An Acrobat of Theheart

7/23/2019 An Acrobat of Theheart

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Four Selections From

An Acrobat of the Heart

A physical Approach to Acting Inspired by the Work of Jerzy Grotowski

(Vintage Books, !!!, "tephen Wangh#

FROM THE INTRODUCTION

$o%r h%ndred years ago, &a'let epressed his consternation at the art of acting)

Is it not monstrous that this player here,

But in a fction, in a dream o passion,

Could orce his soul so to his own conceit

That rom her working all his visage wanned,

Tears in his eyes, distraction in his aspect,

A broken voice, and his whole unction suiting

With orms to his conceit and all or nothing!

And e*er since, perfor'ers and a%diences ha*e arg%ed abo%t how it is that actors 'anage this feat+ At

the core of the arg%'ent lie two related %estions+ -he .rst is) /%st actors really eelthe e'otions

which theyportray0 And the second is) 1o they achie*e their portrayal by controlling the e"ternal

e"pression of e'otion or by ind%cing the internal e"perience0

2 At the beginning of the !th3ent%ry, 4onstantin "tanisla*ski so%ght to sol*e this dile''a by

concentrating pri'arily %pon the actor5s inner, psychological life+ B%t he later realized that by

concentrating so co'pletely on the actor5s 'ind, he had ignored the actor5s body, and in his later

years, "tanisla*ski de*eloped a syste' of what he called 6physical actions+6 In Creating a #ole, which

was not p%blished in 7nglish %ntil 89:8, "tanisla*ski writes) 6In e*eryphysical action, %nless it is p%rely

'echanical, there is concealed so'e inner action, so'e feelings+6

-he actor Vasily -oporko*, who worked with "tanisla*ski d%ring the 89;!5s, describes his late work this

way)

4onstantin "ergeye*ich directed o%r attention to what is the 'ost tangible, the 'ost concrete in each

h%'an action< its physical aspect+ 7specially in his last years, he ga*e the greatest i'portance to this

aspect of the life of the role, beginning his work on a character with it+ 1i*erting the attention of the

actor fro' 5feelings,5 fro' psychology, he directed it toward the carrying o%t of p%rely physical actions+

In this way the actor co%ld penetrate in a nat%ral way into the sphere of feelings+

1%ring the 89;!s, /ichael 3hekho* who had been a 'e'ber of "tanisla*ski5s $irst "t%dio, bro%ght his

own *ersion of "tanisla*ski5s physically based techni%es to =ew >ork+ 3hekho* (nephew of the a%thor

Anton# had worked closely with "tanisla*ski5s prot?g? 7%gene Vakhtango* and de*eloped an approach

to acting based on what he called the 6psychological gest%re+6 Also at that ti'e, "onia /oore, who had

st%died with "tanisla*ski d%ring his last years, reported that "tanisla*ski was teaching actors to access

their e'otions by 'eans of '%sc%lar choices+ B%t, in spite of these de*elop'ents, the in@%ence of ee

"trasberg and the 6A'erican /ethod6 re'ained per*asi*e in dra'a schools in A'erica thro%gh the


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89!s, and the rep%tation of "tanisla*ski as a teacher of inward, 'ental techni%es contin%ed to be

pro'%lgated+

1%ring the past twenty years, howe*er, e*en so'e of "trasberg5s own st%dents ha*e been

redisco*ering the physical co%nterpart of e'otional life+ In 89, acting teacher Warren Cobertson

said)

I often ha*e an actor do an ADecti*e /e'ory 7ercise on his feet instead of sitting in a chair+ And at

'o'ents I5ll ha*e hi' try to integrate feelings into his body+ I5ll ha*e hi' lift his hand and wa*e

goodbye, and he will re'e'ber, witho%t e*en trying, who he is wa*ing goodbye to+ -he body is a

'eans of .nding a speci.c feeling+

2 Eolish director Jerzy Grotowski picked %p the in*estigation where "tanisla*ski had left oD+ Jennifer

4%'iega, who chronicled Grotowski5s theater work in her book The Theatre o $rotowski, p%t his

conception this way)

We do notpossess'e'ory, o%r entire body is'e'ory, and it is by 'eans of the 6bodyF'e'ory6 that

the i'p%lses are released+

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AN ACROBAT OF THE HEART

It is not su%cient or &the actor' that he be able to put on the image o every one o the passions that

all within the reach o his author, i he have not, beside this, the power o throwing himsel readily and

easily out o one into another o them(

John &ill, The Actor, A treatise on the Art o )laying *+-./

A circ%s acrobat practices the ele'ents of her trapeze swing for years+ $or ho%rs and ho%rs she

practices the ti'ing, the 'idFair twist and the grasp of her .ngers aro%nd her partner5s wrists+

7*ent%ally all this practice gi*es her con.dence that if she swings at the right 'o'ent and twists

precisely and grasps hard when her partner5s wrists appear in the air in front of her, she will not fall+

B%t e*en after all this practice, each ti'e she perfor's, there is still the 'o'ent of gi*ing herself %p to

gra*ity and 'o'ent%') the 'o'ent of letting goof the trapeze sity feet abo*e the @oor and daring

to @y+

-o be an actor is to be an acrobat of the heart+ =o 'atter what training techni%e yo% practice,

whether yo% %se a 6psychological gest%re6 or a 6sense 'e'ory6 or a 6plasti0ue,6 all yo%r techni%e

can do for yo% is to get yo% ready for the 'o'ent of letting go+ >o% can control each ele'ent of yo%r

preparation, yo% can concentrate on 'e'ories or i'ages, yo% can tense or rela yo%r body, and yo%

can practice yo%r gest%resb%t all this preparation is H%st that) preparation+ -he 'o'ent itself is not in

yo%r control+ In fact if yo% try to control it, yo% will 6p%sh6 or 6act the e'otion6 or fail to breatheand

one way or the other, yo% will 6fall6 o%t of the 'o'ent itself+

nce the acrobat lets go of her trapeze, she again has choices to 'ake+ "he cannot alter her

'o'ent%' as she @ies, b%t she can 'ake %se of it+ "he can choose to do a do%ble @ip or she can
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choose to eec%te a twist+ And the sa'e is tr%e for the actor+ nce the e'otion is @owing thro%gh yo%,

yo% can choose to epress it with a diDerent tone of *oice, or yo% can alter yo%r ti'ing, or yo%r

gest%re pattern, or yo%r blocking+ In fact s%ch choosing*ocal precision, ti'ing or character work,

stylization or e*en songcan, like the acrobat5s @ip, 'ake the acting 'o'ent e*en 'ore eciting+ B%t

the inner emotional life which vivies your acting is not something you can control+ ike the

acrobat5s 'o'ent%', it is not so'ething yo% are doing< it is so'ething that is happeningto yo%+

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HOW TO CHOOSE AN ACTING TEACHER

1e who claims to teach Art understands nothing whatsoever about it(

7leonora 1%se, inAntologia del grande atore

In 2apan there is a saying that it is better to spend three years looking or a good teacher than tooccupy the same period o time doing e"ercises with someone inerior(

>oshi ida, The Invisible Actor

In his book, Impro, 4eith Johnstone writes abo%t teachers and teaching)

Eeople think of good and bad teachers as engaged in the sa'e acti*ity, as if ed%cation was a

substance, and that bad teachers s%pply a little of the s%bstance, and good teachers s%pply a lot+ -his

'akes it dic%lt to %nderstand that ed%cation can be a destr%cti*e process, and that bad teachers are

wrecking talent, and that good and bad teachers are engaged in opposite acti*ities+ (I saw a teacher

rela his st%dents on the @oor, and then test for relaation by lifting their feet eighteen inches into the

air and dropping their heels on the concrete+#

f co%rse, if yo%r teacher drops yo%r heels against a concrete @oor, yo% can5t a*oid feeling the pain,

and the pain is a pretty strong signal that so'ething is not right+

B%t not all bad teaching is so ob*io%s+ If yo%r teacher s'iles sweetly while s%btly ins%lting yo%r work, it

'ay be harder for yo% to percei*e what is happening to yo%+

As a st%dent, yo% p%t yo%rself into so'eone else5s hands, and yo% grant that person the power to

'ake H%dg'ents abo%t yo%r work+ If the s%bHect yo% are st%dying is intellect%al, a good teacher can

'ake yo% feel intelligent, while a poor teacher can 'ake yo% feel st%pid+ If the s%bHect is artistic, a

good teacher can 'ake yo% feel safe, creati*e and selfFcon.dent, while a poor teacher can lea*e yo%heartbroken+

f co%rse, one of the things which will help yo% feel creati*e and selfFcon.dent is the techni%e itself+ It

'%st be a syste' which 'akes sense to yo%, one which yo% can %se on yo%r own when the teacher is

not present+ It '%st also oDer yo% tools which speak to the needs yo% ha*e at this partic%lar point in

yo%r training+
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B%t in the end, it is not the techni%e which will s%stain yo%+ Any techni%e yo% learn will tend to fall

away as yo% create yo%r own way of working by co'bining the lessons yo% ha*e learned with yo%r

inner instinctsH%st as the chrysalis falls away fro' the wings of the e'erging b%tter@y+ >oshi ida p%ts

it this way)

It doesn5t really 'atter which style or techni%e yo% learn+ In fact, yo% co%ld train in disciplines as

diDerent as aikido, H%do, ballet, or 'i'e, and gain e%al bene.t+ -his is beca%se yo% are learning

so'ething beyond techni%e+ When yo% st%dy with yo%r 'aster, the skills are only the lang%age of

%nderstanding, not the p%rpose+

So, the most important thing about choosing an acting teacher is not the technique he or

she teaches but whether you feel safe and inspired working in his or her presence+ -here

'ay be so'e eercises yo% do not like, and there 'ay e*en be days when e*eryone else in the class

see's to be ha*ing a good ti'e while yo% feel like yo%5re H%st not getting it+ -hat5s to be epected+

B%t, it is absol%tely essential that, e*en on those bad days, yo% feel saein the work, safe eno%gh to

keep working and safe eno%gh to talk to the teacher abo%t yo%r eperience+ -hat5s the botto' line+

At its heart, acting training is a via negativa, a way back toward freedo's we enHoyed years ago+ It is a

ro%te no one can chart for %s, a co%rse we '%st .nd for o%rsel*es+ -he best pilot for this Ho%rney 'ay

not be the one with the .nest 'aps, b%t the one who instills in %s the co%rage to .nd o%r own way, the

teacher who reawakens o%r Hoy in the process of disco*ery itself, and re'inds %s that theater is, as

/a Ceinhardt wrote)

the happiest loophole of escape for those who ha*e secretly p%t their childhood in their pockets and

ha*e gone oD with it to play to the end of their days+

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An Acrobat of Theheart