The Actor in Time and Space

Using the most foundational elements around us to evolve our work.

We bring our full selves to the work when we step onto the stage: our preparation, our process, our creative imaginations. Most importantly, we bring our bodies into a rarified space and time when we are working.

The world we enter when we step on a stage is one of imaginative potential: the audience knows, as you do, that the set is a set, the furniture has been deliberately chosen, the costume you wear is specific to your character, and the props you use have also been selected. It is your character's living presence that turns all the elements around you into its own imaginative reality.

Stanislavski emphasized the "language of physical actions" with his actors to get them to invent, specify and define how their bodies moved onstage in concert with their inner character life. He insisted that the physical body had to be carefully integrated with the overall acting process in order to create vivid characters.

The two most basic elements a character is always engaged with are time and space. If we consider our character as always moving through these two elements, a specific challenge arises that should inform our work: how does my character move in time and space in this moment? Why?

The actor must carefully explore the possibilities in rehearsals. Every move, gesture, position, shape, and response to stimuli needs to be integrated into a logic that your character possesses, unlike anyone else's.

Creating a detailed language of physical actions requires combining the inner life of a character with their specific biography and placing it in the current physical circumstances. This is crucial in order to tell the story of who they are, moment to moment, as they move through the time and space of their experiences. The audience perceives as true what the character lives as true.

This means that a simple sipping of tea can be as meaningful as the drawing of a gun or a sudden burst of energy.

If you watch actors who are highly successful at creating and fully realizing a profound language of physical actions for their characters, they almost seem to vibrate with an almost ineffable energy, even when sitting completely still: Greta Garbo, Marlin Brando, Vivien Leigh, Daniel Day Lewis, Cate Blanchett, Gary Oldman, just to name a few.

Developing the skills to accomplish this requires specific actor training in a movement discipline when I was a professor at the University of Washington, our department choose to include The Viewpoints training by Anne Bogart and Tina Landau, along with the contrasting movement discipline of Tadashi Suzuki to train our students enrolled in the Professional Actor Training Program.

There are a variety of disciplines that can help an actor develop their instincts and tools for inventing in time and space: contact improvisation, dance, yoga, even sports training. Any physical training that focuses an actor on how their bodies move can be helpful. Suzuki and The Viewpoints are strong candidates because they were developed specifically for actors.

What is important is that the actor seek out a challenging training regime that specifically develops their physical selves so that invention, possibility, creativity and inspiration can manifest in their work.

Time and Space are always around you, every moment you live and you work. Turn them into creative tools and your work will improve a great deal.