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CHAPTER THREE: BRINGING TOGETHER THE ÁRTISTIC AND THE EDUCATIONAL PRAXIS audience present in the room, some sense of audience, spanning from other participants to self-spectatorship, is present in the drama work, although this does not make it acting. Chris Cooper writes about the responsibility of the actor working on a Bond play.“ He says that what Bond calls Enactment “is not about acting at all” but more about “excavating” how their role relates to the Centre of the drama and the whole site. Cooper states that It is important not to determine how the actors respond to each other in advance, but let the logic of situation dictate this. There is no blocking, the actors need to find the topography of the situation. We used the sites and the centre as a guide to break the situation down precisely to avoid generalisation. In rehearsal it is very important not to make decisions on what is ‘right’ too soon and fix things, only to eliminate what is not reflecting the centre. There are virtually limitless possibilities for exploration that, if properly centred and sited, can continue to be unearthed in performance.*” Cooper’s description of not fixing in performance, but keeping rehearsal open reflects a reduced form of improvisation in order to explore content. This connects Enactment with the acting behaviour of LTD. Bond clarifies that in Enactment the actors’ question is not “how did my character get here but what do I do in this space”.*”° Clearly, the emphasis here is not on performance, but on the exploration of the situation and the problem at the heart of the play. On the performance side the aim is “to engage the audience’s creativity”’”’ according to Cooper. Though not fixing things might sound as if it makes the actor’s task easy it actually places bigger demands on the player. She will need an understanding of the Centre, her role’s relation to this Centre, a clear understanding of the situation and also an awareness of the possible ways of being in the situation while also engaging the audience’s creativity. Bond’s plays offer specific ways of doing the latter, in-depth knowledge of his approach benefits those working on performing his plays. The focus is clearly on the situation, experiencing it and reacting to it, but with an awareness of the specific logic of that fictional situation and of its fictional nature, these could be components of a LTD situation. In both cases there is a clear distinction between role and character; while role validates the presence of the participant in the fiction it leaves more emphasis on the fictional social context, the situation. Character relies more on elements 473 Cooper: The performer in TIE, 131. #4 Ibid., 135. 475 Ibid., 138. #76 Edward Bond: Email to Cesar Villa, Personal communication, 3 January, 2013, 1. Cooper: The performer in TIE, 131. 477 + 128 +
