The Actor is an Athlete of the Heart

French writer/actor/critic Antonion Artaud wrote those words in 1938. Artaud worked in theatre and film, and was hugely influential as a theorist mostly through his seminal book The Theatre and Its Double. I use this quote to express why I agree with the athlete analogy – though of more than just the heart.

We go to a team sporting event to watch the athletes – not the trainers, coaches, managers, equipment staff, etc. And we go to the theatre to watch the actors. Athletes are the ones who play the game. (See what I did there?) They are not only competitive creatures, they are masters of the present. No matter what plays coaches have drawn up, the action of a team sport (the same goes for solo sports but let’s focus on a group (cast) effort). Each player needs to make choices based on how the event is unfolding before them. It’s a combination of rigorous training and repetition followed by moment-by-moment creativity and collaboration. We can tell when it looks like an athlete is doing their own thing instead of working within a team. (In basketball, hockey and football you’ll often see a coach take them off the court/ice/field for instruction before putting them back in. In baseball it’s a conversation between innings. Hmmm, I wonder why directors can’t do that during a performance…) Audiences can innately tell when an actor is seeming “to star in their own play.”

As with actors, the physical toll of stage acting - especially in large and strenuous roles - means that offstage fitness is a must. When asked what she was doing with her free time in New York City while performing on Broadway, Angela Lansbury would answer “sleep.” She was giving it her all eight shows a week and her only thought was making sure she had full energy at curtain time. 

Every physical move is part of the story. If an actor is simply taking up space onstage when they don’t have lines to speak instead of being engaged and energized, then they are as weak a link as an athlete simply going through the motions.

There has been a rise in the use of sports psychologists over the past couple of decades. Not only do they provide useful routines for professional athletes to deal with performance stress and anxiety – ask a professional actor whether they see a therapist regularly – but these sports counselors work on visualization techniques to increase focus and concentration. If one can see themselves achieving success then it’s easier to manifest. Most actors have two sets of eyes at work on stage: one is trained on their scene partners, and one is looking from the audience point of view. Actors need to be aware of how they are being received in their storytelling role. What does their body look like and how are their gestures appropriate? Are they throwing correct focus to others on the stage…as an athlete would to their teammates in a game? Every physical move is part of the story. If an actor is simply taking up space onstage when they don’t have lines to speak instead of being engaged and energized, then they are as weak a link as an athlete simply going through the motions.

The Cherry Orchard table reads
1: Claudia Coonan
2: Sam Kinsman
3: Claudia Coonan, Miranda Rose Blood and D. Scott Adams
4: Tomas Hernandez and Jerry Bradley
(Photo Credit: Donald Brenner)

Most of us in the theatre world start out as actors, even if only in grade school. Sure, some are too shy and only willing to work backstage, but in the third grade we didn’t have any other options besides playing a shepherd or a flower. (I can almost hear my eight-year-old self now, “Yes, Miss Washington, I intend to direct Les Miserables Junior and I expect full design support. I will not play an animal in your little skit.”) We hadn’t heard of Stanislavsky or the Method or Viewpoints (all acting training techniques). We only knew that we liked to perform. We liked the attention, perhaps. We liked getting laughs and applause. As we got older, if we stayed in the profession as actors then we needed more than a curtain call. We realized that our souls, imaginations and, indeed, our hearts needed the challenge.

I love actors and always will. Fortunately, unlike most athletes, actors don’t need to retire when their bodies age. They simply play different roles. They will always be our standard-bearers. And I will always follow.

Classically Yours,