Remember the Memory

You might have noticed a few new tabs in the menu. This is for two specific reasons, and I’m pretty sure at least one can be useful to you. If you are reading this because you think I’m pretty awesome, then you will be glad to see that I am going to be slowly expanding on the blog, to share more about my experiences, what I like and what inspires me. On the other hand, if you really enjoy one part of the blog and skim through my posts to get to the good stuff, then I am making things simpler for you. I will be working on sorting out the older posts, but from now on, I will try to cover one topic per blog, and then put it in the appropriate category, so all my acting blogs will be in one place, reviews in another and so on.

And, since this one is going into the Acting category, I am going to share an important lesson that I have learnt in many classes, but still sometimes forget. Last night, my scene for Suzanna’s class was from Private Practice. Carolyne and I were playing Addison and Naomie, respectively. It was a cold read, so we didn’t have time to really get into it and develop our characters, but Suzanna reminded us to take the time to remember. I am especially bad at doing this when I know the show or movie that the scene is from, because I know the characters and don’t have to create them. Still, you have to create the memories.

For instance, if the scene has me talking about something that happened when I was 17, or the sparks that flew when I met my husband, I can’t just talk about them and maybe pause to pretend that I’m remembering. You actually have to create moments or memories in your mind, then go back and see Sam smiling and making me blush. Or, you know, whatever it is you’re supposed to be remembering.

We worked on this with Robin while I was studying at Margie Haber’s. There was a scene with so little dialogue, but every statement referred to a past experience or to someone who wasn’t there. We did this scene during the ISP, as well as when I went back a month or so later. The first time, I worked on the lines, on building a relationship with the person in front of me, and mostly just paused if ever I was talking about a past event. When I did the scene a month or so later, we did an exercise where we had to imagine things that we did that day, and create at least 3 memories that we could reference for each of the events or people we mentioned. That time, the pauses weren’t just pauses, they were actually me going to the memories I had created in my mind, so I was actually seeing the things I was talking about. The second scene was a lot stronger, you could see the feelings, and it came to life during those pauses, when we looked at each other and shared memories.

Next week I am not doing that scene, since Carolyne won’t be there, but the week after, when we film it, my goal is to actually remember the memory. I want to pause and see it, not just pretend to 😉

“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”

-Maya Angelou