More than just Acting
December 12 marked our final Actor/Director Lab class for the year. In the third part of our series on this unique class, apprentice Katherine Nelson reflects on her experience.
There wasn’t enough room in the theatre itself for all thirty-two of us in Actor/Director Lab to stretch within eyesight of Michelle, one of the instructors, so we were running, down the block and to the corner and back the same way. After a few moments, I hardly notice the brisk air, and instead hear our footsteps hard on the pavement, and feel my heart echoing their thudding. When I pass the halfway point, I suddenly realize how long this simple stretch of road actually seems. Then, a faster class member runs by and high-fives each of us, and through that and the smile we share, I have a burst of energy to keep going. I run.
I sit at the table onstage, completely focused on building a house of cards. My first few tries kept falling over, but I learned to reinforce the tents with additional cards, and now slowly but steadily am working my way along the second story. My mother sits and tries to help me, and I speak a few lines, while grabbing a card from her hand to use instead of mine, and inching my chair away to have some space between her and my aunt’s arguing. Real life and real people, but lived on a stage speaking words of a play, and finally the scene ends and we step back into our selves as Guy and the class discuss our work.
Eyes calmly closed, we stand in a circle, breathing in and out, focusing both on our own breath and the breath of the others around us. Even if I weren’t holding hands with those beside me, I would be able to sense their presences; feeling their hands in mine only strengthens that bond. I take a moment to relish in the commitment, trust, and unity, all of which remains as we drop hands. When Michelle places a blindfold around my eyes and sends me into the center, I feel the breath of my classmates and sense their presences. I walk slowly with my arms relaxed at my sides in what I think is a circle. For a moment, I suddenly worry that I am alone, the only one, and everyone else has gone – and then I sense another person blindly wandering and wholly trusting alongside me. I breathe in relief, and accept support and love. My classmates will not let me fall, nor will they let me come to harm.
Simple exercises: running, a shared activity, breathing, standing. And yet within these seemingly simple things, I continually discover more about myself and the people and world around me. I learn not only how to be a better actor, but how to love and breathe life into those I encounter, and how to accept the trust they will provide. I see into other people – and let them see into me. Both can be exceedingly difficult, but through this class, I learn to take those steps into and out of myself, and find the freedom to do so.