In our
world of theatre, I always experience the amazing complexity of the human
brain.
I marvel at our wonderfully
complex brain, how it works and how pliable it is.
Today I
was conducting rehearsals for a one-act play I'm directing. It is an intense
play. The actress in it and I were chatting a little before we began rehearsals
and laughing about something. Then I said, OK, Let's begin. I spoke to the
actor and the actress about their characters' motivations and gave them some
character history - small incidents that I made up to help them build their
emotions on. Then I just told them to wholeheartedly put their belief in it as
their characters.
They
began rehearsing and eventually at an appropriate point in the play she began
sobbing for real, as is required. Just like that. In a matter of ten minutes.
The girl who was joking with me a little while ago was, due to her belief in
what I told her, was sobbing.
I too have
experienced this magic of make-believe as an actress.
Should we
'choose' to believe in something, it becomes real for us. We can actually
instruct our mind to surrender disbelief.
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