Building Blocks

As children we see life simply. We experience life with jovial exuberance. We do because we don’t know anything else. Everything is a game, everything can be fun or interesting or exciting. There’s no fear because at that stage we don’t know what there is to be afraid of.

In my opinion that’s why children make such amazing actors. They are not stopped by the same skeptical and critical mind that starts to develop as each year passes. You tell a child to be sad they are sad, you tell a child to pout they pout, you tell a child to act like a monkey and dance around the room? Guess what!  

By High school most of this fearless behavior is already gone. We learn how to be aware of what people think of us and how we should feel about that. If someone asks a young adult or an adult to cry? They push away. You ask them to be angry? They can’t find their voice. You ask them to be a monkey and dance around the room? Forget about it.  

We have blocked ourselves off from the mess of emotion that lives in all of us. We are blocked.

In acting this is a common term. What are your blocks? Each person has their own special way of blocking out where they need to go in a scene.  Some hide in their bodies, some let their voice get really high, some get quiet and others dig their hands into their pockets or nervously shift around. It’s an emotional Pinball machine inside each person, “I can’t feel this or be this way” so instead we let it bounce around inside of us and it manifests into blocks.

Actor or Dentist everyone has emotional blocks. The Actor, however, is forced to face them. A dentist has the option to get counseling or self evaluate why they act the way they act. But an Actor has it built right into their title. An ACTor must evaluate why they ACT the way they ACT and furthermore why the Dentist ACTS the way they act and everyone else.  It is terrifying, breathtaking and amazing.

We build up blocks and then tear them down. It takes a long time and even longer if we resist it.  But it’s liberating the moment you find it and destroy it. The moment you say; I will have a voice, I will breathe deeply and take my time because I can. I will be that monkey with enthusiasm and pride.

Trying to be younger doesn’t necessarily mean Botox.  It means discarding what we have built as defense mechanisms and survival techniques and embracing the child we once were. Embracing the fearlessness we must be to tell the story.

Understanding that we must knock down our own blocks to build the blocks of the character; why the character does what they do.

I know it sounds tiring! Build it up, knock it down, Build it up, and knock it down, But if we stay curious, and hungry and childlike, we will experience life with jovial exuberance.  Just like the child inside. And what child doesn’t like playing with blocks? 

written by: Madison Padgett