THE WAY OF THE ACTOR
 
Member ~The Pook

On approaching the art of acting as a spiritual path.

It has been interesting for me to observe how, in spite of the external realities of an industry and a culture that have made it increasingly difficult for me to secure employment in the profession that I still feel called to, my explorations and contemplations of what 'the way of the actor' might mean spiritually, have deepened and widened. More and more, I become aware of the correlations between what we as spiritual realists mean by being on a path to enlightenment and what actors, (of course, I refer to those actors who work from deep levels of awareness) are also attempting to effect by the means that they must use in order to achieve transformations in themselves, and by extension through communication to their audience.

Actors, (like other artists) often sit like small islands on an ocean of creativity. Actors have the possibility, perhaps even the responsibility, to wake people up. Although the ancient and original role of actors as shamans or enactors of the mystery plays and rituals that inspired spiritual initiations is not one associated in our modern culture with what we think of as the actor's place today. Nevertheless, actors at their best, can and should be able to change the energy of places. And in order to do that, it becomes our task to discover how we might use the whole subconscious realm of being that underlies our little 'I'. We are always trying to enhance the processes whereby our energy is freed to become visible.

We know that no performance is possible without the concentrated efforts of invoking what makes Presence or Be-ness palpably felt.
Sometimes that focus requires us to get out of our own way. Out of the way of That which is waiting, willing to be summoned, present, available and as close as breath.

The actor's task is to try to understand the mechanisms of the body, mind, emotions and soul, and how to identify the ways in which the combined interactions of these work for or against his ability to express. We try to discover how the dynamics of tension function in us at each of those levels of our being. When it is our enemy and when our friend. We discover that it takes courage and humility to identify our own tension. This tension is not to be understood as something to be overcome necessarily, but as something to use. It could be experienced for example, as the condition of being stretched, or as the energy required to balance opposing elements, or as a state of suspense, or of being pregnant with possibility, to name a few. One tries to observe it and feel the relationship to it as a relaxed state of alertness. This reminds me of the state of 'choiceless awareness' that Theseus has so often spoken of. One of my acting teachers has said that the ability to live with unmanifested tension IS enlightenment.

It becomes possible to see that the attention paid to tension leads us to intention. An actor may discover that it is possible to become more visible, or more delineated by observing himself because the very act of observing changes the result.

It seems a paradox in a way that in order to become more fully present, the actor must function on multiple levels of consciousness simultaneously. How does this ability relate to the sevenfold nature of the spiritual being, I wonder?

A release of levels of tension can create a brightening in both the actor and his audience. In the attempt to radiate 'something', the actor is aware that there are inhibitory mechanisms that can prevent his creative flow; an internal critic, for example. He must find ways and means to turn his internal critic (may we think of this as one face of the lower self?)
into his ally.

An actor learns to develop the ability to watch himself watching, but he must do so, all the while retaining a childlike spirit of enquiry and the innocence which allows him 'to play'. The Observer is also the observed.

We are looking for the stimulus that will trigger us into action. We're trying to align ourselves with what Stanislavsky called our 'creative will'. We're trying to evoke the 'state of grace', as my beloved Eleonora Duse called it, that shows up as the harmonious blending of the actors motives, ego, creative will, desire, and intent, with those of an author, or perhaps, we may say with those of a Silent Watcher, or the Higher Self.
 

Copyright © The Pook, 2003.

 

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