Distilling and Taming the Tiger Within. Research Paper for the play, The Bundle Jack Grinhaus A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF FINE ARTS GRADUATE PROGRAM IN THEATRE: ACTING YORK UNIVERSITY, TORONTO, ONTARIO March 2009 Library and Bibliotheque et 1*1 Archives Canada Archives Canada Published Heritage Direction du Branch Patrimoine de I'edition 395 Wellington Street 395, rue Wellington Ottawa ON K1A0N4 Ottawa ON K1A0N4 Canada Canada Your file Votre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-51538-9 Our file Notre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-51538-9 NOTICE: AVIS: The author has granted a non­ L'auteur a accorde une licence non exclusive exclusive license allowing Library permettant a la Bibliotheque et Archives and Archives Canada to reproduce, Canada de reproduire, publier, archiver, publish, archive, preserve, conserve, sauvegarder, conserver, transmettre au public communicate to the public by par telecommunication ou par Plntemet, prefer, telecommunication or on the Internet, distribuer et vendre des theses partout dans loan, distribute and sell theses le monde, a des fins commerciales ou autres, worldwide, for commercial or non­ sur support microforme, papier, electronique commercial purposes, in microform, et/ou autres formats. paper, electronic and/or any other formats. The author retains copyright L'auteur conserve la propriete du droit d'auteur ownership and moral rights in et des droits moraux qui protege cette these. this thesis. Neither the thesis Ni la these ni des extraits substantiels de nor substantial extracts from it celle-ci ne doivent etre imprimes ou autrement may be printed or otherwise reproduits sans son autorisation. reproduced without the author's permission. In compliance with the Canadian Conformement a la loi canadienne Privacy Act some supporting sur la protection de la vie privee, forms may have been removed quelques formulaires secondaires from this thesis. ont ete enleves de cette these. While these forms may be included Bien que ces formulaires in the document page count, aient inclus dans la pagination, their removal does not represent il n'y aura aucun contenu manquant. any loss of content from the thesis. Canada iv Abstract The purpose of this thesis was to use the role of Tiger from Edward Bond's play, 'The Bundle', to explore my artistic challenge of 'Distillation' on which my thesis is based. Tiger is physically animalistic, monosyllabic in speech, and nearly devoid of thinking. His reactions are quick, passionate, truthful, and instinctual. His connection to his animal is exactly what I require within my own artistic challenge as I intend to work on connecting to the visceral organic actor animal in me. My Artistic challenge will be to tap into the body, externally and internally through the work, so that I can feel the world around me physically and allow the sensations to drop me deeper into the acting I do. This will hopefully yield organic release that can then guide my performance and/or rehearsal process. I realize that the intellectual work I do on a role is strong, possessing an abundance of training and knowledge in that arena of performance. But if I rely on that solely, I can come up with just that... an intellectual performance, devoid of moment to moment discovery and full body response. In the working of my artistic challenge of Distillation, I found that the work was primarily needed during the rehearsal period. It was throughout that time that I desperately needed to fight against old bad habits so that a true distillation, not in the work, but through it, could occur. Once I allowed release and ease to effect my preparation and working process, things started to really happen. Tiger required a deep bottom to both his internal and external life and that only started to show itself when I was able to connect to my own animal through deep breathing and faith in simple connection and freedom from internal-outside eye. Once I began to work in this way the process opened up, leading to some growth towards and through the performance. V To Lauren. For your inspiration and un-ending support vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Statement of Artistic Challenge 1 Research: Psychological and Sociological Factors 2 Tai Chi and Meditation... 6 Movement Workshops ...9 The Playwright 13 The Play 16 The Character 22 The Plan 25 Journal Entries ...31 Conclusion 44 Appendix A - Script Excerpt 51 Appendix B - Text Analysis 55 Works Cited 57 1 Statement of Artistic Challenge and Research Distillation is my challenge. I have not been able to consistently settle my acting work into my whole being. This is a product of 'intellectual acting' which keeps the work at a surface level, and me making decisions on things too quickly, rather than allowing the work to settle deeply into me. As Howard Barker's book, The Theatre of Catastrophe, puts it, theatre should be "a release from self rather than a moment of profound self-consciousness". My Artistic challenge will be to tap into the body, externally and internally through the work, so that I can feel the world around me physically and allow the sensations to drop me deeper into the acting I do. This will hopefully yield organic release that can then guide my performance and/or rehearsal process. I realize that the intellectual work I do on a role is strong, possessing an abundance of training and knowledge in that arena of performance. But if I rely on that solely, I can come up with just that... an intellectual performance, devoid of moment to moment discovery and full body response. I have been told to: 'slow down your thoughts', 'allow the images to drop in', 'breathe deeper into the body', 'allow the work to drop into the body' and to 'take time for the work to germinate'. I had trouble assimilating these concepts for a number of years. What I next encountered was the fear that I would lose myself in 'slowing down.' After a year of clarifying and exploring myself and my work, I now feel I have a better understanding of the issue. I believe the term that is most useful for me is not 'slowing down' but rather, 'dropping in'. 2 So the challenge, I believe, is to play against the habit. By forcing the work away from the 'safe zone area' of the mind and into the body, image and breath, I can evolve as a performer in a state of being I am currently unable to truly work in consistently. Dropping in is the distillation. It is taking the time to allow for a full discovery to occur as the entire body system goes through the experience of every moment a character lives in. (A great notion has been for me to allow the image of the text to drop into my body fully when spoken and then, sensing it drop into the audience, allowing it to then return to me to drop in once more before moving on to the next image or piece of text - Heather Davies, Grad Director, and I came up with that one and it has helped.) Distillation is my most pressing artistic challenge that may ultimately determine whether I am an actor who can evolve into a richer performer or not. This, in my view, is what I am going to attempt to figure out during the work on my thesis. Research Background: Psychological and Sociological Factors The challenge stems from various sources. One of which is that my thoughts rush at such a high rate that I am unable, at times, to drop in or feel like I have the time to drop in. When I was young my parents took me to a therapist who told them I was 'hyper' and my father put me through army-like workouts to calm me down. In 1984 Attention Deficit Disorder didn't have a name to it (Nor did it until 1994) and so 'hyper' was the best diagnosis one got. I searched and found a number of links between my own 3 personality and those of people possessing A.D.D. While doing a test from a book, I realized that many of my own traits fall into the category of people with this condition. Some interesting links between A.D.D and my personality: 1) More tenacious and persistent than most people 2) More sentimental than many 3) Fidgety when having to sit for a long time 4) Go off on tangents easily 5) Mind goes a mile a minute 6) Not only thinking outside the box but have trouble thinking inside the box 7) Offending people often without meaning to because filter on thoughts is not good 8) Family and friends complain you often interrupt before they are finished 9) Carry an anger and frustration that comes out at the drop of a hat. These are just nine of the eighty nine questions, of the one hundred and twenty eight total questions, I answered yes to in a self assessment in Delivered from Distraction. I followed this by setting up a series of appointments with specialist Dr. Spinztdel at the York University Health Centre. During that time we realized that while I did possess many attributes related to it, I did not possess A.D.D or A.D.H.D but possibly an anxiety disorder. The chief difference between the two is that a person with A.D.D does not have too many thoughts going on but rather an inability to focus the mind on any thoughts at all. Looking into types of anxieties, I found that they broke down into a number of categories.