Close Up (Mar-Dec 1933)

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CLOSE UP 231 the basic material he must utilise still remains real emotions, his own or those he has observed or read of in other people. It may occur that in his search for material an actor may force himself to cry, perhaps ask a colleague to strike him a violent blow, in order to acquire genuine experience of anguish. But remember, this is only the raw material, these real tears or real pain are not in themselves sufficient, for the two reasons we have discussed. In the first place, the external expression of these emotions has to be theatricalised, i.e. exaggerated in a special way, to make it sufficiently expressive on the stage. Secondly the form found, both external and internal, has to be fixed for its numerous repetitions. While in the process of working on his part, an actor trying to provoke in himself a given mood or reaction to sensation can concentrate and create the necessary environment of stimuli regardless of time or space, it is impossible for him to do so during the actual performance. Consequently the stage actor has to have a special training, a capacity for creating