The Words are Garbage

I’m about to commit complete heresy.

The words are not for you.

They were written for the audience’s benefit to tell the story of the film or play. And to you, they are garbage, nonsense, when you use them in performance, you can pretend they mean precisely blah blah blah blah blah.

I know, I know, breathe. I’ll explain.

I believe it’s the most respectful thing you can do for the writer. Not to squeeze the life out of their lines, but to discover their intention instead. With the greatest respect to the writer, comb that text for the dramatic action, the want of the character, their intention. And then when it comes to performing the text, treat it like it’s meaningless and let the intention shine through. You have no idea what individual lines mean, you can only attempt to glean the writer’s intention and let it cause the lines to take their meaning from the combination of that intention and your moment to moment interactions with the other actors around you.

If human communication is approximately 93% non verbal, then almost your entire performance is communicated non-verbally. 7% is verbal. The words amount to 7%.

The words of the script have both semantic meaning and pragmatic meaning. The semantic meaning is their dictionary-defined meaning. The pragmatic meaning comes from what those words are used to do in the context in which they are spoken.

As linguistic philosopher J L Austin said to say something is to do something. 

Take the following phrase:

This tea is really cold!

What does it mean? Well, semantically, it means that the beverage has a very low temperature. But the real meaning comes how and why the phrase is spoken.

It might be a complaint or it might, on a sunny day, be praising the tea too, a nice cool glass of ice tea – just what was required! Meaning is derived not from the verbal context, but from the situational context.

What do I intend the line to DO, not say, not mean, not convey, but DO to another?

I can only do this if I forget what the line means. My brain wants to make sense. My brain quite likes the semantic meaning of words. But if we can find the intention of the writer for the character in that scene, then we can escape the semantic meaning and let the words do whatever they need to do in the transaction between the intention and what is happening in the moment.

When doing with intention is allowed to rule over conveying semantic meaning, then the words change their meaning entirely. It’s fascinating that the meaning of a sentence can be confirmed, modified or entirely contradicted by what is DONE on a non-verbal level as the words are spoken. 

Intention and the situational context in which the lines are spoken give the words meaning. That requires that you give up any implied meaning you have for them. That’s tough. It sticks. You want to say really cold because your brain tells you that’s important, but the non-verbal communication elements will control any aspect they need to, once the intention is set and the context is clear.

Actors sitting working out how to say a particular lines are wasting their time. They should be busy working out what the intention of the character is in the scene. Then they can face their fellow actor with the knowledge that the words will make sense in the moment (the situational context)

Treat the words like garbage, learn them like they are meaningless and let the intent and context  derive their meaning. Live truthfully in the 93% and don’t get caught up in the 7% of semantic meaning.

First, honour your obligation to the writer by discovering their intention, hidden beneath the surface of the words. Second, honour your obligation to the writer by learning the lines by rote, so that the words can adapt their meaning to the context in which they are used. Lastly, honour your obligation to the writer by speaking them with an intention that is similar to that of the character, without burdening them with your artistic intention. Treat them like they are meaningless when you speak them, let the combination of the semantic meaning and the intention of the writer produce their pragmatic meaning in the moment.