Why theatre was the most important class I ever took.

Why theatre was the most important class I ever took.(brendanpickering.com)

63 points by bpick 16 years ago | 11 comments

wallflower 16 years ago |

If you enjoyed the post, here are my lessons from improv class from a long time ago:

"People who are charming aren't afraid of failure" - Keith Johnstone

It's ok to fail, even if there is an audience paying to see you.

If you are doing an action like hula-hooping, don't talk about what you are doing.

If you are doing an action, do it with some energy. e.g. lame digging vs spirited digging a hole and throwing dirt over your shoulder.

Have a strong opinion! Don't be wishy washy.

Have a (secret) strong opinion. Don't tell the audience what it is - don't say what it is - let them try to guess it.

Lesson #1 - Stick with your offer.

On the suggestion 'purple', I went onstage as Barney and then dropped the suggestion. It would have been more effective if I was fully committed to my offer. How does this apply to pickup? Keep a strong frame.

Lesson #2 - Don't teach.

In the weird love scene with the chainsaw sculpturing, I was telling her to go over to here - the tree was here, etc. Instead, I should have been telling the audience and her how I felt about what she was doing. Lesson here - don't talk about what you're doing, talk about how it feels to be interacting/doing. This is basically what the statement of intent is based on.

Lesson #3 - Have a secret.

Maybe not as elaborate as Steve Job's marking-his-territory one but have a mystery - you don't have to tell the audience - they won't ever guess but they'll wonder.

Lesson #4 - Use freebies.

Simple humor. Beep! Beep! Funny and gets a laugh. Simple.

Lesson #5

If you don't know what the other person is doing, decide what they're doing.

Once you make it verbal/out there, the other person should agree.

Lesson #6 - Be in the moment.

The audience doesn't know when you play a game if you know what you're doing but if you look like you know what you're doing - they'll be engrossed.

cubix 16 years ago |

Have you noticed the difference between when you are feigning anger compared to when you are actually angry?

I've been meditating on this for a couple of minutes and I can't recall a time where I was pretending to be angry when I wasn't. Occasionally, I'm guilty of pretending not to be angry when I definitely am. Anger isn't the most socially acceptable emotion, anyway. What would be the motive for feigning it?

shiro 16 years ago | |

Feigning angry is one of basic but effective way to control other people (including yourself). It's so fundamental that most people do not realize they're pretending. Well, in a sense, they are angry, but it's because they subconsciously feeding their anger. In most part of daily life, true and spontaneous anger is like a spark. It fires but the next moment it's gone. It is your choice to feed fuel to keep it burning.

To make things interesting, it is sometimes layered. You feed anger, but then pretend you are not angry. Sometimes you believe you are not angry, but in fact you are, and you choose to be so.

Pretended anger is also frequently used to mask other emotions, typically fear. It is effective way to hide undesirable emotion from other person or even from yourself.

sobriquet 16 years ago | |

I see his point more as acting angry because social norms say you're supposed to, rather than you're actually feeling angry. It takes a lot for me to get truly angry, but I think I've acted out in anger before to fit in with expectations or get something I wanted.

For example, if a friend accidentally dents my car out of carelessness, I may blow up at him to convince him that he should be more careful. I'm likely not all that concerned about the dent, but just brushing it aside as no big deal doesn't do much good for either of us (or the next person he hits).

whimsy 16 years ago | | |

Surely the more expedient and effective reaction is to address it immediately, but calmly - inform the person of your grievance and implore them to alter their behavior, but do so without the anger, as that can damage your relationship.

Or is the facade of anger better?

nazgulnarsil 16 years ago |

learning about acting really is low hanging fruit for introverts interested in self-improvement.

jackchristopher 16 years ago | |

One acting concept I found fundamental important to learn was how status transactions work: http://greenlightwiki.com/improv/Status

stretchwithme 16 years ago | | |

yeah, status is very interesting. understanding how it works is real power. we actually tell each other where we think we rank and lower-status-thinking people usually submit first

unignorant 16 years ago |

Excellent point. Perhaps slightly tangential, but my advisor recently mentioned (and I agree with him) that one's presentation (spoken and written) often serves as the ultimate means of differentiation between a "good" idea and a "bad" one.

In an academic context (CS), this means that grants/papers/proposals often succeed more on the merits of the presenter (or writer) than the inherent value within an idea itself. After all, much of CS research is incremental improvements to existing work. Such papers may need a nice spin.

So perhaps undergrad CS majors (or at least, those who are grad school bound) should eschew higher level electives for a class in theatre or rhetoric...

TheAmazingIdiot 16 years ago |

I et a really strong sense of Tantra in reading this article. Tantra talks about how thinking is an enemy that will paralyze you, and that feeling and accepting your emotions will allow you to become complete.

Example: pure anger can be seen by a child, and is a beautiful thing. Pure love is also a rarity, but most cherished. Half-attempted "emotions" like thinking they're pretty but not knowing it is just incomplete.