2014 –
After yesterday’s improv class, I found myself thinking deeply about what it means to be an actor and would like to share a few thoughts I had.
To some degree acting is a profession of the highest calling. Higher then clergy, higher than law, higher in psychology and higher than teaching because to some degree it incorporates all of those professions. The actor uses his body as a tool. His aim is to present elements of the human condition in it’s most authentic, original unadulterated form for the state of learning about what it means to be alive and for healing. The actor uses his body as his instrument, his tool. With courage, he aims to delve into the deepest canyons and the darkest alleyways of what it means to be human under intimate, personal, and turbulent conditions. So the actor must be willing to go there within himself first. The actor must go to places within himself over and over again and play, get familiar with, and present his findings. Healing must be part of the process. The actor must pursue healing in his life. Healing through familiarity. Healing through experience. Healing through presentation. In other words, complete familiarity with all of the darkest alleyways and deepest caverns and scary haunted hallways. Familiarity in deed; with all of these places and bring them to the light. And what that really means is in a quite literal way. Bring these dark deep personal states of being that exist within the mind and the memory and to an extent the imagination, into the manifested world of the five senses through his body and quite literally in front of the spotlight or stage lights for that matter. So please, understand that acting is a noble profession of the highest calling.