I’d like to begin with a story.
Long ago, back in a time before civilization as we know it,
there was a young boy and his tribe. Intrigued in the secrets of life, and the
wisdom to be found in the world, the boy became apprentice to the Tribe’s
shaman. As the boy grew older, he grew strong and handsome, wise beyond his
years. The girls of the village noticed. Now no longer the lone source of
spiritual wisdom, the lecherous Shaman grew envious of his apprentice.
One night, the Apprentice stood watch over the tribe’s
cattle, but he soon grew weary and nodded off to sleep. When he awoke, one of
the tribes precious cattle had been mauled to death by wild beasts. The
Chieftan was furious. The Shaman, however, realized this was his opportunity to
regain favor. He whispered in the Chieftan’s ear, telling cautionary tales of
the Apprentice’s hubris and growing pride. When illness began to strike, the
Shaman announced this was divine punishment for the Boy’s arrogance. He thought
he was above his sacred responsibilities, and for letting the tribe’s cattle
die, he must die in turn to appease the gods. The boy pleaded his case, it was
one mistake. He worked hard, he aided the sick, he helped as best he could. But
the Chief had been forewarned that the Boy would use trickery to try and save
himself. Tied to a stake, the young apprentice was sacrificed. A knife to the
heart, wielded by his mentor. The Shaman was once again the sole dispenser of
wisdom to the young women of the tribe.
Years, passed and the Shaman passed away. The wheel of time
turned. The boy was reborn and though he carried no memories of his past life,
he still bore the wounds of betrayal. The Shaman was reborn, as well. And again
they met and clashed. Again they perished. Again they were reborn. Lifetime
after lifetime, their rivalry continued. The Boy always bearing his hurt, the
Shaman always bearing his envy.
The end.
This is a story that has been relayed to me more times than
I’d care to hear by an individual close to me. This is the story of their past
lives. The shaman is the ever-recurring monster to this individual. The most
recent incarnation of the Shaman was their manager at their part-time job at
Lowe’s.
Ayup. Their soul-nemesis is their manager at the part-time
job they had for a 2 year chunk of their life. Soul-nemesis.
To be perfectly clear, I think it’s a load of horseshit. I
think this person has clung to the idea of Reincarnation, and uses this story
to enable their self-victimizing habits. In the course of my knowing this individual,
the Shaman has taken the form of more than one person, which seems rather
impossible, but what do I know about reincarnation. Anyways, when reading the
Artist’s Way and upon being asked to search for my own “monster” I couldn’t
help but think of this example of someone heeding that advice.
Be wary of enabling your own bad habits
Now, were I to counsel a younger peer, I would advise to
approach things on a technical level. There is no abstract concept that cannot
be broken down into some sort of underlying mechanical system, excepting willful
abstruseness. We can address emoting and
expressing emotion in acting. What are you trying to convey? How are you
attempting to convey it?
Emotions have their mechanics. Character is angry. Character
is angry because X happened. No, Character is angry because Character feels Y,
Character feels Y because X happened. A large portion of the classes and
training we take is to give us a vocabulary to address the mechanics of an
abstract artform. Are you holding tension? Where? How does that effect your
physicality? In turn how does that effect your portrayal of that character.
This line of thinking is easy to turn into a series of hypotheticals and
tangents, which really don’t address anything. Be diagnostic. Try to divide
what you perceive. Personally I try to think of acting in three realms.
Physical, Vocal, Internal. Start gauging what qualities affect you. Which is
stronger, the whisper or the scream? Is spatial tension maintained, or is it
lost? Are the motions arbitrary? The stage and screen is a contained universe,
and follows similar laws of physics. All objects have a gravitational pull
towards other objects.
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