Requiemforcognitivethough

I have only been truly immersed in character twice. To be honest, it somewhat frightens me. For all practicallity, for the plays that I have been in, there has been to much else I was doing to be all the way in character (I was also doing lots of set movement and acted as assistant stage manager in addition to playing principal roles).

These times have been quite unusual, and I experienced strange sensations. Sketchy memory, little to no taste, heightened perception of texture (at least that I remember extrememly well). Additionally, I felt as if I was watching myself from a third person point of view, as a bystander if you will. I also experienced mild difficulty coming out of character. Nothing extreme, but I didn't realize at one point that I was still in character.


My question is this; is there a simple way to come out of character? Is there risk involved in going this far into character? And last but not least, is there anyone else that has experienced some or all of these sensations, or am I just going insane?

Thanks for the assistance.

Thranduil

Very good an important questions you asked,

First of all .. i want to say .. those Sensations you felt while playing a Character are the Primary Target .. or should at least be the primary Target for every good Actor to achieve.

The longer and harder we work on a Role ... the more independent its Character will become within ourselves. Moreover, it will grow within us as a Second Character besides our Common-Life Personality.

An Actor must be able to keep those two Personalities apart. If he dont it could cause bad consequences. In the worst case the Rolecharacter starts to interfere in our Common Life.

An Actor should never try to identify himself with the Role .. alltough many Teachers, Actors and Would-Be-Actors try to suggest it. Thats nothing but naive. Seeking and Picking Single and Small Similarties does not mean to identify completely with a Role.

So our Common-Life Personality, has always to stay apart and besides the Rolecharacter.

There are Actors, who broke on mixing up Characters and on acting way too excessive. The most popular one would be Oskar Werner - The Genius, Probably the best Actor our World has ever seen. When he played Hamlet, the World was stunned and the famous Qoute crossed the Planet: "He doesnt play Hamlet - He is Hamlet". Oskar Werner himself said: "Theres not just Similarity - I found a Twin in Hamlet". And in the End, that kind of Acting destroyed him.

Theres something, that Chechov called the "Upper Me" .. This "Upper Me" .. this, i call it Third-Person Rational Thinking, has to stay above our Common-Life Personality and The Rolecharacter. The "Upper Me", which always aware, has to decide what Character at what Time is allowed to use our Body, which is shared by your Own Personality and your Rolecharacter(s).