Speaking 'Generally' About Actors

If I can posit emotion-ease, substance-style, feeling-power-elegance as opposites yet all-too-necessary correlative partners in a great performance, I have found in my teaching that generally (beware 'generalizations'; while often most true, they apply in a general population..only generally) emotion, substance, feeling-power are easier to experience and free-up among Western Civilization nationalities as opposed to Eastern Civilization nationalities (including American Indian); among Southern Hemisphere people (South America and Africa for the most part) as opposed to Northern Hampshire people, Mediterranean as opposed to Nordic, Catholic as opposed to Protestant, urban as opposed to rural, etc. And among the groups of people that have relatively less trouble experiencing acting emotion, substance and feeling-power, they have the greatest problem with ease, style and elegance. And visa-versa.

So in my teaching (once again...generally...with all the attendant warnings-on-the-labels) I will emphasize emotion/substance/feeling-training for the more reluctant groups of experiencers of emotion, substance and feeling-power (Eastern, Northern, Nordic, Protestant and rural); and style, ease and substance training for the groups that find relative ease with--and are often-in-truth-too-eager for--feeling (Western, Southern, Mediterranean, Catholic and urban).

The teaching theory being: if a kangaroo comes to you for body building training to create a balanced physique (akin to a well-rounded actor), you emphasize push-ups and bench presses; if an ostrich comes to you, you emphasize squats and other leg work.)

We can't all have everything; but we can focus on and work like hell on what we don't automatically and easily have. And there are, in my experience, certain tendencies in groups that help identify and define individual proclivities, and speed up their learning process...generally speaking!!