On Performative Art, Otherness and Gift
Summary (author plus Leo AI)
This fragment express the concept of “otherness” in the context of performative art, specifically improvisation. It emphasizes the importance of doing performances for others, rather than for oneself, and how this practice can lead to a more authentic and joyful performance, leading to a sense of healing and fulfilment.
Fragment
When you act, even in class or rehearsing a show, you're not doing it for yourself. In fact, you're doing it for someone else, the otherness — alterity. Alter in Latin means the other of something, nowadays usually in reference to the ego in the expression 'alter ego'. Even if you don't feel like it, you have to perform because it's not about you. In this sense, art makes you boundless, it pushes the boundaries of your ego and forces you to do something for others, unconsciously though. In fact, actors need not think at all. This dynamic can be explained by a specific field of acting: improvisation. Impro theatre has its own place in the acting discipline, and the simplest way to describe it is: acting without script. So, if you're thinking “Now I do this and that in stage”, it's over. You are in your head. You have lost the plot, which is in fieri on stage. Moreover, you have also lost the connection to your acting partners. Then you're completely stuck. What will you do? It doesn't matter: do it. Ideas are useless, action is all you need. Connected action. You have to be present in the moment. You must feel the other that resides in your partner and the other in the director's view. Nonetheless, at the end, the crucial absent-on-scene other is the audience. For whom you're acting. Without being on stage, the audience exerts a decisive influence. The audience is not only the sum of the people who could and who are watching you, the audience is first and foremost the thought. The same thought that you did not bring with you to the stage is the first audience, judge, and enjoyer, all at the same time. Impro is the play of disconnecting your mind from your body to reconnect it in the form of art.
The only way to manage Impro is not to think, you must play!
For the purpose of the play, if you make the effort and give 100% on stage, it will be worth it every time. Because you're doing it for others, not for yourself. Acting is a gift. The performance is the gift. Then, all of a sudden something happens. The effort you put into acting becomes beneficial to you. You feel healed and joyful. Create art and make it a gift!