Actors and Thought Work

Taking notes.

Receiving direction with... grace. 

Many, many, many times we actors are on the receiving end of notes.  We work for small productions, with one director, one stage manager, and accordingly get messages from 2 humans.  Affecting our work, the staging, safety, tone, style, blocking, and, of course, the scene work objectives.

Or we work in gigantic enterprises with multiple layers of authority, directors, movement,  SMs everywhere. There can be notes coming from 5 or more humans, often conflicting with each other. 

Anyone giving us notes has an agenda that we are not fully privy to....

We have an agenda also.  To be excellent. To keep this job. To show someone something. To impress someone. To be the character fully. To appear supportive. 

To actually Be supportive.

There is no judgement here - we truly cannot control the thoughts that surge into our mind as we receive notes.

We can resist them. 

That is not what the scene is about.

You are misinterpreting what I ...

Theatre folk.

We know how to rehearse.

The permission to be wrong.  The collaboration (if the producers/directors are open to this) of the company.  

The exploration.  

What is the theme?  What are the expectations?  

There are markers along the way, some imposed by others, and some we lay in our brains all by ourselves.

By this date, I will be off book.

By this time, I will know my cover tracks.  Have the movement cold. Alert my social media feed that there is a show growing.

And this time comes with pressure.  Because there is a hard date. 

An assumption. 

That all will come together and the show will open.

So, we have this time that is fluid, within a structure (schedule) that is static.

There is always a possibility lingering, that something will change. Cuts will be made. 

And we will shift, we adaptable creatures, to adopt the change and still focus on the date when the show is set. 

Rehearsal time. Creativity within a structure. 

The flow is forward, and can be gl...