Getting Ready to Work . . .

So . . . a student arrives Friday Evening. I watch him go through his routine. Cell phone off. Everything out of his pockets. Keys, ipod, wallet (he'd already paid me), monologue (which he claimed he knew) unfolded and ready on the table should he need it.

I had an epiphany-of sorts. This young man had been going through the same routine every week for over two years - and it finally occurred to me that the problems I was trying to solve for him might be linked in some way to this opening ritual. I'm slow off the mark sometimes.

"George" (a nom de guerre), I said. "Why do you take all that stuff out of your pockets before we start?" He looked puzzled. "Uh . . . I dunno. I just do. I'm getting ready to work." Blam! Lightning strike. Burning right into my legendary, but obviously slow moving, perceptor bank.

George was getting ready to work. A mental, thought out process. "Hey, George", I said gruffly. "Nix on the getting ready to work shit! Put all that crap back in your pockets, leave - come back in, throw your backpack down - play your moment before and start. And, no. You can't have your money back!" George was stunned. "But . . ." "No buts - do it!"

And George did it! Reluctantly at first, but he did it. The methodology here was a little extreme, but it worked. Sort of. But it will get better. Here's what happened. By "getting ready to work", George was establishing that his sub-conscious told him going into actor mode was different than the reality of every-day George mode and that his actor process had to account for the differences, thereby thrusting him firmly and irrevocably into his head.

The reality of character and text has to flow freely without conscious preparation for playing the scripted material. Any self-awareness about getting ready to enter the world of the scene, immediately puts that old devil "thought" into the picture. And acting is not, I repeat NOT about thinking. You have to be able to slide into the world of the character and the scene without thinking about it - your preparation at home and in rehearsal takes care of all the thinking, thank you. Presentation is all about just doing it! More about this again and again and again in future posts.