I see you

Okay, where did I leave off?  Oh yeah, have faith, leap off the top of the mountain but don’t kill yourself, blah blah blah.  You get the point.  Let’s move on and talk more about the practicalities at hand.

I shall begin back in my former home of Atlanta, GA.

So, in Atlanta I made some new friends, and I was also lucky enough to make a few close friends.  One of these friends did a show with me called “I Dream” last summer.  This was my first professional show, and let me tell you that it was the bomb!

Anyway, so this guy (let’s call him T.S…like Eliot? Hehe.) and I became really good friends and stayed in touch after the show.  We still do today.  Similar to me, he worked another job before becoming a full time performer.  He’s an incredible singer.  But the thing that most impresses me about him is that he is always studying.  He reads a ton and talks to and watches the people around him constantly in order to learn.

He demonstrates a superb amount of discipline and appreciation for arts as a student.  That is, he doesn’t just dream about it or randomly do the same things that he sees other people doing.  He is constantly reading, researching, and studying his craft.  He looks at the greats and he studies what they did and their methods.  This is important because there is an incredible amount to learn about any discipline, and the arts are no exception.

In terms of the performing arts, the spectrum of what outside people think makes a good “artist” is wide.  There are spectators who think that all we do is get on stage and shuck and jive thanks to the glory of God (HALLELUJAH!).  And that all we do is get on stage, behind a mic, or behind a camera and use our natural gifts with no work in between.  There are others who understand the amount of grunt work that goes into realizing this natural and (I believe) God-given talent.  They understand the hours and hours of practice and training.  The failures. The successes.  The emotions and passion that keep you going when you don’t see improvement over night.  There are plenty of people that understand that when we step on stage to “perform,” it represents the culmination of a process rather than a singular event in and of itself. To be sure the quality and depth of performance artists represent this spectrum as well, for there are those who appreciate craft more than others.  But that’s not my point here.

What I’m trying to say is that while I love the latter part of the spectrum, I feel that it is refreshing to also get the intellectual side of art, too.  Yes, I need to get up and work on my voice, speech, and movement.  But there is something to be said about sitting down to read the actual teachings of Stanislavski and reflecting on them before I continue to misinterpret him (or listen to other people’s misinterpretations of him).  As I prepare material for characters, am I not to research the time period, customs, and general attitudes that the character may hold?  If I say Paul Robeson is my inspiration, should I not spend time reading about him?  Listening to him?  Studying him?

Beyond books, life is the artist’s laboratory.  I do not ever sit idly on a train.  I watch.  I listen.  I close my eyes and feel the vibrations.  I smell.  Sometimes, somebody wears nice perfume.  I wonder where she’s going.  Job?  Interview? Date?  At other times it smells like sweat as somebody returns from the gym.  Then there is the smell of pee.  And shit.  That’s life.  Furthermore, it’s true.  And that’s my job: to find truth.

The other day, my dad asked me if something on television was good acting.  I asked him if he believed it.  He said yes.  “It’s fine with me then,” I responded.

I’m not in the business of indicating how I feel.  I feel it inwardly and then act on it.  And I appreciate taking the time to sit and read, or to sit and watch.  Really watch.  Not look at or judge, but to see what’s going on around me.  When the Na’vi (in Avatar) say, “I see you,” it represents a spiritual connection.

What’s the point of being on stage if you can’t actually see me?

Comments

[mkc]

Ah, yes. These are the thoughts of an intellectual artist.

[lederm]

Thanks for you share it!!!!!!!