with Mitch
with Stanley
Blanche Dubois 1998
Acting on Stage. Art in the moment. No do-overs.
I longed to be an actor years before I had the courage to try. So afraid of memorization that, in college, I gravitated toward an eccentric professor/director who would not let his actors take their scripts home. Robert Moyer, a student of Viola Spolin, taught us to remember the words during rehearsals by using repetition and sense memory. My lifelong dread of trying to memorize was so profound that I found his method much less frightening than the thought of studying a script.
Since graduation I have memorized over a thousand lines of dialogue for a single play: Agnes of God, I played Doctor Livingston. The study of improv techniques has helped me develop several resourceful methods of line study as well as an ability to keep the dialogue alive, in the space, which is the key to good acting, freshness and believability.
Serious dedicated actors prepare endlessly for the stage by developing every kind of physical talent. Learning the play, researching all aspects of the play, the author, the period, any slang phrases and references to things that are unfamiliar. It wasn't until I became an actor what it meant to learn about history. I needed to learn who Charlotte Corday was. I needed to know what Blanche Dubois was referring to when she spoke about so many friends and relatives dying in one of the 5 long monologues that were not all in the movie. Apparently here were yellow fever epidemics in the south at the time! I played Blanche as an alcoholic, just like Williams not as a crazy woman. I believe that Blanche was Williams' alter ego. She was written with such detail. Unusual for a man to write this kind detail in a female character, unless she is him. That was my choice because it fit and the director, bless him, let me without too much head banging.
What thrills the most about acting is that you are momentarily linked with everyone in the room on something like a psychic level. The group may be looking to you to take the moment when you have the focus. You can surprise people, making the room laugh, or you can share deep emotion causing them to feel their own. This mystical interaction has had me me hooked. It is part of the thrill which explains why people work so endlessly for a few fleeting moments when they are the center of all that is happening. Acting is like holding everyone in your hand.
Acting, which demands discipline, has kept me physically fit. I hope will also keep me mentally sharp. Learning to overcome the terror and enjoy being on stage has made life in the world easier for a person who used to be quite uncomfortable in her own skin. As I edit this paragraph, after the death of both of my parents I know that eventually old age will take us all no matter what we do. Already I can not play the parts I used to play. Already my sites are set lower.
Learning and teaching Spolin games has been especially gratifying because the benefits are endless, in all aspects of life. The games are a gift that continues to give. I wish everyone had this training. Toward that end I am trying to reestablish myself as a teacher, to pass on what to know. This is my new direction.
KHM 2012
