What is Spiritual Acting?
A holy theatre not only presents the invisible but also offers conditions that make its perception possible.
- Peter Brook "The Empty Space"
Spiritual Acting is the cutting-edge technique I developed for my Masters thesis. It is the synthesis of traditional methods of actor training with spiritual practices from a variety of traditions, psychology, dream work, Native American Animal Totem work, and Shadow work .
Some 2500 years ago, Socrates counseled, "Know thyself". Not just a little bit, nor just the 'good' parts. We must know ourselves fully. Accept ourselves as we are, without covering up or hiding, making excuses, or blaming others. Self-knowledge depends on truth and honesty. And we must first be honest with ourselves. We must move beyond denial of our faults and limitations, our hidden agendas, beyond judgment of others, and beyond projecting onto others our own need for inner work.
What does any of that have to do with acting and actor training? Absolutely everything! Self-awareness is at the heart of almost any spiritual discipline. It is also the heart of acting because you can't really develop the depth of listening, whether it's to your own intuition and impulses, or to another actor on stage, or to the audience, if there isn't a sense of being connected to your self. You can't read and respond in the moment without being centered, free, and aware.
Use the Force, Luke!
A great many actors think of their work as spiritual, especially when they are doing theatre.
As Edward Herrmann says: "If you’re lucky enough to have the arts as your work, you become part of the spiritual life. Actors can offer great wisdom, wisdom they’ve learned through probing the depths of emotions in performing their roles."
I define "spiritual" as awareness, consciousness. It is a universal energy that flows through all things. To be "spiritual" is to be in touch with and connected to that part of ourselves that is aware of the aliveness of this moment. Spirituality is simply about being aware – and being aware that you are aware!
Do you remember the scene in "What Dreams May Come" when Robin Williams is under the water of the lake and Cuba Gooding, Jr. asks him how he knows he exists?
Williams' character answers, " Because I have sort of a voice in my head, the part of me that thinks, that feels, that is aware that I exist at all."
Gooding's character tells him: "So if you're aware you exist, then you do. That's why you're still here."
That's the quality of awareness I'm talking about. The key is to be aware that we don’t see things as they really are, but based on how we see the world.
Spiritual Practices exist in all traditions and cultures, and assumes many forms. There are as many forms as there are individuals. The techniques are different but the goal is usually the same: to calm the mind and integrate the higher aspects of our being (higher self, Soul, Spirit) into our lower self (ego, personality, body). Postures, breathing exercises, chanting, contemplation, numerous forms of meditation, prayer, mindfulness practices, reflection, yoga, and martial arts are all forms of spiritual pratices. All spiritual practices are directly related to self-knowledge and inner transformation.
Anything can be done as a spiritual practice, including acting.
Try this the next time you are standing at your sink doing your dishes (if you have a dishwasher, indulge me and forgo using it this once). See how much awareness, attention and presence you can bring to the act of 'doing your dishes'.
Feel the water on your hands; feel the weight, texture, and size of the dish you are washing; what is the rhythm of your motions? How much awareness can you bring to something we think of as mundane?
Then go try the same process with walking up or down your stairs. What did you notice? Did you race through "doing the dishes"? Did you simply want to "get this chore done" and move on to what you'd really like to be doing? Did you have a "destination" in mind while going up or down your stairs?
There are so many "tasks" we do on auto-pilot and without, dare I say, any awareness. That is until something happens to shift our perception. Imagine how much more present we would be if we were trying to navigate our stairs on crutches!
This connection and awareness is of paramount importance as an actor. In an age that places more importance on reason and intellect than intuition and awareness, we have separated our minds from our hearts and emotions. We are far more result oriented than process driven.
In our everyday relationships with others, we aren't really present or available to them. Think about the last conversation you had. How many other tasks were you doing while talking? Were you fully present to what the other person was saying? Or were you already formulating your answer before they'd even finished talking? Were you listening to the 'surface', the words they were saying, or could you hear beneath those words to something deeper within them?
Do you do this on stage? Are you simply listening to the words your fellow actors are saying? Are you 'waiting' for them to finish so you can say your line? Or are you deeply connected and truly listening to not only the words but also what's behind and underneath them?
What motivates your own behavior in life will deeply impact how you perceive what motivates the behavior of the characters you play. Without a strong sense of self and center, our authentic self, we have no home base from which to come.
So often I have seen actors come to training or to do a show completely "in their heads". "Being in their heads" manifests in not trusting themselves, being uncomfortable, not being aware of physical habits, which becomes magnified under the stress and pressure of performance, and very unsure of their inner emotional life. It's as if they've already mapped out exactly how they will say every line, how to play the whole show. Instead of truly responding "in the moment", they are trying to "be clever" or "be funny". They have allowed their mind to dominate their acting. They've said, "here's how I'll play the character", acting "from the neck up".
As a result, their performances lack depth, insight, range, personality, and don't allow for spontaneity. It might be a passable performance, yet somehow it feels flat and empty, devoid of authenticity. Coming in with preconceived notions about the character doesn't allow the actor to explore, discover, be surprised, in order to develop a character. It
"People talk of the need to stay true to themselves, to be grounded and not get lost in a role; that’s self-knowledge. Actors regularly talk of the importance of being 'in the moment,' which in the spiritual world is the idea of being present."
When you reconnect to the essence of who you are, you can be more available as an actor. You can live more fully in the moment. You are able to act on your intuitive impulses much more freely. You are able to make stronger, more inspired choices and to take greater risks. Your characters gain depth and power. Your performances come alive!
Avatars!
When I went looking for a sub-title for this section on Native American Animal Totem work in actor training, I immediately thought of the movie, Avatar. Besides being a blockbuster movie title, it also means:
- Sanskrit avatārah, descent (of a deity) from heaven
- The incarnation of a Hindu deity, especially Vishnu, in human or animal form
- An embodiment, as of a quality or concept; an archetype
- An image representing a user in a multi-user virtual reality space
In the movie AVATAR, "the Na'vi are the only known species outside of Earth to have human-like intelligence. Although their society is essentially Neolithic, they have developed a vibrant, complex culture based on a profound spiritual connection to their moon, to one another, and to the deity they call Eywa. They are superb artisans who celebrate the interconnectedness of nature through storytelling, song, dance and crafts."
An “avatar” is any new embodiment of an old idea.
Native American Animal Totem Work is the practice of studying and learning about all life forms in the natural world. A totem is anything from the natural world that has significance for us. Totems are specific qualities, talents, and characteristics within us, whether we are consciously aware of them or not. They are symbols and forces for expression and transformation.
Native American Animal Totems are symbols of specific kinds of energy we are manifesting and aligning with in our lives. Characteristics and activities of these totems reveal much about our own innate powers and abilities as well as what we have denied or buried about ourselves. By studying the totem, we are able to call upon its archetypal energy whenever needed.
When we open up and attune to the essence of a totem we are opening up to that energy within ourselves. We can then understand more about its spiritual significance for us and what it means for our own life. Maybe it is a specific message, maybe it provides a clue as to how to solve a problem, or maybe it is showing us a particular course of action. It could be that this animal has the quality we need to develop, or some quality we are not making use of. Maybe its appearance is simply a reminder of the wonder of life. Totems are teachers that allow us to access our higher, authentic self. They are another way of connecting with our authentic self and the life force of the Universe. (Andrews, Animal-Wise, p. 18.)
Totems are traditionally called “power animals”. Power means medicine or gift to the world. Totems are also known as spirit animals, totem helpers, spirit guides and other names. There are two sides to any totem: the "calling" or light side and the "shadow" or dark side. I use the term "calling totem" because so often "power" becomes associated with "good". A "calling totem" is an aspect of self that is represented by an animal. In other words, our "calling totems" represent our strengths, our qualities of character, our power. The “shadow totem” represents some denied aspect of us. Each individual totem also has both a “calling” aspect and a “shadow” aspect, in which one aspect influences the other. Each is calling us to recognize something about ourselves.
When we deepen our relationship to ourselves, our partners, our dramatic characters, and the audience through the totem work, we increase our presence on stage. Actors can gain deeper insights into themselves and their dramatic characters by using the totem work.
Voldemort (the name that shall not be spoken)
Carl Jung coined the term shadow to mean “the dark, unlit, and repressed side of the ego complex.” Our shadow holds our denied gifts. Our persona, or ego, is who we think we are, the mask we use everyday. As with the yin/yang symbol, there can be no light without the dark. (Bly, Robert. A Little Book on the Human Shadow. p. 1.)
All nature lives in opposites: light and dark, male and female, creation and destruction, up and down, hot and cold. There is great value in this polarity because everything is made valid by its opposite. The “shadow” represents some denied aspect of us. It is a part of ourselves that we do not like and have “stuffed away” because it did not win us approval.
Our shadow operates mostly in unconscious reflex and contains our fear, anger, repressed desires and needs, dreams we threw away, past pain that has not been healed, as well as childhood conditioning. Our denied parts are gifts that we said were not good enough. Our “shadow”, then, is calling us to be present to what we have denied within us and to bring those qualities back to the light. In so doing, we reclaim the gifts our shadow holds for us.
We can think of our personalities as the living example of the Robert Louis Stevenson story Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Our persona is what we would like to be and how we wish to be seen by the world, our Dr. Jekyll. It is our psychological clothing and it mediates between our true selves and our environment. It is what we are and know about consciously. Our shadow, then, is the Mr. Hyde of our personality, that which has not entered adequately into consciousness. (Johnson, Robert A. Owning Your Shadow: Understanding the Dark Side of the Psyche. p. 3.)
Shadow work, the process of uncovering the denied aspects of our personalities, expose more layers and depth to the individual and the dramatic character. It is an integral part of totem work.
We all have a dragon inside guarding our most sacred treasures and we must come to terms with the 'shadow' side of ourselves.
An artist must have full use of his own spiritual, human material because that is the only stuff from which he can fashion a living soul for his part.
~ Constantin Stanislavsky
Every script, role, and character offers us an opportunity to confront a dynamic in our own lives and work on it night after night. If we cannot confront the shadow side of our personalities nor connect with a deeper place within ourselves, we certainly will not be able to do so in a dramatic character. Shadow work will allow you to remove blockages in your acting and your life.
The Actor as Shaman is still the role of the contemporary actor today.
Theatre was born out of ritual and the roots of acting can be found in the ancient sacred rituals of the shaman. Those rituals were performed to bring the audience and the actors into deep spiritual connection, to act out the great themes of life, and to expose the true forces within and without us that shape our world. A shaman is a spiritual conduit for a tribe, a bridge between the world of reality and the world of the spiritual, a container for Spirit.
We, as actors, let go and surrender in the moment to the desires of the character, allowing our spirit, our authentic self to guide us. This then allows a deeper connection with our partner, which allows us transformation, our partner’s transformation, and the audience’s transformation. It is the truest form of what Stanislavsky called Communion. In An Actor Prepares, a whole chapter is devoted to this term, which Stanislavsky describes as “a moment of spiritual intercourse” (see p. 209-240).
The link between the psychological, the physical, and the intuitive is spirituality. The inclusion of spiritual concepts and practices may be new to Western actor training, but they have been employed for hundreds if not thousands of years in Eastern theaters. When spiritual practices, in a non-religious way, are added to actor training, they awaken a deeper inner life in the body, minds, and spirits of actors. Joseph Chakin calls this the "presence of the actor".
To faithfully play a character, one must have faith in themselves. Faith that they can allow themselves to be surprised in the moment, that they can allow and trust in their talent and intuition, and then act on it.
Isn't that what we all want from our performances? To be and feel alive on stage? To truly connect with our fellow performers and the audience? To have those performances where we come off stage, and simply say, "Wow!"
Spiritual Acting gives the actor the tools with which to do so!
The synergism of Spiritual Acting expands, gives depth to, and enriches every other technique, tool, and method of actor training.
You can download and read a preview of my Master's thesis. It will give you an idea of what this approach is all about.
The Spiritual Actor: The power of spirituality in acting and actor training using spiritual practices and Native American Animal Totems
by Vannah, Laura K., M.A., State University of New York at Binghamton, 2008, 275 pages.
Abstract (Summary)
This thesis is an investigation into the power of spirituality in actor training through the use of Native American Animal Totems, and how that can be applied to the dramatic action of a text, specifically Chekhov's Three Sisters. In a five week workshop, five students and I explored this idea, culminating in a lecture demonstration on February 29, 2008. The students matched totems with characters, looking at how both the known (calling) and denied (shadow) aspects of a totem within us can be found in the characters of the text. We also looked at how "natural prey" totems can help in understanding the dramatic action of the play. Spirit and spirituality have a place in acting and actor training. Totem work is an effective tool for actor training. The synergism of spirituality through totem work expands, gives depth to, and enriches every other technique, tool, and method of actor training.
Preview this amazing, cutting-edge work 
I'd love to hear your thoughts, ideas, and insights after you read the preview. So send me an email or call 315-963-3820.