Simplicity

I wrote about this whole thing in the post before last, but I was reminded in my Shakespeare workshop this evening how hard acting is. We were doing a simple excercise, to say across a room "I like you, I love you, I adore you, I worship you" with all the different connotations involved with each phrase to each individual person saying them, and to make them truly "land" with the other person, that is to make the other person hear and feel the sentiment, which is just, you know, what acting is all about. And it's hard! It reminded me how I've come to rely on not just my tendencies to "perform", but also stuff like character, subtext, backstory, the moment before, etc, to power my acting. That stuff doesn't really work the same way in Shakespeare, you have to understand the situation and the meaning, yes, but you really need to get the words TO the other person, and bring with them all the built in meaning and scantion work you've done. Telling someone you don't really know "I love you", saying it TO them and not to someone else, as yourself, because only YOU can say it to have it mean something and really meaning it, is difficult. It requires taking a risk. I knew that coming into the exercise, but I figured, you know, I take risks all the time. Stepping on stage is a risk, I do that a lot. But it was still hard, and reminded me how far I have to go, and all the reasons why I find acting so fulfilling.