Break a Leg

In a recent blog, my colleague Jimmy Scotch touched on the topic of different acting schools and methods.  Today I'd like to touch what I think acting is, at least in part, at its core.  From the title of the blog, I'm sure you aren't straining over the mystery of where I'm going with this.

What is acting?  It's telling a story.  To entertain, to inform, to inspire...lot's of reasons.  The story itself is the lie (when not a true story).  But a story has no intent.  The story may or may not be true, but that's just because it doesn't know any better.  It's a tool.  What does the hammer know of what it is used to pound?  We tell the stories.  We wield the hammer.

What is acting?  It's playing pretend; playing make-believe.  This is why they're called "plays".  It's putting on another person over yours to help tell your part of the story.  It's doing whatever you can to make somebody else believe whatever you're saying, whether it's actually true or not.

According to dictionary.com, a lie is defined:

If you think about it, most of what you hear and see in theater NEVER ACTUALLY HAPPENED, but the stories are presented in a way to make you believe, just for a moment, that they might be true.  They try to change what some small part of the world looks like so that they will fit better in your mind.  "Ah yes, that belongs there."

And this is where things get interesting.  Normally, people hate being lied to.  Dishonesty is frowned upon across pretty much any culture you can find on earth.  Perhaps even beyond, like the race of aliens in Galaxy Quest.  But then people come to a theater and pay to be lied to: they pay for deliberate untruths.  They want to be fooled!  And so it comes to reason that the best liars are the most popular, and are paid large sums of money to keep lying to people. 

Ok, that last bit isn't necessarily true because nobody is paying us here at Break A Leg large sums of money.  Yet.  And also, there are famous actors who, instead of really having any talent, were either really lucky, or knew the right somebody.

As a kid, I lied about almost everything, for a variety of reasons.  I lied to get out of trouble.  I lied to get attention.  I lied to get out of having to go to school.  I lied to get out of having to do any work.  lied to get candy.  I lied all the time.  I lied, I lied, I lied.

No wait!  I was ACTING!  Many people find the stage early.  I didn't bother with the stage.  Or rather, I made the world my stage and every day was rehearsal.

Now don't get me wrong: I didn't get away with everything.  I got punished a LOT.  This just pushed me to try to be a better liar as opposed to stop lying and try the truth on for a while.  This was largely because, at some point, I had been lying for so long that not even I knew what the truth was anymore.  I just knew how I wanted the world to fit me and took strides to make it so.  I once spent 5 weeks "sick" so I wouldn't have to go to school, and only went back when they threatened to hold me back a year.  And I eventually learned that the truth was a lot easier to deal with in the long run.

Unless people WANT to be lied to.

There are a couple times in my life where I look back and would really rather hadn't had the truth.  I know it's better to have the truth and live with the pain, but sometimes the whole "ignorance is bliss" thing is a really attractive option.

And now I'm an actor.  I pretend to be somebody else.  AM I that other person?  No.  But for a minute, you might think I am.  Liar!  While I am pretending to be that other person, I will tell you a bunch of stuff that happened.  Did they really?  No.  But for a minute, you think they might have.  Liar!  And when I'm pretending to be that other person and telling you all this stuff that happened I am presenting the world differently than it actually is.  Is it really like that?  No.  But for a moment, you might think it is.  Pants on fire!

I mentioned this...well, not a theory...just a point of view really, to a fellow actor of mine and she disagreed and said the point was to tell the truth of the play and the truth of the characters.  I countered that we are trying to make other people to believe that what we're saying is true.  "But I have to find the truth of the character in me so I can help other people see it," she said.  "Are you that character?" I asked. "No." "Then you're lying."  "But she lies within me."  She of course meant that the character resides or rests within her, but  we've been doing Shakespeare, so the habit of taking the meaning of a word and changing it to mean something else has become sort of habitual for us.  In this case I think the word "lies" was one that was too easily turned back on itself.

So what's the difference between the malicious lie done ultimately for personal gain, the little white lie that saves somebody else from hurt, and the grand lie that makes the world seem just for a moment like a different place?

I don't know...I'm still thinking about it.  I think one major thing is this:  The first kind - the greedy kind - is destructive.  They break down trust and make it much harder for anyone to get anything useful done.  I point to our current government officials and let the results of their actions speak for themselves.  The second - seemingly altruistic - are usually harder to recover from when the truth is found.  This again leads to a breakdown of trust, but usually on a much more intimate and personal scale.

The third - change the way you see the world...usually, as related to theater, this is a good thing.  The lies; the stories we tell, are usually meant to encourage and inspire, and for about two hours at a time, make everybody forget about the other kinds of lies, because we know these are not true.  And when the lie is done being told, we can generally have a good laugh about it.  Or, like me after I saw Finding Neverland for the first time, a good cry.  They remind us of the emotions that we may not get to use on a daily basis, and let us bring them out for a bit of an airing.  We have such a wide panoply of emotion that if we were to experience them all the time, we'd go friggin' crazy.  But experienced in moderation is good for getting a little perspective on things.

Happy Jenday!