Thoughts of a Theater Student

This year, I enrolled in PETA (Philippine Educational Theater Association) Workshop Weekends to enhance my talents, or potentials, in theatrical production and performing arts. 

My first course was Theater Arts 1 which ran from July to September. In it, we learned the fundamentals of theater arts and the elements of performance. We also had classes in improvisation, music, voice, movements, among others. 

That's me on the lower right - a pregnant man giving birth

Overwhelmed with my previous experience, I enrolled in the Basic Acting course which currently runs from October to December. This course exposes us to the rudiments of acting as it painstakingly breaks down our preconceived ideas of the discipline. 

AMEN!

More than learning the technicalities of these courses, I was surprised to learn valuable life lessons as I go through them:

1. Break your routine. This is our class mantra for Theater Arts 1 and the theme for our class showcase. Every week we share the new things we tried, new food we ate, new people we met, and even new directions we took going to and from work and school. It opened us to the possibilities and realities that we ignore, or are not yet exposed to, since we are overwhelmed with our daily 'priorities.' As a training artist, I learned that one should embrace the newness in life, and now whenever things don't go as planned, I easily surrender and say, "Oh well, why not?" 

Try it! You'll be surprised at how life beautifully moves on when there is always something new.

2. Open your senses. When we started in our Basic Acting class, we would wonder why we spend an hour or two just walking around the studio and mindlessly noticing all things surrounding us. Our facilitators encourage us to open all our senses (sight, taste, hearing, touch, and smell) and use them to react to stimuli. The sense of sight is the most deceiving sense of man and as artists, we have to consciously open up all our senses to experience a thing, place, or person in all its form and being. 

3. Respond to stimuli; Go back to your primal roots. We were encouraged to walk around the studio and respond to anything and everything that elicits a reaction. We were encouraged to observe, feel, and be one with the space (within and outside our reach), the decor (from the obvious ones to the tiniest details in a fabric), the furniture (functional or not), the structure (enclosing us and outside of us), the sound (in our room, on the other room, outside of the building, produced by men and machine alike), and with our classmates (the noises we make, and the reactions we create)

Classic example: Give a child a paper and what do you think he will do? He will shake, tear, fold, eat, spit, color, write on, and crumple it. After exhausting all possibilities with the paper, the child gets bored, throws it away, and moves on to another stimulus that ignites his interest, and the process of discovery just goes on and on.

This example is related to my next learning: 

4. Don't think, just do. The creative and rational parts of the brain don't go well together in theater. One of the most common pitfalls of actors is thinking of how to do a particular exercise. We were discouraged from analyzing an exercise because the thinking process can be paralyzing. It prevents us from doing the exercise genuinely because we get concerned the performance may not go as planned. Analysis results to paralysis while spontaneity enhances creativity. It is really hard to process each instruction from our facilitators, but that is the point and the challenge of the course - to not process but experience it instead.

5. There are no wrong moves in theater, only learning curves. Whenever our facilitators ask for volunteers, we mentally leave the studio and pretend we didn't hear the invitation. It is hard doing the things you believe are correct in front of the class and be criticized that your motives and actions didn't transpire naturally. It becomes more challenging when you try to revise your actions and you get the same comments. 

Surprisingly, a friend and I realized that the more confused we get from doing the exercise, the more fulfilled we become at the end of the day. Because again, doing is learning in theater. Besides, our facilitators expect to see us make mistakes and they are there to address them. 

Honorable Mentions

6. Eat slowly. This is related to my second point. Ask yourself: When was the last time you ate a meal slowly? 

When eating, I try to listen to the sound of the utensils against my plate, with each other, on my mouth, against my food; taste each food on my plate, chew them slowly and feel their texture, appreciate their differences and what emotions they bring; observe how my plate empties as the hour passes by; and more. 

7. Walk (or when commuting, embrace traffic). Traffic doesn't bother me much now because I have learned to embrace the noise, the sound of car horns, impatient commuters, panhandlers, my sweat, my seatmates' sweaty underarm, my watch and handkerchief, and my tardiness record in the office. Theater reminded me to be in the now, be open to things I cannot change, and take the situation as it is, and see the beauty in it.

8. Don't forget to breathe properly. Tension, anxiety, and even excitement take away our chance to breathe properly. Our facilitators always stress that proper breathing (inhale through the nose, expand the stomach and don't raise the shoulders, and exhale through the mouth) is an essential skill of an actor. Having adequate air supply is crucial to the success of an actor's performance.

And even if you take out all the theater stuff I said, proper breathing lets you live well.

When I enrolled in PETA, I thought that I will learn the science and technicalities of theater and performing arts. I did and I still do. What I cherish most are the lessons that I know I can apply outside theater, in a place called real world.

My Theater Arts 1 family with our facilitators, Ate J-Mee and Kuya RB

My Basic Acting family with our mentors, Kuya Eric and Kuya Raffy