Preparation: Emotional Memories

Preparation is probably the most sacred and secret part of an actors craft. For every actor it is different, and it is always personal. It’s the secret ingredient that every actor must guard for themselves. It’s whatever you do right before you go on stage that brings you to the emotional level needed to thrust you into the scene. In this first installment in the series about preparation we’re going to focus on the prep method taught by Stanislavski called Emotional Memory.

It is a documented fact that the brain cannot tell what it is seeing for real and what it remembers. To the brain and to the body, a memory is every bit as real as reality. Putting aside, for now, what this might say about the world at large, what does this say for the actor? It says that if you can pull up a memory strong enough, you can truthfully experience the emotions of that memory. This is the ground work for Emotional Memory. Stanislavski’s idea of Emotional Memory is a valid idea of preparation when looking at the science mentioned above. Think about it and it happens. Every time you have an emotion, your body releases amino acids that correspond with that particular emotion and those acids correspond in certain ways with the cells of your body. In other words, have a memory and you body will react as if you are experiencing that memory in the here and now. Pretty neat, huh? Reacting honestly without even trying! But this brings up an interesting point: Are you reacting truthfully to your memory or to what’s happening on stage?

The answer to that question is ultimately why I disagree with this method of preparation. It’s also the same reason Stanislavski eventually stopped teaching this method. When put into perspective, Emotional Memory is a shoddy way of working. It’s unreliable and different with every actor. Let’s go back to the question above: Reacting to a memory? Reacting to the events on stage? It’s the memory. Preparation isn’t meant to propel you all the way through a scene, it’s simply meant to propel you into it. The scene will take you the rest of the way. But that’s even assuming you have a memory to get you into the scene. No actor has the same memories as any other actors and some actors have no comparable memories at all. An actress playing Medea has to have a memory of killing her children and I don’t remember the last time the Ladies Correctional Facility put on a play.

It’s the unreliability I disagree with. If you could always have an appropriate memory, this method might work perfectly for you. But then what happens as you grow older and your memories change? The emotions your memories bring you will change with time. One memory can make you cry now, but ten years down the road it may make you smile with irony. You see what I mean about being shoddy and unreliable. Still, some actors swear by the preparation of Emotional Memory.

In the end, whatever gets you on stage is what you should use. Preparation, like most other things in the world is a hodgepodge of things you’ve been taught and things you have learned. We keep what we like and throw out the rest. If you have a memory that works, use it. If not, try one of the other methods that we’ll discuss in later articles. If all else fails, make it up, but never come in empty. Never come into a scene with nothing.

Until Next Time,

Sin Boldly!

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