ABOUT THE METHODS’ “PRIVATE MOMENT” EXERCISE

After reading Stanislavsky’s dictum about the necessity of the actors being private in public, Strasberg created the private moment exercise. He viewed the exercise as a corrective for actors who were inhibited by the presence of an audience. By enacting a moment of true privacy in front of people, Strasberg hoped to get them to confront the issue and conquer it. He realized we do private things when we are alone, and we know they are really private when we cant continue doing them if someone walks in the room. Thus, in the private moment, the actor is asked to do something “that they do in real life, but which even in life is so private, when anyone comes in, they have to stop doing it”.

Consequently actors sang, danced and even performed acts of private grooming. BUT Strasbergs’ new exercise was vilified from many quarters as word of it spread through the theatrical community. The exercise quickly became a symbol of all that was wrong with the Method, and was called “a sinister indulgence in sexual and scatological display”.

In untrained hands, the exercise became a voyeuristic enterprise, a peep show for the classroom audience…

This is the problem with the exercise: it has lost the value that Stanislavsky gave it: SECRECY more than privacy. It went from doing something in “public solitude” to a “sinister private moment”. Many teachers (Ive had one of them..argh) have turned it into a barrier-pushing exercise to rejoice in their own perverted ideas. If doing something that embarrasses in front of people is the point, then shouldn’t YOU choose what that is? I mean, the common practice is to take off all your clothes, and some take it even further and perform private acts but let each one be their own person. If your private moment consists of taking your clothes off in front of people, so be it. If not he other hand your moment consists of biting your toenails or farting, or singing, then should any teacher tell you you aren’t as committed? NO. HELL TO THE NO! Only you can choose the barriers you wish to cross. And for some they may be even more traumatic than the standard physical exposure. Its not about showing something intimate, as it is feeling as if you were alone with an audience. That means free of inhibitions and mainly concentrated and focused.