Arrival in Toga

I arrived yesterday in snow-bound Toga to begin my work assisting Suzuki for the tour of Dionysus, a piece he has been working on for over 20 years. This was in fact the first piece of his I actually saw, which opened up the Mito theatre in 1990.

When I arrived Suzuki was in the middle of a long lecture to one of the senior actors performing in Dionysus. The actor in question has been working with Suzuki for over 30 years, and the focus of Suzuki's discussion was on the problems this actor had with sustaining a level of creativity over this career. The problems began when Suzuki asked him to explain the problems he was having. The actor reponded that he was focusing on correcting the faults in his performance. Since this response, Suzuki has spent the last few days returning over and over to the problem of having a "Fault Focus" versus having a "Goal Focus".

Like an athlete, an actor must have a goal focus. Both baseball and soccer provide good examples to actors of how they can develop their concentration. The objective in soccer is obviously to put the ball into the goal box. To accomplish this, however, the player must concetrate on many different levels: his own relationship to the ball, the proximity of the other players around him, the position of the goalie, and the goal box itself. Similarly, the actor must focus on his primary goal, while being aware of the other actors on stage with him, and the audience observing him. Taking this to a larger scale, the objective of an athlete is to win or to come in first place, and the goal of the actor is to soar to the top of his craft.

The problem with just doing what your told by the director over many years, is that a kind of mediocrity sets in. Even though you may engage in the training for years and years, you never really own it, and so can never really use it creatively. Since the focus here is on "Doing what you are told', the tendency in creating a role is to focus on what you're not doing right, as opposed to working creatively towards a goal. In essence, this is like teaching by negative example versus positive example. Fear of failure is the dominant emotion in the "Fault Focus" approach, whereas the emotional charge behind the "Goal Focus" is an inspired hope for glory. The latter is what must drive us in our artistic journey.