Empathy and Sympathy

We need to really be careful about the vocabulary of acting. There are concepts that keep working their way and it can dangerously lead actors to a kind of passivity that lessens the power of experiencing.

After I vent about the Broadway production of Death of a Salesman, where they yelled at the audience for three hours, we look at the necessity of not just making great choices, but believing them. Not just performing them.

Directors give performance or effect directions. It forces actors to play cliches. Figuring out the nature of a character trait or spine or personality frees an actor to play an action ... or an impulse ... that makes behavior more actable.

Last week I gave classes in Poland and it was extremely useful to have a fresh perspective on students who were slightly new to this way of working – and also affording an opportunity for actors to talk about their particular problems.

My student, JP, has been working on the Biff and Happy scene from Death of a Salesman. In this episode we work through a place where he was stuck with that feeling of "now I'm performing a monologue."

In coaching an actor this week, I was struck again by what feels obvious—and yet is so often missed: the actor must find a personal connection to the circumstances, or the character’s conflict never becomes a lived experience.

Revisiting the concept of talking out as a way to help actors own everything they think about a character and a play.

Building the character's attitude towards their partner is not only essential in playing a scene, it saves you. There's a danger, however, in building the attitude all on one level.

Sometimes I think we've just had too many classes - and too many teachers telling you what you have to do in order to play a part. An actor needs to develop the ability to figure out what is necessary for each part.

The ability to visualize and live off images that are in the actor's imagination is a great skill to develop. It keeps you from acting in a vacuum,– to say nothing of solving the problem of a bad partner.