The Screen We Invent

This is one of the most important lessons on acting I ever learned, and I’m sharing it with you for free. There’s no weekend intensive, no £1000 fee and if you can put it into practice without my help, it will help your acting immediately. If you have any questions about it, send me a message via the website.

In David Mamet’s play Oleanna, the professor character John suggests that we interpret other people’s actions through the screen, the filter, the way of seeing the world, that we invent.

Actually in daily life, that’s a problem too. We view other people’s behaviour through the presumptions we’ve made about them. If a guy behaves creepily when you first meet him, then the chances are you will interpret all of his behaviour to fit in with the ‘creepy screen’ that you invented.

If your lover cheats on you and you forgive them, for a long time, perhaps forever, you will see some of their behaviour through the ‘cheating screen’. You will decide whether their behaviour fits the pattern of cheat – evidence that your screen is correct, or does not fit the pattern of cheat – evidence that they are not currently cheating. Either way, the screen remains. In life, the only thing that can alter this perception is when enough evidence stacks up against the screen, that eventually it is forgotten. However, in relationships, we have long long memories, and the ability to bring up the almost forgotten past when we think we see the same behaviour emerging can created the re-existence of that screen instantly.

What is a problem for human beings, is a gift for actors. If we can learn to see the other actors through a similar screen system, our behaviour can become adapted to imaginary circumstances. If we can accept their behaviour as part of our screen system, then we can act instinctively in reaction to behaviour perceived through a screen.

If I have determined that my task for this scene is to ‘get someone to drop the charade’, I can use that as a screen. If I spend my rehearsal time inhabiting that screen for that scene, I can act and react in accordance between the relationship of the screen and what the other actor is doing now. I am literally doing as Meisner intended ‘living truthfully through the imaginary circumstances of the scene’. The imaginary circumstances refer to the information that I have used to create my task in the scene, and the living truthfully, obviously now means to act and react in relation to the screen and the behaviour observed through that screen.

COACH

Previous
Previous

Maintaining Your Condition

Next
Next

Subtext in Acting