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ON COLLABORATION

 Actors always collaborate, literally "labor together" with others. They work not only with other actors but also with directors, stage managers, costume and makeup people, and many others.

The success of any collaborative artistic endeavor depends on the ability of these many kinds of artists to work together toward the common goal of bringing the material to life. When a group works together in the best possible way, the energy of each member of the group flows into a common stream, forming a single energy that is greater than the sum of its parts. This is why everyone on the team receives more energy from the group than he or she gives to it; we can do our best work when we are part of a well-functioning team.

Furthermore, no member of the team needs to sacrifice their individuality; rather, each member finds his or her individual power enhanced by membership in the group. Such ideal teamwork is achieved when five conditions have been met:

  1. Each member is genuinely committed to being a member of the team.

  2. Each member supports the work of the others.

  3. There is trust and mutual respect within the team.

  4. All members agree to maintain free and open communication.

  5. The efforts of all members are aligned with the common purpose.

 

Commitment

It is part of your responsibility as an actor to be committed on five levels at once:

  1. To your own talent-to being as good as you can be

  2. To each role you play-to finding the truth of the character and of each moment in the performance

  1. To each ensemble of which you are a member-to contributing to the success and growth of everyone in it

  2. To each piece of material you perform-to finding and expressing the truth

  3. To your audience and the world you serve through your work

 

Support for Your Partners

We all have different reasons for working in the theater, but we support each other's objectives, even if we do not share them. We assume a nonjudgmental attitude.

 

Trust and Mutual Respect

We respect other workers as a matter of principle; we treat them exactly as we would want to be treated ourselves. We trust all of our partners to do their jobs, even if we disagree with their methods; we do our best to accept and utilize their contributions. If this eventually proves to be impossible, we seek a resolution through respectful but honest and direct negotiation.

 

Free and Open Communication

No matter how supportive, trustful, and respectful we all are, creative collaboration is difficult, and we are bound to encounter differences of opinion, conflicting needs, and artistic challenges. All these problems can become opportunities for creativity as long as we can communicate freely and reasonably about them.

 

Alignment

When every member of the team shares a common purpose, each is free to work in his or her own way and still contribute to the overall effort. People with very different artistic methods-as well as different political, religious, cultural, and artistic values-can work in alignment toward a common purpose as long as the common purpose is well understood by all and the other four conditions listed here have been met.

Commitment, support, trust, respect, communication, and alignment. These are the cornerstones of teamwork, and they all require that you keep your attention on the job at hand and park your ego at the rehearsal room door.

 

 

Benedetti, Robert. The Actor In You. Pearson Higher Ed, 2015.

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