I found an excuse to get in touch with Luis outside of our theater class. Uta Hagen's notes and videos. In case you don't know, she was a really famous acting coach. Acting is useful. The best class I've had so far. It teaches you so much about human nature by making observe people and explain what you see in them. It liberates you by making it OK to look stupid in front of others and to get in touch with parts of your personality that you really want to believe don't even exist.
Imagine you like to think of yourself as an ambitious person, noble, open-minded, generous, a winner. Your character is a mean-spirited cheap loser and overall the last person you'd ever want to be. To be a realistic actor, you need to create a bridge between yourself and your character. You need to find the mean-spirited cheap loser in you and channel him/her out when deep down all you want to do is show people you are 180 degrees different from your character. It takes a lot of inner strength to face your hangups and get over them in order to be a great actor with a wide range of characters in your professional arsenal.
I had to fall on my knees and pray for my child's life in front of everybody. That was embarrassing and I felt very vulnerable and uncomfortable showing so much emotion in front of the whole class and the professor. It was not just a light little prayer. It was the sobbing, begging, tragic kind. I was worried they would laugh at me and think this was what I did in my everyday life if I was too realistic on stage. All I wanted to do was tell everybody I was just pretending. The professor stopped me in the very beginning for being too unrealistic. I had to do it again and after all, it was just acting. It was part of the class. It's what would get me an A. My legs were shaking. I pretended there was a wall between me and the class, that it was OK to be laughed at, that it was acceptable to be that vulnerable. I imagined I was praying to God to save my brother's life. That was enough to fill me up with emotion and make me get over my inhibitions. I also reminded myself not to turn my back at the audience and to make bigger gestures, not hold it to myself like I may normally do.
Uta Hagen's Notes: The Acting Craft
1. Suspension of Disbelief
2. Teach student 2-3 small things at a time so you don’t overwhelm them.
3. When you don’t realize someone’s acting then they’re doing it right
4. Begin w/self evaluation. Your 3rd eye is watching.
5. Use a psychological substitute as a tool.
6. Emotion takes us, we don’t take it.
7. Allow nothingness to breathe, to exist
8. Observer your environment. People don’t just stand around and do nothing, they look, scratch,
look at their watch to check the time.
9. Don’t avoid comedic snips in times of drama, these things happen.
Uta Hagen's Notes: Doing
1. People always have a destination, when moving & if someone looks uncomfortable, they don’t have a sense of where they’re going. If you don’t know where your going or what you’re doing, you get very tense. If you DO know where you’re going, you become relaxed and free. People are always DOING something (ie. adjusting their belt.) Where is the body? Where is your reality? Is it staged? 3 Steps: What was I just doing? What am I doig now? What do I want? …and go for it. Start w/rehearsal of doings, of actions People don’t pace, walking back and forth is unnatural.
2. We have very little experience watching ourselves.
3. We are FULL human beings, there are parts of us we don't like. No cliches, portray the full human being.
4. If 2 characters in the scene want the same thing then it will be flat. What is the main conflict in the scene? what is the subtext?
Uta Hagen's Notes: Behavior
1. Let things go in a direction so people can see for themselves how wrong they are.
2. Bored on stage staring at his hands, not paying attention stands out like a sore thumb.
3. You MUST immerse yourself into the character, fully. You must become the character so while you are playing the role there is no division between you and the character. There is only the character.
4. Start w/your body, not thought. Where there is action, there is behavior.
5. Practice specific behavior, character behavior and natural behavior
6. Be part of your surroundings, look around, notice people, watch, cell phone, you hear noises.
7. React to what you see and hear. What is in the script cannot be seen or heard. These are up to the actor to react to naturally.
Uta Hagen's Notes:
1. When an activity (ie. folding pants) becomes more important than the emotion/subject matter, you've lost the scene.
2. Substitution defines behavior. In substitution, you hold the relationship you have w/the person, then transfer that inner feeling/emotion onto someone else. You don't directly see that person as the person you've imagined.
3. Physical confrontation should be rehearsed so it doesn't look rehearsed. When people look to out of control the viewer becomes aware of "acting"
4. Timing - Don't deliver on tempo, receive before you send back.
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