Connecting to the Role

I’ve seen a lot of theatre, tv and film acting and the problem that I see is a lack of a genuine connection between the actor and the role to be played.

What this lack of connection creates is an insincerity in performance by the actor. The amateur believes that this is due to a failure to reach an emotional understanding of the role and scene and a further failure to reproduce this on stage. This more than usually produces scenes of generalised emoting that is boring to watch.

Further, the actor trying to emote their way to a connection ends up digging and digging deeper and deeper in each performance, searching for an emotional depth but delivering an ever shallowing performance that is painful to watch. Forgiveable because one can see how hard the actor is working, but still dreadful.

What the professional understands is how to access the connection to the role without the need to seek emotion. We ask not what is the character feeling and how do I reproduce this, but instead we ask what is the character doing, and then we find a way of doing that which is in line with the writer’s intention, which is sincere, which is truthful.

By focusing the actor on what the character is doing in the scene, we avoid the emotional trap and produces engaging and captivating performance.

The advanced students of our Glasgow acting classes create this kind of beautiful work every week and it’s not just watchable, it’s magical and inspirational.

And critics of our way of working say that by focusing on the doing, it creates empty performances.. Think again.