How to Rehearse Ichi-Go Ichi-E – PART 3

If you’ve read the previous blog written on GIBBERISH some months ago, you’ll understand the idea, but no matter, I will explain it again.

If the actor is really able to task switch between going after their real world task and acknowledge and be affected by their scene partners, then it doesn’t matter what they are saying in performance. They could be speaking total gibberish. Again, since 93% of our communication is non-verbal, we must be able to communicate through more than words. This isn’t some wanky ‘act with your back’, act with your ‘teeth’ instruction. We need to ensure that when we speak, we do not rely on the meaning of the words, nor should we attempt to make the meaning clearer, which simply insults the audience’s intelligence.

When two actors can do the scene, with full blocking/staging, in costume, and make it look precisely like the scene, except using not a single line from the script, you know that they are fully connected to the writer’s intention and the character’s desires. If it looks like the scene in every sense, but the lines they are using a gibberish, then you know they are going after a TASK and ACKNOWLEDGING what is happening in front of them.

Actors do not improvise their gibberish, it’s too much to concentrate on. They are given a few lines of nonsense to speak and they prove to themselves and their partner, that they can act THROUGH the lines. When a whole play is done in gibberish, we know that what we have put into place, real world tasks being striven for, other actors being acknowledged, the fictional circumstances being re-enacted through living blocking, then we know that when the lines are layered gently on top, then we will be communicating with 100% of ourselves, and not relying on the 7% of verbal communication.

At this stage, we might gibberish a whole play, one scene, or just a moment. It can be used when you think the actors aren’t working off each other, aren’t acknowledging the other person’s behaviour, or when you want them to do more with the lines than they are currently doing.

Well, the commentators are often saying I’m misguided and I don’t understand acting, but all this works in practice, immediately, and it’s a damn sight more effective than pretending you’ve got a cup of coffee in your hand.