You are NOT a Creative Artist
You are an actor, you give a performance, this performance requires creative decision making and the end result is a kind of art work. You are not however, a creative artist in the same way as the sculptor, the poet or composer. Your fearlessness, your intuition, your spontaneity and your capacity to live truthfully the actions of a character from prescribed fictional situations is your capacity – your ability. It may be a creative skill, an artistic capacity, but you are not a creator, you do not generate in the same way as the writer, the painter or the choreographer.
You are the dancer and you may be part of the dance, but unless you are also the choreographer – in our art form, the director, the designer and the writer, then you are are not a creative artist in the same form. You may be creative, you may consider yourself a creative but you are not.
Where did this misconception come from? I would say, the mistake is Stanislavski’s. Heresy, I know, how dare I say such a thing?
Well, simply put, I believe he tried to bring the actor to the ‘creative’ table with the actor and the writer. The actor’s job is a difficult one and the parity of esteem is not always present. So, if one makes the actor a co-creator, it brings them alongside in esteem.
I realise that this will have some of your blood boiling, so let me pre-empt your usual tirades by writing out your usual objections:
I don’t understand the REAL (that is your version of) Stanislavski
I’m un (or under) educated in the field
I had bad teachers
I haven’t read the latest book on Stanislavski which reveals the ‘truth’
I misunderstand or I just. don’t. get. it.
I have an arrogant disrepect for actors or acting
I’m misguided or deluded
I’m an idiot
My belief does not stem from my ignorance, perhaps my arrogance, but not my ignorance. Instead, it stems from careful study of Stanislavski’s system of acting for over 15 years. It has resulted in this opinion, you are not a creative artist, you are a creative interpreter. Now, is this a form of art? Yes, it is. Do you create something? Yes, you create performance, but you do not do it on purpose and often your best moments are completely accidental and occur in the beautiful, daunting, terrifying unknown of the moment. But as you are not the conscious originator of something, I do not believe you can be classed as a creative artist. You are something else. And you’re wonderful for it. It’s a skill I greatly respect you for it. You’re just not a creative artist.