vakhtangov - on consciousness and the subconscious

7/17/2019 Vakhtangov - On Consciousness and the Subconscious

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The Vakhtangov Sourcebook

Edited, translated andwith an introduction

by Andrei Malaev-Babel



10 On Consciousness and the

Subconscious in an Actor’sCreative Process

Engaging the Subconscious in Actor’s Homework

In everyday life, a person is ready to receive or bring any kind ofnews—at any moment. The same should be true of the stage. As timegoes by, we will learn, without preparation, to meet the challenges ofthe most passionate moments of the role. You must become intimatewith the role. Dreaming about the role should become a habit.

I come to rehearsals prepared. You must not forget that I can onlyexperience and demonstrate a particular place in your role once. Youmust be ready to perceive it. If you are not capable of perceiving whatI give you today, it is forever lost to you. If you are not greedy, notprepared for perception, it is impossible to become inseminated withthe role.

Now, how should you work upon your role at home?Let us suppose that I don’t know how I must perform a particular

place in a role. I pose a question to my subconscious; I give materialto my subconscious, so that it can answer my question. The subcon-scious contrives an answer out of this material. You want to make doonly with the material that I give you. But this is not enough. If thingscontinue this way, everyone who comes to see our performance willsay, “someone else created the form of this role.” The actors’ individu-alities are missing.

Ladies and gentlemen, do become convinced in the necessity of

conscious homework and gain faith in the work of the subconscious inrehearsal. Have you ever been reading a book in class, hiding it underyour desk? This unrelated reading is our work on the role—in thestreet, at work, at home, anywhere in life. When something distractsyou from this “unrelated reading,” you use any opportunity, any freeminute, to go back.

From October 19, 1916, talk given at the Vakhtangov Studio.



Consciousness and the Subconscious 111

Engaging the Subconscious in Rehearsal andPerformance

An actor should be prepared for that which will excite him emotion-ally: I will go onto the stage and I will become emotionally excited withmy love for her. This should carry me away. I must become enticed bythe thought “I will soon be with her.” I come onto the stage with this,and I don’t know what will become of me; I don’t know if God willsend me inspiration or not. If God sends me inspiration, I will feel mycomplicity with the world, I will feel happy to be alive.

From November 29, 1916, talk given at the Vakhtangov Studio.

Subconscious Perception and Expression

Consciousness does not create anything—ever … Only the subcon-scious does. It has an independent ability to choose material for thecreative process, bypassing the conscious mind. Apart from that, onecan consciously send material for the creative process into the realm ofhis subconscious. From this standpoint, any rehearsal is only produc-

tive when in it one seeks or provides material for the next rehearsal; it isin the intervals between rehearsals that the subconscious processes theacquired material. One cannot create anything out of nothing, whichis why one cannot play a role without work—“out of inspiration.”

Inspiration is the moment when our subconscious has combinedmaterial from the preceding work. At the mere call of our consciousmind, but without its involvement, the subconscious will give every-thing one single form.

Fire that accompanies this moment is a natural condition, just asseveral chemical elements being combined into one form naturallyproduce heat.

Mental elements combined into a particular form amenable fora given individual cause an inflow of energy at the moment of theirexpression. This energy warms up, lights up, and breathes life intothe form. Everything that is invented consciously does not carry thesigns of fire. Everything that is created within the subconscious realmand formed subconsciously is accompanied by the extraction of thisenergy; it is chiefly this very energy that carries an infectious power.

This infectiousness can be described as a subconscious captivationof the perceiving party’s subconscious. It is the sign of talent. He whoconsciously feeds his subconscious and expresses the results of itswork in a subconscious way is a talent.



112 Vakhtangov on Theatre and Actors

He who subconsciously feeds his subconscious and engages in asubconscious expression is a genius.

He who expresses consciously is a master.He who is deprived of the ability to perceive subconsciously or

consciously, and yet dares to express is a mediocrity. For he does nothave an individuality. For he, who deposited zero into his subconscious(the creative realm), will express zero.

From November 3, 1917, notebook entry.1

Take a bundle of thoughts, throw it into the sack of your subcon-

scious, and go for a walk.Ready? Not yet? Take another bundle of thoughts, etc., etc.Everything must be thrown into the subconscious realm.If a role gets clogged up at a certain point, you must leave that point

alone, change the preceding circumstances, and the entire result willbe different.

The initial approach—what would I do in such and such circum-stances. Take all these circumstances and stand straight at the center ofthem, in the thick of them. Allow everything in, let it permeate you—and the truth of passion will come.

The art of an actor is in his ability to move himself toward what hewill need to give, the ability to reveal what’s required of him.

From September 29, 1919, talk given at the Vakhtangov Studio andrecorded by Vera L’vova. [Originally published in Ivanov 2011.]

On Prana and Creative Perception

There is a vital force in life, and in nature—it is called prana.Prana is a vital force that is spilled all over nature, and is radiated

by human beings. Prana must be taken from everywhere, from nature.First and foremost, one must breathe correctly, so that prana does notvanish immediately upon its entrance.

All food contains prana; therefore, you must not swallow up food,but chew it until you reach the state of delight.

Prana affects blood, through food and through air. Prana is yet to

become our everyday self. “I am [character],” however, constitutes prana.

1 An English translation of this entry was first published in Vendrovskaya andKaptereva 1982.



Consciousness and the Subconscious 113

Prana is stored in the head realm—thought—and in the solarplexus—feeling.

Voluntary actions come from the 1st source.Involuntary—from the 2nd source.One can sense prana, and one can control it.It is essential to be able to gather, to concentrate prana, so that it

could be used when necessary.Firstly, one must be free from any muscular tension.All sensations require no effort whatsoever.(The truth of passions is the very prana that grows from the solar

plexus.)One should not pretend, but rather be suspenseful. (This would bethe development of one’s ability to fantasize and concentrate.)

[…]From October 8, 1919, talk given at the Vakhtangov Studio andrecorded by Vera L’vova. [Originally published in Ivanov 2011.]

On Subconscious Expression

We want to figure out what we want to act in this play. It wouldbe possible, of course, not to do that and act, without further ado,what is written: to work subconsciously. Is there a way to reconcileconscious determination of tasks with the requirement that creativitymust be subconscious? Everything we now say about the play we willforget, but it won’t disappear without a trace; it will all be stowed inour subconscious realm so that later on it could appear on the stagesubconsciously.

When in life we act consciously, we are never ourselves. I am onlymyself when I act unconsciously. The same is true of the stage. In life,however, I act unconsciously in a particular way—it depends on mysubconscious realm’s content, as I received it during my life rehearsals.If we come to some agreement, and the actor comprehends with hissoul, this goes into the subconscious treasure house, to appear later inthe performance.

Going to the stage, I must be convinced that someone else will act

for me, that everything will happen on its own.We cannot demand from actors that they be in a state of creative

ecstasy during each rehearsal; they must only be enthusiastic aboutthe work. To be able to act in performance, an actor must gather a lotinto his treasure house and “act” nothing in performance. When I cando everything in performance, it is called inspiration. Something onecould not possibly “perform,” must perform itself, on its own accord.



114 Vakhtangov on Theatre and Actors

Let’s take The Cricket on the Hearth, for example. As the perform-ance progresses, a certain warmth is radiated from the stage, and by

the end it fills the audience.In a similar way, in our play, a smile should accumulate and radiate.2

Every actor must carry this smile with him, and it should become his“what for”.

Author’s smile, an actor’s creative state (a festive moment) and qual-ities subconsciously thrown: those are the three essential elements.

With some people, this subconscious realm is closed, this treasurebox is locked, and the key is thrown away. This is called mediocrity.

From September 17, 1916, talk given at the Vakhtangov Studio.

Creative Passion that Arises from Perceiving theEssence3

A role is prepared when an actor has made the lines of the role hisown.

An actor must awaken his passion without any external motivationfor creative passion; to achieve this, an actor must work in rehearsalschiefly to make everything that surrounds him, according to the play,his own atmosphere and to make his role’s tasks his own; this willcause his passion to speak “from the essence.” This kind of passionarising “from the essence” is the most valuable, because it alone iscompelling and truthful.

This is the very kind of passion I strived to achieve from Khmara,since the very first rehearsal of Rosmersholm. I did achieve it with hiswondrous help and his faith in the value and attractiveness of such a

passion. A single thought: “I must make all my countrymen happy”—this thought, as such, inflamed him and made him Rosmer.

Sometimes an actor who has an excess of noble and moral quali-ties fails to accumulate enough adaptations for the role that calls forvillainous qualities. He does not succeed with this character, althoughall may be well as far as the quality of his acting is concerned—that is,he experienced his role truthfully.

2 When Vakhtangov speaks of the author’s smile, he refers to the playwright MauriceMaeterlinck’s point of view on characters and the reality he portrayed in the play.Here, as well as in the next paragraph, the world “smile” is synonymous with“author’s point of view.” See Vakhtangov’s notes on Maeterlinck’s smile (pp. 208–9)as well as his talks with his actors (pp. 257–9).

3 On this subject, see also the Introduction (p. 17) and The Miracle of Saint Anthony, January 23, 1917, rehearsal record (p. 266).

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