Imaginary Coffee for Sense Memory

There exists an exercise I believe to be part of the Sense Memory exercise that involves drinking an imaginary cup of coffee. It is claimed by some, that this exercise helps to you concentrate and to create imaginary objects and experiences when you are acting. I’ll describe how the exercise is done:

1) Sit comfortable with a real cup of coffee.

2) Look at the cup, look at all aspects of the cup, take on board all of its physical qualities.

3) Pick up the cup, feel it, weigh it, notice what you do to hold the cup.

4) Feel the heat and warmth of the cup and the liquid inside it.

5) Smell the contents of the cup. How would you describe it?

6) Take a drink, how does it taste? How would you describe it?

7) Repeat until you have taken on board all you can about the cup of coffee.

8) Now put the coffee cup down and repeat with an imaginary coffee cup.

9) Go between practicing with a real cup and practicing with the imaginary cup.

This exercise, along with other Sense Memory exercises helps you to develop belief in the imaginary. It helps to build a sense of truth, belief in fictional reality. It uses real experiences to help you to stimulate imaginary ones later. It is an exercise in using the memory of real sense experience to re-create the senses later under imaginary circumstances.

It’s a nice game, especially if it’s wet outside and you’ve got nothing better to do. But that’s all it is, it’s a parlour game. It’s great for entertaining children and it is one of the main tools of the ‘fake work’ acting schools that have developed techniques for which they can charge their students for learning nothing particularly useful, but still make the student feel like they are doing something worthy. Is it fun? YES! Does it feel like proper acting work? YES. Do actors enjoy doing these games? YES of course, it engages with their love of play.

Does it exercise the imagination? Sure. Does it help you imagine there really is a cup of coffee? Maybe. What do we call those people that believe imaginary things are real? Delusional. So, it’s an exercise in helping the actor to become delusional and as such shouldn’t form part of a training in acting which is about the reality of doing, not belief in the pretend. What could actors accomplish if they spent less time playing children’s games and more time learning how to bring a page to life on stage?

This exercise is often explained as being one stepping stone on the way to the Affective Memory exercise. Understanding Affective Memory, I can see how this could help the student to focus their concentration on the memory of their senses.  However, since Affective Memory is a misguided and flawed approach to the truthful creation of emotion, it is a tool in the preparation of an abortive journey. Your memories, emotional or otherwise are not something that should be poked with a stick or coaxed with a coffee. They are your own personal history and they are deeply rooted to the psychological construction of your character, your personality and the health of your psyche.

Thankfully in the UK, very little time is given over to these techniques. Yet we still have excellent actors, our actors still win Oscars and create truly moving performances. Personally, I say keep your imaginary coffee, I’ve never liked the taste anyway.