The Place of Action from David Mamet’s Concept for Performer Training

Abstract

This thesis explores the place and role of a performer’s action from a perspective of a director and playwright David Mamet’s concept for performer training. This thesis takes inspiration from the idea of Mamet’s simple and practical investigation specifically in text-based approach with a performer’s bodily function on stage. For Mamet, the writings and practices of many different body-centered training are not rooted in the principle and nature of acting/performance. Reconsidering complicated approaches particularly psychological-oriented theory, practice, and assumption draw on several practitioners takes us beyond the field of visible and/or outer appearance of a performer which in turn leads the performer’s body to be as abstract therefore not to being in the moment on stage. Arming the points, we argue that whatever disciplines and/or methods necessarily need to meet the principles and demands of acting/performance/theatre to connect to the materials, an action/objective given by a specific playwright which the performer must inhabit through his/her body. Out of the context, any ‘method’ serves no purpose. That is, the mechanics of an action is an extension of addressing what a performer’s specific needs which shifts his/her body to respond appropriately to the theatrical demands. Taking this argument further, we claim that the purpose of performer training should not be understood as learning and improving techniques or skills for his/her self-perfection. The research finding shows that this resembles to the phenomenon that the visible very often precedes the invisible where the performer’s body lose a clarity with no more chance to happen and/or change the event(s). Rather, it is a process of learning what/how to learn which in turn brings us back to the central question of why we do training for what purpose in this contemporary era. Exploring and answering these questions is not only a way to employ the key materials applicable to the theatrical demands but also to achieve the identify as a professional performer/doer on stage.