Genuine Genius 10/25/08

The conventional view serves to protect us
from the painful job of thinking.

John Kenneth Galbraith
*******************

I would frequently say that I reinvented the art of acting with every role I took.

One of the things that some actors tend to overlook or forget is that each script is written by one individual writer and that writer's use of the language is specific to him. The basic elements of language are all there for any author to use, but how an author combines those elements is like no other.

The colors of paint are available to every artist, but one artist will combine those colors in a completely different way from another.

It's the same with music. There are a finite number of tones. It's the individual's combination of those tones that make music.

Dialogue is one of the main walls in the architecture of the theatre. The style, form and thrust of an author's dialogue should be considered by the actor when performing a play. Hidden within the words of the play are hints at the characteristics of the person the actor is portraying. I discovered that so many times in my career not to know that it is the truth.

As with colors, words and tones, there are elements to the actor's art that he can use in his own particular, individual way to fill out the character's life. But he has to observe, understand and weave into his performance all the other elements that combine in the collaborative process of theatre. The scenery, the costumes, the lighting and, of course, the dialogue, the language. Too many actors try to impose their own ideas of acting style on the script and don't set about to discover how the art of acting can be used to bring the writing to its best articulation, to recombine those elements of the actor's craft to fit the play. Hence, to reinvent the art of acting every time.


DB - Vagabond Journeys