The Moment Before

Today, in Actor's Lab, we learned about the "moment before" and did some exercises to practice it. In our groups of two, we had to perform the first line or two of the scene given following five seconds of a "moment before" that we had to make up for ourselves to fit the scene.

Now, five seconds may not be much, but it sure sparked a great amount of discussion between Ms. Nerken and I about the character I was playing... What does he want during the whole scene? He wants to relax and see others relaxed. Why does he want to relax? He's had a stressful week of work. So if he's relaxing, what might he be wearing? Tennis shoes, a t-shirt, maybe cargo shorts... Well why does he confront Anne, a complete stranger, about her negativity? Maybe his manager is the same way. He feels he cannot confront him about this, so he shares his thoughts with someone less intimidating, even if it is a stranger.

It was a very exciting two hours, I must say, and I learned a great deal from it!

Quote:

"The best part of acting is the part that cannot be explained." - John Tyrell - Meisner Teacher