All That Attention

I've been thinking alot about attention, focus, energy, and the deep acting connection you can experience with your scene partners.  The other week I was rehearsing with a fellow actor some scene work for a class.  We were rehearsing in a small studio space and it was just the two of us working with no director.  We were working on a scene from The Night of the Iguana.  I was very pleased after one run through because I felt such a strong sensation of feelings from an intense actor connection between the two of us.  I felt my emotions tingling and it was like waking up from a dream and feeling certain that the dream was real.  In fact, the sensation was so "life like" that it resembled a true life experience that I might share with an intimate person in my real private life.  This is of course a truly fulfilling moment for an actor.  It is the type of sensation we strive so hard to fulfill over and over again.  But sometimes it can also be a frightening sensation.  That intense connection can sneak up and surprise you--sometimes even KICK YOU OUT of the moment because you aren't prepared for it.  Or possibly aren't vulnerable and open to receive such an emotional connection.  As I mentioned in my post There is Action and then there is ACTION, I believe THAT sensation is the energy that we exchange in real life.  It is the unspoken--but VERY defined--intent for HOW we want a person to FEEL.  Earle Gister would say, "It's like a LASER!"  And recently when I was thinking about this connection I couldn't help but compare this sensation to the image in the Harry Potter films when Harry and Voldemort lock magic with their wands! I think in real life most of us are not even aware of it--at least certainly not consciously--and if we ARE then we are socially HARDENED so as not to appear vulnerable to such things.  But it exists!  It IS the invisible connection we share with the world.  It's no different in acting.  But at this rehearsal something seemed incredibly POTENT and it got me thinking...what was going on in me as an actor to heighten this experience?  Was it something that I was doing or was it something else?

A few days later the answer came to me fairly quickly.  Of course, WITH the answer came more questions and experiences to ponder.  The answer came to me after we presented our scene in class.  I still felt a strong sense of fulfillment with the work just as I had in rehearsal.  However, the sensation of connection seemed less intense and somewhat distracted.  Why?  Well it was obvious at this point...in class we had an AUDIENCE.  When we were rehearsing there was no director--no outside eye--no audience to benefit from our performance and no communication beyond the two actors sharing the sensation in the room.  Now what we experienced in rehearsal would seem the coveted sensation for all actors, right?  To be so committed to your objectives that the world and all your worries just fall away leaving you with nothing but a truthful and deep connection to your character and your partners on stage?  But then to what greater purpose would that heightened actor connection in rehearsal serve?  I'll be the first to admit that I am as driven as anyone to fulfill that level of focus and the heightened connection--that drives away the outside world--whenever I take on a role BUT is our lust for pure "PUBLIC SOLITUDE" clouding our purpose to communicate?  Some might argue the only way to achieve a truthful acting experience is for actors to be so focused within the imaginary circumstances that they forget about the audience.  Then as a result the audience will experience a reaction just by being a witness to the event.  Well it's true, an audience will walk out of the theatre with an experience one way or another but isn't the energy (or awareness) that we direct indirectly TO the audience what allows the audience permission to experience and feel PART OF the event?  Or is that just a "trick" to help actor's cope with stage fright?

But I'm getting ahead of myself...back to that heightened actor connection.  In most cases our work ALWAYS takes place in the presence of others but as we are the origin of our creation let's start with those moments by ourselves.  Here we go...you at home in your room going over your lines and your role.  You are doing extensive invisible work through your imagination.  The character is taking shape and choices are presenting themselves through the inspiration of your imagination.  You are feeling excited about your exploration and look forward to the possibilities they will create in rehearsal.  Jump forward to a rehearsal with just your scene partner.  Now you have a new source of inspiration.  Your attention moves outside of yourself and your inner images.  You have a living obstacle to wrestle with.  Before you know it, the connection is strengthened from trust and familiarity.  Then with very little effort your character's emotional life is brimming with activity.  Your Truth of Performance is rivaling even reality.  The sensation is just as you imagined it would be or COULD be.  You think, "NOW it's ready to be seen."  Jump to rehearsal with your director--something happens--you can't focus because your awareness has widened.  Your attention is split between your responsibilities to your character and your desire to please your director.  After working the scene over and over again your focus shifts back to your character's tasks and making the adjustments from direction.  Now that awareness for the director begins to fade...but not entirely.  Why not?  If they had left the room and were watching from a two way mirror would you still feel their presence?  Even if we HATED them and could care less what they think...could we remove our awareness of their watching eyes?  Still your focus tightens on your character's needs and slowly you return to some semblance of that isolated moment of heightened connection.  Jump to presenting to a larger audience.  Your awareness widens more.  You feel over whelmed.  You place your performance in their hands and you struggle to keep your focus on the tasks you worked so hard to fulfill in rehearsals.  That sensation of heightened connection seems MILES away and no matter how hard you concentrate you can't seem to fulfill it!  I'm exaggerating--at least I hope--a worst case scenario to point out just how powerful a hold an actor's awareness can have over his/her technique.  Acting in a room with ONE other actor is a HUGE difference than with even one person, say a director, and an even bigger difference with an "audience!"  Which is why I wonder if it is even possible for an actor to "forget" about the audience at all!  I'm fascinated with WHAT it is in our attention or psychological makeup that recognizes and adjusts to this information.  Can you really EVER create the sensation of two people alone in a room without an audience?  If you could then would it even BE the same effect and would an audience benefit the same way?  OR is the same heightened connection actually taking place but somehow our attention has added a separate layer of awareness which makes it impossible to "recognise" the same sensation of connection?  How massive is an actor's attention and capacity for awareness? 

SIDEBAR: Isn't it also ironic that self awareness is so important to an actor's early development--especially with regards to our Actor/Self--but later it can be one of our greatest downfalls?

I came across a passage in Vakhtangov Directs that was inspiring with regards to this topic.  Rubin Simonov references Stanislavsky and then elaborates.

"In the book Building a Character, Stanislavsky wrote, "The singularity of our scenic communion consists of the fact that communion must take place simultaneously with the partner and the audience.  (With the partner directly and deliberately; with the audience indirectly through the partner.)  It is remarkable that with the first and the second the communion is reciprocal all through the play."

When an actor says, "I was so completely engrossed in my part that I forgot I was on stage.  I was not aware of the audience," he lies.  An actor never forgets that he is on the stage.  He makes pause in order not to break the audience's attention, he is perfectly aware of a cough or any other sound on the other side of the foot lights, he is always grateful to the audience for its attention, and he plays his role much better, is more inspired, when there is a dead silence--the sign that the audience is completely involved.  The audience, in its turn, also takes part in the performance: applauding during the performance, expressing its enthusiasm for the actor, letting him/her feel from the darkness of the auditorium that it is living with him/her all the peripetia of the play.  There is nothing wrong in such a communion between the actor and the audience.  On the contrary, when there is a close contact between the two, stimulating and exhilarating art is born."

WHAT a wonderful and positive view of our experience!!  I have felt those moments of dead silence were you HOLD the audience--almost as if you are looking straight in their eyes and telling them a close and personal secret...it certainly doesn't happen all the time...but fulfilling those moments is what the art is all about.  It is why we keep coming back.  These moments of JOY and pleasure on stage inspire me to search for ways to empower each of us throughout the overall experience--to change the fears and insecurities of an actor's awareness to that of artistic strength and purpose.  I truly believe that the acting experience is a constantly shifting experience on MULTIPLE levels of awareness.  An actor is always moving between his/her Character and his/her Self.  Moving between their fellow actors and the audience.  Sometimes simultaneously!  The skill is to move gracefully between the levels.  Just as bold characters are fulfilled through focus and purpose so are performances as a whole.  If EVERYTHING your character says and does is for the purpose of fulfilling their tasks and needs then it makes sense that every moment you are on the stage as an actor is for the purpose of communion with the audience.  Right?  It is an OPPORTUNITY and a moment to share a GIFT.  There is something freeing when you remind yourself this.  Suddenly the audience is not critical eyes of judgment but peers eager for a conversation.  YOU are making the CHOICE to PLAY/COMMUNE with them and as a result your awareness of the audience will drive your Actor/Self NEED to communicate.  This need to commune should out weigh your fears.  Now your Character's needs can take center stage BECAUSE fulfilling those indirectly fulfills your communication with the audience.

I started this post talking about that intense actor connection that we share with our fellow actors and reflecting on its truthfulness and its ability to be sustained during performance.  Like Simonov, I do not think it is humanly possible for an actor to remove his/her awareness of the audience.  Nor do I think they should attempt to.  I do not think that technique should be used to TRICK actors into being less-aware either.  Your technique is there to strengthen your abilities to fulfill your purpose as an actor--TO COMMUNICATE!  I believe that when that heightened connection I spoke of is experienced in a room with no audience to benefit--then it is without purpose.  It certainly isn't wasted because it fills us with a sensation of truth within our characters that will continue to grow.  However, if that ACTOR CONNECTION doesn't translate to an audience then it is selfishly only to the actor's benefit.  But as mentioned above when actors give selflessly to their fellow actors AND the audience stimulating and exhilarating art is born!