The most important class I ever took was theatre, pt. 2
“Lots of people act well, but few people talk well. This shows that talking is the more difficult of the two.” – Oscar Wilde
Wow. I was blown away by the response to that last post. I got numerous emails asking about everything from the specific exercises we did to the connection between presence and power – really insightful stuff, keep it up! Without further ado, here’s part 2.
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One of the first exercises we worked on (the 4th or 5th class) in theatre 101 really stands out in my mind, for a number of reasons. It involved walking around the room, expressionless, until we made eye-contact with another student. Once eye-contact was made you were to hold it for a time, and when the impulse struck, yell one of two possible words.
Only one catch, both students had to do it at the same time.
Why?
The point of yelling was to try and react not only at the exact instant the other person yelled, it was also to make sure we committed to our impulses.
“You have got to be kidding me,” I thought, “I’m going to spend the next 2 hours yelling at my classmates?”
As soon as we began there was trouble, particularly if the person you interacted with was attractive. The result was a disaster – disjointed yells, nervous laughter, and people breaking eye-contact everywhere.
“Enough!” My professor had seen enough. “We are going to switch the words to curse words, because right now you are still thinking about what you are going to say. Do not think. React. Be present in the moment and the impulse. Letting your impulses direct you is the sign of an actor, not the other way around.”
And then it began. Instead of “Steak” and “Beaches” we had “Fuck” and “Shit.”
Strangely enough, voices began to ring out in unison, often correct.
“Must be a fluke.”
The professor introduced a third word, and still the percentage of successful interactions continued its climb. By the end of class we had gathered in a circle where we looked around, until our eyes met another student’s, at which point the two students walked to the middle of the circle, and performed the exercise. The success rate was astonishing. I would guess, conservatively, that 70% of the time, both students would yell the same word at the same time.
What the hell happened?
Later that afternoon it began to sink in – The “thinking” was a form of judgement, brought on by fear of being “wrong.” We all wanted to be “right” so we all tried to guess what the other person would say.
The transition to the curse words was perfect, because it forced us to overcome the social taboo of saying something normally off-limits. Who cares about being wrong when you’re looking an incredibly attractive student in the eyes and yelling “Fuck” at the top of your lungs? Ironically, by creating an atmosphere that was inherently skewed (all those curse words being shouted), we were able to stop thinking and start reacting, start being present.
Moreover, it just goes to show that you are your only limit. People establish your value based on how you value yourself, how confident you are in yourself. Do you really think Lebron James stops to think about the basket he is about to sink? No. He has confidence in his impulses, and therefore has confidence in himself.
Why is this is important?
The reason talented actors are so scarce, is that those of the elite caliber have learned to let themselves deliver honest performances. They have learned to live and die by their impulses.
Does that sound like something I love? If you guessed entrepreneurship, you’re absolutely right.
And while there may be money in building a clone, or the 10 billionth of something, nothing will convince me that one of those empty pursuits is more worthy than applying yourself to a project you love built from an idea you had.
What I learned: Once you remove the fear of judgement, and substitute it for the natural inquisitiveness that lurks within, you are able to move past the arbitrary restrictions you have placed on yourself.
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going to a technical school I never had the opportunity to take such a class nor did it even occur to me that a theatre class could be so useful. Although i did hear the line the world is a stage from English 2 i never knew the deeper meaning until i read your article. this article in a way is a shock to me, after programming for so long i based many decisions on logic via heuristics to assess risk. I wish i was in that class right now but i’ll try to learn from your post as much as i can.
Thanks!
You can learn many great things in college, but NOTHING is as important as learning how to be a good person. What you learned in your theater class is worthless if you now believe it’s acceptable to use profanity in public (especially in the presence of females). Here’s another lesson for you; people of high quality do not use profanity.
Kerry,
I am unclear as to the point of your comment – I agree that it is important to be a good person, though I am not sure we are in agreement as to what constitutes a good person. Furthermore, at no point in the article do I mention that I “now believe it’s acceptable to use profanity in public.”
You go on to say, “Especially in the presence of females.” Why? What makes a female any different than a male? The idea that you feel the need to alter your behavior and manners towards a certain group based on something beyond their control (gender) leads me to wonder if you also treat people differently based on their race, religion, etc. I think we can agree that it looks to be a rather slippery slope.
I appreciate you for taking the time to read my blog post, I just hope that next time you choose to do it with your eyes open.
Brendan
Found your first post on this really interesting and sounds like a really good exercise.
Having done a similar exercise, the facial expression just before you say “fuck” is very different to the one for “shit”, and normally one person initiates the process by breathing in, the other will (consciously or unconsciously) pick up the expression and say the same word.
If I’m right, when practised without the benefit of looking at the mouth, matching performance will plummet.
Still the exercise requires close attention to another person, and that makes it valuable.
I guess it’s a good therapy for us. It seems that you can’t really move on about this class. By the way, I learned from this post that impulses of human do not really create the real us instead it is just a constant that tracks a higher level if we try to let it burst.
Hi Brendan. How I wish to experience this kind of class. Well, I’m taking up biology as my major and others that biological science is concern. I just want to know more from this. I hope to see more posts of experiences from you.
You made it so cool. I have this lesson game with my instructor when I’m in college. Really awesome, right? I can still recall what happened after this. Though, this is a little bit strange to others.