The Audience Plays a Role.
Really? What role does the audience play? Do they have any lines? Are we talking about one of those experimental plays where audience members are dragged up on stage? Audience participation perhaps, is that what you’re talking about?
Well, kind of. In the art of storytelling, the audience does play a role, but maybe not the way you think.
Whether it is a play, a film or even a television show, the audience arrives with the preconception they are going to be told a story. For an actor, director or screenwriter, the key to keeping an audience engaged in the story you are telling, is to keep the audience wanting to know what happens next. So in understanding the audience already has the preconception a story is being told, means you understand they are constantly trying to guess what is about to happen. It is why cliffhangers work in getting an audience to return to even an average television show. They just can’t resist wanting to know what happens. They want to see if what they guessed or surmised is correct.
Which is why the great writers, directors and actors only give as little information as possible to keep the story moving forward. The audience member, in their quest to know what is about to happen, fills in the rest. Give too much information and you will lose the audience. Give too little and the story won’t make any sense.
But surely that is the job of the screenwriter and director. What does this have to do with the actor?
Screenwriters, directors, actors, lighting, set design, all aspects of a production, have a role in telling the story. An actor's job within this structure is to live truthfully under the given circumstances of the play or screenplay. Part of how you do that is how much or little you reveal to an audience while expressing the emotional truth of the character. This is why as an actor you do not play emotions. In an emotional scene, the emotions should arise from the interaction between the characters onstage. If they don’t you should not force it. An audience in this situation understands the emotions of the given circumstances (the scene, the play, the characters' circumstances). Therefore if your behaviour is truthful, even if the emotions have not arisen, the audience will have placed themselves in the situation and will sympathise and even empathise with the emotions involved.
Often actors try to do too much to make sure the audience understands what is going on. In each action they play they try to communicate their upcoming intentions (“I am only being nice to the king to gain his trust so l can betray him later”). It is as if they are giving the audience an aside, a nudge nudge, wink wink. They do not trust that an audience is “keeping up”.
Make no mistake, the real problem is not whether the audience understands what is going on (they do), it is trying to keep them one step behind.
Practicing observation skills is an important discipline for actors. Understanding human behaviour is key to the development of a character and understanding their motivation in the given circumstances of a play or film script. Not only that, it is something you can do just about anywhere for absolutely no cost.
Playwright and director David Mamet, describes character as nothing but habitual action,and that we only know a character by observing their behavior. Within the context of a play, Mamet believes that dialogue is often used to deceive, and that a character's true nature is only revealed through their actions.
Historian Will Durant, describing the philosophy of Aristotle said the famous quote “we are what we repeatedly do”. It only makes sense then for actors to practice observation. By becoming proficient observers, Actors can study the unique mannerisms, postures, and voices of people to build a "library" of behaviors to draw upon for roles.
Artistic Director / Acting Tutor - The Actors Class
