@ Reacting

We were having a discussion yesterday… A few friends who had nothing better to do.. And as we neither drink/ smoke/ etc…(sad existence). we have nothing better to do in life than talk. So the topic as usual was theatre.( Now a days this is the only topic I talk about…). And the question we were asking each other was what is acting? Do we need to “act” on Stage? I believe (and I know nobody cares what I believe, but still this is my blog so I can write), I believe actors don’t act. They just react. You cant expect people to say their lines verbatim and expect the audience to enjoy it. Stanislavski says the actor’s responsibility towards the audience is to be believed… to convey the author’s message in a believable manner, using the available resources, his body, his voice, the props on stage, the lights… everything that he can lay his hands on, on the stage. Words don’t just flow out… The dialogues are not to be said, there has to be the process of feeling before speaking. The characters in “The rest is silence” are not everyday people. They have had some different experiences which may be the actors who will be acting in the play cannot correlate to. Acting starts with an IF. An actor asks 'If I were there, what would I be thinking?' and then later 'If I were my character, what would I be thinking?'. This brings realism on stage. Stanislavski did not require actors to be the part, as is a popular misconception, but he did demand that they lived the part with the magic if. The actor must believe in the given circumstances and appreciate it as the truth. They must accept the play's narrative, its facts, events, epoch, time and setting, conditions of life, interpretation by the actor and director, the costumes, sound, lights etc..
Anyways more on this the next time… And there are defiantly better people to speak about this than me………