In the Next Room 5: A List of Beautiful Questions
A short but revelatory volley of emails between myself and Mrs. Q, AKA Mademoiselle Guignol, AKA Ze Most Faboosh Stephanie Shaw, followed my last Vibrator Play entry.
(I initially wrote "barrage" of emails, but changed it to "volley", but now I realize both words are fairly bellicose, although volley is less so, because these days the connotations lean more toward volleyball than, say, cannon fire.)
I thought you might be interested.
***
From Mrs. Q:
Hello my dear.
It's snowing very hard. I'll be shoveling tomorrow. Sigh. That's all right.
As a director, I often ask my actors how they're feeling. It never occurred to me that it was such a loaded question - but it is. I think it is me trying to be nurturing or something.
Because of course I'm not actually interested in how they're feeling, I'm just trying to gauge how best to continue the work now. It's short hand for "What do you feel ISN'T working?" but I don't want to say that because then they'll think something isn't working! And it will make them self-conscious. And of course, SOMETHING isn't working, because it can't all be working can it, otherwise you wouldn't need to rehearse.
But you don't want the actors concentrating on that, it's important to empower the actors because the poor fuckers are up there with their necks on the line, aren't they?
So why not let them articulate the bumps in the road and see if they're anything like the bumps you're observing and then work it out between you?
On the other hand, it's entirely okay, I think, to turn it around on your director. "What did you see?" is a perfectly valid response, even if it is answering a question with a question. The director is there to tell you that. To guide you. I wouldn't mind if an actor responded that way.
"How did you feel?" is a sort of stalling tactic, I think, on the part of the director and I'm glad you've brought it up. I might not say that again.
How the actor FEELS is hardly a valid concern is it? I mean, as regards their performance. You can FEEL shitty about a performance but an audience will think it's just swell. Happens all the time.
You must just keep the character's objectives in view, and keep pursuing them, actively. And if you don't achieve the objectives, then probably your character feels frustrated, or angry or melancholy, etc.
But you should just feel like an actor. Complicated.
xoxo
s
***
This was - and is - all food for thought.
I began to think of the questions I've found most useful from a director. Unlike the ones that, while they might be useful to some other actor, stymie me and make me start to stutter or spin around in circles on the carpet, stalling for time.
(And maybe doing carpet circles is part of the process??? I DON'T KNOW! I STILL FEEL LIKE A N00B!!! I'd MUCH rather quicken up the pace of my particular process. Because dang it, we've got WORK to do.
Not that discussing a scene isn't work. Piecing it apart into its beats. Making the wants clear. It's part of the work. But.)
I guess it comes down to the way people best communicate. What tactics or strategies on the part of the questioner (the director) bring about the answers they want their actors to embody.
Because... I WANT TO GIVE THEM WHAT THEY WANT. Desperately. The directors are the ones who can see. But I know I have to get there on my own. Or at least be fooled into thinking I have.
I want to be a thinking actor. Body, mind, and soul.
So here are the questions I feel expedite my process, the ones that, when I answer them (not even "correctly" - just... decisively) make me cleaner and clearer as an actor.
***
My reply:
Thank you so much for your email.
My favorite question my directors have asked me after a scene is, "What do you want?"
Second best is, "What do you think is going on in this scene?"
And the third are the specific questions like, "Why did you get up on that line?"
Or "What are your hurdles here? What does it cost you to say that?"
- csec
***
This was useful for me to know.
There were more to the emails, of course. But...
There is such a thing, I'm finding, as over-sharing.
And sometimes I like to keep things for my own. My precioussssss.
***
"In the Next Room" performances are the last two weekend of February (21st-23rd, 28th-March 2nd) with previews the 14th-16th.
All entries on the rehearsal process are tagged under " The Vibrator Play."
And here is... THE FACEBOOK EVENT INVITATION!!!
***
(I initially wrote "barrage" of emails, but changed it to "volley", but now I realize both words are fairly bellicose, although volley is less so, because these days the connotations lean more toward volleyball than, say, cannon fire.)
I thought you might be interested.
***
From Mrs. Q:
Hello my dear.
It's snowing very hard. I'll be shoveling tomorrow. Sigh. That's all right.
As a director, I often ask my actors how they're feeling. It never occurred to me that it was such a loaded question - but it is. I think it is me trying to be nurturing or something.
Because of course I'm not actually interested in how they're feeling, I'm just trying to gauge how best to continue the work now. It's short hand for "What do you feel ISN'T working?" but I don't want to say that because then they'll think something isn't working! And it will make them self-conscious. And of course, SOMETHING isn't working, because it can't all be working can it, otherwise you wouldn't need to rehearse.
But you don't want the actors concentrating on that, it's important to empower the actors because the poor fuckers are up there with their necks on the line, aren't they?
So why not let them articulate the bumps in the road and see if they're anything like the bumps you're observing and then work it out between you?
On the other hand, it's entirely okay, I think, to turn it around on your director. "What did you see?" is a perfectly valid response, even if it is answering a question with a question. The director is there to tell you that. To guide you. I wouldn't mind if an actor responded that way.
"How did you feel?" is a sort of stalling tactic, I think, on the part of the director and I'm glad you've brought it up. I might not say that again.
How the actor FEELS is hardly a valid concern is it? I mean, as regards their performance. You can FEEL shitty about a performance but an audience will think it's just swell. Happens all the time.
You must just keep the character's objectives in view, and keep pursuing them, actively. And if you don't achieve the objectives, then probably your character feels frustrated, or angry or melancholy, etc.
But you should just feel like an actor. Complicated.
xoxo
s
***
This was - and is - all food for thought.
I began to think of the questions I've found most useful from a director. Unlike the ones that, while they might be useful to some other actor, stymie me and make me start to stutter or spin around in circles on the carpet, stalling for time.
(And maybe doing carpet circles is part of the process??? I DON'T KNOW! I STILL FEEL LIKE A N00B!!! I'd MUCH rather quicken up the pace of my particular process. Because dang it, we've got WORK to do.
Not that discussing a scene isn't work. Piecing it apart into its beats. Making the wants clear. It's part of the work. But.)
I guess it comes down to the way people best communicate. What tactics or strategies on the part of the questioner (the director) bring about the answers they want their actors to embody.
Because... I WANT TO GIVE THEM WHAT THEY WANT. Desperately. The directors are the ones who can see. But I know I have to get there on my own. Or at least be fooled into thinking I have.
I want to be a thinking actor. Body, mind, and soul.
So here are the questions I feel expedite my process, the ones that, when I answer them (not even "correctly" - just... decisively) make me cleaner and clearer as an actor.
***
My reply:
Thank you so much for your email.
My favorite question my directors have asked me after a scene is, "What do you want?"
Second best is, "What do you think is going on in this scene?"
And the third are the specific questions like, "Why did you get up on that line?"
Or "What are your hurdles here? What does it cost you to say that?"
- csec
***
This was useful for me to know.
There were more to the emails, of course. But...
There is such a thing, I'm finding, as over-sharing.
And sometimes I like to keep things for my own. My precioussssss.
***
"In the Next Room" performances are the last two weekend of February (21st-23rd, 28th-March 2nd) with previews the 14th-16th.
All entries on the rehearsal process are tagged under " The Vibrator Play."
And here is... THE FACEBOOK EVENT INVITATION!!!
***