When we were having our class with Pilar on Friday, she talked about how actors try to get back to the way their bodies were when they were infants, like going back to a blank canvas so we can build something from scratch. But not only because its an un-altered version of our body, but because our natural behaviour when we breathe, and move is present when were young, and is lost gradually as we pay less importance to it. Why are we humans the only living specimen which gradually loses its natural body/breathing faculty? because animals always have a certain body movement as they breathe, usually a movement of the spine, which then has repercussions on other parts of their body, but we humans seem to forget it. Its probably due to the fact that we are shifting, with progress, from being a physically driven species to a more intellectually driven one, which does not need of the everyday physical tuning to survive any more. Thus it is the job of the actor to try and go back and retrace our steps to get back to that initial way of being, that mere physicality where body is mind, and vice versa, to reach that ultimate state of expression where ideas are as physical as they are psychological. And once we get to that "empty canvas" state, the possibilities are endless, which is, in my opinion the ultimate goal of the actor, and not only to reach that state but to be able to go back and forth from it, to be dynamic. So this leads me to question if performers which are not dynamic can really be called "actors" I mean if they only represent one personality, or slight variations of it in different plays or occasions, they're still just working from the same mould, changing superficial aspects but not the core itself. Obviously there are many different approaches to acting, and none can be deemed as invalid, yet I feel strongly that this particular method is the one that makes the most sense, and that sets a clear (and difficult) goal to achieve personal success in the profession.

Is part of the thrill of watching an actor perform the fact that we get to see that long lost version of how we used to be in their physical work? 

P.D. 

(Im still developing the Craig / Appia blog, which will probably be in next weekend or during the coming week)