You’ve Got To Care

For the actor…

If you want to be vulnerable to the other person, you first have to care deeply about everything they say and do to you. It all has to affect you. In many cases to wound you.

If you’re not feeling anything, go back to the relationship. Who is this person to you and why are they so important? Why do you love them? How do they make you crazy? What do you desperately want to change about them? If helpful, write out a backstory. Examine your own life for a similar relationship. And engage your imagination in every way.

Once you’ve solidified that relationship, start at the beginning of the play. Take it off the page. Read each of the other person’s lines outloud to yourself. Go slow. It’s just an exercise. Repeat the lines as many times as you want. Take everything personally. Care what they have to say. Care. Care. Care. You can’t care enough.

I guarantee you, stuff will start coming up. You’ll get cooking. Good. Use it!