Chapter 2 Continued . . .

(p. 30-37)

Last time Richie briefly introduced the concept of the Memory of Emotion, but in these pages, he really gets to the meat of the idea. He starts with the story of the cucumber patch. A good example of how outside cricumstances can bring about inside feelings.

Question: Can you think of a time when outward circumstances brought about a very vivid memory or emotion for you?

For me: Certain songs bring me back to where I first heard them. The smells of certain foods especially pot roast bring me back to large family gatherings at my grandmother's house.

The Creature doubts that she has these memories since she's so young. He tells her she has:
"Plenty of them--just waiting to be awakened, just waiting for a call. And what is more, when you do awaken them, you can control them, you can make use of them, you can apply them to your craft."

He asks her to relive a time when she felt torn between two extreme emotions, and she explains the time she left her brother behind to travel abroad. As she starts to act it out, she is brought back to the place she needs to be for her challenging part. But when he asks her to continue with her speech to her mother, she stops and doesn't get the connection. He tells her she will with practice:
"Be logical. You must substitute creation for the real thing. The creation must be real, but that is the only reality that should be there. Your experience of double feeling was a fortunate accident. Through your will power and the knowledge of your craft you have organized and re-created it. It is now in your hands. Use it if your artistic sense tells you that it is relative to your problem and creates a would-be life. To imitate is wrong. To create is right."

I know I've mentioned this before, but this reminds me of my first college acting course when I was asked to play this maniacal woman who kidnapped women who were trying to get abortions. When her victim would scream and pull at the chains she had chained them to the wall with, she would kneel and pray for them. My questions to my professor were "What if I don't have anything I've experienced that fits with it? What if I choose the wrong thing?"

Basically, my poor, patient professor had to ask me a ton of questions until I landed on a bad experience I had while babysitting. The little girl made "strong willed child" seem like a chia pet! Her name was Abby, and she was quite a challenge. Her mother, Debbie, insisted that she take a nap and warned me that she normally takes naps no problem, but with babysitters, she tries everything in her power to get out of taking a nap. And oh, was she right. It started out with a sing songy tune complete with wall banging with lyrics like " I won't take a nap. I hate you. If you don't open the door and let me watch TV I'll tell my mom you hit me!" (Precoscious little rascal . . .) So, knowing the thing she really needed most was a nap, I had to try to tune her out and wait out the storm. When this clicked, our scene finally became compelling and our motivated conflict left our class spellbound.

In the midst of your scenes and monologues, there will be times when you look at a character and say "I have nothing in common with this person! How am I supposed to play this?" that's when the system comes in handy.

Let me put it this way. We've been trying to build a house with limited tools and doing a pretty good job at it! But studying and practicing the use of this system is like a Home Depot shopping spree. Imagine the possibilities . . .