A detailed audio book produced and narrated by Vincent Bagnall of Ms Hagen's work on acting is Miss Hagen's credo, the accumulated wisdom of her years spent in intimate communion with her art. It is at once the voicing of her exacting standards for herself and those she [taught], and an explanation of the means to the end." (2 hours, 47 min)
Part 1 - The Actor
Introduction
1. Concept
11-13 Two kinds of acting: Representational - imitating a character’s behaviour. Presentational - trusts a form will result from identification with the character.
13-17 What an actor needs beside talent: All-round arts education; training and perfecting of the voice and body; a point of view about the world. Theatres must have a point of view to succeed.
17-18 It is no use wanting to be “the best” - you must do your “own best.” Value only your opinion of your acting, and that of a few trusted people.
2. Identity
24 We have an image of who we think we are, but we are more than this - we can be childish, stupid, angry, arrogant, etc. An actor must develop a full sense of his own identity.
25 You play different roles in life depending on who you’re speaking to, where you are, what you’re wearing, etc.
26 If you have to play a particular type of person and don’t think any of you is like that, you’ll only be indicating what they would do.
30-31 Read biographies and histories and put yourself in them. Don’t just look at paintings, put yourself in them.
3. Substitution
34-9 When faced with a role, you may have to find substitutions for moods, objectives, feelings, settings, history, locations, relationships, periods, etc.
43 Intangibles like colours, textures, elements of nature, music, etc. can be stimulating too.
43-4 Don’t tell others your substitutions or they’ll evaluate the source’s consequent action, rather than finding their own relationship to the action.
44-5 Make all details of place, objects, relationships, needs, obstacles, etc. particular, not general. It’s not just an ashtray - is it expensive? heavy? Where did it come from? etc.
4. Emotional Memory
46 The recall of a past emotional event in order to recreate the emotion and its physical response - sobbing, laughter, etc.
47 An emotion happens to us when we lose our reasoning control - generally we don’t want this loss of control, so it can be hard to recall the emotion.
47-9 The initial tendency is to think of an event in general to bring about the emotional response. This sometimes works but it is more reliable to find a release object - an item, sound, smell, etc. that you recall from the event, which releases the censor. One way of finding one: tell a friend the story of an unhappy event from your life. Describe the surroundings, weather, sounds, etc. One of these will release the pain anew. You can build a collection of these trigger objects.
49-50 Avoid examining experiences that you’ve never wanted to talk about - this isn’t psychotherapy!
50-51 If an emotion or object is losing its freshness, this could be because:
You are stopping to demand that you feel, because you have not made your object synonymous with the one on stage.
53-4 Sleeping and waking: Get comfy in bed, concentrate on one area of your body. Close eyes and centre them straight ahead.
55 To be hot or cold: Think of one part of your body and its sensation (eg, sticky armpit) and then think what you’d do to alleviate the sensation (eg, lift arm). In that moment of adjustment you’ll have the overall sensation.
Nausea: Think of your queasy stomach, inflate your cheeks slightly, wait for saliva, breathe deeply.
Headache: Recall a specific one in a specific spot. What do you do to ease it?
56 “It is not your responsibility to show the condition, but to have it so you believe it, and deal with it in terms of the play’s action.”
58 Research the physical conditions for things you haven’t experienced and use familiar analogues.
6. The Five Senses
60-63 Concentrate on how things look, sound, feel, etc. in real life so you can recall them accurately when needed.
8. Walking and Talking
68-70 You can’t follow a direction like “He rises” without an objective - it will feel and look false. Arthur Hopkins: “The reason for walking is destination.”
Part 2 - The Object Exercises
Introduction
81-5 She has created some exercises so that actors can practice alone, just as singers, dancers, musicians, can. Nine questions to ask yourself in order to act: