My favorite quote from my acting teachers is

Best acting is living life, instead of acting living life.

There are actors who have superb acting techniques, but lack personal connection with the scene. They look like robots and feel lost when scene changes. But a good actor is FREE of living himself/herself into the scene. And from their live experience comes the true humanity which resonate with the audience. However, the special skills that good actors have are fundamental to everyday living, that is, to observe and live life completely and consciously moment by moment.

The exercise we did this week illustrates the above point of view.

CHALLENGE:

Develop a scene with the following conversation. No more words can be added nor taken out from the conversation.

CONVERSATION:

A. Listen, about the thing.

B. Yes?

A. I didn’t know…

B. I wanted to –

A. And furthermore I went –

B. Yes.

A. Okay.

B. See?

A. Hey.

So what could the story be behind the short conversation?

At first, I couldn’t even read sense out of the dialogue. After a while, certain words captured my attention, such as “thing”, “furthermore”, “see?”. I started to allow my emtion to flow through the words…  Magically, a story is developing itself.

SETTINGS:

This is a conversation between a couple at kitchen table. The husband (A) had an affair, and the wife (B) has always known about it. They had lots of fight. He wanted a divorce, but she didn’t want to break the marriage. Things got ugly, and the mistress threatens him by making their story public (e.g., posting their pictures/stories online). He realized that this is not the relationship he wants, and decided to go back home.

BY KITCHEN TABLE

A. Listen, about the thing (the whole drama)
B. Yes (putting down her newspaper, looking at him. “Now what? You call it a thing? Don’t you have courage to talk about it, coward!”)
A. I didn’t know…. (”things would have gone like this”)
B. I wanted to —- (”warn you, but you never listen. But what’s the point when you can’t even openly discuss it with me?”)
A. And furthermore I went (”to break up with her, and now I and her are no longer together”)
B. Yes (”is that right?”, looking at him suspiciously)
A. Okay (”are we okay now”-begging for her forgiveness)
B. See? (”I know this could happen. You never change. You never even appologized to me asshole”, she doesn’t belive his story any more. And she turned away, walking out of the room)
A. Hey (”don’t go, I haven’t finished my story”)

Acting out this scene is a relief, because every time I was in her role, I felt a sense of freedom, not only from her breaking out the compulsive/abusive marrige, but also from her gaining new understanding of what true loving relationship should be. This is life. I can relate myself from different ways, while learning from every experience.

Face of life is colorful and diverse. In the next several posts, I will share what other stories are developed based on the same conversation by my classmates. As for now, if you look around, there are plenty of opportunities around you where you could be an excellent actor. Go and have fun with it!