Self: Consciousness & Awareness

The enemy of all actors is two-fold. It is physical tension and self consciousness. These two things can destroy an actor’s performance so easily that they are at the heart of all acting techniques and should be at the heart of all actor training.

At the same time, an actor’s self-awareness is often the most important element of their training because it propels their progress. An actor’s growing self awareness allows them to manipulate themselves, to act with purpose and to act upon desire.

But it is an awkward balance.

Self awareness is the ability to make conscious actions based upon that self knowledge.

Self consciousness is to be painfully aware of the self, in a way that is harmful to your actions, that results in negative feeling, physical tension, self critical thought patterns, to second guess yourself, to second guess everything, to look at yourself in a negative

In many ways these are opposites of each other. Two sides of the same coin.

Destroying self consciousness is easier than growing self-awareness, I can work to dissolve an actor’s self-consciousness by directing their focus of attention. Self consciousness can be distracted or misdirected. But developing self awareness is a personal thing and takes a lot more time, more a matter of personal character.

That is something that you can work on yourself.