- Actor Damian Bowerman
Asking an actor to describe his or her methodology is like asking an astronomer to depict the precise source of gravity. Although many theories exist, no scientist can give a definite answer. While I’m grateful that I don’t have to tackle this or any of the other many unanswered questions of physics, I will attempt to define my acting methodology in general and to the role of Ivan in The Seafarer in particular.
It is safe to say that the basis of my training and my general method of approaching a role is eclectic. And while eclectic is a fun word to throw into the universe of acting pedagogical theories, it gives testimony to the
multi-faceted exposure many actors, like myself, have to the techniques of acting. From my collage of studio work, I’ve established a definite approach to the creation of characters. However, my approach varies depending on the play, the character and the director.
I have developed a personal approach to acting which is influenced by the work of Constantin Stanislavski, Uta Hagen, Sanford Meisner, and Anne Bogart. Stanislavski teaches about the use of the Magic If. By simply asking myself, “I were this person in the particular given circumstances of a play, what would I do?,” I avoid asking myself, “How would I feel?”
The Magic If is particularly useful because feelings cannot be played as specific actions. In order for me to answer the Magic If question, I must have a specific understanding of myself: who I am, how I behave, and what my idiosyncrasies are. I must also have an incredible sense of imagination and observation in order to apply these questions to myself and to the characters I create. When the imagined given circumstances and the resulting actions are immediately clear for me because I can relate to them easily, I heed Stanislavski’s suggestion and leave it alone. In other words, I don’t apply additional technique because whatever information the playwright has given is close to my own life experience. After I find a connection to the imaginary world of the character, I begin to translate the imaginary given circumstances to the tangible circumstances of the play. My relationship with other characters, the scenic elements, and the events of the play are all concrete sources for me to imagine myself as the character, sources which become vehicles for a transition from myself to the character. But when I have difficulty relating to a character’s situation using the Magic If, I turn to what Uta Hagen calls substitution.
Simply put, substitution is a means whereby an actor takes the Magic If one step further and replaces or substitutes one life experience for another. If
my character’s action is to kill someone, I may not be able to relate to the act of committing murder, but I can remember the feeling I have when I’m late to work and someone cuts me off on the highway. By recalling my
behavior in a road rage incident, I can apply the emotional life of that experience to the given circumstances and the actions of the character I’m
creating. But all these techniques are quite internal and don’t mean a thing on stage if you can’t convey your actions to other characters in the world of the play. This is where the work of Sanford Meisner comes into play.
Sanford Meisner posited that acting is all about listening and responding to the other actors in a given scene. He developed a series of drills whereby two actors repeat what the other is saying, but they also listen and respond to whatever signals the other actor is giving them. Meisner believed that the essence of life and of acting is in the gut response we have to whatever
energy we get from another. From the beginning of my work on creating a character, I endeavor to give other actors my focus and attention, picking up on their energy and responding to it from the gut, from my impulses, and
not from an intellectual, analytical standpoint.
Anne Bogart accesses this gut level response from external sources. Her work is particularly valuable when I focus on bringing a character alive from the outside in. Sometimes we have a greater understanding of a character than we give ourselves credit for. Bogart has developed an approach to acting she calls Viewpoints. The central focus of this approach is kinesthetic impulse, or the body’s natural reaction to outside energy. By putting myself in a neutral state, which is the mental and physical equivalent to a blank canvas, I clear my mind of thoughts and my body of tension and heighten the awareness of my surroundings. Sources of outside energy include other actors (their movements and their gestures); the architecture of the space I’m in, the curves (lines and levels); and the sounds of the environment. Her method is about whole body listening.
So when I read a play the first few times, I observe the given circumstances of the character with as much detail as possible and try to answer the following questions: Who am I? Where am I? When is it? What do I want? Why do I want it? How am I going to get it? As the answers to these questions become more specific through my research, including relevant historical information, related books, interviews, observing similar life situations and sometimes films, I employ the Magic If. If I were this character, how would I behave? When the answer to this question begins to come into focus, I experiment with actions and behavior appropriate to the role. If the
answer remains elusive, I substitute similar life experiences for the behavior of the character. As this work continues, I feed off the energy I get from the other actors and respond to it as honestly as possible with an instinctive, whole body reaction. Thus, my approach to acting is rooted in the work of Stanislavski, Uta Hagen, Sanford Meisner, and Anne Bogart. But every character and every play is different and requires a flexible and specific process. Therefore, I will specify my tactics for the creation of Ivan in The Seafarer.
Based on my research of the given circumstances of this play, I answered the who, what, when, where, and why questions of this character and began to focus on identifying Ivan’s super-objective (his ultimate goal within the context of the play) and his objectives (goals) for each scene. I also established what was preventing Ivan from meeting his super-objective in the play and his objectives in each scene. The effort to overcome these obstacles creates conflict for the character. Every scene consists of a series of beats, or units of action, during which a character attempts to achieve his/her objective. The character’s moment-to-moment actions are what make a play interesting. The more “life and death” the circumstances are, the more the actions are motivated. Heightening the given circumstances in a play or a scene is sometimes called “raising the stakes.” What does this character have to have? What does the character need? In my script, I have identified these and several other terms which ultimately made up the score of my script. The score is very similar to the score that a conductor might use to direct a symphony orchestra. In my scored script, I’ve identified the objectives, obstacles, beats, and actions of each scene. I’ve also listed my physical actions, the “blocking” or stage movement, that I discovered during the course of the rehearsal process.
Ivan has many layers. He’s a working class Dubliner, an alcoholic recovering from an all night drinking binge by drinking more, and a severe myopic who has lost his glasses. He comes to Richard’s house often to escape his nagging wife of whom he is absolutely terrified. Through all of this, he has to serve many drinks for his friends and play three hands of poker. I’ve found that I have needed to focus on a few of these layers at a time at each rehearsal, using Ivan’s given circumstances as building blocks to create the world of this play.
