Original subtitles

Who's next,

ladies?

Thank you.

Whoa.

An actor must make his needs or her

needs

goals, wants, objectives so strong that

he or she is willing to interfere with

the other actor in order to get what he

or she needs. Interfering means getting

in their way so that what you want is

stronger than what you what they want.

Michael Sherliff.

Michael Sherliff. Very nice. Did you add

the or she? Yes, you did. I just wanted

to make sure

that we all [ __ ] knew that.

What are you going to do?

Uh, this is Helena from Deny Goodyia's

um Eclipsed.

Helena.

H E L E N A.

Helena.

That my name.

I'm not sure about my last name. I think

it's uh So, Sona or something?

I think it's So,

I have to remember all this thing now.

Where I from? Uh Buchanan. Now what I

going to do now?

What I going to do now?

He called me over. He say s all these

years I be with him he never have me sit

down. Never talk to me like a human to

human.

He said

sit down

the war over. You can go. Pack your

things and go.

All those years

I be with him. All those years

he make me leave my child in their bush.

He make it so my stomach broken so I

don't go bone no more. And he just going

to throw me away like I someone he meet

yesterday.

I scared him.

He said you can go. I don't know what go

mean. You know what going to mean? I

think I think I going to go to Morovia

or something.

Maybe I go start a business.

Maybe I go for a p.

I can go.

I'm free.

Nice.

It's a really interesting piece. Um,

tell us uh

the background.

Sure. uh Selena, she's one of like four

wives um of a like a Liberian officer um

and this is near the end of the play and

sort of like the not missionaries but

the sort of like war relief has come um

near the middle of like the Liberian War

um and it's sort of like over. The war

is over. Uh so she's been a captured

wife since she was a teenager. She's in

her 20s now. Um, and her husband has

basically told her, her captive, her

captor has basically told her she can

go, that the war is over.

Right. It's very interesting. Um,

where'd that chair go? There it is. It's

very interesting. Um,

there's a fundamental choice you make,

which I think is a very interesting

choice, but I'd like to try it a

different way now.

And I'm going to put the chair here.

And that is is that there's a kind of

energy and a kind of

attempt to

keep it away.

Right?

I'm actually kind of interested in

seeing what happens if you don't keep it

away. But if in fact she has to deal

with it and

all of that energy that you're putting

on the outside.

Sure.

I want to see what happens if you put it

on the inside. And so that the notion of

I mean how many of us are ever in a

situation where we literally simply

don't know

what to do? Like

that's what I hear is that she's faced

with someone offering her something

however he's offering it,

but the offer is you can go.

but literally having no idea what that

means or entails or

the fear of that.

Um,

I'd like to see that

not out.

Sure.

But in. So, I'm just going to ask you to

do it again. This time sit and and in a

sense, I guess, face it.

Helena.

H E L E N A

Helena.

That my name.

I'm not sure about my last name. I think

it's

So

Sona or something.

I think it's so

I have to remember all this thing now

where I from Buchanan

what I going to do now

what I going to do now

he call me over he say

sit down

all these years I be with him.

He never have me sit down.

Never talk to me like human to human.

He say, "Sit down.

The war over.

You can go.

Pack your things and go.

All these years

I be with him. All these years

he make me leave my child in the bush.

He make my stomach so broken. I no go

have children no more. And he just

control me away like I someone he meet

yesterday.

Okay. What I want you to do just stay

there.

How do you feel about him?

of how you feel about him is that he has

always

shame

and I think

play it as just found out your name that

you never knew

that someone's told you what your name

is and that's remember what your last

name is mostly

shift the power I want you to do it this

time

quietly

I'm not sure about my last name.

I think it's SA

Sona or something.

I think it's so

I have to remember this thing now

where I from be canon

what I can do now

what I can do now

he call me over he say sit down

all these years I be with him he never

have me sit down never talk to me like

human to man. He say, "Sit down. The war

over. You can go.

Pack your things and go."

All these years I be with him all these

years.

He make me leave my child in the bush.

He make it so my stomach broken so I

know God have children no more. And he

just going to throw me away like I

someone meet yesterday.

You can go pack your things and go.

I don't know what go mean.

You know what go mean?

I think I can go to Monroia.

Start a business or something.

Maybe I could go back to Buchanan and go

find my mom. Maybe they're alive.

I can go now.

I free.

Great.

Now,

we could probably all tell you why that

was different for us. Can you tell us

why it might have been different for

you? remembering that there's actually

joy in this and not just fear

that there's like a change in in it.

It's like remembering all those things

and that

and that she can it's not about where

she was, it's where she gets to go. M

the reason I gave you the notes that I

gave you and some of you may or may not

have heard

but I basically asked if this time she

did it that whatever she felt about him

and whether it was in fact fear that for

the first time the power has shifted and

now she's in power and I wanted it to be

quite quiet because I'll tell you why

there's no doubt you're very good and

there's no doubt you have a lot of

talent. Um, what I felt was that you

chose a mood

and you stayed in that mood the entire

piece when you first did it. And that's

something that you can sit down again.

That's something that is very easy to

have happen. Um, sorry, sorry. Is that

we think, oh, well, this character is

feeling this. this character's in the

middle of this [ __ ] thing and so

that's the mood they're in and I'm going

to play this whole monologue in that

mood

from beginning to end but that's not how

we behave and that's not how life is.

We constantly find ourselves shifting

and moving in a different direction and

something else reminds us of something

and then we suddenly go, you know, what

about that [ __ ] moment? And then

we're constantly and what we have to

look for in the writing is where those

clues are, where something is new,

a new idea is introduced, a new thought.

You know, there's a wonderful uh process

that I went through with a pretty

incredible acting teacher many many

years ago who had this philosophy and

it's not always right.

And that's the thing about any

school of thought or acting or

style is that it's not always right. But

it was sure interesting to work on which

was that every time we have a new idea,

we take a breath.

And if you think that way when you're

working on something that breath is what

gives us life and that we have to say

that thing and sometimes it's five

breaths in a row because we need more

air to say it and to express it.

So, it was just it's an interesting

example of and I'm not saying your mood

wasn't right. It's a good choice. But it

but the problem in terms of how we keep

an audience engaged

through a play for two hours or three

hours through a film through a scene is

we want an audience to not go, "Oh,

that's the mood they're in and that's

the mood they're staying in and that's

the mood and it never never [ __ ]

changes." What we all feel and

experience when we watch great work is

that it just keeps moving. It keeps

surprising us, keep shifting.

And so we in our work have to keep doing

that as well.