The Stage of Reality

Acting can only reach a certain level of emotion, after that it’s just pretending. The best actors are those that can assimilate with their character and truly transform into them. Yet no matter how great an actor is the audience will know staging is upon them. Having committed what Hamlet ponders on in the play, the inmates interviewed in the podcast were able to play him in a way no other amateur actor could have ever done. What is it about having felt the true emotions Hamlet went through that allowed these inmates to perform so exceptionally?

Great actors tend to draw back into their own experiences in order to perform. They can’t jut think of crying and do it, they reminisce on a grandfather dying or on some past event that made them feel similarly.  By imitating how they felt in the past they bring these emotions on stage. The inmates were no different, they used the memories of the crimes they had committed to bring Shakespeare’s characters to life. But unlike any professional actor one could hire, the inmates had actually done it: they had hurt or killed a human being.  This knowledge empowered a group of rookie actors to deliver an incredible performance. Does an actor need to be a criminal to perform as one? The answer would clearly be no, talented actors often do so. The advantage the inmates had was they had already lived through similar experiences and they just needed to recount these. The experience change the audience’s perspective over the characters, it connects them for as soon as terrible acting disappears the story becomes real. Knowing the actors have done some of these procedures, the audience is sympathetic and immerses in the characters problem. We are able to sense the emotional struggle being performed. James Ward, an inmate interviewed in the podcast claims “I am Laertes. I am. I am” The authenticity of the inmates creates a new play, a real one. The players and the audience converge by understanding the values as real.

This unique performance reveals the true nature of acting. Emotions can not be imitated, they must be felt. The greatest performers know how to feel their characters. “Rather than close off all feeling and look tough, you have to open your vulnerable self up and withstand often cruel laughter as you try to find some authentic emotion within you” It’s about opening your heart towards the audience, holding it out in front of a room of strangers and hope they don’t rip it apart/

Acting is all about honesty. If you can fake that, you've got it made.
~ George Burns