The Generosity Factor: What Makes a Good Actor: Blog 67

Morning All!

I was on the tube earlier this week with a large case, a rather silly decision given the hustle and bustle of the London rush hour. I was perfectly able to circumnavigate the escalators and corridors slowly with this monstrosity but I have to admit that it was a bit of a pain! 

You could sometimes do with a good suit of armour to make your way into a carriage in the midst of all the pushing and shoving to get on. It always strikes me, and I know I am not alone in thinking this, that we do become slightly odd when we are travelling on the tube. Its as if we take a leave of absence from our bodies and just let them get on and survive the invasion of physical space, the loss of civility and the collapsing of our usual social norms. Except I guess these are the tube social norms!  

It strikes me that people are genuinely 'not there' but temporarily checked out. I often try to imagine the internal narratives, emotions, locations and destinations of my fellow passengers. It passes the time interestingly and often competes with the kindle. 

On Monday though, when attempting to lift the monster case down some steps, a man coming down in the other direction suddenly stopped, broke his flow and turned round and offered to go back up the stairs with my case, which was quite a way. He got it to the top, turned round, smiled and went on his way. I said thank you. This in itself is no extraordinary thing, and I know that most of us have offered this kind of small help to a stranger, and indeed been offered it in return. The thing that interests me about it though, is that it takes someone to break the personal and collective trance to even notice a middle-aged woman struggling with a monster case up a set of stairs.

People often talk about little acts of kindness, there is even a campaign I believe. But the thing is, you may just need to be awake to actually think to do them. The tube man was suddenly awake to me and in that moment of kindness we had the tiniest connection, that reminded us both I am sure that even under the extremes of the 'rat race' we can stop for a tiny moment to be human with someone else.

What has this to do with acting?  Well its about generosity. And that's of course a moveable feast. We aren't all generous all of the time. Sometimes the pressures and circumstances we live in make that difficult. But when an actor comes into rehearsal to work with other actors to create a piece, apart from being supremely talented, curious and inventive of course, generosity is the other essential ingredient.

Actors being generous on Mullered by Clifford Oliver! .. Well maybe?

Generosity makes the world of difference to creativity. I am not talking about some soft sentimental type of sycophancy, I am talking about being prepared to give yourself wholly to a process. This means giving an idea a chance to grow without shooting it down immediately. It means listening closely to other people's ideas particularly when you are not convinced they will work.Surprisingly other people have good ideas too! Its about not interrupting others  but at the same time building with them, its about the "yes and" of improvisation I talked about the other day. Its about sharing your passions and ideas in a way that they can be heard and understood by others. Its about robust criticism, giving the idea the critical attention it requires. Its about dumping and letting go of an idea because you are satisfied it won't work. It means being present to each other fully as human beings, taking the risk of being wrong and at the same time welcoming the space for something to be fully explored.

I am fortunate in that almost without exception all the actors we employ at Arc work with supreme generosity and I believe this reaps enormous rewards in the quality of what we are then able to produce. Indeed these actors continue to be long term members of our ensemble in one way or another.

Generosity is an alchemical ingredient in life - it works wonders and it sparks imagination and creativity. 

Might be fun to notice those little acts of ordinary kindness in whatever way they appear for you today.

Have a good one.