Dangerous Assumption . . .

One of my favourite students arrived yesterday . . . ready to attempt a difficult monologue I'd assigned her from a minor Kubrick film. As usual, we shmoozed, played with the dog and so on - until she ran out of delaying tactics, took a deep breath and said, " I guess I'm ready . . .kinda." And she started the work, then ran down in the middle - and finally ground to a halt well before the end.

"Yes?", I said, mysteriously. There's nothing like a bit of mystery to reinforce the Guru image. "It's not flowing. I'm forcing it." "MmmmHmmm", I murmured, softly. Nothing like a good murmur to ratchet up the mystery.

All you Smart Alecs out there know, of course, I was stalling - trying to get my radar activated. So we talked about it. And I discovered that her preparation, while thorough, had been lacking in certain critical areas.

"What are you remembering at the beginning of the monologue?", I asked her. She thought for a moment. "Well . . .I'm remembering how I felt when I saw him on the beach." "What beach? "Why is that important? It's a beach!" She was frustrated. I wasn't about to make her life any easier. "Cape Cod.", I said. "They summer at Cape Cod. And if you follow that through - to the hotel, the images she conjures up, the context - you start to get a fuller picture of the kind of woman she is. We're not talking Coney Island here."

Light at the end of the tunnel. This talented young actor had missed the imaginative cues that would lead her into the world of the text and subsequently into the psyche of the woman she was trying to become. Next week, we'll see whether or not there's a difference.

I think the lesson here is that before you drop into the trenches and examine the text line by line - you have to summon up an act of imagination that makes the text real, produces visions that you can hear and taste and smell - and lead you unerringly into the life of the character you're portraying. Finding beats and emotional shifts won't work if you are in your own every day reality. Never assume a beach is just a beach. Feel the sand and the sun through the reality of the script and see the ocean through the eyes of the character. Only then can you get down to work!