The Heart as Center

Abstract

“Relax! Connect the moments and thoughts! Breathe—you’re not breathing! Will you get centered? You’re not centered! Stop forcing! Don’t hit it over the head!” In rehearsal, audition, and performance, these inner and outer voices clang and echo in the actor’s consciousness. Eventually they become: “Why are they coughing? Am I that horrible? There! Someone coughed, or rustled a program!” Unfortunately, this poisonous rumination occurs while the actor is delivering a soliloquy or monologue or living an intimate moment onstage. “You can’t imagine the orror of knowing you’re acting badly,” muses Nina in Act IV of Anton Chekhov’s The Seagull.

As an actor, no matter what my appearance, no matter what my ability to transform myself through costume and makeup, at the center will always be myself

—Constantine Stanislavski, Stanislavski and the Actor

I have mentioned before that we have many locks in our bodies. For instance, our fingers can be so locked that they do not take part in our actions. All of these locks can be opened by our understanding of the imaginary center, if it is developed until the whole body becomes free.

— Michael Chekhov, Lessons for the Professional Actor