Prague Playhouse

Walk a day in someone else’s shoes

November 6th, 2007 at 10:17am ben

Ben, that list of activity questions you sent around was a slam! thanks for that. just one I had a question about. one question was “Which one of my senses means the least to me?” Interesting, but I didn’t really understand how it could apply. Maybe you’d like to expound a bit.

JP

Hi JP,

I used that particular question as a way for me to enter into physical impediment work with the Meisner technique. That is, a way to explore changing your physical appearance, retardation, mental disabilities, accents. Anything that you ‘put on’ top of what you mentally and physically you have naturally.

Asking yourself the simple question of: which one on my senses means the least to me was my way into this type of work. Hearing, was the answer for me. I couldn’t bare to be without sight, be stuck in the dark for the rest of my life. Or not to be able to taste food, or smell fresh bread baking, or be touched by another person. So for me, hearing was the one sense that I could live without. By asking myself the question I was able to start thinking about what life would be like without hearing, to be deaf. What would change, what wouldn’t change. And the deeper you go, the more understanding you get. Then I wanted to turn the logical idea of being without hearing into something that I could feel. So I put cotton wool in my ears, then wrapped my head with a heavy bandage, then put ear-muffs on. I sat there for a while. I let the lack of sound seep into me. My hearing was almost gone. I then went out into the real world and walked the streets. The sounds were almost gone. Having a conversation with someone was pretty much impossible. I had to rely on my other senses to help me out. The biggest moment for me was when I took everything off again. The sounds in my real world were so loud! Everything is so noisy! We are so overwhelmed with phones ringing, and sounds of traffic, and people talking, and shit! At that moment I understood. From being almost deaf for an afternoon, I found my way to a place where I could be resloved with my ‘disability’, a place of almost pure bliss, a place on silence that made more sense to me than the real world.

This exercise was certainly a valuable experience. One, it opened up my acting work into a new area of physical and mental impediments, but most importantly I lived in someone else’s shoes and found an emotional and instinctual life there.

Walk a day in someone else’s shoes

Ben

Acting