Wow! It has been forever since my last post and I feel pretty sheepish about it. I have been to say the least – extremely busy. From August until the end of September I was wrapped up helping a local theatre company with fundraising. Then in October I took a wonderful trip to Spain and Portugal (poor me). When we got back, I promptly got COVID. Then I got over COVID and I procrastinated. Then I got sidetracked by household repairs and preparing the garden for winter. Then I procrastinated again. Then I played with the dog. You get the idea.

In any case, I started organizing my thoughts on character again about two weeks ago and did some furious writing. Nonetheless, the topic grew into a real Sasquatch, so I decided to take a break and focus for the time being on another topic. So here is my post on Imagination, Personalization and Endowment. It’s along one, so pour yourself a cup of tea. Enjoy!

Imagination

“Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up.” – Pablo Picasso

With their unrestrained imaginations, children are natural artists. They easily, and unself-consciously, create imaginary worlds though their drawings and role-playing with complete abandon. A child’s imagination can be so powerful that they often confuse reality with fantasy. Inevitably parents and teachers guide children to distinguish between what is real and what is imagined (“no, honey, there are no monsters under your bed”). Peer pressure also exerts its effect. A child of 5 who carries on a conversation with an imaginary friend may be completely accepted by their peers, but a child of 12 who does so will likely be subject to the ridicule of friends.

While learning the difference between what is real and what is imaginary is an important aspect of growing up, the downside is that our imaginations – like an unused muscle – will lose strength and atrophy. When this happens, we lose our childlike capacity to dream, create, and see things outside of the constraints of the everyday world. This is the problem Picasso addresses in the quote above, and that he struggled to overcome throughout his career.

“It took me four years to paint like Raphael, but a lifetime to paint like a child.” – Pablo Picasso

Thankfully, like all muscles, our imagination can be strengthened with exercise. We can, as Picasso constantly did, struggle against the forces of atrophy. A key point here is that the struggle is constant, and requires a commitment to regularly exercise our imaginations. This post will address both how to exercise our imagination, and how to apply this muscle in our acting. Just remember that recovering the childlike does not mean giving license to the childish – a distinction sometimes forgotten in the entertainment industry, particularly among pampered celebrities. It might be helpful at this point to offer a definition of imagination. Merriam Webster defines imagination as follows:

  • The act or power of forming a mental image of something not present to the senses, or never before wholly perceived in reality.

It’s a pretty good definition, but I would make one clarification. Allow the word image used in the definition to imply not just a visual image, but any sensory experience that touches human consciousness. With this understanding you will see that our imaginations can conjure images from all or our senses: not just sight, but hearing, smell, taste, touch, texture, temperature, and weight, along with physical sensations like hunger, fatigue, pain, and discomfort. (Remember the seemingly pointless hot coffee exercise you did in acting class? Maybe it wasn’t so silly after all.)

There is an imagination exercise I often do early on in all my acting classes. It is a guided sensory recall exercise where I guide my students to imagine themselves in a particular place. I often opt to guide them through imaging they are sitting on a tropical beach. It works like this.

I first ask my students to sit in a chair, close their eyes and focus on their breath. I then ask them to imagine they are sitting on a lounge chair on a tropical beach. I ask them to imagine not just the visuals – the beach, ocean, and sky, but to bring in all sorts of sensory images. I ask them to imagine the feeling the sun warming their face, to imagine the sand under their toes, to smell the salt and tanning lotion in the air, and even to hear the ocean waves, seagulls overhead, and children playing in the distance. To do this effectively I encourage them to tilt their heads to the source of sounds and allow themselves to inhale through their noses to activate smell.

It is generally a very effective exercise, though some actors are better at recalling some sensory images then others. Sound seems to trip people up, but smell often works well. Our sense of smell is one the oldest senses we have – going back to amphibians. And smell links directly to our emotional lives. Think of how the smell of a loved one’s sweater can evoke powerful feelings.

Lemme define sensory recall (also called sense memory).

  • Sensory recall, or sense memory, is the process whereby the actor to brings to mind not merely a visual memory of a place or thing, but images from all the senses: textures, smells, temperatures, sounds, and even tastes.

Now let’s look at the inherent duality to the work of all artists – actors included. Here is another great quote that helps illuminate this paradox.

“We all know that Art is not the Truth. Art is a lie that makes us realize the Truth.” – Pablo Picasso

As I noted earlier, even a healthy child may not see the distinction between what is real and what is imagined – what is fiction and what is true. A normal child make think their imaginary friend truly exists. However, it would be dangerous and counterproductive for an adult to confuse what they imagine with what is real. Nevertheless, it can happen with mentally unstable actors (as well as misguided practitioners of The Method.) So, we need to keep in mind that the make-believe of a child is not quite the same as the make-believe of an adult artist. The artist always, or should always, understand the duality of their art. Children, especially young ones, can be forgiven for not getting this paradox.

Before we move on, I want to address what may seem obvious to many. What is the purpose of imagination for actors? More specifically, how do we use it when working on a role? A vague and general answer may come to mind, “Well, duh, to be creative.” True, yes. But we need to drill down more. I propose that the actor uses their imagination to help conjure images, experiences, feelings, and emotions that motivate their character’s actions and allow the actor to immerse themselves in their role and the world of the play. The legendary acting teacher, Sanford Meisner articulates this quite nicely.

“Acting is living truthfully under imaginary circumstances.” – Sanford Meisner

Accomplishing this is a foundational benchmark of good acting.

The Magic If

In the late 1800’s, Konstantin Stanislavsky, the father of the psychological approach to acting, coined the phrase, the Magic If. The Magic If was one of many concepts developed by Stanislavski that revolutionized the work of the actor. Stanislavski realized that by asking his students What if such and such (fill in the blank) is true, he could greatly stimulate their creative imaginations. Later on, other actors and teachers came to find great value in another tool called the As If. Let’s look at first at the What if and how it is used in the classroom vs. how it is used when working on a role – the differences in the purpose and process between the two are significant. Unfortunately, few actors – and many acting teachers – understand the distinction in these two applications and that can lead to big problems.

The What if and Dramatic Circumstances

The World of a Play is overall context of a play’s dramatic circumstances. All plays have dramatic circumstances that are specified by the playwright, and further clarified, refined, or altered by the director. Dramatic circumstances relate to the who, what, where, when, how and why of the story. These circumstances include the characters and their relationships, what is happening to the characters, the world of the play and what is happening within it, the space and the physical environment, and even the physical objects present or suggested in the production. I’ll be addressing each of these in turn. But, let’s look first at how the What if is used in the classroom to exercise imagination muscles. As Stanislavski did with his own students, contemporary acting teachers will pose any number of What if questions to their students. Here are just a few examples often used in the classroom:

  • What if there is a tiger behind that door?
  • What if you felt a spider crawling up your leg?
  • What if you were on a tropical beach and could feel the sun on your face?
  • What if you were holding a newborn baby in your arms?

There are endless possibilities for the variety of What if questions a teacher can use to exercise the imaginations of their students. What makes the exercise so effective is that the actor never has to truly believe there is a tiger behind the door, only to imagine what it might be like IF there was a tiger behind the door. That is because by using the What if we are always asking a question about a possibility, not making a statement that is to be taken as factual – “there IS a tiger behind the door.” Something, most actors would be highly skeptical of and difficult to believe. This is beauty of make-believe using the imagination vs. forcing yourself to believe a fiction that is clearly untrue. “Art is a lie to reveal a truth.”

Now the purpose of What if questions used as an exercise in class is NOT the same as how What If questions should be used when working on a play. In the classroom, actors exercise their imagination by exploring an endless variety of possible circumstances. However, when working on a play, the actor needs to ask What if questions that directly relate to the specific dramatic circumstances of the story: the who, what, when, where, what is happening, and how, and why. When working on a play, the actor needs to clarify what the dramatic circumstances are for their character and how those circumstances affect their character.

So, here’s where things can go south when an actor confuses using a What if in the classroom and the What if when working on a play. In the classroom exercise, the actor is always imagining how they would feel or react to the imagined circumstances – “What if I was holding a newborn baby.” Actors are often mistakenly taught to use personal pronouns when asking What if questions that clarify the dramatic circumstances facing their character. But using personal pronouns at this stage is too soon in the process. Let’s take an example of an actor playing Hamlet. Here is how the actor might mistakenly use personal pronouns for a What If question related to their character’s initial circumstances.

  • What if I came home to attend the funeral of my father, the King, only to find my mother had immediately married my uncle. Because my uncle has married my mother, my uncle is now King and he has stolen my birthright to inherit the throne.”

At this point it is best to ask this question, not with personal pronouns, but with the name of the character – Hamlet. “What if Hamlet came home…,” and so on. Why? Since no actor IS Hamlet, how an actor may feel or react in such circumstances may not necessarily align with how Hamlet feels and reacts. You may find in such an imaginary circumstance that your first impulse is to isolate yourself or to pick up and leave Denmark in a huff. But Hamlet doesn’t do either of these things. By any valid interpretation, Hamlet feels anger at the betrayal of his father (and himself) and is motivated to seek revenge. The actor is not ready to insert themselves entirely into Hamlet’s world; that step requires what is called personalization.

The As If and Personalization

In line with our understanding of the duality present in all art, most actors understand that the character they perform is a lie that they will attempt to authentically portray for the purpose of revealing the essential truth of the play. But how does one do this, when either how you might feel and react in the dramatic circumstances of the play is different from the character, or when you simply can’t imagine yourself living the life of the character, or in the world the character inhabits? How do you motivate yourself to authentically feel and react as a make-believe character does. The big and crucial next step in developing an authentic portrayal of your character involves a process called personalization. I define personalization as follows:

  • The process by which an actor uncovers the deep essential dynamics of the dramatic circumstances so that they can apply their own personal experience and thus understand, and authentically play, their character’s experiences and impulses.

Personalization involves the use of the As If tool allowing the actor an entry point to their character’s feelings, impulses, and actions. Let me begin with an example.

I once heard an anecdote about Eli Wallach, a famous mid-century film actor, where he was discussing a particularly challenging emotional reaction his character needed to express in a movie. The dramatic circumstances where that over a period of decades, and through blood, sweat and tears, his character had built up a successful manufacturing business that was now in contentious negotiations with labor unionists. Negotiations break down, and the unionists go on strike. Then one night the character hears sirens near his factory. Rushing over to check on things, he finds his factory consumed in flames. Union arsonists had set it ablaze. As per the dramatic circumstances, his character needed to react with grief and rage, but as the actor confessed, he could not personally connect to the circumstances of owning a successful business destroyed by labor unionists. The actor was a bit of a leftist, and was personally more inclined to support workers over capitalists. But the skilled actor knew that what he needed to do to play those emotions authentically was to personalize his understanding of the essential dynamics of the dramatic circumstances confronting his character. The actor viewed the essential nature of the dramatic circumstances as follows

  • As If I personally had personally lost a precious possession to an arch enemy.

The result onscreen was quite convincing. The actor’s portrayal was powerful and authentic. The film actor was able to take their character’s situation personally, and put their own skin in the game.

Personalization helps the actor to overcome an insidious monster that frequently rears its hideous head. This occurs when the actor asks a What if question related to their character’s circumstances only to find they cannot relate at all, or that they would never act or react as their character is supposed to do. This leads to a common actor complaint that has stymied countless directors: “But my character would never do that.” Yes, they would. The complaining actor is confusing how they would react with how their character reacts. If such an actor doesn’t use personalization to get into their character’s head, they may end up trying to force themselves to feel and act like their character. An impossible task that ends up with the actor going through the motions and faking it.

So, let’s now look at how an actor might personalize Hamlet’s dramatic circumstances. Let’s restate them.

  • What if Hamlet came home to attend the funeral of his father, the King, only to find his mother had immediately married his uncle. Because his uncle has married his mother, his uncle is now King and he has stolen Hamlet’s birthright to inherit the throne.”

Let’s just work on the first sentence. What is the essential dynamic here, and how might one personalize this? Maybe as follows:

  • To me these circumstances are As if I come to find that a person who I thought was above reproach – someone I love, admire and respect – has betrayed one of the finest people I have ever known. I now see the betrayer – someone I once put on a pedestal – as morally corrupt person.

Now we are getting somewhere. Even if you have never experienced this scenario in your personal life, the essential aspects are much easier to imagine then the specifics detailed in the dramatic circumstances. While guided by your personal experiences, using an As If does not limit you to only substituting analogous circumstances from your personal life. A good As if will work with your personal sensibilities in a way that allows you to imagine yourself in a wide variety of circumstances that align with the essential dynamics facing the character.

I was once told by one of my best acting teachers that within each of us lies every fictional character ever written. This seemed a bit like BS at the time, but I have come to see the truth in this statement. I do think that innumerable actors have a Hamlet hidden inside them, waiting to be uncovered and brought to life. To help illuminate their point, my acting teacher went on to use a sculpting metaphor. I’ll paraphrase.

  • “Imagine yourself, and all that makes you tick, as a large clump of clay. How you can be molded is open to infinite possibilities. Now imagine that you have a bust of Hamlet derived from the script. Your job is to carve out his likeness from the clump of clay that is you. Your benchmark for success is whether your completed sculpture matches the bust you are using as a model.

The sculpture metaphor is one way to think about the process personalization. As the actor, you are sculpting or molding yourself into the character of Hamlet. Hamlet lies latent within the block of clay that is you, and you what you do is carve away the parts of you that aren’t Hamlet until you finally reveal Hamlet inside.

Constructing a good As If is a very personal process and one that can take some trial and error to work out. You need to find an As If that not only stimulates your imagination and gets your motor running, but one that does so in a way that you can authentically play the feelings and actions of your character.

A note of caution here. Avoid substituting relationship labels when constructing your As ifs. For example, when constructing an As if for Hamlet DO NOT substitute the words “mother, father,” or “uncle” as follows:

  • To me these circumstances are As if I come to find that my mother who I thought was above reproach – someone I love, admire and respect – has betrayed my father, one of the finest people I have ever known. I now see my mother – someone I once put on a pedestal – as morally corrupt person (or worse, as a harlot).

Why don’t you want to do this? Because your relationships with your mother and father may not be even close to Hamlet’s relationships with his mother and father. This means you will fail to capture the underlying essential dynamics of the relationships Hamlet has in the play.

One final step on the use of an As If for personalizing your character and the essential dynamics of their dramatic circumstances. Once you have internalized what the circumstances mean for your character and how it affects them, you should find that you can now take what is happening to them personally – you now have skin in the game. At this point, and only at this point, can you substitute personal pronouns for the name of your character in your original What if question.

The As If and Endowment

There is another valuable function for the As if tool. It is used to help actors with a type of imagination called endowment. I define endowment as:

  • The act of evoking qualities in an actual person, object, or space that do not exist in reality.

As with all types of imagination, children easily endow people, places, and things all the time: they play with a stick As If it was a sword, a doll As if it was a friend, or a stone As if it is was precious jewel. With endowment, however, the characteristics of the thing being endowed place limits on the additional qualities one might imagine the thing can have. For example, a long curved stick might easily be endowed as a snake, but not so easily endowed as an elephant.

When acting in a play there any number of things that will need to be endowed with qualities they don’t have in reality – your own character, other characters you have relationships with, the stage space and physical environment, and numerous objects present in that environment. You may need to endow your character As If you had magical powers, another character As if they are a dangerous assassin, the stage space and environment As if it represents a haunted house, the fourth wall As If it has window looking over a lush garden, a sword you carry As if the blade was deadly sharp.

The World of the Play

The World of the Play includes every aspect of the social and physical environment within which the story unfolds. As such it includes the play’s time-period, style, tone or atmosphere, social and cultural conventions, and even the laws of physics that apply (Is it a world where there are wizards who have magical powers, superheroes who can fly, teacups who can talk?). Actors should carefully examine all the clues in the script as to what the world is like – the time-period of the world, how people think and behave in this world, and what things that can and do happen in this world? As for tone and atmosphere, it is also important to ask whether this world is a fantasy world, a lighthearted world, bucolic, sinister, adventurous, etc. Atmosphere and tone are often dictated by the play’s genre: is it a thriller, an adventure story, a serious drama, a horror, a comedy, etc.

Once you know all the conventions of the World of the Play you know what rules of the game are – how the world works, what can be expected, and what are the likely consequences of different actions and events. Since the world of the play may be very different from the real world we inhabit today, you will need to apply the As if tool to get inside it. Say the world is set in Denmark around 800 AD. It is a dark and dreary war-like world full of intrigue and superstition. Going for the essential aspects of the world, you might apply an As if something like the following:

  • This world to me is As If I was part of a primitive tribe that lives in a cold and unforgiving environment. Furthermore, the tribe is struggling with internal strife and surrounded by enemies.

Not perfect, but a good start. It might be helpful to also flesh out more on the social/cultural conventions and find As ifs for them.

The Physical Environment and Objects

The World of the Play outlines the rules and conventions of the story. In doing so, it will specify a physical environment – where and when things are happening, as well as all the physical elements in the world whether suggested by actual objects (i.e., props and set pieces) or completely imagined (i.e., the fourth wall). As all of this happens in a defined space – a stage. As such, the properties of the set and the stage space along with the objects in it, will need to be endowed with qualities they don’t have in reality. For example, an actor may need to endow a suitcase As if it is very heavy when in fact it is empty, or a stove As if it were hot when in fact it is room temperature. For the environment they may need to endow the stage As if it represents a beach, or a library, or a forest. And if the location is outside, they may need to endow the weather As if it were hot and sunny, or wet and cold.

When working on endowing the space, the physical environment, and physical objects, I find that sensory recall (sometimes called sense memory) can greatly assist the endowment process.

We know, of course, that there is a strong connection between memory and imagination. Much of our imagination has at its source personal memories that serve as a springboard to imaginative elaboration. When a script requires me to endow a specific space, environment, or object I will often visit a similar space to forge fresh sense memories of those places and the things inside them.

For example, I may go to a church, or a library, or a gallery, or a park, or a busy street to explore and note how the space is arranged, along with the sights, sounds, smells, lighting, temperature, and so on. I pay attention to the look, texture, and feel of any objects within: the pews, candles, stained glass windows, soaring nave, and alter of a church, the silent stacks of bookshelves, quietly efficient librarians and study tables in a library, the art and sculpture on the walls and pedestals in a gallery, the trees, flowers and grass in a park, and crowds, noises, and smells of a busy city street.

The use of sense memory can greatly assist with endowing the physical space and the objects within it. It is a great tool that every actor should use.

Your Character

Let’s say the dramatic circumstances state that your character is a young Prince (Hamlet) who has been pampered and indulged by his parents, but who is expected to live in a certain way: be loyal to the King and Queen, and marry an appropriate wife. You probably have no personal experience as a Prince to draw on that allows you to connect directly to these dramatic circumstances. Hence you need to find a strong As If that, at minimum, allows imagine yourself in essentially similar circumstance.

  • The character’s life for me is As If I was the only son of a powerful elite family who spoiled me, but also expected me to sacrifice everything to support the family business and to marry an acceptable woman from a similar socio-economic background.

Your Character’s Relationships

In every play, your character will have key relationships with other characters in the play. Your character may even have significant relationships with characters who never appear onstage. In fact, some may be dead (Hamlet’s father). Nevertheless, your character will mostly interact with other characters in scenes on stage.

I believe I mentioned in a previous post that a while back I was in a production of The Seagull where I played the character of Sorin. The actor playing my sister, Arkadina, was an exceptionally talented actor, and brought all the necessary qualities to her role. I did not need to endow anything in her character that she hadn’t already created. However, I still needed to endow the relationship between my character and hers. Endowing relationships is very similar to personalizing dramatic circumstances. Avoiding relationship labels and uncovering the essential dynamics of the relationship is fundamental. Arkadina is Sorin’s older sister (Ironically, I have an older sister who is also an actor),  but my sister and Arkadkina share few other characteristics, and the essential dynamics of my relationship with my sister is far different from Sorin’s relationship with Arkadina.

Let’s first look at the nature of Arkadina’s character to understand how Sorin feels and relates to her. Sorin views Arkadina as a true artist and a terrifically talented actress. Sorin puts artists on a pedestal and easily indulges their whims and eccentricities. Arkadina is a diva and can be a real handful, but Sorin always forgives these tendencies in her. He loves her dearly and is very protective of her, but he draws the line when she exhibits cruelty toward her own son. Here is the As if I used to endow my relationship with Arkadina.

  • My relationship with the character is As if they are a person who I have been very close to for years. I adore them like a protective parent, and beam with pride at their talent and accomplishments. In turn I bask in the love they have for me, and it warms my ego that they rely on me for guidance, support, and encouragement.

Now my endowment of Sorin’s relationship with Arkadina may not be at all similar to how the actor playing Arkadina endows our relationship. That actor playing Arkadina may not believe she relies on Sorin for guidance, support, or encouragement, and that’s fine. This may work perfect for her, and doesn’t invalidate Sorin’s perspective. All of us in real life often perceive our relationships with others differently than our friends, spouses, or associates do in return. So don’t compare your personalization of the relationships you have with those created by the actors playing the other characters. Any specific personalization will be unique to each actor. Personalization is also something I find best to keep private. During rehearsals and performances, I never share my personalizations with anyone, including the director.

Summary

Let’s review the process. As a rule, when working on a play vs. doing an imagination exercise in class, I recommend first clarifying the play’s dramatic circumstances with What If questions. When phrasing these initial questions be sure to use the character’s name, and avoid putting in personal pronouns representing yourself. The next step is to internalize your personal connection to the character’s circumstances, using the As If tool for personalization. This step asks you to find the essential dynamics of the play’s specified dramatic circumstances so that you can get a gut understanding of what those circumstances are like for your character. In doing so, your goal is to stimulate within yourself feelings and impulses that align with those of the character. The personalization process guides you – for a moment – to step away from the fiction of the play so that you can tap into those aspects of your own personal experience, and imaginative sensibilities draw you into a subjective feeling of what the character is going through. When you start to internalize the essential dynamics of the dramatic circumstances in this way you will be motivated to authentically act and react as the character does. Ta da! You now far along in molding the block of clay that is you into a life-like bust of the character. When you have reached this point, you can now let go of your As if explorations, and throw yourself into the fiction of the play. You can now insert personal pronouns referring to yourself into your What if questions about the character’s dramatic circumstances. Now you have skin in the game, and you will be able to take personally what is happening to your character.

With endowment, you will likely need to work on endowing your character, their relationships, the world they inhabit, the space and physical environment, and the objects within it. Again, you use the As if tool here to endow qualities in a person, place, or thing that they don’t have in reality. For example, you can endow the stage space As if it were a dark forest or a personal prop As if it were a precious possession.

Before I close, there is one additional technique that I find critical in developing a personal connection to your character’s subjective experiences. The technique is called physicalization, and I will cover this technique in my next post. After that I plan to get back to my series of posts on character. We’re coming up on the busy holiday season, so I probably won’t get any other posts up until after the first of the year. In the meantime, I’ll try to respond to comments and questions.

Speaking of which, I look at all my posts as works-in-progress, so please don’t hesitate to ask for clarifications, more examples, or to point out something you don’t agree with. In the meantime, allow yourselves to rediscover the child within, free your imaginations, and go play make-believe!

Thanks much!

David