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!

It’s Thursday evening, my favorite time of the week (except for a few occasional fun weekends). I am sitting in the theater classroom, energized and excited, wondering what exercise we will be doing this evening. It’s been over two months that I am at the ‘classic actor’ program, and I am enjoying every minute of it! Currently we are learning ‘character development’ with Gabrielle, a young but experienced actor/teacher from New York.

Gab (what students call him, which he is not very fond of) is a funny guy; he would ask a question in different forms until the student being asked runs out of words for answer. For example, when somebody describes acting as fun, he would ask what fun means. The person answers–fun means having a good time, and Gab asks–what does it feel like to have a good time?  The question goes on. What we have learned from him (in just two classes), is that emotion/feeling is a  personal experience. We all give it meaning through our perception, upbringing and past encounters.

The exercise of this evening is to act out a quality of human character. Lust, aggression, loyalty, generosity are examples that students gave to Gab, and my example is innocence. The challenge for us is to sit in the middle of the classroom, one-by-one, and develop the quality of character while remaining contact with  other students.

It’s my turn, and I choose to experience innocence through connections with everybody else. As if this word has been long forgotten,  it soon aroused interest of everybody. What does innocence mean? What does it feel like to be innocent?

To me, innocence means being fully present at the moment, seeing the world as it is with no-judgment and no labeling. The other manifestation is being true to yourself, meaning at peace and acceptance with what comes out from your heart.

I started looking at each person from one side of the room. In the beginning, it’s very difficult not to judge, and I try to focus on a physical form instead of the person’s face (which links to assumptions we make about the person), like the color of their shoes, their hair style, etc. Even like that, words such as “cute”, “good taste”, “cold personality” came up in thought form.  This seems to be more difficult than I thought.

As I move on, I decide to look at the face of my classmates, as opposed to avoiding it. Interesting things happened. I am greatly drawn to their eyes, and feel as if I could see their inner being behind the body. Some are light-hearted; some are nervous/insecure of the tension by eye-contact, and some are carrying humungous emotional burdens.

It’s an amazing learning experience. At the end of day, it’s perhaps most important to me to experience seeing the world from a fresh and unbiased angle, through the eyes of innocent children. It’s also the state of innocence that we could find a peaceful haven from worries and fear.

I will close this post with a song from my favorite musicians, Miten and Deva Premal, ‘Through the eyes of an angel’.  May we see truth in every moment, and may we be free.

Miten with Deva Premal – Through the Eyes of an Angel

Congratulations to the birth of Connectedwelove.com!

Every seed needs a nurishing soil bed to grow. I intend to dedicate myself to the growth and flourish of this blog.

Special thanks to T.B., S.J. and many others who inspired me to set up this common ground for celebrating our connections in love and good nature.