It's Drew again. So I thought I'd get the ball rolling with the discussion.
I really liked the quote when Meisner said "Grapes are to wine as life is to acting" (or something along those lines). That really helped me as an actor because sometimes in the studio I have a tendency to tell myself "So-and-so is just acting. They don't really mean that." But that hurts my growth and ability as an actor. I learned that I need to now understand that yes, the circumstances are imaginary, but it's still this person and they have meaning to me so my actions DO have consequences. It helped me find out how to put a real-life person who has meaning for me into an imaginary condition. I should draw from what they mean to me and not focus on the condition and tell myself "They would never do that or be in that situation."
That helps with the repetition exercise because we want to strive for the dramatic side, but when we get there we must respond as though it's actually happening.
One MAJOR thing Jason said in class today really stuck with me. He said that you can't tell yourself "I would never react that way" or "I would never do/say that" because these are IMAGINARY circumstances. You've never actually BEEN in any of these circumstances before so you DON'T know HOW you will react. And that's where our impulses come in. They are how we would react if this were happening. Because in real life, you don't get a chance to step back, pause time, and think. If someone says the building will blow up in 30 seconds, you won't take time to pull out some paper and start planning your escape route. YOU RUN. And at each turn or hallway something new happens and an impulse strikes and you act on it. That's what we strive to achieve in the studio.
At least for me, the biggest hinderance on my impulses is judging myself and thinking "What will others think?" Today in class at the beginning we were warming up our impulses. I had one and I judged myself and didn't do what my reptilian brain told me. Then I told myself "NO!" and a minute later when I was in my reptilian brain, I found myself doing back-flips/somersaults over Monica haha!
I don't know what you guys struggle with particularly when it comes to impulses, but for anyone who has a fear of being judged, know you're not alone. It's hard and I feel like I'm not gonna be 100% cured for a VERY long time, but this reading (and class today) definitely helped!
Peace for now!
-Drew
Hey Drew- I totally get what you mean about feeling judged. What's funny is that when I'm doing reptilian brain work, I actually worry more about becoming too human or normal. I know that the goal of the exercises is to lose our filters (logical brain), but sometimes what my instincts come up with don't seem 'strange' enough to me, and I get worried that others are judging me, thinking that I'm stuck in my rational brain. I've had to learn and I'm still getting used to the fact that an impulse is an impulse-- sometimes it will be very "out there" and sometimes it will be more subdued. I can't worry that people may think I'm not working to my fullest-- if I alter my impulses to make them 'seem' more like impulses, I'm only hindering my own progress.
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