ON ACTING: The Necessity of Logic

A dramatic or comedic character, by the nature of his involvement in drama, may operate irrationally (making emotionally excessive choices that defy good reason), but a character can never make excessive choices that are illogical (defy the physics of human behavior).

Even the character decisions of a psychopathic or sociopath character must be consistent with human logic (albeit his or her own). After all, they are crazy humans; but not crazy non-humans. Human and character consistency is the hallmark of the writing craft...and the acting craft.

Without inherent--and consistent--human logic in the creative process, the possibility of dramatic identification by an audience will be impossible. To elicit and maintain audience believability and involvement from the beginning to the end of a dramatic piece, even the incredible must be made credible by the good writer and/or the good actor.

The good writer and good actor can approach their character analysis by thinking 'off the wall' creatively, but the wall must still be in the human room; they can think creatively 'out of the box', but their thinking--and resultant written and acting actions--must still be according to the inherent logic of the human box.