What you aim for as an actor, is to be able to play a range of different roles. - Ruth Wilson
I can totally relate, Ruth.
A couple of years back I did an acting workshop which turned out to be one of the most challenging experiences in my life.
After some initial training sessions where we learned the basics of role playing, the course instructor started to assign the roles every participant had to assume and which we were supposed to perform at a theatre a couple of weeks later. She came over to me and said:
I want you to be a personality that is far away from your own. You will be a mad old lady, that finds herself abandoned at home, hallucinating and going crazy, talking in monologue about the man that came to violate her.
You want me to do what?
That monolugue was definitely one of the most challenging things I've ever done in my life!
Start acting and get lost: the day I became an old, hallucinating lady
Since I did that acting course a couple of years ago, I generally hold actors in high esteem.
When we see these great talents on the screen everything seems to be so easy and natural. But that's actually where the secret of role playing lies. There is a long path - invisible for the audience - between wanting to assume a certain role and effectively representing it.
What I learned back then was that I had to get lost in the role to really assume it.
The script was quite tough for being my very first role. There was just this old lady - me - on stage. I had no sparring partner and no item where to hang on. Everything I had was the insanity of that person.
According to the script that lady found herself in the living room, destroyed, troubled, full of fear and anxiety since she believed that someone had just entered her house and violated her. According to the script nobody - not even herself - knew if that really happened or if she was just hallucinating.
Oh man, what a task!
During the training sessions we had once a week there were between fifteen and twenty people in the room. While I was on stage - the old lady in her nightdress (yes, they even made me wear a nightdress!) - the instructor and the other actors watched silently.
Do you know how difficult it is to figuratively come clean while a group of people is examining every single move you excecute, every single word you say and every single breath you take? Do you know how embarrassing it can be?
Yes, I really have full respect for every actor on this planet!
The instructor wanted me to cry in the middle of the monologue. First I failed since I only focussed on the need to cry. Then I started to feel real compassion for the character and her situation - until I teared up magically.
There is a bridge between us and every existing character.
We don't need to be evil by ourselves to be able to interpret an evil person.
Probably the fact that my empathy is quite developed helped me to quickly get into the role. Also, I don't judge people by their way of being. Everybody has their history, their background, their story.
Even the old lady had her history... the time before she went mad.
The course instructor felt that. She knew that I was a quite correct and well-organized young lady, in the middle of her career, not wanting to lose my way. The role of the uncontrolled, freaking out monster was predestinated for me.
She wanted me to step over the edge and exceed my limits.
And so I did.
It demanded a great deal from me to forget about my attitude and play someone completely different. But after a while I became even attached to the character. That little monster started to fascinate me.
If I could make one single wish? Oh yeah, I'd love to become an actor in my next life.
Stepping over the edge is one of my favourite hobbies, so I'd definitely enjoy playing different roles and discovering more of my darker sides :-)
Don't we all have that one dream that's slumbering inside ourselves?
Which one is yours, steemians?
Marly -
Thanks for your valuable time!
This blog was launched at the end of July 2016
aiming to provide stories for open-minded
people who enjoy living on the edge of their lives,
stepping out of comfort zones, going on adventure,
doing extreme sports and embracing the new.
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Original content. Quotes found on pinterest.com and quotesnpictures.com.