CRAFT & SPIRIT

CRAFT AND SPIRIT

Concentration

Three hours before a show, maybe more, it’s quiet. None of the rest of the cast is here yet, a stage manager and a few of the tech team work backstage and in the booth. As the actor, this is the time to solidify your concentration. This is where everything must be ready. Your props, costumes, and makeup are all in place. Stretches into deeper stretches, physical warmups, breath work to increase blood flow and blood oxygen levels, vocal warmups and exercises, everything to prepare for the coming event. At around 7:30 pm, you’ll begin your show, and that story will not stop until its conclusion. Your entire concentration is required to shape the entirety of the story that’s being put onto stage and communicated with an audience.

In Chekhov’s Lessons for Teachers, his words have been transcribed by his assistant. Chekhov was preparing her and another in the spring of 1936 to assist him with teaching a group of students the following October. These are lessons for teachers. The very first lesson prioritized teaching concentration.

Concentration is described as a “nearness” in the book, I like to think about it as “visiting.” The more you visit, the more you stand to gain from an idea, a certain work, or a character. This begs the question: How could you ever expect an audience member to give their complete concentration to a 2-3 hour long story if you have only visited the ideas of the script enough to learn the lines?

There is an energy that is given to an idea every time an individual concentrates on it.

Without concentration, anyone will be lost in your story. You’ll hardly know what it is that you’re trying to say on stage. A cough in the audience could take you out of a scene if you haven’t spent the time developing the very reason you’re on stage. One cough pulling you out of concentration leads to five audience members shifting uncomfortably having noted your lost concentration.

Who cares if a phone goes off or a person drops their aggressively heavy water bottle, and it rolls down seven rows of seats? Especially when you, as an actor, are so concentrated on the given circumstances and the very reason you’re telling this story in the first place. Anything could happen, but what matters most is the story. How do you make sure it matters above all things? Concentration is the start.

There are two types of concentration “First when one picks up a beautiful object, one notices it and is, therefore, concentrating unwittingly. Second, when one picks up something unattractive and then forces oneself to notice it, that is at once a conscious, willed concentration, and this is what we are interested in.” (Chekhov Lessons for Teachers). This is what we are training.

Concentration could also be equated to focus, and that’s why I’ll share these resources with you.

The battle for attention has produced more and more attractive enemies. Smart phones, smart watches, dings, beeps, Tiktok, Instagram, X, Facebook, and more. There’s a million different things competing for your attention. All that truly matters is the presence and the nearness of the moment. Visiting the idea once again and spending time.