Emotional Preparation

Acting is the Reality of Doing

Acting is Doing and Acting is the Reality of Doing, which is involvement. Many Actors just overlook Doing taking it for granted. Being is Emotional Preparation and Doing is putting it into action through the means of Interaction.

There are many different Type of Doings in Acting. 

KEY Quotes of this Acting Article:
“Acting is the Reality of Doing not the pretending of Doing.”
“Acting is the Reality of Doing, and, Being Base-lines the Activation of Acting!”
“Being baselines the Activation of Acting.”

Copyright 2019, 2022 Simon Blake
BEING Before DOING in acting is key!
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IMPORTANT NOTE: Acting maybe the Reality of Doing, But DOING without BEING (Emotion) will have Less Weight to the interaction. This is why Emotional Preparation Techniques are so, so important.

As Sanford Meisner said that “Acting is the Reality of Doing” it is important to realize that you cannot leave out Being from your acting work. Doing without involvement is meaningless as it has no life force without interaction. This is why later in his teaching career and life the term “inner life” was changed into “Emotional Preparation”.

The key to making your acting work great is to include the variety of doing. This directly correlates to involvement with the other Actors as well as the imaginary world you are living within. 

As much as acting is doing, acting is also being.  What you are not relaxed in participating in will cease up your own talent.  To be able to achieve the doing in acting you must achieve be relaxed enough to express what is internally inside of yourself.

Understanding that Acting is the Reality of Doing can transform an Actors career and training.  The Art of Acting is in the Reality of Doing and Involvement.

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Acting is Doing and Why it adds Reality

At its height of function Acting is Doing and Doing is the interaction or involvement with imaginary circumstances or your acting partner. As Acting involves give and take the doing of the acting work is an exchange which catapults interest into the acting work.

The interest of interaction which is brought out by Acting is Doing brings reality into function in acting. It is key as the doing and involvement spawns a reality between the Actors.

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If the Actor is talented enough to trust that Acting is Doing during their acting work, they can also build a Reality in their imaginary circumstances. This is vital to being able to sustain interest in acting.

Are you Adding Doings to your Acting? 

If you are really keen to staying in the imaginary circumstances and living out a real time experience in your work, you want to consider what you are Doing in your work that creates reality.  It is vital to establish reality in your acting and vital to participate in living out the experience when you act.  The intrigue of the audience is the engagement of the Actors participation when they Act. 

As an Actor you make prior choices to doing your scene as to what you will be doing during your scenes.  These choices are selections that ultimately have to resonate with you rather than be a completion that you must handle the task of.  

When you pick a Doing it should help you get more engaged with the entire circumstance not just the individual involvement at hand.  The involvement of the doing may distract you somewhat of involvement with others in the scene but not the degree of ignoring them.  

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How to Commit to a Doing

When you commit to a reality in your acting you want to do it with detailed attention and with follow through.  Just as a martial artist must teach themselves to follow through with their actions to have an impact so must an Actor train themselves to follow through.  Following through is more important than dramatics.  

Committing to a Doing means that the actions that you take are sincere.  Giving into the doing with sincerity will create a different outcome than if you don’t have sincerity.  Sincere doing authentic your involvement in the scene and often strengthens your connection to your acting partners.  Acting is the reality of doing which also means that by committing to that doing you will bring yourself into the reality of the imaginary circumstances even stronger. 

Types of Doings Actors can add to scenes

Completing a Task
Having a conversation about a topic. 
Needing to behave a certain way to get through to a person
Adding a behavior or a state of being (such as being drunk)
Adding an Expectation (added circumstance to the scene)
Adding an additional reason to be there 
Add a perspective that you did not have before in prior rehearsals

Overall Goal:  Involvement 

Completing a Task in Acting

Acting is the reality of doing when completing a task.  Adding to your acting the completing of a task means that you are able to find an appropriately fitting thing to include in doing while you are doing your scene. 
The Doing is not a prop but an actual event that you take part in during your scene.  The Doing of a Task does not detract you from working off your Acting relationship.

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Activities are part of the DOING in acting.

Having a conversation about a Topic

If you ever have listened or overheard parents discuss between each other how to address having a conversation with their children or child, you can apply it to how to have a conversation in a scene.  The parents will discuss all the different points that they are interested in having the child learn.  The importance of each different point is bantered between the parents with earnest care or argumentative gestures. 

In a scene your responsibility as an Actor is to be engaged and involved.  You’re doing of a conversation is an involved thing that means that you know your points within the conversations.  You also have a feeling to as why those points need to be included in the conversation.  Even when you are talking (without much more than a casual intake you still have a response to the points that matter to you.)

Why Acting is the Reality of Doing 

It is important for the Actor to commit to doings in the scene.  Rather than committing to have a scene or perform a scene the Actor can commit to the doings in the scene. 

Additionally, Actors need to commit to putting themselves into the circumstances of the scenes just like a swimmer commits to put themselves in a pool of water before swimming.  Committing to the concept that Acting is Doing means the actor is going to be affected by being in the circumstances.  

The commitment to the doing of the scene needs to be an immersive one rather than a belief orientation one.  The actors extend their beliefs, yet their participation needs to be interactive and one where they are going to get wet like a swimmer.   No swimmer is going to tell you that they are going to do the perfect strokes and not have the experience that ends up with them soaking wet or having been through the dunking of submerging in water.  No real Actor will attempt to go through an experience without personally getting affected by the circumstances they enter into.  

If the Actor commits to the doing of a scene in a way that predetermines their actions, they will likely ruin their own results.  When Actors force the doing in scenes, they ignore the event and occurrence of the scene.  Remind yourself that Acting is the Reality of Doing.  What you involve yourself with you invest interest and effort into. 

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If you are doing scenes in a way to implement them as a chore that needs to be completed, you are not allowing the underlife of the scene to exist.  Working hard in acting means that you are working hard to explore the potential happenings of a scene during your acting.  If you commit to doing a scene and only the completion of a task in a scene you will miss the reality of undercurrent if your closed to it. 

It is very true that the commitment of a Doing can bring the emotional life with it.  Once you start the motion of doing the emotion joins right with you and you find yourself energized and emotional.  Most often the if you commit to a doing and relax you will have a result that is emotionally connected.  

However, emotional life will only follow if you are flexible enough not to cut yourself off from how you feel.  If you carry an unrealistic expectation that you are expected to achieve something every single moment during your scenes you will soon realize that acting is not about that.  Results also occur when we are more Suttle and relaxed.  

Why Acting is not just Doing

The Doing has to be an intwined experience when you are Acting.  This means that you are intaking the experience at the same time you are also having the potential of being involved in Doings.  Scenes that are just a series of Doings lack.  

Often Actors jump into acting by approaching it like they are just going into motions of completion.  The reality however of Acting is that it is not the same as a dance routine.  There may be sections to a scene but failing to live within those sections without the possibilities of different outcomes takes away all the spontaneity from the life of the scene. 

Just Doing the scene isn’t being in the scene.  You must have an element of Being if you are an Actor or you will not have much of a stage or film presence.  Although Acting is the Reality of Doing the doing must come with potential directions that don’t manifest themselves.  

The last thing an Actor needs is to have the scenes they do be an execution of doing rather than a reality lived in.  

Acting is the Reality of Doing!

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Not Executing an Agenda in Acting

There are times in acting where there is a subplot that an Actor needs to be able to achieve over another Actor.  The majority of acting is not about executing subplots accept in some styles of certain television shows that don’t usually have depth (more like rumor tv shows).  

If you are an Actor who has been scripted to a subplot to undermine another Actor than you need to rely on Emotional Preparation and Daydreaming to fill in the reality.  The more you habituative the doing of undermining with that Actor the more Suttle you will be able to achieve the required action.  The more Suttle you can make the overt action the more powerful it will be on camera.  Subtleness will also layer the effect when the action occurs.  

If you take the action of always executing an agenda your humanity will suffer.  You could end up being type cast as the insensitive jerk with little human compassion which could lead to parts doing just that action.  But if you want to expand your abilities you want to work your humanity in with that component.  

Let’s assume you have the subplot of making the other in the scene look stupid over you.  You have the agenda of subplot, but this does not mean that you cannot also add feeling sorry for the other actor within the scene.  You are obligated because the script to do the subplot., yet you still can add feeling sorry for them.  This type of conflict adds humanity to the part and continues to answer that Acting is the Reality of Doing. 

Empathizing with the other actors in the scene is a doing as long as you are receiving them and what they are about.  Acting is Doing yet with sensible contrast.  If you can’t contrast, you’re doing with listening and empathetic relating than you’re not having the full effect of your talent working. 

Acting is the Reality of Doing, and, Being Base-lines the Activation of Acting.

Finding a Doing in the scene. 

If you are not finding a doing in the scene than you are not understanding or crafting your acting in all the ways that you have available.  Adding a sincerity about another Actor or giving yourself a focus is part of craft.  

Finding the doing of the scene means that you are willing to find the experience of the scene rather than making up too much to do as well.  There is a balance in acting that the Actor has to learn through understanding themselves during practice.  

Most scenes are about human interaction so being able to do the interaction, do something tangible to your reality that you are active in receiving is important.  

Acting is the Reality of Doing not the pretending of Doing.  

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Copyright 2022 Simon Blake

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