Subtext

A constraint that brings any performance alive is subtext. A performer is given some information about the character being played that influences how the performer acts. We are creating layers of invisible life events, personality traits, or physical/bodily needs in the moment that are never mentioned but influence everything that the character does. So we are not providing the text, which is after all completely improvised in the moment but rather the subtext, what lies just below the surface.

When I teach I never give the performer the subtext. Instead I ask for a subtext from the audience which consists of the rest of the class. Give us a subtext for Mike, I say, something that he is experiencing in the moment or something from his life or something about him. Mike's never going to talk about this  subtext but it will inform everything that he does. How it informs what he does is not something planned but something that will 'just happen.' Hands shoot up: He has to pee really badly; he was dropped in a vat of magic potion as a child; He and his wife are breaking up after 20 years; He is still in love with his 4th grade school teacher, and so on. I pick one and ask for a subtext for any other actors who will be performing as well. Then we sit back and watch.

Subtext then becomes a powerful tool in freeing the subconscious mind and allows for powerful, original interpretations of how that subtext would shape the character being played. Often what comes through is effortless and surprising, even to the performer!

May the pulse be with you!

Abhay

Image: Freud explores the unconscious mind by One From RM.