The Social Mask

May the outward and the inward person be at one.
-Socrates


We start my Beginning Professionals class with a lengthy warm-up session each Saturday morning.
We begin by connecting our feet to the floor. What does that mean? It means something different to each actor I'm sure. The exact sensation is not all that important to me. I'm simply trying to get actors to contact their instruments. It's sad that so many act from the neck up. Even sadder that there isn't much going on up there but a lot of self-conscious, narcisisistic banality in most cases.
So we move up the body, checking in with our knees, our hips, lifting our rib cages, we let gravity have its way with our shoulders, arms and hands. We level our heads, part our lips, droop our eyelids and, most importantly, drop our breath low in our bellies. It is by design that we start with our feet, deal only momentarily with our heads and let our fullest attention rest in our centers.
Many actor-students put the "good student" spin on initially, making sure to peek at me for approval. Don't look at me, I'll say. I want them to break this approval/disapproval cycle. I want them to trust that what is theirs is good enough so long as it is in the moment. Others will put on some sort of yoga meditation face. Those that do miss the point of my class and yoga, for that matter, though that's another rant. The point is not to relax. The point is to connect to one's body. To learn effortlessness. As Michael Caine notes, If you're knocking yourself out, you're doing it wrong.
Whatever the posture, attitude or mask, the point is often missed. I encourage them to chat about what they did last night. To verbally stream an inventory of the here and now. To drop the social mask. This proves too difficult for most. They hang on to me, rush through it or hide in some sort of pseudo-meditation. Being at one with one's inner and outer self is scary. One woman left my studio last year quipping, I can't stand to be observed so intensely.
An actor that doesn't want to be observed. Buona fortuna signorina.

ciao
signore dirretore