I’ve been thinking a lot lately about an old Meisner lesson…he has a number of beginning students listen to the traffic outside and count how many cars go by. This gives the students a specific activity that emphasizes how we take in information aurally, which tends to be taken for granted more than how we take in visual information. I love the emphasis Meisner puts on using all the information your senses take in order to stay in the moment.
In general, books and films are my biggest sources of inspiration when I know it’s coming time to put pen to paper – the latter for plot and character, the former for atmosphere and dialogue. For me, these are the four cornerstones of a performance text, the four elements which I can and should control. For Daddy Long Legs, BOTC had decided we wanted to do a new story outdoors – no set, no lights, no tech to speak of, really. Control was already at a high premium.