The #1 Asset a Performer Has Is ______?

Acting for Singers: Day 1, Topic 4

How would you finish the sentence above? What do your actions say the end of this sentence is? What do you think your most important asset is? Do you agree with the answer that comes to mind? Is it an answer you think someone else would think is the correct answer? Let me share with you what my answer would be and why.

Imagination

Imagination is what makes an artist an artist. It’s what makes it so the same opera can be performed for hundreds of years but still be as relevant and fresh as it was the first time. For me, without imagination, there isn’t much value for the performance besides being background music; and even so, it wouldn’t be notable. Also, as a stage director trying to work with a performer who hasn’t nurtured their imagination and isn’t prepared to use their imagination, but is instead waiting for me to feed them everything, it’s a drag! It wastes time, sucks the energy from a rehearsal, and keeps production from reaching its potential. However, this great potential does happen when each artist contributes to the overall product that couldn’t happen by one imagination alone.

The Role of an Artist

One of the traditional roles associated with artists is to be a person that uniquely sees the world or is more sensitive than the average person. It doesn’t mean the average person can’t become an artist. I believe anyone, in some way, can develop an artistic mindset. The challenge is unlocking and honing your observational skills and expressing the truths you find. You must do this while being authentic to who you are as an individual. This means being more concerned with asking questions and exploring possibilities, than setting definitions and limits. It means being vulnerable and sharing your discoveries with the world. This role and what it means is a theoretical discussion that can go on endlessly. The hope is that through this course you will become a more sensitive, deliberate, and expressive artist, not just a technician.

Training an Artist vs. Training a Technician.

First, there is nothing wrong with being a technician. The technique behind art can be a valuable aspect of unlocking expressive potential. However, the ultimate goal of becoming an artist versus becoming a technician seems to alter the training process. The overly simplified way of describing this difference is that with an artist, the teaching goal is usually to facilitate someone learning to think independently. Oppositely, a technician is trained to do what they are told.

In this course, a good deal of what we will discuss will be technique-oriented. The techniques have the end goal of helping you to unlock your imagination and body. You will be gaining tools that will allow you to express your unique perspective of the world. As you start to apply the techniques, if they seem strange, odd, or limiting, I ask you to give them a diligent try. Often something can feel weird or wrong simply because it isn’t a habit yet. Watch videos and compare your performances between when you do what is suggested and when you don’t. You will find that with time and practice, the principles and techniques you are taught in this course will free you to become an artist who is technically proficient and artistically engaging.

Would You Rather Have a Blank Stage or a Fully Realistic Stage?

I was asked this question by my directing mentor when I started graduate school, “Would you rather have a blank stage with a single light bulb or a fully realistic stage with all the bells and whistles?” The set with more impressive production values seemed to be the obvious choice to me. What would you choose?

Over the coming years, he convinced me to believe that each added physical element on-stage took away that much more freedom to utilize imagination by both the performing artist and the audience. The mind can come up with things that are much more wonderful and much more terrible than anything real. A blank stage is a blank canvas where the artist is free to imagine anything, and so is the audience. With imagination, you don’t need anything beyond a performer, a light source, and an audience. Conversely, you could have a spectacular set, but if the performer doesn’t have an imagination, the audience will be impressed for five minutes by the set and bored the rest of the time by the performer.

So Is It Either You Have It or You Don’t? If I Don’t Have an Imagination, Should I Just Quit?

Everyone who functions in society is born with imagination, but most of us learn to lock it away behind very tall walls. The question isn’t one of imagination, but of what you need to do to unlock it, nurture it, and build the confidence to show it to the world. Stop letting others tell you that you don’t have an imagination or that you aren’t creative. Stop telling that to yourself too. Let’s get to work in helping you rediscover what has always been there!

Assignments:

Writing Assignment 0: Choose your performance projects

Writing Assignment 1: Marked Up Score 1.0

Writing Assignment 3: The “Who am I” Paper 1.0

Links to other articles in Acting 101 for Singers Day 1

Topic 5: Where am I? Who am I?

Topic 6: Boxes – What does the Music Have to Say About Dramatic Change?

Topic 7: Lines – It’s about stress!

Topic 8: Arrows – Pinning Down Where Ideas Shift

Topic 9: Circles – Finding the music that we have to move to

Topic 10: Where does imagination come from?