Free Acting Your Dreams: Using Acting Techniques to Interpret Your Dreams by Ben Tousey

blanks.

The Slow Reading
     
    One final
exercise you can try is the slow reading. This is simply what it says. The
actor reads the script for the first time without any “acting” smeared on top
of it. In the process of script analysis this is usually one of the first
things an actor does, but the actor hasn’t just lived the play with full on
emotion the night before. That’s why I’ve put it last in this book.
     
    This slow
reading process helps merge the subconscious and conscious, which will give you
some extra insight into the characters and the dream story. It also helps
bypass the analytical side of the brain and bring in a more intuitive
component. It’s very easy, but it takes a little time—and a lot of patience.
The longer the dream the more time it can take, but it’s worth it.
     
    The process is simple.
You read the script one word at a time, very slowly. As you read you pay close
attention to what images, thoughts and feelings come to mind. Then you write
them down in your dream journal. That’s it. And you can’t read too slowly.
     
    Once you’ve
done the slow reading, you put all the components together and let them talk to
you. It may seem a little difficult at first, but I guarantee, as you do, you
will find that it has a powerful effect on your understanding of the dream.
Reread what you wrote and let those thoughts and images wash over you. Once
you’ve done that, then reread again… word for word. You’ll add depth that you
never dreamed of (pun for fun).
     
    Mission #15
    1.       Do a slow reading of
your dream.
    2.       Record any thoughts,
images, emotions and other ideas that come to mind.
    3.       Read over your recorded dream thoughts.
    4.       Now reread the
dream.
    5.       Record any new
insights into the dream you may have had.

Myth that is Truth
     
    Before I close
this book I must talk about one important matter. There is no greater technique
an actor can bring to his or her work than the truth. The actor must be aware
of this at all times. The actor must be true to the screenwriter, true to the
story, true to the scene, and most importantly, true to the character. Without
truth an actor is just a con artist. It’s a common assumption that acting is
lying. While it is correct that the actor is creating a character that he or
she may have never seen or heard of before, they are hardly lying: Quite the
contrary. As you have seen in this study, an actor goes through quite a process
to assure that he or she is not lying but telling us the truth.
     
    In order for
the actor to truly portray their character, they must be true to that
character. In other words, if the character is a shy and withdrawn person, the
actor must play the part shy and withdrawn. It would be quite wrong for the
actor to play that character any other way. If the story moves in one
direction, say a character is slowly headed toward self-destruction, then the
actor must move in that direction as well. The actor must play the character in
such a way that they do not detract from who that character is. If the story is
about a real life character, then the need for truth and honesty becomes even
stronger. If you listen to actors during interviews, you will find that they are
extremely passionate about their characters: real or made up.
     
    Truth is
powerful adversary if we chose to go against it because all nature backs it up.
Conversely, if we chose to have it on our side, then it will be a powerful ally
for the same reason. All nature backs it up. The great Cecil B. DeMille once said, “ It is impossible for us to break the
law. We can only break ourselves against the law .” That is the nature of truth. To lie, we must go up
against truth and truth is a formidable enemy. Truth is the most powerful
element in any dream and the dreamer must remember that we cannot get around
it. We will only break ourselves if we try.
     
    There’s another
aspect of truth that we don’t often