Respect for Acting

The Fourth Wall

“A fine actor forgets what’s coming.” He forgets even the next line he has learned until he needs it!

Most of you have the mistaken idea that the emotions rise upward and increase on an even curve until they reach a peak. On the contrary, our anxieties, frustrations, disappointments, angers and joys may be charted like the fever of a patient when his temperature jumps up, drops down, levels off, drops and climbs again. Leave room in your work for this. If a sudden calm settles over you, don’t judge it as wrong for your circumstances—it may precede the storm.

even know that we should give ourselves with innocence and trust to the moment and allow it to evolve into the next.

We know that we shouldn’t anticipate. We know that when we do, our actions become mechanical, and we start to concern ourselves with the outer form, and bad acting always results.