“To paint with a finer brush”, that was something that my acting teacher constantly told us in class. Explore the minute detail in something small and seemingly insignificant, and make it huge for you. For example, imagine the feel of a blanket that you got when you were a child and see if that brings up any dormant emotions, or think about shaving cream on your skin and how your pours react to it, one could concentrate on the joint of their little finger and feel how it reacts with the surrounding tendons. Now, the lights are up and curtain is drawn so. . . walk on stage and perform!
There is infinite power in the stillness that is produced from heightened concentration in a performer, as the mind is still and blank, the eyes are therefore relaxed the breathing regulated and the person is ultimately calm. The senses are heightened, reactions became honest and the viewer is able to fill in the action void with their own take on what the character is thinking and will eventually do. In relation to the points addressed in Daniel’s lecture, dust seems small and insignificant, however, if one thinks about it, dust holds many things; fibres of fabric, microscopic organisms, flakes of skin, hair, tiny minerals… and if you keep thinking about it, what shape are they? Are they spherical, slate shape, crystal shape, spiky? The variations are immeasurable! So, according to my teacher, after several hours of this sort of heightened concentration, you are now unshakable in front of a camera or a large audience. Having witnessed and experienced this for myself, I have developed a new sensitively for the power of insignificant detritus.
The dust can make you sneeze, the dust can impel you to wipe it off the bookshelf once in a while, but it can also turn a performance inside out and back to front and leave viewers spellbound.