JONATHAN STONE
From Imagining to Managing

A SKILL? LET'S JUST CALL IT PRESENCE...

There is an awareness in performance that is quite separate from the specific skills involved in different acting, and dance forms. Is it a skill? call it  presence, being alive  on stage, being aware. This skill  is very different from the notion that we usually have, of a skill being an accumulation of abilities developed through practise by rote.  The skill of performance, whether you are a  dancer, stage actor, film actor or even  a popstar lies in an ability to play within the performance reality,whether it be loose or very tightly proscribed by text or design.  

('I could be bound in a nutshell yet count myself the king of infinite space')

  It enables the performer to be totally at ease and free to create. It is similar to playing in a way that was natural to us all as children, but in a fully conscious way, where you are inside and outside of the play simultaneously. This ability to play  gives the performer the flexibility and alertness  they need to take on any performance task given them.The skill of performing well  can be developed by doing less, and learning how to listen to and respond to the performance reality and letting that reality unfold, being part of that situation as it unfolds, not blocking it, or forcing your own agenda onto other performers or the audience.