Create. Act. Do.

To act, is to do. An action is doing. Actors must be doers. This does not mean they are not intellectuals, but a professor sitting smoking a pipe in his armoir contemplating Sonnet 134 is not conducive for the creative space. There is a season for everything. There is a time to think, and there is a time to act. It is the actors job, to take all his tools and put them to use, not be overwhelmed by the project he has before him. 

An old adage says a path is made one stone at a time. An actor cannot play the final moment of the play before the first. The actor playing Hamlet cannot carry the poisoned cup with him at the top of the play. The next line of "To be or not to be," does not exist until we say it. Acting in its essence is improv. 

Bad acting is born out of consistency. Now, that is not to say we do not deliver a great performance consistently or that we re-create our blocking every night. If every decision is already made, Hamlet is a disaster to watch. If, on the other hand, we follow the Dane through his plight, suddenly an ancient play becomes relevant. Hamlet becomes the modern man, stuck between thought and action thrust into a situation he must make a decision. 

Hamlet is the perfect man to give the players advice. Not because Shakespeare put it so eloquently, but because he speaks, albeit unintentionally, ironically. Its a long, great speech. Go read it. But, for my purposes here, the Prince of Denmark is telling the Players how to take action, how to do their job. He pushes these helpless fools into a scene that they have no idea of the consequences. And yet, his plan works, Hamlet still stilts his own action. 


I am keeping this post short and sweet because there are wings to be had, and beer to be drank. But, we must create. We cannot live out lives simply to consume. Whether its Monday Night Football or a painting, man is a doer. He is a creator. Our lives become stagnate when we cease to push ourselves to new, creative heights. Yet, every day we have the chance. Every day we improvise our way through a world, a scene. Why wait for someone else to write the play you want to see? Why wait for another actor to play the perfect Hamlet? If it sucks, so be it. Eli Manning through 20 some odd interceptions last year, but he still has two more Super Bowl rings than I do. Why wait?

---