When I was thinking of what to write about this week, the idea came first and the title came immediately afterwards. Then it struck me that the title covers two separate but equally important topics. Here’s the first, but don’t be surprised if the the same title appears next week. Maybe something like Simple Isn’t Easy².
Unlike with many other teachers, when a person joins one of our classes scene choice is left up to the student. Learning to make suitable choices is part of the process of learning who you are on stage. It’s not that you are being limited and constrained (some might even say condemned) to only playing yourself, but that is the basis from which all other levels of work grow. Until each actor masters the skills necessary to play from oneself, it is exceedingly difficult to transform into a character that is very different. For this purpose each actor is asked to choose “simple scenes” to work on.
Guidelines are provided that define the structure of a “simple scene”. Even before Lee Strasberg and Karl Schaeffer founded The Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute, Lee repeated the elements contained in a simple scene over and over again in almost every class. Still, students brought in scenes that they “really liked” or “always wanted to work on” or “that would make me stretch as an actor” instead of looking for scenes that addressed the elements of craft that Lee was teaching.
As a result of this repeating problem, one of Lee’s most advanced students, Ed Kovens, actually wrote out the definition and structure of a “simple scene” and showed it to Lee. Ed was also one of the first people that Lee asked to teach for him when The Institute was created. Lee was pleased with Ed’s work and asked for permission to print it and distribute it to all of the students. Ed never thought to take credit for this because he “only wrote down what Lee had been repeating in his classes over and over again”. What, then, is a “simple scene”, and why is it an important part of our training?
To begin with, “simple” does not imply “easy”. It truly refers to the structure of a scene rather than the degree of difficulty in achieving it. I will take the elements in this type of scene and describe them and why they are important step by step. Here comes the disclaimer. To go into sufficient detail would take at least one full chapter in a book instead of a blog, but here goes.
“It must be a scene that an actor can play as him/herself. A scene that does not call for heavy characterization”. This will free up the actor’s concentration so that it is more available for the other tasks that must be practiced and mastered before expanding into playing people very different than oneself. It calls for the actor to place him/herself into the imaginary circumstances, and to play it truthfully from that perspective. It also increases the chances that each actor will succeed at each effort more quickly. This will automatically lead to each actor’s feelings of accomplishment; a necessary element for growth.
“It must have a clear line of physical activity that can be discovered by asking the question, ‘what would I be doing here if this scene did not take place’?”. All scenes address this in one way or another. Sometimes the answer is that the character is thinking of something else entirely. But in a “simple scene” this is always a physical activity NOT a purely mental activity. This enables the actor to remain aware if his/her instrument during performance and to correct any technical issues that come up. For example, if as s/he reaches for the dishrag while doing the dishes, there is too much effort in the action (tension), s/he can make an adjustment without disrupting the scene or the acting. It is also an additional opportunity for expression. As I like to tell my students, “some mornings I scramble eggs (gently), and some mornings I scramble eggs (vigorously). It depends on what is going on in my house”. Very importantly, it is also a recognition that people don’t only come together to verbally express themselves. Most of us generally are doing something else while we talk about important things.
“A ‘simple scene’ does not call for intensity, nor intense reaction, nor have a high emotional content, such as learning that someone just died, or your character is contemplating suicide, or having a mental breakdown”. This doesn’t mean that the actor must not get emotional in a scene. It means that there is no demand for the actor to fulfill an emotional moment. It allows each actor to discover that acting is not about emotion, but rather, it is about truth telling.
Of course there are more elements to any scene than those already mentioned and these are listed in the the full description, but these three are the defining demands in a “simple scene”. Lee Strasberg demanded that all actors studying with him, no matter the degree of prior experience or success, keep to this structure until asked to look for different characters and forms. This was to ensure that each actor’s skills were up to the tasks at hand. He illustrated this need by telling us, “of a person who so loved the Chopin sonatas that s/he goes to a master teacher and says, ‘Maestro, I want to learn to play the Chopin sonatas. Please teach them to me. The teacher happily agrees but first wants to hear the student play scales and etudes in order to gauge his/her ability. When the student replies that s/he doesn’t yet know how to play the piano, the teacher says ‘we will get to the sonatas all in good time. Let’s first learn how to play the instrument thoroughly'”.