Shifting Perspective for a More Complete Vision
Today I watched the Ted Talk “Amy Herman: A Lesson on Looking”. I love Ted talks because they educate and inspire me. This particular talk explored how looking at art (pictures, sculptures, paintings) from a different perspective can help detectives, police, and doctors view a larger more complete picture in their practice. So how do I apply this to theater, my life, and environment?
As a director I could apply this by looking beyond what is in a scene, a relationship, and argument of the play to exploring what is not there. Why is this relationship faulty through the lens of what is it missing? What is lacking at the beginning of the play that is abundant by the end? How can a set design explore the elements of what is needed/what can be stripped away in a larger picture perspective, making it a choice rather than a budget limitation?
Performers are generally taught at the beginning of their educational pursuit that they need fill in the blanks of their character in order to create a full and complex being. They explore the “magic if” and imagine the environment they are in versus reality. How can we go further with our perspective?
Dancers work through held muscles versus release technique. Could we look into the idea of what pictures we are creating with the negative space versus the space that are bodies are using?
These are the questions I am asking and hope to apply in practice. As always, thanks to Ted Talks for expanding my perspective. Feel free to comment below regarding the questions and thoughts this has brought to the forefront of your journey on stretching our creative limits.
2 Comments
Kent Sugg
That’s the beauty of playwriting. The script itself is the tip of the iceberg. What’s on the page gives us numerous clues to what’s hidden beneath, but to uncover the essence of what the playwright, or director, or actor wishes to communicate requires perceiving from many angles and fathoming progressively deeper layers of meaning. It’s easy to be lazy by jumping at ideas that are closer to the surface, yet harder to resist that urge and dive deeper into more abstract constructs that are harder to unravel, but far more rewarding to discover.
Theater requires a flexible perspective.
Thanks, Kate, for the perspective!
admin
Thanks for the comment. I agree. We as artists have to always remember that there are still more levels and layers. And if we have completed our usual successful tasks of script analysis or creation, we shouldn’t rest but ask what could be the next level and how do we get there? We should fill the time we have because there is always more that could be done to make a production better.