Janelle Esposito
I took two acting classes in college and discovered that I was not gifted in it at all. I had a tendency to perform rather than act. Real acting (as well as being an audience member) requires the suspension of belief we talked about in class today.
When we suspend our disbelief, we let go of our preconceptions of what is real, and accept what is presented in front of us as the only real thing, for as long as it runs. When in a scene, an actor must not be distracted by their life outside the scene- their relationships, their thoughts, their troubles, their to-do lists- they must focus on the very moment they are presently in. The scene usually involves more than one more person. This ties into Buber’s concept of “I and Thou.” ‘I’ is either ‘you’ or ‘it;’ but ‘I’ cannot exist by itself. An actor would engage the subjective ‘you’ consciousness. There no ‘its’ in a scene between two people. Actors do not simply experience, but they encounter their scene partner with a relationship involving wants and needs. Intersubjectivity, the dialogue of subjects, is required her. I and You mutually acts upon each other. Audience members also need to engage in moment by moment, to encounter the actors as subjects, rather than objects. This is akin to child make-believe games; they are present in every moment in community with each other.
My prior acting experience did not teach me about modes of connection between people, nor did I learn about the suspension of disbelief. I always believed I was playing a character. I never was a character, though.
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