The Virtue Of Patience | The Great Acting Blog

Often, when we first see our performance on screen, we may recoil in horror – that which is on the screen may not be that which was in our heads [or, not the performance we thought we were giving] – at this point, all we can see are the errors and falsities in our work. In such moments, we may do or say something rash, something which may ultimately turn out to be destructive. Actors and artists have wild imaginations and can be easily spooked by the appearance of things. The point is, this needn’t be the case because what we are confronted with is not threatening, it’s just different to what we were expecting.

Patience is about not getting caught up by the way an unexpected appearance makes us feel, but instead, getting a grip and analysing the situation rationally. When we do this, we see that the appearance which spooked us was just that; an appearance. Once we see through it, we see that nothing very bad has happened and the appearance dissipates. In the case of a performance, when we return to it a year later we may see that there was nothing wrong with it, in fact, we may not even remember what the problem was in the first place.

Being patient is about gaining time to think about what has happened, and it’s a very useful asset to have because it can stop us from acting in a way we might regret later.

FURTHER READING

Cultivate The Habit Of Patience

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