“A man who has not passed through the inferno of his passions has never overcome them.”
– Carl Jung
Definition of passion…
“strong and barely controllable emotion.”
A HEALTHY APPROACH TO ACTING
Acting students will often say to me “I need my wounds to remain unhealed so I can use them in my acting.” I’m here to tell you that this is not true or necessary. It is an unhealthy way of working. To heal our wounds doesn’t mean that they are no longer emotionally active or unresolved. It means that they are under the actors control because the actors relationship to them has changed.
When your wounds from the past have not been looked at in a deep way, it can be very difficult to access them for use in your acting because rather than channeling them…they can overwhelm you and take you over in your work. Your wounds can begin telling a story that has nothing to do with the playwright’s intent.
Also, unconscious blocks can surface to protect you from accessing them. You might think you are using them… but you are not really gaining access to the deep soul connection you could access if you were to work with them. This work leads to a universal connection and not simply a narrow personal connection.
EMOTIONS AND ACTING
When we work with our emotions we gain access to them. To “overcome our passions” as Carl Jung puts it, I believe, would mean that the actor is in charge of them instead of the other way around. We can then use the unresolved in our psyche for our acting.
I work with individuals in my private sessions to help unblock, work through, and gain access to the hidden warehouse of deep untamed passions so the student can use them in her/his acting work or any creative endeavour.
Cindy Tanas
Cindy Tanas Actors Studio teaches acting classes for Theatre and Film in Toronto and the GTA, Collingwood and Southern Georgian Bay.