A Body of Work

A body has many parts, and nothing in the body is random or unnecessary. Different parts of the body rely on another part to function. For example the brain needs the heart and the lungs to control the body. The heart needs blood; the blood needs cells and so on and so on. 

A scene is the same way; a living-breathing thing that needs every meticulous piece working to survive.  The brain of the scene would be the homework the actor does before the scene even begins. It understands how to move the rest of the “body”. The who, what , where, why, when, how, and want of the character. What is their background? Do they like their father? Are they an only child? Do they have an accent? Etc. etc. This is everything the actor does before the story even begins and when its done nobody should notice that its even functioning. Just like the brain.

Next we have the blood, the flow of the scene, a balance. Is there enough blood in the body to keep it alive?  Are you there for your scene partner? Do you understand the writer?  Is there a give and take, and most importantly a trust between all those involved? If you drop the scene the body slowly starts to lose blood. The blood is pumped from the heart and through the body.

The heart is the connection.  Once the brain is out of the way and we have enough blood to keep us alive are we connected? Do we trust that we have everything in place to pump and push the scene forward? Are we connected to what we have discovered and created? Without connection it is fake, it is just a dummy of a scene. The more connection the quicker the heart pumps, the more flow of life and faster the brain works without anyone even noticing it is.

So we have the body working, but not living. To breathe life into the scene we need oxygen and the lungs. Oxygen is the commitment.  You can never breathe enough. You can never commit enough.  Nobody ever says stop breathing  (well nobody I want to know). Commitment is the fuel to the scene.  The lungs are the action. Commitment is nothing without action and action is nothing with out commitment. The oxygen, the commitment, is the key to allowing everything to move at its fullest potential. The more you commit to your homework, to your partners, to your connection and to your action the more the scene comes alive.

As actors we have to figure out a way to not only have these all working but have them working at their fullest capacity at the exact same time.

Just like the body.
written by: Dylan and Madison Padgett