The Midori Question

I have all these thoughts but they are not so organised. However, I also know that I promised to post here regularly. So in the meantime, here is a letter I wrote to the (No)rwegian Wood cast as a sort of stop-gap. I'm going to write this one up properly when I have time. 談開太極,用中文表達會更貼切, 可惜寫中文這麼慢!

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Dear cast,

I just had a minor revelation this morning. Adrian has been trying to make you do tai chi!

Josephine was expressing how it seems that Adrian and I give completely different feedback when it comes to the speed of the performance. For example, in the dress run where Adrian was very satisfied that you were taking time to sense every moment, I was going, "Well.... that's ok, but you need to pay attention to the tension and drive of each scene."

Actually, while on the surface there appears to be contradiction, I'd like to think actually it's a question of process. The more I think about it, the more I realise that Adrian and I are actually addressing the same question. Let me use tai chi as an analogy.

At its heart, tai chi is a martial art. Behind every move is an intention to defend or attack. However, the main practice of tai chi is a slow movement form. 太極的修練表面上就是有這樣矛盾. 為何要慢練? 憑這個速度去打交, 一早比人打死了!

In tai chi, the purpose of making you practice that slowly is so that you can take time to understand the process of each movement. To taste the nuance of the weight shift, the transfer of energy from earth through center through the hand to the heel of your palm where you will 發勁 . And in the same way, good acting, like tai chi, is about the actor being able to feel the nuances of each action and reaction. And that's why Adrian was continuously asking you to take time, take time. It's so that you could be conscious of every detail.

Now the tricky thing is, this process is a very grounded, deliberate practice. The challenge we had in this play is that we actually have characters who are much younger, more unstable than we generally are in life. Walter needed to make the shift from his usual grounded self to become a 19 year old. Haruka needed to make that shift to be someone more fragile and unstable. And Midori is, by nature, a very pure form of wild energy.

And so when I was saying "Wynne, great stuff" and Adrian said, "That energy was too high.. there was not enough detail.." what I was responding to was actually Wynne's energy. There's a very clear colour of Midori for me, that Wynne has in a very raw form.

Now in the process of grounding Wynne, I felt that -- argh, this is like Midori after she has been dating Toru for years, when she's sort of absorbed a Toru rhythm! So for a few days I was really pondering over this contradiction about training actors to be grounded and the fact that we actually want some characters to be ungrounded. Unlike film, where you just shoot and capture that moment, theatre seems to demand a more deliberate, consistent process.

How then, to swing between the two poles and enjoy the freefalling moments in between?

It was really on Sunday's afternoon show that I began to see the fruit of this slow, deliberate process. Wynne really nailed her performance in that show. The two things came into one in a character that was clearly Midori energy and rhythm, but with an aware actor.

Yes, this is what both Adrian and I have been looking for. Just like in tai chi, after months of slow practice you come to understand the movement, you are then able to transfer the energy very fast in the right path, because you know what you are doing. So on the occasion you do fight, intention and form are one. 拍! They will fall dead on the spot (or cough up blood exactly twelve hours after you hit them.)

In many ways, the show is still young for me, just at the age of 17 or 19. We have just begun to discover many things. Certainly, it's taught me a lot about the process of acting.

It's been a real privilege for me to see everyone take their acting to the next level. So thank you, Adrian, for giving us this playground to play in. Arigatou gozaimasu.

love,
Hofan.

反覆在當下 (太極與戲劇 i)

排練 —— 英文為 rehearsal, 有再聽一次 (re-hear)的含意；法文則為 repetition, 有反覆多次的意思。但我還是比較喜歡波蘭語的 próba。在字源上說，próba（排練）和 spróbować（嘗試）同根，反映一種重視劇場實驗探索的精神。反觀中文，「排練」一詞仿佛有安排、整理的意味。難道我們中國人相信好的戲劇是有規有矩、有條不紊的?

反覆練習的意義

起初到法國留學, 第一次聽到 repetition 這個詞時, 就覺得很奇怪. 難道在法國人眼中，排練只是不斷地「重複」演繹? 若是如此，哪裏有改進的可能？

不過，近年開始學太極，就發現不斷「重複」一些指定動作也不一定是件事。練習太極是非常奇怪的一回事，反反覆覆都是練一個套路。當然, 江南上套路千變萬化，一世都學不盡。但真正練功求精不求多, 重點是從反覆的練習過程中, 深化自己對套路的領悟。

正因為每清晨都是耍同一套動作, 才突現出一天與一天狀態的不同：這幾天睡眠不足,身體狀態差; 那個星期有演出, 精神難以集中。覺醒之後，方學到怎樣放下雜念，追求活在當下的「無極」和身心靈的純淨澄明。

對於演員, 尤其是舞台演員,「無極」的修煉是非學不可的。舞台演員不僅渴求一場無懈可擊的演出，而是每晚都要發揮出應有水平。反覆排練就是要讓演員鍛煉出穩定水準。無論白天與情人分手或和老板爭吵，晚上的表演都不容有失。演員的工作就是尋找劇場的當下。一齣豐富的劇，反複排練/演出是一個精彩的過程。演員會不斷發現一句台詞能夠包含的意思和可能性有多千變萬化，而不禁發出讚歎. 。

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畫家畢卡索(Pablo Picasso)就曾經說過： 「糟的藝術家只會複製，好的藝術家則是偷取」.讀過 Anne Bogart 的 A Director Prepares: Seven Essays on Art and Theatre (Routledge, 2001) 的朋友會認到本週的靈感是從她偷取的.