There are four questions that the actor should concern them with. What? Why? and How? And Who? Are matters of production and should not be ignored, but they are not essential to the success of the actors performance.
On the other hand, these questions are vital.
The WHAT. Simply enough relates the text, the script or material you are working from. It is fixed in stone, it is respected, it is not altered to suit your inadequacies as an actor. The writer wrote something, you have to act it. I’ve lost track of the stories of rude actors not understanding this. The WHAT, the text is a fixed entity, it is your job to do something with it. Learn it perfectly, over-learn it, but keep it fresh (it is possible because I teach this method of working).
The WHY. Again, fairly simple, it’s your job as an actor to dissect the text for action. What I mean by this is that you must analyse the text until you understand enough of what is going on to make some choices. The choices that you make as an actor should be based on what you find in the script and should be evidenced there and not just an idea that you came up with. If there’s no proof, then you’re just making it up and again disrespecting the text. Once you have a very clearly articulated and practicable task to carry out on stage, as gleaned from your analysis, time acting will be more fun because you have a focus point.
Finally, the HOW. The most important, but it cannot exist without secure lines and a thougthful and evidenced analysis of the scene. The HOW is what you DO on the stage or on camera. Every moment is filled with your behaviour. It is not a character up there, it’s you, and you can pretend all you like, it’s still you that has to fill those moments with something and it’s an awful lot easy if you have a clear idea of what you’re meant to be doing up there. The HOW, the behaviour, it is the main part of the actors job and the success or failure of your role rests firmly here. Here we see self-consciousness or self awareness, tension or ease, pretending or truthfulness.. it’s all there in the moment of HOW.
The HOW reveals everything about an actor. And it’s tricky. The reason that it is so tricky is that it needs to be different every. single. time. Every take, every moment on stage or screen. Once you start to try to replay any past moment, you IMMEDIATELY through yourself back into your head, come out of the moment and begin to become false. Because yesterday’s moment or five minutes ago is GONE, you can only behave as you will in the NOW. The HOW relates to what you do, the actions you take whilst acting.
THE WHO is another vital question. The answer is NOT YOU. It’s not about you. Actors are often very selfish (not as people but as professionals) the WHO is the person or people you are acting with and this is where the WHO and the HOW (same letters different order) are uniquely bound.
Once you have established a concrete and practicable TASK, (strictly called an ESSENTIAL ACTION in Practical Aesthetics) your HOW is driven by the relationship between achieving the TASK and the WHO. What do I mean? You have a task to achieve from the WHO and all of your behaviour, every moment of the HOW is driven, lead, guided, compelled by the WHO, by the other actor you are working off.
A reminder:
THE WHAT – the text – fixed and unchanging
THE WHY – the task YOU the actor need to achieve during the scene
THE HOW – what you DO on stage or screen
THE WHO – the source for your behaviour, the other actors, the target from whom you are seeking the TASK.
