Preparation is a kind of daydreaming. It is daydreaming. It's daydreaming which causes a transformation in your inner life, so that you are not what you actually were five minutes ago, because your fantasy is working on you.
The fantasy of the daydream is the most personal, most secret of the acting values. What it means in ordinary language is that we use our imagination in order to fulfill in ourselves what we have more or less determined is our emotional condition before we begin the scene.
-Sanford Meisner
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I think this is something that I like most about acting. While I don't profess to have much acting skill, I love the fact that we can be whatever we imagine...something we are not. It is an excellent feeling to experience something outside yourself.
ReplyDeleteThe thing about it though, is that it is not easy to enter this daydream or imagination, not for me at least. I don't know what it is but there is something about me that is somewhat resistant at times. It is often a very frustrating experience.
It's frustrating for all of us. If it were easy everyone would do it.
ReplyDeleteIt takes a good deal of time, especially when you're short on experience. Preparation can't be rushed. Just as you can't force yourself to sleep, you can't force yourself to be in character. Set aside time before you rehearse. If it takes ten minutes, great. If it takes twenty, great. Don't cheat the time required. As you find keys that let you merge with the character the time will shrink, but you can't find those keys without an initial deposit of time.
Frustration is good. As we've talked, sometimes acting is just another factory job where you have to show up and do your work with little obvious payoff. If you do that enough, you'll make discoveries. There's likely a reward at the end of the road, but it may be a long hike before you get there.