Puckett Publishing

Acting By Rote

What follows is a compendium of aphorisms and elucidations thereon that are intended to illuminate certain aspects of the craft of acting. It is not a theory text, but some (hopefully) helpful things one might keep in mind during the situation where one stumbles around a stage, and suddenly discovers that one is in a PLAY.

"The voice is often an actor's best tool."

Unless of course you are a mime. Then of course you should be shot.

"The rhythms of natural speech are not found on the stage. What is heard is something large enough and inflected enough so that it will be mistaken for natural rhythms, when the listener is several yards away."

"Modulate your voice so as to give the greatest punch to the most important phrase."

This doesn't mean that you always use a sledgehammer: change is the thing that demarcates. Volume shifts (up or down), rise and fall of pitch, silk vs. gravel: all of these and more can be used to highlight the edge of meaning.

"Diction, diction, diction. And after you've learned proper diction, more diction."

You have something to say, and each word in your speech is necessary for the meaning to be complete. If the edgesofthewordsarelost then themeaningmaygetlost.

"The hands are an actor's own worst enemy. Things that act and feel so completely natural in Real Life, become awkward gigantic paddles when you walk onto a stage."

It probably has something to do with the geometry of space-time that exists on a stage.

"If you don't know what to do with the hands, get rid of them."

When in thought, put them behind the back. Put them in your in the pockets, if they exist. Hold on to convenient furniture. Of course, you can just let them hang at the end of your arms, not doing anything. Oh yes, I forgot: that's when they feel most like boat paddles, isn't it?

"The stance should be open."

Open stance is balanced. Movements from an open stance are less awkward, and movements that terminate in an open stance come in for a landing much better. An open stance also helps open the Face to the audience, and the Face (as we mention in a little bit) is, after the Voice, the key to communicating what's happening inside Your Character.

"Never turn your back on the audience."

"Never turn your back on the audience unless you are supposed to turn your back on the audience."

That means the Director says, "Turn your back on the audience now."

"Never close your body off from the audience."

See comments above in regard to The Feet.

"Look at the person who is speaking. At least with your inner sight. Have your character give some recognition that the speaker is the one who has something to say. Especially in a crowd. It's easy for a speaker to get lost in unresponsive crowds."

Note that recognition can even consist of actively not listening, if the emotional situation warrants it. The key is to let your features and your body reflect the feelings that compose your response.

"The line of the mouth can say as much as the lines in the script."

A smile, a grin, bared teeth, grim lips, open-wide surprise, snarls, pursed lips, clenched teeth, sticking out tongue, little sucking sounds, puffed out cheeks, gagging motions, guffaw, slack-jawed surrender: Get the Picture? See the picture?

"Serenity and worry are written in the furrowed brow. Sometimes they are written by their absence."

Get in front of a mirror and do with the forehead and brows what you might try with the Mouth: Arch those eyebrows! Wrinkle that forehead! Smoothe it out!

"Beware of sleepwalking through a play. Familiarity can lead to taking the character for granted."

"Moving at the right time can amplify power. Moving at the wrong time can completely undermine it."

Don't fidget or sway during the most intense moments. Root your feet in the trees that they used to make the stage you stand upon. Granite and sequoias, power flowing up from the ultimate earth beneath. The rivets will pop out of a riveting phrase if you pull hard enough. And fluctuating in place can generate a mighty strong pull.

"Sometimes you can meander your way across the stage. But more often, you cross directly. Go where you are supposed to go, when you are supposed to go there."

"Anyone can act well. Reacting well is the hard part."

When you initiate the action, all the timing is coming from within, so it's not as diffilcult to obtain a natural flow. But when you must react, then you rely on the trigger from the outside, ie, the other actor(s). The key is finding the balance between firing too soon (telegraphing) and too late (postage due).

"Give the other actors the benefit of your remarkable ability, but do it consistently. If someone expects an action that has always been there, that person will react to it even when it is not there. This can look terribly silly to an audience."

"Never stand upstage of an actor who is speaking to you." (unless so directed)

"Clear lines of sight should be available to all paying customers."

"Memorize and speak the lines the playwright wrote. Don't paraphrase, don't eliminate, don't add. The lines say what he meant, and one can assume that he said things in just this way rather than that way for a particular, godlike reason. Tempo, phrasing, pacing, stuttering, breathing, coughing, wheezing, volume: these all come from you (and the Director). The words come from the playwright."

"There comes a time in memorizing the lines when the whole play can suddenly be seen through the wrong end of a telescope. When even an incredibly large number of lines crystallizes into a single, atomic thing. Suddenly, even Hamlet can be apprehended as a one-liner."

"The end product, the Actor that appears on the stage, is the result of a continuous compromise between everything You have ever been and everything the Character is supposed to be. In this armistice, neither side should ever completely surrender. But the character gets the definite edge."

Unless of course you are John Wayne.

"There are no stars in amateur theatre."

star, noun. A person, for whom, an audience will turn out regardless of what play is being presented.

"Get on out there for curtain calls! No matter how incredible the performance was, the audience only has so much applause, and you want to get some of the REAL stuff, and not the endurance variety."

Running and trotting to the curtain call spot are perfectly acceptable forms of locomotion.

"Let the audience applaud. You deserve it, and they don't need prompting."

Unless (God forbid) you don't deserve it. Then, of course, you must hang your head and endure what is a crypt-like silence. But perish all thoughts like this. Hell, the applause is why you do it, right?

And finally, from a mentor of Butch Sutton:

"Now that you have it perfect, change it."

Another thing Sutton (who had his own set of crosses and baggage to bear, but he taught me a lot of the craft) used to impress on us was the realization that acting is not referred to as an art, but a DISCIPLINE. It’s the Will, as well as the willingness to apply it, all the time, every moment, during the whole show. We give “focus” to other actors on stage, but unless we can make the effort to stay “internally focused”, anything we do on stage is immediately seen through by the audience. Which is always a shame, because, more than anything else, they want to go with us into That Place.

© 1999 Chuck Puckett