Investigation Now

I remember years ago coming home from college one weekend.  I went to church with my family on Sunday morning and I also went to a college age class for "Sunday school."  That class was taught by teachers that I had grown up with over the years and had learned to value their perspective.  After class I was so excited to share with one of these teachers some of the new and exciting things that I had learned and discovered while away at school.  The funny thing is that to this day I don't remember WHAT we were discussing but I do remember that what I was offering--for my beliefs--was very affirming stuff.  This is why I was so shocked and will never forget what was said in response.  I was told that the Devil works in mysterious ways and that knowledge can sometimes be dangerous.  WHAT!?!  I was furious.  That didn't even make sense to me.  How could knowledge and wisdom be considered EVIL?  So I went to the one man I always went to for inspiration--my Pop.  My father is a high school drama teacher but he started out in life as a preacher.  I retold the "advice" that I was given and how angry it made me feel.  What he said next changed my outlook on EVERYTHING.  His words grew to be the phrase I depend on as a mantra for my life AND my artistry.  He said...

"Truth has nothing to fear of investigation."

How perfect is that?  Truth has nothing to fear of investigation.  Nothing!  No matter where truth may hide, and truth has a funny way of hiding in all sorts of unseemly places, no matter the questions, the knowns, the unknowns, the suspicions, the theories, the doubts--no matter WHERE truth is hiding it welcomes investigation.  Because truth doesn't know how to be anything but the TRUTH.

!!WARING!!  This calling for truth presents a great challenge to each of us.  The challenge to be brutally honest with ourselves.  We may not like what we find.  It may not be the easy or popular answer.  It may not be what we were taught or always thought/believed it to be.  Sometimes accepting a truth that is buried deep inside us can be painful to recognize but in art--as an actor--when we DO accept those truths then we allow them to be elevated ABOVE ourselves.  We discover freedom to move deeper within the work--the characters we play and the story we are attempting to tell.  So dig away!

As actors TRUTH is the essence of what we seek.  Even if we're recreating a fabrication of reality we are always striving for truth.  Truth in our characters.  Truth in our actions.  Truth in our emotions.  Truth in our tasks and objectives.  It ALL has to be TRUE for the audience to benefit from the experience.  Even in abstract forms if you are not committed to the purpose of every moment--then every moment will appear false.  Truth is what we long for.  We desperately desire for our audiences to BELIEVE in the characters and stories we share with them because belief is what makes truth true.

So how do actors investigate truth?  The same way anyone would go about investigating in real life--with your senses, intellect, and imagination!  In the beginning we investigate ourselves and our instrument.  We search for truth within our Actor/Self.  We search to identify our personal habits and personal barbwire that our technique will eventually become entangled.  We investigate our instrument's greatest potential.  We identify our instrument's most challenging limitations and then investigate how we to move through them.  We investigate our experiences for inspiration.  We search for truth of courage and faith in our technique.

Then we investigate our Actor/Characters and search for their truth within the text of our story and in the heart of the story itself.  We seek out their purpose to the story.  We discover who they are and what they want.  We discover who they aren't and what they don't want.  We investigate their likes and dislikes to deepen and inspire their emotional lives.  We look at what they say and what they don't say and how they say it.  We investigate what THEY want and not what we think they want.

But the greatest thing about investigating for the actor is in the doing.  We get to ACT out our investigations.  We get to rehearse possibilities to discover if they are truths or not.  This is what makes acting so much fun.  The story and our character's truth is just waiting to be found and with every project we start--we set out to find it.  Be honest, don't be afraid--and start investigating!