The Other

“The best way to be in contact with the audience is to be in close relationship with the other characters in the play”

Stanislavski

The Other is the most important person in your scene. For Stanislavski, the Other was the other characters, but for us, the Other are the actors in your scene. By placing our attention lightly on our scene partners and by seeking an action from them, we develop a less selfish type of acting, self consciousness dissipates and your engagement with the Other makes you engaging to watch.

Stanislavski himself believed that we should show “limitless attention to our scene partner:. When I teach acting, I do not ask the actor to imagine or pretend that the Other is someone imaginary or fictional, I ask them to deal with truth of the moment, deal with the person in front of them in that moment, not in rehearsal, but in every moment. This means every moment is different and every moment is truthful. In this case we mean that the actor responds directly to what they see from the Other. They do not make up their response based on something they did in rehearsal and project it out regardless of what The Other is doing.

In my acting masterclasses for professional actors, I constantly repeat “It’s NOT about You”. It’s an important lesson to remember, one that actors find quite funny since they know their habit for self-absorption. Taking your attention off yourself and placing it in the pursuit of a goal through action is the best way to relieve stage fright, to develop captivating action and to give the performance you wish to give.

The ‘Other’ is the key to a spontaneous and improvisational style of acting. By improvisational, we do not mean that you make up the words, but that you spontaneously react to what the other is doing. Each moment is different, inside the sandbox of the circumstances of the play. The other person in your scene gives you one of the most important elements of acting, something to react off, a way to behave, a way to act, the ‘HOW’. The Other is the fuel of the scene. Whatever the other fellow in your scene does, it provides you with material to work from in the scene, even if they do nothing. If the other actor is being difficult or pouts or rolls their eyes, you immediately have something to work off. How do you know HOW to deliver the lines? You don’t. You deliver your lines based on what the OTHER is doing within the given circumstances of the play.
Seek your goal from the OTHER, commit to your tactic and the truth of the moment will be your guide. But it takes bravery and courage.

“You may play well or you may play badly; the important thing is that you play truly” Shchepkin

The truth of the moment, the truth of the scene, the key to truthful acting is DOING REAL THINGS to REAL PEOPLE.