Craving connection.

 

The acting technique that have studied, that I want to continue studying and that they are teaching at The Neighbourhood Playhouse in New York is called the Meisner technique.

In the beginning of Meisner training you don’t act because you haven’t been given any imaginary circumstances to deal with. You are just you. In the beginning it is all very shallow but still interesting.

Let’s say that you are attending your first class. There are two chairs facing each other placed in front of the group. The teacher asks you to sit in one of them and one of the other students is asked to sit in the other. You look at each other. You or your partner will observe something on the surface of the other person. Let’s say you start with saying: ‘You have a blue shirt’, the other person answers with ‘I have a blue shirt’, you repeat again ‘You have a blue shirt’ and the other person gives you the same answer as before. This exercise is called repetition. It can go on for very long but my experience is that it doesn’t in the beginning because one person will soon turn his or her head towards the teacher with a face saying ‘what the hell are we doing, I am perfectly aware that I have a blue shirt’.

 

It is not about what you say to the other person; it is about how you say it, what is in your behavior and whether or not the other person can pick up the nuances in your behavior and react. Turning your head to the teacher asking what the hell is going on is also behavior and if that behavior, which right there and then is very natural and truthful, is directed toward the other person, interesting things are about to happen if you are connected with your partner.

 

Later you will forget about the blue shirt and use the you-statement when observing the other person’s behavior. It might not always be what you want it to be but you have to deal with what you get from the other person. It is a game of ping pong. You call the behavior and the other person replies. For instance you think that the other person looks sad so you say: ‘You are sad’ with a point of view whether that is caring or indifferent the other person will answer ‘I am sad’ as a reaction to what you just said. It can be that this person isn’t sad at all and in that situation most likely you will be answered with ‘I am sad?’ under text saying I don’t agree or I don’t know what you are talking about. If the other person really is sad and you have a connection this might very well open up the emotions the other person is experiencing if the reply is truthful. Can you be in the moment with the other person, keeping the connection going or do you go up in your head trying to figure out what to do leaving the other person alone?

 

In the beginning it is hard to find a truthful connection because most of us are used to going up in our heads trying to figure out what to do and how to react. When you put your focus on the other person, when you keep repeating through these situations it is beautiful to be part. It is beautiful to watch. I can’t get enough of it, I cannot name one thing that I like better than being part of this.

 

When you have experienced connection in the exercise you will start to crave it and you will feel frustrated when it is not there. You have to be patient because it takes a lot of practice to let go of your head and connect and it takes many hours of repetition before you experience it on a regular basis. It takes two to connect. 

 

 

An angel for Jacqueline