Juries // Edward Albee // A Realization

Technically this isn't a journal entry about class, but I really wanted to include it and write about it. Today we had juries at SDSU. If you don't know what juries are, here's an explanation from the SDSU Theatre webpage itself.


"Each spring the department holds a day long event that brings six nationally renown[sic?] professionals to campus to view and critique student work. The process is unique because students show their work as collaborators in groups organized as producing units: director, designers, and cast. The productions presented vary each year. They may be plays, musicals, operas, and with the recent addition of film and television to the department, one of the three groups seen during the day, presents a film adaptation of the theatrical production. In a short talk, the director explains what he or she intended. Then the designers show models, plans, renderings, and briefly explain their work. After a short scene from the play, the jurors can see what a full production would be like and they can then discuss, critique, question, and sometimes praise the work."


This year, SDSU did "At Home at the Zoo" by Edward Albee. There were three groups, and each group performed something different. I only had the opportunity to see the first group present/ perform. I found that they were pretty good, and I was incredibly surprised when Edward Albee himself spoke. He said something so pure and true. Honestly I feel like I learned more about the theatre today than I have for all 6 years of having been a student of theatre.

He stated that we're all essentially being taught gibberish.

And I completely agree.

Acting isn't a strenuous, overcomplicated method. It's life. It's people who may or may not have existed, but are nevertheless existing on a stage in their own world. It's real. It's not this overthought, overtly long and complicated manner where you read far too much into it than you should. Life is life. Yes, there may be motivations behind actions or subtext, but it's not so complicated. It's life.

Some other great quotes (I can't guarantee that they are the exact ways he said them, however the meanings are the same.):

"If a character is symbolic, he should come on stage wearing a sign that says 'I'm symbolic and here's what I represent.'"

"Is there a power surge?" (In reference to why there was a lighting change during an indoor scene.)

"You can't direct symbolism or metaphor."

It just really put everything into perspective for me. I realized today that acting isn't some long drawn out process you have to overthink to do. It's just life. Don't overdo it. Life isn't big and showy and overtly symbolic or controlled. You don't know what's going to happen. You have to imitate real life and real life situations when acting. You... Well you just do it. Granted, you should think about it and create a new persona or individual. Someone that isn't you. But once you figure them out, you jump in and let it become second nature. Let the character take over. Don't make unnecessary movements or melodramatic ways of speaking. Life isn't a performance of unsurprising movements and words that are overtly enunciated. Life is real.