughts of the Actor 57 No Need to Justify Oneself 58 The Actor Makes His Presence Known 59 Action of the Acting Itself 60 Two Realities 62 Alternating 62 Simultaneous 64 Making a Proposal 64 Conditions for the Presence of the Actor 65 The Actor as Host, the Audience as Guests 66 When and Where Does the Play Take Place? Now and Here! 66 The Real-Time Actor Is Like a Musician 67 Instruments of the Actor 1: Imagination 68 Theatrical Images, Not Illustrations 71 Montage and (De)construction: The Actor at Work 74 The Space between the Lines of the Text 76 Instruments of the Actor 2: Body and Voice 77 Instruments of the Actor 3: The Mind, the Heart, and the Senses 79 Instruments of the Actor 4: Language 80 Fine-Tuning the Instruments 1: What Does the Actor See? 81 The actor sees his fellow actors 82 Seeing and being seen: the actor sees the audience 84 The audience is your friend 85 Seeing and looking during the performance 86 The narrators of the play are insiders 87 Comment no comment 88 Fine-Tuning the Instruments 2: What Does the Actor Hear? 91 Consequences of Active Seeing/Looking and Hearing/Listening 92 Active rest 93 Connection and trust 93
University viii of Michigan CONTENTS Press, 2012 Focus and concentration 94 Alertness 98 In the moment 99 Nothing can go wrong 100 Rehearsal Process and Improvisation 103 Reading a text 103 Different forms of improvisation 104 Improvisations on form: An inexhaustible wealth of images 105 The Illusion of Reality vs. the Reality of the Illusion 110 Dreams don t fall from the sky 110 A different use of the same elements 110 Conditions of the stage itself 112 Form and format 113 Instruments of the Theater Itself 1: Stage and Stage Design 114 Use of the space 116 Use of chairs and other furniture 117 Instruments of the Theater Itself 2: Props and Objects 119 Instruments of the Theater Itself 3: Costumes 120 Instruments of the Theater Itself 4: Music and Sound 122 Instruments of the Theater Itself 5: Light 125 Instruments of the Theater Itself 6: Media Film and Video 128 Staging, Blocking and Choreography 131 Rehearsal and Production 133 Rehearsal and Performance 135 Ensemble 136 Postmodern Theater and the Actor as Author: The Fate of Men Is Man-made 137 Chapter 5: The Workshop 140 How It Started 140 The Epic Genre in Literature and the Epic Theater 141 Creating a Distance 142 Acting in Real Time: A Technique 143 Setup of the Workshop 144 Step 1. The I Story 144 Narrator and audience 144 Process, not result 145
University of Michigan Press, 2012 CONTENTS ix Telling a Story in the First Person: The Assignment 145 Choosing a story 145 Preparations: setting up the space and focus 146 Postexercise Observations 147 1. Past and present 147 2. Memory is activated truthfulness 147 3. Remembering feelings and thoughts: images, words, and movement 148 4. Chaos and repertoire 149 5. Recognition and assimilation 150 6. Commitment 151 7. Practicalities 151 8. What else is noteworthy? 152 9. Themes and historical events 153 10. Given circumstances 154 11. Plot and structure 155 Telling the Same Story Again in the First Person: The Assignment 156 Dramatic conflict 156 Postexercise Observations 157 1. Distance and catharsis 157 2. Internalizing 158 Step 2. The He/She Story 158 Telling the Story in the Third Person: The Assignment 158 What the first person sees: the omniscient narrator 158 Postexercise Observations 159 1. Neutrality doesn t exist 159 2. Point of view 160 Telling the Original I Story in the Third Person, from Someone Else s Perspective: The Assignment 161 Insiders and outsiders 161 Form, content, and the narrator s instruments 162 Postexercise Observations 163 1. Justification and character 163 2. Five exercises in one 164 3. Deeper meaning 165 Telling the Original I Story in the Third Person, from Different Points of View: The Assignment 166
University x of CONTENTS Michigan Press, 2012 The pure narrator: deconstructing the story 166 Many points of view 167 Postexercise Observations 169 1. Hidden points of view 169 2. The narrator s own feelings and thoughts 169 Step 3. Theatrical Forms of a Story 170 Before history there are stories 170 Stories in daily life 170 Theatrical forms of stories of today 171 Different story forms 171 Other story forms: from puppet play to performance piece 173 Solo Performance. Telling Your Story in a Theatrical Form: The Assignment 174 From subjective to objective, from descriptive to active, from past to present 174 Performance in real time 175 Preparations: concept, scenario, theatrical tools, space, and duration 176 Staging yourself in public 177 Postexercise Observations 178 1. Evaluation of the performance 178 Step 4. Someone Else s Story 179 Natural distance and critical examination 179 Telling Someone Else s Story in the Third Person as a He/She Story and Choosing a Point of View: The Assignment 180 Point of view and connection 180 Postexercise Observations 180 1. Different dramaturgical structure 180 2. Language and imagery 181 3. The story of a role 181 Telling Someone Else s Story in the First Person as if It Were an I Story, from a Point of View: The Assignment 182 Postexercise Observations 182 1. Self-created safety net 182 2. Audience as witness 182
University of Michigan Press, 2012 CONTENTS xi Step 5. Montage of the Stories 183 Different formats of the workshop 183 Making a Montage Piece of All the Stories as a Performance Piece: The Assignment 184 6. The Exercises 186 Active Seeing and Looking 186 Active Hearing and Listening 190 Active Rest 192 Grounding, Centering and Relaxing 194 Exercise A: Grounding 195 Exercise B: Centering 195 Exercise C: Relaxing 196 Exercise D: From Relaxing to Grounding 196 Connection and Trust 199 Exercise A: Isolations 199 Exercise B: Walking 201 Exercise C: Floating 202 Exercise D: Falling 203 part iii: real-time acting and theater in historical perspective 7. Origins and Conventions 207 A Different Look at Theater History 207 Our Need for Realism 208 Child s Play 209 Primitive Ritual: Awe, Fear... and Hope 211 Gods and Worship Ritual 213 From Ritual to Performance 214 Stories and Mythology 215 From Story to Action 216 The Birth of Written Drama and the Secular Actor 218 XXX-Large: Bigger Than Life 221 Distance from Reality 222 New Drama in a New Theater 223 Teatro Olimpico: An Architectonic Miracle 224 The Deceived Eye 226
University xii of Michigan CONTENTS Press, 2012 Acting in the Wrong Setting 227 Oohs and Aahs and Opera 228 Toward a Truthful Representation of Reality 230 The Paradox of the Actor 231 Confusion and Controversy 232 The Meiningers 233 8. New Conventions and Innovations 234 Positivism and Naturalism 234 Edison, Wagner, and the Fire Department 235 Fourth Wall and Peephole 236 Stanislavski s Psychotechnique 237 Realism as a Style and a Convention 238 Identification and Identity of the Actor 239 Illusion of Reality 240 The Virtually Invisible Actor 241 Semblance of Perfection and Accomplished Facts 242 Film 244 Rational Distance and the Instinctive Identification of the Audience 245 Reaction 245 Brecht and the Epic Theater 247 Alienation Effect 249 Stylization 250 Again Innovations 252 The Second Metaphor and the Presence of the Actor as Himself 253 Real-Time Acting: A Form and a Technique for Postmodern Theater 256 The Flat-Floor Theater, the Transparent Actor, and the Magic of Theater 258 Notes 259 Illustrations following page 204