Living on Stage - "I AM to AS IF"

I emphasize the need, in Stanislavsky's words, not to "BEGIN to Live, but to CONTINUE to Live."

First the actor must get comfortable on stage -- as comfortable as he usually is in his least stressful, most relaxed moments of off-stage life, -- in his essentially personal, "here-and-now," "being alive" state of "I AM."   Only then can we, gradually and legitimately, ask for bits of the "AS IF" without endangering the organic process of creating, -- without straining and possibly damaging the instrument and its inherently truthful and expressive responses.

This "AS IF" consists of pieces of IMAGINATION, -- of LIES -- that the actor blends with the FACTS of his BASIC ALIVENESS.   He thus creates a STAGE REALITY -- a combination of fact and fiction that we call STAGE TRUTH -- and amounts to LIVING ON STAGE.

                                                                                                      -- Walt Witcover