– When a person becomes a professional actor and becomes absorbed in the new way of life, he begins to fear many things. The image of Mephistopheles (the devil) immediately emerges in his subconscious. Why does this fear emerge?
– A person is afraid of losing himself. By being immersed in a certain role, sometimes he feels that if he stays there a minute longer, he won’t be able to go back anymore.
These fears and apprehensions are well-warranted. A person’s psychological structure is not balanced and it is possible to completely reformat the behavioral program that’s operating in it, like in a computer. If a different program is inserted there, a person can forget about everything and behave differently. These practices and methods are applied by power structures in various countries in the world.
Our children are clearly aware that they work for the sake of understanding their friend, for the sake of feeling his nature. To accomplish this, I become included in the qualities of my friend, and create his image within me. And my friend does the same in relation to me. Thus, there will be two images in me and two images in him. This enables us to communicate correctly, and to begin to understand on another. This is why we are acting.
The fact that we can to understand each other today does not mean that we will understand each other tomorrow. Our mutual understanding must constantly be renewed. Tomorrow we will have a new egoism because it constantly grows. Our moods will change, as well as many other things around us, such as the circumstances in our families, and the relationships with our friends at school. All of this will influence our personalities. Changes happen all the time.
This kind of work in a team, where we observe one another, criticize or encourage each other’s work, enables us to accumulate an enormous collection of analytical instruments and look at the entire process from the side, no longer through the eyes of an actor who is trying on different roles, but through the eyes of the stage director. Just as Nature orders us around and plays with us, I, too, begin to see this game. I develop a very sensible attitude to what is happening and begin to understand that life is but an act of various roles.
Therefore, if children work on a certain situation with their friends and observe their behaviors together, I don’t think any problems will arise.
– Is it possible to try playing the role of the stage director as well?
– We are talking about children, and young children at that. When they turn about 7 or 8, egoism begins to manifest in them in a severe manner. That is when we should gradually start introducing elements of acting, “Try to be in his position now, and he will be in yours. Remember how he yelled at you yesterday, and now you try to play that role.”
Is it possible to direct or manage this process at this age? I do not rule out this possibility. It depends on how long the group has been studying and what skills it has acquired.
– Every time a scene is acted out, even if it’s the same scene, it turns out differently.
– This is apparent, especially when playing out the same roles.
– Should children repeat the same scenes over and over again?
– This will happen anyway.
– What can we learn from that?
– In this process, children will be constantly studying themselves. I think it is necessary to videotape everything that is happening to them, watch it, and let the children evaluate what they saw, and then repeat it.
A child begins to see how relative his behavior and opinion are, that there is nothing absolute about them. What is absolute is the single, unified whole that is created when they all unite. And together we will build the Absolute. But whatever exists in each of us—it always changes.