To fail in spectacular ways

Thoughts on training from Chris Jacobs on the Facebook group Shakespeare Unleashed. Based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Chris is one of the most experienced, and perhaps the only, teacher of Meyerhold’s biomechanics training for actors in South East Asia. Thanks Chris!

Exercise Protocol for Actors:

An acting exercise is a repeatable action which is designed with very specific objectives in mind, with each intrinsic element of that exercise existing in such a form as to allow the actor to progressively work towards the successful attainment of those objectives.

Therefore the manner in which an exercise is approached and carried out, both physically and mentally, is critical to the success of  that exercise, and the further development of the actor.

Actors who think they are exercising or training only the muscles of their physical bodies, are cheating themselves.

Actors who modify each exercise in order to make it easier or more comfortable to execute, are cheating themselves.

Actors who approach each exercise as a ‘Starting Point’ for an improvisation performance, are cheating themselves.

Actors who exploit each exercise in order to illustrate their superiority or ‘Stage Cred’, are cheating themselves.

Actors who exploit each exercise in order to evaluate the abilities of others, are cheating themselves.

Training exercises are acting disciplines: in every moment of every exercise the actor must be, at one and the same time, exercising and training the muscles of his mind, i.e., Will, Focus, Concentration, Courage, Tenacity and Stamina, in addition to those of his physical being.

Training exercises are not treasure troves of knowledge: they build doorways that lead towards  knowledge.

Training exercises are not secret methods for showing one how to be expressive or to “reveal” oneself: they are work, and their true benefits are released through the time and the fatigue of long, monotonous work.

Training exercises are not pursuits of hedonism: they coax actors outside what is comfortable, deny them what is easy, dare them to risk what is frightening, and actively encourage them to fail in spectacular ways.

Chris Jacobs 2012

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“My heart’s an old man sitting on a hill, looking down at the road by which he came …”

Jean-Louis Barrault quoting his father Jules Barrault, Souvenirs pour demain, (Memories for Tomorrow: The Memoirs of Jean-Louis Barrault, transl. Jonathan Griffin, 1974.)

Memory and the body

“One may dream, not in plots, but in sensations. The sensation of not being able to push or pull something heavy. The sensation of free fall, of inclination, of pressure. The sensation of being unable to take a deep breath. Many sensations of being inside of something, perhaps something moving out of control, like an elevator that does not stop at the basement but continues to descend. Psychological states are inextricably wound up with these physical sensations, and vice versa…

Then perhaps whole narratives swiftly assemble themselves in the waking.

We always talk about dream or memory as something located in the head. Why do we locate the mind in the head? Brain cells extend the length of the spine – sensory neurons and motor neurons – and from there send out their axons to all perimeters.

Remembering is something that goes on all over the body.”

Elizabeth King, Attention’s Loop (A Sculptor’s Reverie on the Coexistence of Substance and Spirit), 1999.

Elizabeth King, sculptures and bio at the Kent Gallery, New York.

Movement becomes Thought

“… a walker stops sometimes. He pauses. He changes his objective. He was looking at the view – now he contemplates a blade of grass, or he withdraws into himself. … I invite you at these times to sit down with me, side by side, for the sake of the grass-blade, or the view, or ourselves.”

Jean-Louis Barrault, Souvenirs pour demain, (Memories for Tomorrow: The Memoirs of Jean-Louis Barrault, transl. Jonathan Griffin, 1974.)

Movement is Thought

“Neurologists are finding evidence that the cerebellum, which coordinates physical movement, also coordinates the movement of thoughts. Motor function is as crucial to some forms of cognition as it is to physical movement. It is equally crucial to behavior, because behavior is the acting out of movements prescribed by cognition. If we can better understand movement, we can better understand thoughts, words, and deeds.”

John Ratey, A User’s Guide To The Brain, 2001.

cf. Elliot Eisner – [we need to] confer form upon ideas … in order to have them.