“Going There” in Class?
The other day in class an interesting question came up, one of my classmates didn’t really allow himself to experience the emotion durning a sense memory exercise. It showed in that there wasn’t anything there for his partner to read. In the discussion afterwards he told us that he didn’t go into his feelings because he knows that he can “go there” for auditions but didn’t want to experience the pain during class.
Patrick listened to him and expressed his understanding about not wanting to experience negative emotions (interestingly, while the majority of our class did choose a negative emotional moment, it was not required and my classmate could have legitimately chosen a happy/positive moment to go to). Patrick talked about the way emotions can overwhelm us and be hard to let go of once we have brought them up and how it feels better and more comfortable not to go there. He then gently suggested that we should all try the exercises at least once in class. Class being a place for learning and trying new things.
It was interesting to observe the discussion. As soon as my classmate said “I know that I can go there for auditions so I didn’t see any reason to go there now” part of me started screaming (in my head): NO NO NO!!! YOU’RE DOING IT WRONG! YOU HAVE TO PRACTICE IN CLASS OR YOU WON’T ACTUALLY BE ABLE TO GO THERE IN THE AUDITION. (Some of my inner voices are pretty dramatic). A more diplomatic (sane) portion of me suggested I pay attention to how Patrick handled this seeing as me yelling at my classmate wasn’t likely to help anyone.
It was great to watch how Patrick listened to and validated what my classmate was saying before eventually working around to saying that class was a place to try things, test them out to figure out which ones work for you. I don’t know how my classmate felt after the exchange, but I know that I would have felt fine had I been in his place. Which increases my sense that this class is a safe place to be trying new things. To be stretching myself. A safe place to learn.
I believe that practicing going into your emotions in class is vital to developing a strong craft. There are many tools and exercises to help actors access their emotions and to let go of them when they are no longer needed. Everyone has their preferences, what works for them, but the only way to find out if something works is to try it. And the only way to develop skill with a tool (get good at it) is to practice. I also know that yelling “YOU’RE WRONG” at people rarely helps them understand your point of view. I am glad I held my tongue and listened. I hope my classmates got as much as I did out of all this.
