The actor is a sojourner of the human experience, insatiably curious and willing to risk, living big and feeling it all. There are no boundaries to what is possible inside the world of a person’s emotional life, hence providing a wide open playground for an actor – in our vulnerable openness – to explore, which then invites others to do the same… to feel, to wonder, to notice, to act.
We have one sole purpose on the screen or the stage, to share what we discover and to reveal openly that some sort of transformative change might occur in those who watch us work. We are observers. We don’t arrive anywhere or at anything. I guess, that no matter what we accomplish, we don’t achieve mastery, there is always something more to learn, a new revelation to uncover, a deeper place we can go. We’re on a journey, taking in all that comes, using each encounter to fine-tune our craft, so we might serve an audience. We care most about connecting with people.
We remain forever and always, open. We see our lives and work as integrated extensions of each other, existing in concert, neither one stable on its own. Actors are intense storytellers and diligent workers, always tilling the soil of the soul. Acting is not for the faint of heart. Most of our time is spent honing our skill set rather than actually putting it into paid work. The study is the work. True artists thrive in the torture of the process, every audition, every day on set, every “no”, every “almost”– an opportunity to further immerse ourselves in the understanding of the self, deepening our connection not only to the material or the character but ourselves and one another.
Now, it is commonly known that the best way to study acting is to live a full life: read, write, go to museums and concerts, talk to people we see in coffee shops, listen to music, watch films, learn a new skill, etc. Our main job that precedes what is seen on screen and on stage is to study. We study nature, people, information, and feelings. And we study it best, in a community with other actors. In our study, we are transformed.
When we work individually and in community with fellow actors who are working toward shared goals, this leads to performances of valor, of grit, of substance. With shared interests among actors, this nearly always leads to unmatched trust and ultimately the audiences who watch them.
Actors are spiritual seekers above all else. They seek to know and be deeply known… They want to uncover the depths of who they are, while also aiming to challenge audiences to do the same. They are so much more than what one sees on screen or stage, or reads about in magazines and websites… They are vessels of what it means to be human, something that can only be conveyed through the discovery of the whole self…which is the foundation of the ZBS modality.
