THE BASICS

Chapter Three

The Basics

    So, I say to you, learn how to focus your attention. Do exercises in attention and communication, because if you’re not communicating to someone you know, even if it’s only in your mind, then your attention will be dissipated, and you’ll be lost in the moment, because without an understanding of who you’re talking to, what you’re saying, and what the importance of the message is, what the point of what you’re communicating, no one will get what or why you’re saying it!

    Let’s clarify with some basic definitions:

Acting – Representing a unique character by assuming the point of view of that person to serve the character in the best, most positive light imaginable, understanding the exact situations a character is involved in. To serve an imaginary character as a spokesperson, believing all that he or she stands for.Attention- Mental concentration, looking toward someone or something, placing one’s mind and gaze on someone with an expectation of giving and receiving information, with the understanding that something will occur between two or more viewpoints.
Classify- The act of arranging things according to subject matter, putting them into a particular category.
Communication is the act of relaying information from one viewpoint to another viewpoint which includes the attention, intention and willingness to share data from all parties, originator and recipient.
Intention – Having one’s mind strengthened by a specific important purpose.
Objective- Something someone is trying to achieve or reach out for from a specific viewpoint.
Responsibility- Having to account for your actions and recognizing the validity of your character’s and your own choices. 
Specify- Isolating details which describe something to be done or made, clearly distinguishing a unique choice deemed to be important. Finding a special item which emerges significantly within a particular classification, defined exactly, which increases its value.
Note: Several schools of thought on the subject of performing encourage you to focus on objectives, the purposeful goal, but they don’t delve into the source of the attention, which is the imaginary character’s point of view. Ask yourself, “Do I ever focus on an objective?” Usually you focus on your thoughts, and the message you’re trying to communicate. The practice of focusing on objectives may work, if the character is doing that. Most of the time, characters and people are unaware of actual objectives, but they know what their attention is on, how they need to respond to the situation at hand. It is an immediate attraction which leads you to understand the nature of the viewpoint.
Classify/Specify
   The entire act of creation is two-fold. Initially, when developing a character you need to place him or her into a classification, a category which allows you to see clearly the details and boundaries of the viewpoint. Next, you need to discover something specific about the particular, unique viewpoint given to you by the thoughts and considerations of the character, expressed in the script or song.
You need to first CLASSIFY the situation, and then to SPECIFY something about it; that is, to “specify,” is to make something more important than anything else. By classifying and specifying, you open the door to creative endeavors. You may have to repeat this process until something emerges more important than others.    I would say the vital task is to expand your ability is to imagine things, imagine situations, imagine character traits, and imagine new thoughts and new ideas. One exercise I’ve found useful is to go to a large shopping mall, and watch people shopping, coming and going to and from stores, and imagine what’s on their minds, what they’re thinking about, what their attention is on, and take notes from you act of imagining what absorbs their attention. It doesn’t matter what you imagine, as long as you don’t fall into the traps of interpretation: This process helps the performer focus his/her attention on the possible negative traps that may come your way, and find out how to reverse them to positive items grasping your attention.
    There is a sequence, that if placed out of order or if the steps are ignored, will hinder the accurate interpretation of a song, and produce little or no effect. In turn, it will leave an audience without an opinion of why you sang the song at all. That’s where the traps come in. They take us away from positive choices, and we become cynical and doubting, rather than positive and reassuring.    You see, as people, we naturally look toward the hopeful, positive, and beneficial paths, those which lead us toward solutions, rather than into the mire of problems.
The Trap of Adopting Criticism
   Our world loves criticism as it pervades the media, our universities, our schools, and our workplace, as well as in our homes. In many ways, it is easier to be critical of someone or something, than it is to take a positive outlook. Performers, as James Earl Jones recently said, “Have the responsibility to breathe life into our characters.” It’s hard to breathe life into an imaginary person when you’re critical of him or her, just as it is hard to love someone when you criticize that person. Performers are challenged to find the most positive viewpoint of the characters they represent in a scene, a song or a movie. That’s why we always look at the good things we do, what we like about our work and our choices.    I found there are four “A”s which serve as traps, as they hinder our ability to imagine and interpret a viewpoint. 
Attitude: Is a pasted on group of thoughts or actions which we feel are part of a character’s viewpoint, but are not really, because a character’s attention is absorbed with the problem s/he faces, not by attitude arising out of the problem.
Attitudes are not real, but are nevertheless destructive to the process of assuming a viewpoint, as by striking an attitude, you lose the character’s genuine attention on what s/he is doing. It could also be the actor’s attitude toward the character.
By plastering ourselves in an attitude, we drive ourselves away from that viewpoint, because the character as an entity would reject that focus of attention. That creates distance from the location we need to be in, so that we can SEE what has our character’s attention. Assumption: This is the false act of assuming things are true when they are not, but imagined to be true out of an idea that you are obligated to make it true. If the character was aware of it s/he would separate him/herself from you to prevent being false. We are assuming that our character would react is a way that s/he may not.
The key to discovering if we are making assumptions is to:

• go over the text of the song, find out who the character is directing the message to
• imagine the person receiving the communication and viewpoint of your character
• what reaction would s/he have?
• Choose the most effective means to communicate your character’s viewpoint. Such means will be designed to get your character’s desired reaction from whomever s/he is talking to. 
• When that is done, no assumptions will be present.

Association: This is the false act of finding someone or something that is similar and adopting that in place of the true character, deciding that our character resembles “so and so.”It’s thinking “S/he reminds me of … and I know s/he is just like that person.” What effect will that have on our character? The result is alienation, the same thing happens when a person, attempting to create a bonding experience, uses an association to create familiarity, but it backfires because the other person is unique and special and s/he knows it’s not true. S/he wants to be seen as an unique individual, unlike any other person. Your attempt to pigeon hole them will only make them individuate from you, just like a real life friend. They know you’re not sincere if you make an associative comparison.
Arbitrary: This is the result of one’s spontaneous imagination and bringing in something out of the blue, without relevance or regard for the character’s true viewpoint. It often takes shape in emotions and actions you bring to the role. They are destructive to keeping the character’s attention on the actual reality of the situation. Arbitrary is something that comes out of the blue, without rhyme or reason, but just added as a substitute for communication, to make it “interesting or compelling”, but results in a showing that is neither.
Emotional outbreaks are among the arbitrary choices I’ve seen performers make. Excessive emotion has the ability to drown out the thoughts, which confuses audiences as they can’t understand why or how the emotion could fit in with the thought. Remember, performing is mostly thought-driven, and thoughts require accurate attention, from moment to moment.

    These are the Four A’s: Attitude (pasting on ideas to yourself, covering your identity or the character’s identity with fabricated ideas), Association (uniting the viewpoint with someone you know as in “you remind me of such and such”) Assumption (taking a thought that it should be for this purpose by assuming that it is true, when most likely it is not) and Arbitrary (coming from nowhere, from a wild tangent or a “fun idea”). If you fall into any of these traps, your proximity to the viewpoint will enlarge, because the character, the imaginary character will be offended and won’t have anything to do with you, especially since your job is to represent the viewpoint to the best of your knowledge and wisdom. And in summary, that is why you are a performer, so you can take on the viewpoint of an imaginary character, find what his/her attention is on, locate that focal point, speak with all the feeling you have inside you, letting it come out naturally, as the breath from your soul.
    Use the Four A’s to help you locate the trouble spots. Sometimes they are illusory and difficult to perceive. If you feel something is not effective in your communication, and you’re “Not in the zone” so to speak, check yourself by evaluating your thoughts about the character, the situation, other characters and the entire scene. You may have an unknown critical thought which propels you into a void, like falling into a deep hole. You need to isolate the origin of that thought and acknowledge its presence. Once that “A” has been identified, you can discard the critical thought by changing it to a positive choice, then rehearsing it over and over again to remove any residual negative effect.

Positive Choices Enhance Imagination
   I looked at assumptions that I had made and realized that it was a trap, one that drove me further from the viewpoint, rather than closer. It became apparent that these traps would hamper, if not kill the communication process, and would also reduce my ability to use my imagination, which I feel is the most valuable and important tool a performer has.    As children, we imagine everything, the Wild West, the presence of Indians, the battlefield with cannons and guns, the railroad trains and trucks; in short, our imaginations got us through childhood. So why as adults, do we lose the ability to develop our imaginations? 
   What is this process? I call it the SRS method, short for SEE, RELATE, & SIGNIFY. I have found this process to be very workable, and if used consistently, will produce great satisfaction and enjoyment in your performances. 

See
The first step is to SEE what is there.SEE what thoughts are there 
SEE the transitions between the thoughts
what brings on the change of thought
how that change from one thought to another is used to create a desired response?
What is actually happening in the music?
SEE the rhythm, tempo, and pacing of the piece, and any changes & transitions
SEE the instructions written on the music: dynamics markings, phrasing & articulation.
SEE how the composer integrated the text with the melody, and identified what kind of vocal line it is. Are there skips, scales, recitatives, etc?
Note what the accompaniment is doing in contrast to the vocal line.
SEE and hear the harmonies and dissonances.
Relate

The second step is to RELATE, that is, to: compare one thought to another 
compare how the thoughts are connected to an overall point of the communication.
Compare your thoughts to that of the character if you were in the same situation. Would you say or do the same thing? Why? Why not?
How do the character’s thoughts and works and actions originate from a positive place; where even an antagonist is making decisions because they feel it is the best path for them?
Often, this step is used extensively when a performer monologues the song, wherein the communication is enhanced, and discoveries about the character’s thought processes are revealed. With the monologue process, you , as the performer, understand how the “cycle of communication” is present.
Signify
  That leads to the third step, to SIGNIFY, to find something important in the communication that focuses your attention, that gives you purpose for the communication. The important thought that you choose as being significant can absorb you full attention and involvement, and will help bring in the emotional support for your communication.    The whole use of SRS is to take advantage of your creative abilities to classify and specify.

Being a performer is different from being a person. Performers must “step up to the plate,” in terms of their energy and communication. They must be like tigers ready to pounce, and must have an antenna out for opportunities to find significance.    The most successful auditions I’ve had happened when I found something significant in the song or scene, something I could rally behind, and something that put me into the viewpoint of the character instantly. Most of the unsuccessful auditions lacked that clarity of purpose, and therefore reduced my ability to energize from that specific viewpoint. 
    Performers must also be excellent perceivers of human thought and emotion. I recommend going to a shopping mall and watching people, SEEING, RELATING and finding SIGNIFICANCES. It is a good, worthwhile activity to prepare you for this work. Performers should be positive role models, people who are problem solvers, not problem makers. Most of our activity involves groups of people, and whenever one of us becomes a negative influence, the result is disastrous.
   Our lives will impact us, and we need to develop our techniques to survive as performers, to not dredge up bad times to artificially energize ourselves, but rather to use our imaginations to place us in the moment. 
    So, how do you get setup for a performance? You start by imagining what just happened five minutes earlier, and you place yourself in that viewpoint, so that when you begin singing or acting, you are already in the MIDDLE of the scene or song, so that you are involved and communicating, rather than BEGINNING to communicate. 
   I realize that to prepare performers one needs to direct their attention and energy to mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual realities, which are brought about by clear and present thoughts. This demands much from a performer, inasmuch as mental work can be as trying as physical work. Yet, this mental work is a known necessity and requirement of the performer.
    Much of this discipline lends itself to the task of living. I encourage performers to overcome adversity, illness, laziness and apathy. By challenging ourselves to remove criticism from our lives, we set our sights on finding positive choices, which edify our families and friends. We set a standard of living which is higher than life itself.
It is the secret to living a life of joy.