Hagen's topic sentence echoes one of my acting teacher's frequent statements: Start with what you identify with in the character. Start with what is the same rather than what is different. Starting with the differences means you will work to change yourself, you will work with preconceived ideas and mannerisms, when in fact you are enough.
The phrase in bold above is an oft repeated maxim in my graduate program. Hagen's chapter on the actor's self explains that philosophy well.
A person is actually many different selves. Our "self," in fact, changes with our circumstances: the people we're with, the place we're in, the clothes we wear, the event we're participating in. The actor playing Richard III may not be able to draw from an actual experience of murder, but he can identify a time in his life when his ambition was overpowering, when he wanted a part so badly he was willing to do anything. As Hagen points out, conscience only kicks in after the fact. Human beings are amazing self-justifiers. We always play the positive. You use your imagination to contact and amplify that identification.
It is necessary, Hagen says, to expand our sense of self. We must observe ourselves in different circumstances and catalogue those identifications. Not just the pleasant, but the unpleasant. Also as my teacher says, the hard part of acting is not exposing our vulnerable, sensitive side. The hard part is exposing the ugly parts: ambition, cruelty, greed. The important thing to remember is that we always act out of a pursuit of happiness and self-gratification. That will keep you playing the positive.
I need to imagine ways that students can encounter and explore various parts of themselves, safely, in the classroom. Engaging their imaginations in relation to different circumstances and relationships, to expand their behavioral palette, so they can then bring these identifications to characters.
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