Will Listen To The Actors

The key to organic communication in theatre acting is listening. In acting, listening is a generalized concept, referring to the process during which an actor receives information through all the five senses and generates with his heart the experience needed for reactions. The information collected by the five senses is the rough material for actors to produce experience. Used in ancient China as a reference to the subjective self, the character"吾", consisting of"五"and"口"which means"the five openings", describes perfectly the accepting state of the five senses. However, the raw information collected by the senses is meaningless, and requires a heart– a mind before it can become meaningful experience. Meaning"to understand"and"to realize", the character"悟", consists of a"吾"and a"心"which means heart. Thus, we can describe listening a process as from"吾"to"悟"。To gain/retrieve the ability of listening, an actor needs to clean the"blockers"which blind the senses and the heart. Self-consciousness, being overly exposed to stimulations and focusing only on the pre-meditated objects block the five senses while intentional effort of creating and reliving meanings block the mind from generating experience in a natural way. After cleaning up the obstacles, an understanding of the objects and skills of listening is necessary. The listening process is an outer-listening if the five-sense-information comes from the present outer world, and inner if one's memory. Quoted in this article, Anne Bogart and Tina Landau's"Nine physical viewpoints"is a sufficient and detailed classification of the objects of listening which helps actors develop a subconscious listening habit by applying conscious listening skills. Furthermore, listening is not only a stage skill but also a morality which an actor should always keep.