ON ACTING: Graceful Action

ACTORS NOTE: The human system (that includes actors in performance), unimpeded by a lack of courage, unburdened by a plethora of insecurity and self-doubt (in actors often caused by not knowing one's lines!) is fundamentally graceful. When left to its own devises, the human system operates like a well designed internal combustion engine; rarely using more or less gas (emotional energy) than it deems necessary to keep the system running economically at the desired speed toward its goal. The human system is inherently emblematic of grace. Unimpeded, the body and mind creates little wasted effort, shepherding its resources, overcoming, after a precise estimate of external obstacles’ resistance, all such challenges in its path. Only self-imposed clumsiness--arising from a lack of confidence, which manifests itself in second-guessing oneself mid-graceful action--thwarts the body's inherent grace.