ON ACTING: The Desire to Win AND the Possibility of Losing
In an earlier blog (October 15th), I said that an actor who does not enter a scene with a belief in the possibility of winning is at best a boring actor, at worst, a dishonest actor.
Just so, and concommitantly, an actor who enters a scene without the possibility of losing will be equally boring and dishonest. Life contains neither inevitable winners or losers.
The good actor tries hard to win in a scene; but, being all too human, faces the unavoidable fact that all eventualities are possible. Each step in a scene is an outer and inner balancing act, fraught with inherent dramatic tension: the character walks across a tightrope of possibility, trying to get to the other side, while fighting the pull and danger of gravity and tumbling death; courage battling fear, the desire for success struggling with the possibility of failure.
Thus is drama; thus is life.
Just so, and concommitantly, an actor who enters a scene without the possibility of losing will be equally boring and dishonest. Life contains neither inevitable winners or losers.
The good actor tries hard to win in a scene; but, being all too human, faces the unavoidable fact that all eventualities are possible. Each step in a scene is an outer and inner balancing act, fraught with inherent dramatic tension: the character walks across a tightrope of possibility, trying to get to the other side, while fighting the pull and danger of gravity and tumbling death; courage battling fear, the desire for success struggling with the possibility of failure.
Thus is drama; thus is life.
posted by Cliff Osmond at 9:54 PM
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