ABSTRACT
In both narrative film and theatre the actors provide the means by which we recreate human behavior and tell our stories. In the old days, actors were often hired, particularly in film and later in television as well, for their type or their look with little attention to any ability to act. It was often casting by persona or charisma or blatant sex appeal. The actor must be able to extract relevant elements of one's own being and reassemble them into different combinations to create a whole new mode of behavior suitable to the character in the text. Actors must also learn to first identify and then to isolate parts of themselves so they can reassemble them. The problem was that the actor's insecurity at that stage of rehearsal seemed to sharpen his hearing but messed up his concentration. Learning the art of full concentration is key to the process.
