Tag Archives: Acting

Chapter-a-Day

Chapter-a-Day Proverbs 21

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The sacrifice of an evil person is detestable, 
      especially when it is offered with wrong motives.
Proverbs 21:27 (NLT)

When we hear the question “What’s my motivation?!” we tend to think of some cheesy character in a television show obsessing about an acting role. It stems from the acting method which teaches actors to get below the surface of the lines in the script – the words that the character say, and to think about what is driving the character to think, act, and say certain things.

All joking and mocking of actors aside, I’ve actually found the question itself is quite pertinent to almost any situation in life. I find myself asking the question of myself all the time:

What’s my motivation here; Is is positive or negative?
Am I doing this selfishly or selflessly?
What is motivating my words right now; Am I building up or tearing down?

I also find the question useful in discerning the words and actions of others. If I am perplexed as to why a person would say this or that, I look for his or her motives. What is driving them? What is it they want? What are they hoping to accomplish?

I have found that when I take a moment to thoughtfully examine my motives before I act or speak, I save myself from doing and saying a lot of stupid, hurtful things that I would regret and would cause me more pain that it was worth. When I examine the motives of others and understand why they act and say the things they do, it often allows me to respond with grace rather then react with irritation.

Chapter-a-Day

Chapter-a-Day James 4

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Image by the|G|™ via Flickr

You want what you don’t have, so you scheme and kill to get it. You are jealous of what others have, but you can’t get it, so you fight and wage war to take it away from them. Yet you don’t have what you want because you don’t ask God for it. And even when you ask, you don’t get it because your motives are all wrong—you want only what will give you pleasure. James 4:2-3 (NLT)

The study of acting is really the study of humanity. To portray a character realistically, you have to understand who this person is, how they think, how they talk, and how they move. You have to understand what makes this character, this person tick. Great actors peel away the layers of a character and get to the heart of who he or she really is. The deeper you understand the character, the more fully you can embody him or her on stage.

As I step into a role, one of the first things that I do is a process called “beating the script.” I break my scenes into “beats” or sections determined by what the character is thinking. The underlying premise is that the character wants or desires something at all times. His or Her words are driven by an internal desire. If you identify the characters ultimate “want” then you can begin to connect the dots of “wants” in each moment of the scene from beginning to end. Then, when you play the scene, you don’t play the words, you play the wants.

What’s interesting about this process is that the truth of it is identified right in God’s Message. It’s in today’s chapter. We are all driven by our wants. We each have deep, core desires that determine the things we do and say each day. We want to be secure. We want to be loved. We want to be rich. We want to be famous. We want [fill in the blank]. As we live in relationship each day, those motivations lead us to thoughts, ideas, words, interactions and behaviors.

So, what is it I really want? That is a question with which we each need to grapple, and find the answer for ourselves. When we do, a lot of other things come into focus.

Chapter-a-Day

Chapter-a-Day Jeremiah 51

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“The harder you work at this empty life,
   the less you are.
Nothing comes of ambition like this
   but ashes.” Jeremiah 51:58b (MSG)

“For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” – Jesus

When approaching a role for the stage I do a lot of what’s call “character work.” As I dig into the character I’m portraying, I will usually try to identify the one thing that drives the character. I challenge myself by asking “Can I, in one word or phrase, describe what is it this person really wants?”

Last fall when I was digging into the character of Oliver Warbucks, I found a line in the script that became the foundation on which I built my character (I paraphrase, it’s been a while since I delivered the line):

“I made a promise to myself that I was going to be rich, very rich. By the time I was 23 I’d made my first million. In ten years, I’d turned that into a hundred million. Boy, in those days that was a lot of money.

“I have to admit to you Annie, I was ruthless to those I had to climb over to get to the top….but then I realized something. It doesn’t matter how many Rembrandts or Dusenbergs you’ve got. If you’re alone. If you’ve got no one to share your life with. Then you might as well be broke and back in Hell’s Kitchen.”

Oliver Warbucks was in the middle of a crisis of ambition. In a few short scenes he learns the lesson Jeremiah was teaching in today’s chapter. He realizes that nothing comes of his blind ambition but ashes. He faces the truth, for the first time, that it profits him nothing to literally gain the whole world, but lose his soul. The change in Oliver’s heart and ambition is the true story of Annie.

Jesus asked another question that Oliver Warbucks, and I, should continually ask ourselves. What is your treasure? For where you choose to place your treasure, your heart will ambitiously go after it. Be careful what you ambitiously seek, because it may determine what you ultimately find.

Today, I’m pondering this question: “If an actor was hired to play me in a biographical movie about my life, what would he discover is my greatest ambition? The treasure after which I seek? The one thing that motivates me?”

Chapter-a-Day, Theatre Journal

Chapter-a-Day Luke 11

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“No one lights a lamp, then hides it in a drawer. It’s put on a lamp stand so those entering the room have light to see where they’re going. Your eye is a lamp, lighting up your whole body. If you live wide-eyed in wonder and belief, your body fills up with light. If you live squinty-eyed in greed and distrust, your body is a dank cellar. Keep your eyes open, your lamp burning, so you don’t get musty and murky. Keep your life as well-lighted as your best-lighted room.” Luke 11:33-36 (MSG)

This week I am a grown adult playing a child’s game of dress up and make-believe. Having shaved my head, I will put on a costume and pretend I am a wealthy, 20th century industrialist living on 5th Avenue in New York City. I am quite certain that some people think I’m silly, but for me it is about living wide-eyed in wonder and belief.

While I enjoy the stage for the fun and camaraderie, it is more than just an amusement to me. Acting helps me maintain a child-like wonder and playfulness about life. As I research a character I am digging deeper into the human condition, gaining greater empathy for others, and acquiring a more thorough understanding of my own humanity. In Oliver Warbucks I’ve learned a little more about greed, lonliness, isolation, loss, drive, and ambition. Most of all, Oliver has spoken to me about redemption. Warbucks is the incarnation of Jesus’ teaching about gaining the whole world at the risk of losing your own soul. The two and a half hours of Annie has become, for me, the story of Oliver’s journey from the darkness of isolation to the light of love. That story is simply a reflection of the great story, of God’s story, of the Christmas story.

In two weeks the show will be over, but I know from experience that these few months of wide-eyed wonder and the willing suspension of disbelief will have made my own life a little less murky.

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Chapter-a-Day

Chapter-a-Day Isaiah 45

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Stage Manger at work backstage. "Clearly, you are a God who works behind the scenes…." Isaiah 45:15a (MSG)

I have been involved in stage productions since my youth and have spent the last five years in leadership of our local community theater organization. In fact, just last night Wendy and I found ourselves helping with auditions for the summer production. It never ceases to amaze me the number of people involved who the audience never see on stage. The audience sees and enjoys the actors' performance but they never see the Writer, Producer, Director, Stage Manager, Costumer, Lighting Director, Audio Director, Marketing team, Make-up Artist, and Production Assistants.

A month ago, I was acting in a show. At the end of one scene I needed to make an exit and come right back in at the beginning of the following scene. My coat was on a coat hook at the opposite end of the stage and it was my responsibility to exit through that far door and grab my coat. I made my exit through the nearest door without thinking about my coat which was now abandoned stage. I was going to look really silly entering a few minutes later without my coat when the audience could see it was still hanging on the hook by the door.

I scrambled around backstage, cursing myself for my mental lapse. As I approached, the opposite end of the set, I found my coat hanging on a hook backstage. In the scene change, one of the backstage crew had noticed I'd left the coat. They immediately ran to grab it and put it back stage where I would find it. Crisis averted. Without a a crew backstage making sure everything was under control, I'd have looked really silly.

When I read "you are a God who works behind the scenes," I really appreciate what that means.

Yesterday I wrote about a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day I had the previous day. It would have been easy to say to myself, "God, why are you absent?" I could have looked at the evidence of what I saw and concluded that God had let me down. I know that's not true. God is at work. In the spotlight, on the stage of my everyday life, things appear to be going wrong, but backstage God is actively at work. I may not see it until after the scene is over, but the Great Stage Manager is behind the scenes administrating far more than I can comprehend. He is aware of more than I see, and actively engaged to make sure I don't blow my next entrance.

Relax. We've got the best possible Stage Manager at work behind the scenes of our life.

Creative Commons photo courtesy of Flickr and Ervin Noordin

Chapter-a-Day

Chapter-a-Day 2 Kings 23

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"The king acted immediately…." 2 Kings 23:1a (MSG)

I walked into the Fine Arts Building on the campus of Judson College. As I rounded the corner towards the theatre, I was greeted by an actress I didn't know in full make up. She had a look of terror in her eyes.

"There you are! Hurry up! You're on in a minute!" she said frantically.

It then struck me like the proverbial ton of bricks. I had been cast in a small but significant part, but I completely forgot about it. Pushed down the long hallway toward the backstage entrance by my fellow cast member, my heart raced and my mind spun.

"[expletive deleted]!" I thought to myself. "What are my lines?"

As I passed another actor standing at the stage entrance with his script, I nabbed the dog-eared copy and grantically began leafing through looking for my lines. It was useless. As I stood in the blackness off-stage and heard the actors on the other side of the curtain already well into the first act, I realized that I was out of time. I didn't remember my lines. I had no clue what my blocking was. This was going to be ugly.

"You're on!" the actress frantically whispered, pulling the curtain back and waving me on stage.

I stepped out onto the stage. I felt the stage lights hit my face like a 2×4.

Then I woke up.

I have this "actor's nightmare" every once in a while and I never cease to wake up in a nauseating mixture of relief and terror. I'm as suceptible to procrastination as anyone. It's easy to put things off until they are completely out of mind. Like Josiah's Israel, some of the most crucial acts of obedience and ritual were such a distant memory that it took a dusty, forgotten copy of God's message to bring it back to mind.

But Josiah acted immediately. No more procrastination. No "I'll get to it later." The thought of letting someone else worry about it or waiting until later when there was "more time" had to end. When I fail to obey immediately, it's possible I may never get to it until I find myself standing and stammering idiotically under very bright lights.

I found out last night I was cast as the lead in our community theatre's next production.

I think I'll start working on my lines today.