Resolving Problems of Rehearsal and Performance


Our basic technical training equips actors to channel their talents and energies to the challenges posed by the playwright and the director in bringing a stage role to life -- to the processes of both Rehearsal and Performance on stage or screen.

Inherent in this process of going from Actor to Actor-in-Character, we will invariably encounter problems.   These "occupational hazards" arise from, first, the special needs of the play or role; second, the fellow performers;   third, the particular concept or process of the director or choreographer;   and last, the needs of designers of sets, lights and costumes, as well as of music and sound engineers.

Our technique equips the performer to provide his own creative nourishment when needed;   to accept such input and make it his own when it comes from another;   or to distinguish destructive input and filter it out when it may threaten the creative health and growth of the performer.

Maintaining a fresh performance through a long run brings additional problems. These are also addressed and diminished as we apply fresh input and bring needed new life to the stale forms that grow like weeds in repeated performances.

                                                                                                      -- Walt Witcover