A Folk Physics of Presence

June 15th, 2006 Fred McVittie

Presence is a feature of performance, particularly theatre performance, which is notoriously difficult to define, and appallingly difficult to teach. As a quality it is instantly recognisable, yet seems to be additional to simple technique or skill. In fact presence is what distinguishes an excellent performance from a display of skill. In some ways presence is analogous to the condition in sport of being ‘in the zone’, in which the athlete has an unproblematic sense of mastery, which shows itself as peak performance on the field. It is an article of faith in many sports that at the peak of the profession skills and technique are a necessary but insufficient factor, what wins or loses is the mindset of the athlete on the day. It is the athlete that is in the zone, that is most ‘present’ that wins.

The challenge facing the teaching of presence is to identify the mindset of those who do have presence and reproduce it in a training regime.

Many actor training systems attempt this through physical and mental exercise routines which are intended to have certain specific effects on the actor. Some of these effects are simply physical, the actor becomes more supple, more in control of their posture and gestures etc. In addition, however, some of these training techniques seem to be intended to subtly alter the mindset of the performer, particularly the subjectively experienced relationship of the actor to the wider world in which they feel themselves to be lodged.

The body of knowledge, or ’science’, which articulates this subjective relationship between actor and world is not quite the same as the science of the objectively real world studied by the rational sciences. The physical laws that the actor must internalise (to the point where they become embodied common sense, much as gravity becomes embodied common sense to us all), are more akin to a kind of ‘naive’ or ‘folk physics’.

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Spirituality and Actor Training

August 10th, 2006 Fred McVittie

“This paper intends to show that conservatory theatre teachers and acting teachers in specific are using the techniques and ethos of Taoism, Zen and First Nations spirituality in their studios. I will suggest what they are ‘borrowing’ and why they are doing it, whether they are conscious of this borrowing or not.”

FORSYTHE, J. (2004) Spirituality and Actor Training. Journal of Religion and Theatre, 3, 24 - 36.

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Two Performances

August 26th, 2006 Fred McVittie

Whenever a performance takes place there are usually (at least) two performances taking place: firstly there is what might be called the ‘content’ performance, the particular activity engaged in, whether it be acting, dancing, athletic display etc. and secondly there is the ’subject’ performance, which is the core activity of the person carrying out the action or delivering the content.

This ’subject’ performance consists of the attitudes, thoughts and behaviour of the performer prior to and outside of the content. It is directly addressed in some sports psychology training, and also features in techniques for enhancing ‘presence’ in business, management, and leadership training. However, it tends to be ignored in theatrical or artistic performances, in which the mythology of not separating ‘the dancer from the dance’ maintains. This is in spite of the fact that the two major Western schools of 20th Century acting, Stanislavski and Brecht, overtly acknowledge this duality, Brecht deliberately cultivating it for purposes of ‘alienation’, Stanislavski minimising it (and Strasberg attempting to eliminate it completely).

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Mirror Neurons and Acting

November 9th, 2006 Fred McVittie

There is no evidence that the extent to which one is able to mimic, emulate, or simulate behaviour correlates with a measurably different amount of mirror neuron activity, or that such ability, or excessive levels of neuronal mirroring is found disproportionately in individuals who have careers in acting (a skill which, on the face of it, may seem to be optimally suited to congenital mimics). Nor is there evidence to support such a correlation between acting, neuronal mirroring and emotional response (although a severe deficit in mirror neuron activity, as found in autism sufferers, does show such a correlation). Pathological examples of mirroring behaviour, such as is found in some cases of Tourette’s Syndrome and in some compulsions, may correlate with a higher than average level of activity in mirror neurons but clearly does not tend to lead to careers in show business.

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Acting the Subtext - Chekhov and Gist

December 30th, 2006 Fred McVittie

The rehearsal technique known as ‘acting the subtext’ is a method for developing, in an embodied fashion, the physical schema articulating the competing or complementing psychological sense present in a performance. In this technique, the subtextual ‘gist’ of a scene is made physically available such that gestures, actions, etc might be constructed appropriate to this gist. This gist is then available as a non-conscious schema or trace which might then inflect the overt schema representing the surface text. One example of a technique which utilises this combination of schema is the ‘psychological gesture’ of Michael Chekhov.

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Jungian Acting

May 29th, 2007 Fred McVittie

“An actor is most likely to excel at their craft if they are ’self-centred’. For many this is synoymous with ‘ego-centric’, a term and an attitude which is associated with largely negative behaviour and modes of being. However, their are many formulations of the self, from a range of psychological, philosophical and spiritual traditions which do not associate the ’self’ with the (usually Freudian) Ego, and which therefore do not place this Ego at the centre of attention and action. Such alternative models of self may allow for useful but more palatable versions of ’self-centredness’ to be constructed, which may also be more conducive to the physical and emotional health of the actor. This paper will consider a particular application of this idea, in which the Jungian concept of ’self’ is embedded with a program of actor training.”

Posted in Acting, Attention, Centre, Jung, Carl G., Training | No Comments »