The Blog of Brendan Pickering: "The most important class I have ever taken, I took only last semester. It was not economics, nor was it history. The most important class I have ever taken was Intro to Theatre, 101.
Every day we spent at least 15 minutes looking into another student’s eyes, no facial expressions or body movements allowed, just feeling the other’s presence and projecting our own.
“How lame,” I thought, “How artsy.”
Then something strange happened. I first noticed it during my walk back to my dorm after the fourth or fifth class, as I met the gaze of other students in transit.
I didn’t look away. Even more strange, I had no intention of doing so. I just wanted to look, to feel their presence and gauge their strength. It was exhilarating." Via Lifehacker
10 comments:
What a fantastic article! I always thought of acting ( and this may be because I have never really been educated in it) as just a way of reinforcing the ability to pretend and be fake. I mean, that is just what acting is, right?
However, looking at this how Brendan does in the article, it is actually a valuable tool in distinguishing false feelings from true ones. His opening paragraph about holding someone's gaze rather then turning away is valid. I cannot remember how many times I will be walking down the street, or in the halls and try to make eye contact just to smile hello or nod in passing, and no one will make eye contact. I find it occurs much more with our younger generation. Apparently the class has not been as effective here, because generally it happens more with actors than designers.
I also really liked Brendan's approach to acting. It's very different from what I've heard before, and it seems much more genuine--although, what do I know? I certainly don't have experience with this. But his insights into how this technique has helped him outside of acting is really interesting. He's also right, everyone is constantly acting and putting on a charade for everyone around them. And some are better than others. It makes sense that we all "fake it" though. If someone is having a hard time, they don't necessarily want everyone to know. Wearing your emotions on your sleeve doesn't often end well. The interesting thing about this article is that when he says being "present" it sounds like what he's actually doing is changing his emotion instead of projecting it. It would be interesting to try this just to try to change one's mood.
I also have to say that I disagree with Sylvianne. Most of the actors I know always make eye contact with me when I pass them in the halls. I think the only reason we think the dps do it more is because we know them, and we make eye contact with people we know more than with people we don't.
I have said time and time again that theater is vital to the education of the younger generation. It is not only important for education of culture, which is vital to who we are as a race, a society, and a species. Culture is what defines us as human beings, the ability to create. It is also important for improving our everyday lives. An education in theater will improve confidence, interpersonal skills, as well as the more academic subjects of literature, English grammar, history, and the ability to create. By stimulating the ability to create in our youth, they become more open minded and creative in other situations as well.
I totally agree with the way of how this author felt. Although I have never taken the class like "basic of theatre" as in this article, I find the method they use and practices taught are significantly important not only for theatre production, but for people's life.
Theatre education leads to teaching of moral.
Through the education, students learn to feel others by accepting their presence, to communicate with others and eventually to respect others. Being the part of real stories, students encounter the difficulties other people experienced, and learn how to deal with them.
It seems that people often forget that almost all arts come from some part of the normal world that is important for day to day life. While the art of acting eludes me and then some, I have always viewed it as the art of human interaction. Everyone who works in theater has seen that one performance where every actor just seems to be who they say they are, and on the flip side that performance where you could take nothing said by an actor seriously since they obviously were not who they were pretending to be. I think lots of people who are involved in industries that involve presentations and public speaking would benefit form taking a couple of theater classes since while they may not be acting, they are projecting human interaction.
This article is really interesting. I don't think that most people think that taking an acting class would actually help them in real life, but I think this article does a wonderful job at proving the group that thinks that wrong. It's so true that an acting class can help you to realize when someone is lying verses when they are being truthful. Acting helps people to be able to read peoples reactions to things. I also think that an acting class would help people in the real world because it would help people become more comfortable interacting with others and giving presentations, among a lot of other things.
I love reading articles like these. theater is the most important thing that has ever happened to me. One of my favorite things about theater is what it can do for you as a person and how much of a difference it makes in your life. And one of the main reasons i want to do theater is to help people experience what it can do, the difference it can make.
My high school director always said that theater was a gift that we learn from each other and how the only thing he wants us to do is pass that gift on, and i intend to.
I went on to read the second part of this article as well, and everything that Brendan says is really more awareness of the world around you than it is theatre per se. I know the acting students will probably tell me that that's the same thing, that life is theatre and the encounters you have and the reactions because of them feed into your development as an actor, but I see this as simple training for life.
Being able to read true or false emotion in a person's face is absolutely integral for understanding them on a deeper level, and having the trust in your peers that they don't need to analyze your every word against your appearance is a wonderful luxury. What anyone reading this article should take from it is simply this; be more aware. Life's more fun that way.
I agree with you Kael. People in general should stay more aware, but I think awareness takes on a very different role in the art world. Artists have to see things in an incredibly defined and clear light. Or, let me rephrase: they don't have to do anything. But artists communicate ideas in some fashion they feel expresses the idea in the best way possible. And I suppose because all ideas are created from observing the world around us, you should be fairly observant.
As for techies, I think it's a very different world. Anyone who has ever taken a serious acting class will tell you acting means getting to know yourself, and the world around you very well. If acting is about being believable, then you can't really fake that and be a good actor in my opinion. In technical terms, yes, you are "faking it," but not really. It's written all over Strasberg and Meisner. As different as every acting technique is, they all stress a knowledge of the real world. They don't all stress self awareness, but I personally find that to be a vital part of it all. Acting can get terribly serious at times :)
Theatre is just a reflection of real life, however, by framing the representation of life you can learn more about the many different elements that make it up. It puts the human disposition into perspective and allows you to look inside yourself in exploring other characters.
It also gives people a way of learning to communicate efficiently. This is true both of verbal communication as well as the reading and understanding of body movement and communication. Having this basic vocabulary makes individuals not only more able to act within a theatrical setting, but also how to understand actual human interaction in the real world.
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