Process is an all-purpose word, but nowhere is it more important than in the artistic community, particular with actors. We all have our processes prior to performance, some simpler than others, some more complicated.
Mine is pretty basic. I am vocalizing from the time I get up, so my voice is pretty much worked on, before I leave the house. When doing a show, I make it a point to arrive at the theater two hours till performance time. I walk through the house, stand alone on stage, soaking in the atmosphere. centering myself on the world I am in, so that I will be better able to leave the world I am in and enter the one I will be in onstage--for a time.
Then comes the transition--from my clothes to costume. And make-up. As I transfer into whatever I am playing, I lose degrees of myself--or at least consign them to the back regions of my mind--for the time being. When I am done, I sit and meditate--until others arrive. Once that happens, there is no escape from the fact that show is going to go up, and I am centered, and ready.
As I said, that is my process. Now, let us take a look at one of my favorites, Celia Keenan -Bolger, as she discusses, and shows, her transition from Celia to Laura, when she defined the role for generations, several seasons back, in "The Glass Menagerie." One thing I am not surprised about--with Celia, one secret has to do with the hair! Oh, my God! She has the most beautiful hair,darlings! I would kill to have it!
If only I could twirl my hair, into Laura's tendrils!
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