Objectivism in Desire: a Reaction to Direction in Acting

Paul Fischer

Acting

7.8.2015

Objectivism in Desire: a Reaction to Direction in Acting

There is a break in the analysis of acting as the specificity of acting is brought into question. This is an indication of three primary objectives in obtaining “the golden key” or fundamental necessity towards social discovery by a player of the character they must develop or is necessitated in reproducing a specific set of qualities which buy, in capitalistic terminology, belief. A subdivision of the golden key, defined as wants, is created with the addition of the direction of this want to amplification and dependency on external response.

An objective is the system of wants experienced by a character; this is mentioned as a deference to Stanislavski, the famous professor of acting in the middle of the century. Different objectives in a scene are referred to as beats which are influenced in turn by individual characters, their wants. Somehow this reinforces the realism of a scene.

The focus must then move to that of the director from the actor. The director has two roles in rehearsal: persistence and persuasion. Both of these roles play into the director’s own duties, in which the objectives must be effectively painted and then execution elicited from actors or actresses by a variety of means. This is described as a quest.

The quest is predicated on a natural resistance on the behalf of the player towards assumption of a role which must be imposed upon them. Because the “actor tends to postpone choices that would cause him pain” and any departure from his normal stasis in personality is also painful, there must be a recognition that the process is by definition painful. The role of the director in persuasion is thus brought into full view. Rather than indicating or giving a representation of the character assigned, a player must be persuaded to experience the passion and inner life of their character.

Finally, duplicity in methods is tackled. There are lists of emotions, motivations, and experiences which are provided, but these are dismissed as irrelevant. By breaking these lists down to a simple necessity to fully immerse oneself in performance, the desires of the character, the duty of a director or an actor is both exposed as quite simple, and daunting. This single golden key to acting which is described as the character’s wants can be a duty which is frightening in nature.