My Front Porch--The Ten Elements of Behavior--Position and Facial Expression

2. Position

Within any situation a person must adopt a position that will have a relationship to the positions of all the others in the room.  These positions will arise out of the physical demands or constraints of the situation and the relationship of the agents.  For example, on an airplane the relationships of most of the characters will be situational and accidental.  For those who are sitting with acquaintances, friends, or family, those positions will also be relational.

While there are 360 degrees of possible difference in any person’s position in regard to each of every other's, there are general differences possible in positional relationship.  Each character may address the other from either a facing, side, or back position.  The other person has the same set of choices.  Together they can adopt relative positions that are:

     1.  Face-to-face

     2.  Face to side

     3.  Face to back

     4.  Side to face

     5.  Side to side

     6.  Side to back

Of course if one person is unhappy with the positional relationship they may endeavor to move in order to achieve one more desirable.  When they do so the other person must choose to either submit to the new relationship or try to change it back or to another. Because movement also forces a change in meaning of the proxemic distance there is significance as well in the proxemic change.

There is no precise set of meanings that may be granted to any of these positions, as the meaning is always a function of the feelings of the participants, based on their prior relationship and their present situation.  Lovers may choose to be face-to-face in order to bask in the vision of the loved one.  A parent or teacher may demand a face-to-face relationship when delivering a lecture.  Enemies may maintain an unvarying face-to-face relationship because of their unwillingness to trust the other out of their sight. 

People who do not know each other very well usually maintain a more unqualified face-to-face relationship when forced to engage in conversation, perhaps because they need to take advantage of all available visual cues in order to accurately "read" the communications and avoid mistakes that may result in giving offense.  Psychological experiments suggest that women have a marked preference for conducting conversations with friends in a largely face-to-face relationship.  Perhaps this is because that as children they often develop friendships by sharing secrets with each other.  Many circumstances situationally force people into a side-by-side relationship.  Standing in military ranks, traveling in various forms of private and public transportation, attending a variety of educational or recreational experiences, and many others situations formally require side-by-side position.  In psychological experiments men show a marked preference for talking with friends in a side-by-side relationship.  Perhaps this develops because as children so much male friendship building grows out of a sports context in which conversations are maintained while watching the field of play or in competing side-by side. 

In scientific studies very small children left alone with another of the same sex will quickly demonstrate a preference for different positional relationships.  The little girls will immediately bring their chairs into a face-to-face position while the little boys will move their chairs side-to-side.  No one has proven satisfactorily whether the tendencies are genetically influenced or societally encouraged or both.  Of course the natural preference of each sex for a different positional relationship is an excellent source of conflict onstage as well as one that may seriously strain relationships in real life. 

The period of courtship is the only time when men naturally and unconsciously defer to women’s preference for the face-to-face position.  Some writers have posited that the reason for this is that males consider courtship a competitive event and therefore find it natural to adopt the face-to-face position in that circumstance.  Women continue to desire the development of intimacy face-to-face. However, according to Deborah Tannen, one of the leading figures in the field of interpersonal communication, men grow intimate through silence during a shared activity.  However, it is possible to achieve a compromise by finding a time when she can be face-to-face and he is not required to look at her as when they are out for a ride and he is at the wheel.  This an excellent time to ask for and receive the sharing of secrets which they crave without making him feeling the uncomfortable challenge which he associates with the face-to-face position.

Turning one's back on another may be an act of rejection or, conversely, may signify a relationship so close that one is comfortable trusting the other with his back.  Intimates may feel comfortable in conducting conversations without being able to see the other's face because they know each other so well that they trust themselves to interpret the other's meaning through verbal cues alone.

A scene must begin with each of the characters in a particular positional relationship to the other.  That relationship may remain quite constant, especially if they are in a formal setting such as sitting at the ballet.  It may also change many times during the course of the scene if the circumstances permit, as discoveries are made and the feelings of relative status, or of liking and loathing arise through the medium of those discoveries.  Perhaps that is why so many people choose to end a relationship with another in a relatively formal setting such as an office or a restaurant, hoping that the proxemic and positional requirements will constrain the other to maintain the social decorum of the place.  Of course if the interruption of the other person’s expectation is too great formal constraints may be insufficient to keep him or her from receiving an equally unexpected glass of burgundy in the face.

  Discovering the moment-to-moment pattern of varying positions is another of the highly visible variables of behavior that the audience can read.

Exercise:  Observe two people whom you do not know well interacting in a public place for five minutes.  What kind of positions do they establish between themselves at the outset?  How do they vary those positions during the course of the interaction?  How do you interpret their relationship based on those choices?  Record your impressions.

Spend five minutes in conversation with another.  Vary your position from time to time.  Does this produce any emotional change in you?  Does it affect the behavior of your partner?  To the extent you can determine the purpose of your conversation, try to use the changes of position purposefully to achieve your intention.  Record your impressions. 

3. Facial Expression

The face is accurately regarded as the most specific, most complex, most telling expresser of inner life.  The expression of thought and feeling through facial expression is present also in some of the mammals, but not to the extent it is in man.  Perhaps that is because emotion arises out of discovery and the head contains all of the organs of discovery--the sensory organs of sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch and the rest of the body merely extends the organ of touch.  The eyes naturally express the emotional affect of a particular discovery that a stimulus to sight makes possible.  One may smile at the unexpected appearance of an old friend, for example.  The nose may wrinkle at the sudden onslaught of a bad smell.  The mouth may draw together in a moue of distaste at the unexpected tartness of an apple.  The ears may "prick up" at a frightening and unaccountable sound in the night.

Animals are, however, as far as we can tell, free expressers.  They use clear and truthful channels of expression and seem unable to mask or exaggerate or pretend their feelings as people do.  While our bodies can achieve these sophisticated strategies to some degree, our faces are veritable machines of such expression.  The face, especially among primates, seems to have enjoyed evolution development for expressive capacity as well as sensory intake.  Primate faces possess many muscles, the movement of which accommodates chewing, uttering, listening, seeing, and smelling.  These and other muscles are used as well to achieve a wide variety of expressions. Perhaps this capacity developed as an evolutionary acknowledgement of the utility of possessing a silent organ of complex communication.

All expressions, whether free, masked, or pretended, are created through the cooperation or the tension between muscles surrounding the eyes and those surrounding the mouth.  In a smile, all the muscles lift.  In sadness, all the muscles droop.  In a frown the muscles of mouth and brow often contract and draw toward the center.  In surprise and fear the eyes often widen and the eyebrows lift even while the mouth  drops slackly open.  These are but a few descriptions of the simplest expressions of which the face is capable.  Often two or more emotions can be seen to war (or blend) in the face.  The eyes may frown while the mouth is stern, or vice versa.  There are expressions of angry surprise, comic dismay, angry embarrassment, and many more.

Paul Ekmann, the generally accepted authority on facial expression (see his The Expression of Emotion for an extraordinarily helpful in-depth discussion of the subject) has identified the seven expressions of emotions that are universally recognized and used by all humans, even those in the most isolated tribes.  The seven are:  happiness, sadness, anger, fear, disgust, contempt, and surprise.  Clearly there are any more facial expressions that these (10,000 according to Ekmann) but the rest of these are blends of these seven.  The thirty-seven feelings that we generally recognize as distinct have already been discussed in the section on Emotion.  The pure seven are those (along with confusion) that we are most likely to used as character masks to conceal our true feelings for tactical purposes.

As with all of the others, "working" this element of expression should never be a matter of pre-planning specific choices of expression.  It is necessary for the actor to be certain that she is free of any tension arising from her circumstance as an actor and that she is in all ways available to the particular expressive demands of her character.  She should decide whether her character is, in general, a high-expresser or a low-expresser.  She should also decide whether her general tendency in the circumstances of the scene would be toward free expression, masking, exaggeration, or pretense.  She must be particularly attentive to all discoveries, for those will be the moments which will have the greatest tendency to change not just individual expressions but the expressive strategy which they have heretofore adopted.  It is impossible to do this subject justice within the limits of this text, but it is not as necessary to do so as it is with some of the other elements of behavior because we are ordinarily far more aware of our expressions and more consciously reading the expressions of others than we are with any other element.  We are already conscious of having control of our expressions and using them to our advantage.

Exercise:  Observe two people whom you do not know well interacting in a public place for five minutes.  With what kind of facial expressions do they greet each other at the outset of the interchange?  What are the gross changes in facial expression you can detect during the course of the interaction?  Can you identify each of them as signifying a particular emotion?  How do you interpret their relationship based on those changes?

Betsy McGee Forester Day--Secret Reading and Learning to Write

Secret Reading

Some time ago Betsey McGee Forester Day started sitting in Daddy’s lap in the big nursery chair when he read to her.  She particularly liked the funny book with pictures about a little boy who has a tiger who is his best friend. It had quickly become clear that the words they were saying were in the bubbles above their heads. Betsy asked Daddy to follow the words with his fingers.  She couldn’t remember when she had figured out that bunches of letters together were words, written down words that could be read by anyone who knew what the bunches stood for. 

For several weeks she had paid more attention to the words in all the books that Daddy read more than the pictures. She would give a quick look at the picture and then follow Daddy’s finger. One day a word seemed to pop up from the page. Bed. It started with B just like Betsy. And she knew that D (for Dog and Day started with “duh.” There it was. B D. The little e (it was on the Menagerie Calendar too) must be the “eh”. Buh eh Duh. Bed. The first word she was able to read all by herself. The next one that jumped up was “fox”  F was for Forester and for . . . FOX! Fuh ah ksss!  And that was the sound of the funny cross letter—X—ksss!

Pretty soon she could read more and more words. When there was a hard bunch of letters she couldn’t understand she asked Daddy to reread that bit. Sometimes more than once. And then, suddenly, the words popped up from the page. Betsy was very careful not to let her parents know she could read. She was pretty sure that when she could read  books she would have to start reading them for herself and she would miss being read to terribly. She didn’t think Mother would be upset as she might if she knew she could get out of her crib whenever she wanted (foot over the top, slide down to the reading chair and there you were—do it backwards to get back in.)

Learning to Print

Now that she could read she thought it was time to figure out how to write. She was certain this would be much harder than reading.  She could see very well. That’s what you needed for reading.  But when she drew pictures she couldn’t make the lines do what she wanted the way that mother did. She knew her mother was an “Il lust rate or.”  That was someone who made pictures for books.  Her mother had a big desk with so many different drawers and shelves with different colors. Some were oily (very hard to wash off), some were water color (easier but they still stained), colored pencils and markers. And so many different kinds of brushes and pens and paper. 

After the day Mother had found that she had been studying her colors (especially the oily and the water ones) her mother had bought paper and colors just for her. She had to promise that she would only use her own (crayons and pencils) and NEVER touch Mother’s without permission. Betsy was disappointed but she decided this was fair. Today she had a plan that would help her learn how to write the most important words in the world—Betsy McGee Forester Day.

And then, as if by a magic thought, Mother was there! “Hello, there my little strawberry cuppercake! Did you have a good nap?”

“A really good nap, Mama.” She meant one short enough that it had allowed for lots and lots of thinking about things and making plans for a new project. 

“Do you need to potty?”

“No, just tinkle. I can do it myself  but wait for me in the hall in case I have ‘problem.’” Just recently Betsy had been allowed to go to the bathroom by herself. Her potty chair was gone and in its place a little stair and a little seat of her own on the big people’s potty. At first Mama had stayed inside with her in case she had “problems”—that meant having a hard time wiping. But now she could do “tinkle” by herself. AND flush the toilet. So she had convinced Mama to let her have “privacy” and do it herself. As long as she didn’t need to “potty.”  Wiping after potty was still a little hard.  Butterbutt was in the room with her, asleep in the bathroom rug in a streak of sunshine. She pulled up her pants and tiptoed down quietly and flushed the toilet as hard as she could.  Butterbutt opened her eyes but stayed where she was. Well, maybe next time. She stood on the little step in front of the sink to wash her hands. She didn’t do it as long as she was supposed to but she let the water run so Mama would think she had.

Mama opened the door (water running was the signal) and didn’t say anything but her face seemed to say “Problem?” 

“No problems.  Mama, I want to do a project.”

“Really? Did you want to help me bake cookies again?” (That had been their last project.) Betsy blinked three times and could see disappointment on Mama’s inside face. She thought she knew why. Mother used Betsy’s naptime to do her il lust rating.  Sometimes Betsy let her have a little time “on purpose.” But if she had her own project  . . .  “No, I would like my own project.  I’d like to draw something. But I need your help.”

“Of course. What do you want, crayons or pencils?” 

“Oh, I can get them out by myself. I need you to draw something so I can copy it.” Mother looked puzzled but pleased. When Betsy drew mother could go on with her own project for a while. 

“What would you like to draw? You like puppies. Do you want to draw a puppy?”

“No, I want to draw my name. Betsy McGee Forester Day.”

“Well, that’s not called drawing—it’s called printing.”

“Not writing?” asked Betsy, disappointed.

“Well it’s the kind writing that people start with. Later you learn cursive—that’s what people usually mean by writing.”

“Kur-siv?”

“That’s right, honey. I’ll be happy to print your name for you so you can write it.  And I’ll do something else. When I was little and learning to write we had tablets with lines on them to help us write straight. I’ll draw some lines on a piece of paper for you and then you can start.”

That began the longest quiet time that Mother and Betsy ever had.  Mother had said that she should start with the big letters (kap it all) because that’s the way everyone started. And she had written four bunches at the top of a page and filled the rest of the page with lines. Three lines together, three lines together, three lines together and asked Betsy if she would like to show her the first letter.  Betsy smiled and said:  “No, I want to do it all myself.  And she did it and did it and did it.

The Last Meeting of the First Fifty Club--Scene 3

NORMA

I warn you, she was just starting to explain the new painting.

JAKE

I’d better hurry. I don’t want to be the only one who doesn’t understand it.

NORMA

(She is methodically preparing her drink—rubbing a glass rim with lemon peel, filling the glass with ice, and gently pouring the Dewars as she speaks.)  She explained it to me, very carefully, very thoroughly, and I understand it less than when she began.

LARRY

We’ve got two more by the same artist upstairs.

NORMA

You’re kidding!

LARRY

No, to tell you the truth, Norma, I like them very much.

NORMA

You’re kidding! But what are they?

LARRY

Laura says they are the vanguard of a new school that she has labeled California Expressionism.

NORMA

She said that and I nodded but I don’t pretend to understand what that means.

LARRY

Well, I think the nickel definition is that the paintings depict the bright overbelly of contemporary society instead of the dark underbelly German Expressionism tried to get a handle on.

NORMA

Well, they certainly are very colorful without being terribly cheerful. I’ve never seen such provocative thighs.  I’d have thought the artist was a woman. 

LARRY

She is.

NORMA

She said they were by Mack.

LARRY

They are. MAC.  Initials. I can’t remember what they stand for.

NORMA

I’ll look it up. Now that I see it wasn’t painted by a man I find it psychologically less disturbing.  

LARRY

Whoa! Are you saying what’s disturbing in male art is psychologically more acceptable coming from a woman?

NORMA

Of course! What comes out of the artist’s brush is really coming from the artist’s brain.  Thighs like that painted by a woman are about empowerment, not objectification.

LARRY

So the Mona Lisa would mean something else if painted by a woman? 

NORMA

Naturally! And if the experts who believe that Mona is really da Vinci painting himself as a young, beautiful woman, then the mysterious smile would certainly mean something different if painted by anyone else. 

LARRY

Which reminds me.  Apparently congratulations are in order. 

NORMA

(Sadly)  He told you.  Already.

LARRY

Sure.  Anything wrong with that?

NORMA

He tells everyone!  In this terribly bright, terribly odd voice. I wish he’d get over it.

LARRY

Get over it?

NORMA

Oh, I know he’s hurt. He doesn’t get that in my case at least it’s mostly political. And cheap. A pat on the head instead of a raise for a job well done.

LARRY

What did you mean, in your case?

NORMA

Well, first of all I’ve accidentally wandered into the pop sciences du jour—brain science and gender difference all rolled into one.  And this year it was Arts and Science’s “turn” to name someone and my dean would really like to prove he’s not the sexist old poop he is, so he nominated me. And because no one has really ever considered me a particularly serious scientist none of my colleagues’ noses was put out of joint because they figured I was a teaching token. No one except poor old Jacob, that is.

LARRY

Why don’t you tell him all this!

NORMA

I have! He thinks I’m just trying to make him feel better.

LARRY

And are you?

NORMA

Of course! But it’s also true. It just is so ironic that my getting an award that he’s never given two hoots about is suddenly driving him crazy. You know, shoring up the male ego doesn’t get any easier over time. I think it’s because you peak so early sexually.

LARRY

You’re kidding aren’t you?

NORMA

Only two kinds of women, kiddo.  Ball busters and shorer-uppers.  And sometimes I think we shorer-uppers do more damage than the ball busters.

LARRY

What do you mean?

NORMA

Well the ball busters don’t really do much damage to a healthy male ego. You look at her and think “bitch” or “cunt,” dismiss her and move on. But shorer-uppers seem to be sending the subtextual message that you need shoring up. That you must, in fact, be damaged. As a result the subject of the up-shoring is significantly diminished by the very strategy aimed at the opposite.

LARRY

(His smile is large and genuine.)  So what’s the answer?

NORMA

I’m seriously considering saying to him, “OK, buddy, this award means that I have been definitively proved to be the superior scientist. Accept it and move on.”

LARRY

And the result?

NORMA

Well, if I said that out loud I hope he’d recognize it as utter bullshit, laugh and get over it.

LARRY

So why don’t you do that.

NORMA

I might recommend that to a client if I had a practice, but I’m too close to Jake. I’m really not certain that in his present frame of mind he wouldn’t just believe me and internalize his feelings of inadequacy even further. The truth is, Larry, we are all damaged.  We all need all the help we can get.

LARRY

What if he really is inadequate?

NORMA

Don’t be an idiot! He’s a brilliant scientist going through a bad patch. He needs a new research subject but he’s afraid it’s too late to start over. And it isn’t. He’s smarter and better than when he started. But beginning over at our age is really scary.

                                                                 LARRY

God! That’s for sure.

                                                                NORMA

A century ago most of us would be already dead or at least sitting in God’s waiting room.  Today people in our demographic could be looking at another thirty or forty years. We’re the first generation who had better take seriously the prospect of a second act.  Of course we also know, unfortunately, that we could also be dead tomorrow. Well, I think that’s my hour. I’d better make room for the next patient.

LARRY

(Startled.)  What?

NORMA

Oh, please! You must notice that every time we come here, Laura stays in the living room until you ring the gong and each of us take turns coming to visit the Great and Powerful Oz.

LARRY

What!?

NORMA

I’m sorry. That’s not fair. You’re like a really good psychologist. You elicit maximum information with minimum encouragement and you never judge. You’re the best listener I know.

LARRY

I know you mean that as a compliment but does it occur to you that all you’ve really said is that I’m not a very interesting conversationalist. 

NORMA

Oh, don’t be silly. Pontificating is easy. Give me a sensitive and attentive listener every time. OK. I’m going upstairs to find more Art by MAC.

LARRY

Look in the guest bedroom and the master bathroom.

NORMA

The bathroom?

LARRY

What can I say? The whole house is filled with overflow from Laura’s gallery.  We’re the annex. You should see the garage.

NORMA

You’re kidding.

LARRY

Yeah, I am. 

NORMA

(Taking another little splash of Dewar’s) Well, I’m outta here.  See you over the first course.  (She exits.)

(Larry is briefly alone.  He takes a clean spoon to taste the risotto and ladles more broth into the pot.  Barbara enters, runs around the counter, puts her arms around Larry’s head and pulls down.)

Hyperrealism--the Ten Elements of Behavior--Proxemics (Space)

As promised I intend to discuss the ten elements of behavior, a nomenclature one can used to record all human behavior, in some detail.  Having already done that in my book of the terminology of acting, Unnatural Acts, I have simply stolen it and slightly revised it for this blog.  Why am I doing this in such detail?  Because once one becomes aware of how others are living in the ten elements, the better we understand them.  If we become expert at applying this vocabulary to other people, eventually our observation turns inward and we become aware of how we are drawing ourselves on the universe through time.  If we wish it is a way of knowing ourselves better.  We are not what we think we are.  We are not what we say we are or even what others say we are.  We are what we do.  If we are aware of what we do we can understand ourselves and also why others see us the way they do.TEN  ELEMENTS  OF BEHAVIOR:

1. Proxemics/Space

Proxemics is a term of art used by scholars of non-verbal behavior and body language to refer to the distance people establish between themselves and others at a particular meeting to preserve their sense of safety.  It also refers to the ways they each works to vary it throughout the meeting to further his intentions.  It is an inevitable element of behavior in any event or circumstance (two are more people necessarily will be at some distance from each other) and therefore must be established by the actor as part of the vocabulary of pattern of the scene.The actions which establish the proxemics of the scene and which vary it to any marked degree are usually the largest actions that the audience sees.  Therefore, proxemic choices will be a very meaningful and persuasive element of behavior.  Establishing the pattern of proxemics among all the characters in a scene is what directors refer to as "staging" or "blocking".  The proxemic flow of the scene is constantly visible to the whole audience and therefore is always capable of their thoughtful interpretation.

The concept of proxemics is based to a large extent on social rules developed by societies so that individuals will feel reasonably secure in their persons.  Children, who have not yet learned those rules through education or experience and those who are incapable due to mental illness or inborn mental defect, frequently offend against these rules.

Human beings, as they grow up and become socially adroit, usually come to recognize tacitly that there are different distances they should appropriately maintain and in which they should operate if they are to be comfortable and insure the comfort of those around them.  Indeed, people of different cultures often give unintended and unwitting offense by behaving in a way that offends another person's sense of appropriate distance.  Mediterranean people generally maintain a much closer social distance than that with which Northern European people are comfortable. The rules of proxemics differ greatly in different cultures. The differences in those rules are too complex and specific for purposes of our present discussion, but should be researched, studied, and followed when representing people of different culture and ethnicity onstage.  Indeed, every actor should constantly study and try to maintain currency on general works of social psychology, communication theory, (including verbal and nonverbal behavior.  The information provided in this text merely touches on the most obvious and salient of the rules taken from such study.

The zones of social space are generally divided into the following categories: l) intimate space; 2) personal space; 3) social space; 4) formal space.  How much distance is included in each depends to some extent on the circumstance. 

Intimate space is the very near space that one willingly allows another to enter only if willing to allow them to whisper something secretly or if prepared to allow them the liberty of a kiss.  A policeman in an interrogation room might enter that space without permission when questioning a suspect whom he wants to intimidate into confession.  When a person is in control of a situation, she allows another into intimate space only if she is on intimate and friendly terms with him.  For someone to enter that space without permission is usually interpreted as a display of unqualified power and will be regarded as threatening.  Intimate space might be aptly described as "kiss me--kill me space."  This is a space that is either occupied by close friends of equal status, or by enemies, one of whom wishes to express her position of dominance over the other.

Personal space is the zone of comfort we try to maintain around ourselves at all times. Depending on the circumstance this can vary between an inch or two and three feet, but when possible a person tries to preserve from one to three feet of distance.  This is a space that can be comfortably shared by people who, within the limits of the given circumstances are more or less equal.  There is a tacit understanding that we need to maintain less formal distance when sitting face-to-face than face-to-face.  (Position is an element of behavior that, because of is importance, will be considered next.)  When sitting next to a stranger at the theatre we may feel satisfied that our personal space has been maintained no matter how close the other unless they are actually touching us.  When hands or shoulders accidentally touch usually both people will withdraw fractionally to reestablish that small personal space.  On an airplane, flying coach, passengers may be forced to touch shoulders and thighs but they will usually keep the dividing arm down as a way of preserving a sense of personal space unless sitting next to a close friend or relative.  At a conference table the participants are usually careful to keep their personal items (pen, paper, glass, etc.) within an area that represents an exact distribution of the table's space among them as if that distribution were defined by imaginary lines.  For one participant to move his things even an inch or two into another's space may be interpreted as an aggressive, even hostile, action.  In “real life” this sense of appropriate distance is usually unconscious.  In order for this distance to remain a comfortable one, there must be a mutual acknowledgement that the space is to be equitably divided.  When two people face one another across a table at a restaurant, they mutually and unconsciously draw an imaginary line between them and the social rule is that condiments and the like be made to occupy a place along that line or the table’s margins.  In scientific experiments it has been discovered that, without exception, the subjects grew uncomfortable and even angry if their partners attempted to "claim" more space for themselves by pushing the condiments into their partners' space.  Interestingly it was often noted that the participants appeared to be unaware that the issue of space was the source of their anger, even while repeatedly attempting to reestablish an equitable distribution of available space.

Social space is usually regarded as being a distance of approximately three to five feet.  It is the space we maintain with someone with someone with whom we are less than intimate when having a conversation at a cocktail party.  Most professionals arrange their offices in order that visitors are able to sit within that space unless the office's occupant wishes to create a very formal atmosphere with himself clearly in control.  Social space is one in which all participants feel at once welcome and comfortable.

Formal space is usually a distance greater than five feet.  This is not a comfortable space for maintaining a conversation, so there is the implicit suggestion that anything that happens is formal in nature and is occurring between participants who are very different in status.  The person who controls the situation dictates formal distance.  The other participants are understood to be submitting to that authority.  A monarch might greet a subject, an officer might address troops, a warden might inspect prisoners and the like within formal space.  Only the dominant person is permitted to vary the distance to a more intimate one without risk of giving formal offense.  The space is understood to "belong" to the dominant person and only he may vary it according to his desire.  It is therefore a dramatic action when a person who supposedly occupies an inferior position enters his superior's social or intimate space.  A manager may, without permission, enter an employee's personal space for business reasons, perhaps to read the text from the monitor of their computer.  An employee may not do the same to his boss without being invited unless he wants to risk displeasure and reprimand.

A simple but important principle in varying proxemics during a scene is that all people are drawn instinctively toward that which pleases them and move away from that which annoys, scares, or repels them or which they find offensive in any way.  Working the scene for proxemics means adopting the point of view of the character in varying our distance from the others in the scene.  This must be done within the supposed limits that the situation permits and the degree to which the characters feel constrained to act within those limits.  Obviously the choices will be different for the character that feels himself superior in status to his partner and the one who feels inferior.  Sometimes the most interesting actions arise between people, both of whom feel superior or inferior to the other.  Such a point of view will necessarily lead to behavior that will be high in conflict.   Actually, any time a character tries to vary the proxemic space in violation of the rules that the other character takes to be in effect will produce conflict.  Our sense of territoriality is so central to our personal “rules” that any violation of it will lead to an effort, conscious or conscious to exert control.  (One of the reasons that acting is an “unnatural act” is that the actor must be conscious of that which the character would be unconscious if he were real.)Exercise:  Observe two people whom you do not know well interacting in a public place for five minutes.  What kind of proxemic distance do they establish between themselves at the outset?  How does it vary during the course of the interaction?  How do you interpret their relationship based on those choices?  Record your impressions in a notebook.

Betsy McGee Forester Day

Thinking about Things

Mother didn’t know it but Betsy didn’t always take a nap, and when she did she usually woke long before her mother came to claim her.  She liked to use that time to think about things. One of the things she did before her mother came was to entertain herself by sharing with Bun, her floppy-eared, green calico stuffed rabbit, the story on her nursery walls.  She couldn’t remember a time that the pictures hadn’t been there.  Mama (smells like homemade bread) said they had painted the story together and then would smile at her father and Daddy would smile back in a special way.  And then one of them would tell her the story again. 

Betsy couldn’t imagine how she could have forgotten helping her mother on such a big “project”.  Mama and Daddy loved projects—there was a different one almost every weekend—painting a piece of furniture from a garage sale, planting pansies in the patio, making cookies and miniature pies (Mama called them “baby keeshes”)  for the people in St. Joseph’s Nursing Home when they visited once a month.

Betsy liked the way Daddy told it because he made her laugh with the voices he gave to all the characters.  They were funny but seemed true at the same time.  She liked the way Mama told it because she would often sing songs that went with the story.  The story was The Wind in the Willows.  Mama said it was one of her favorite stories when she was a little girl. 

Mama had shown her pictures of herself when she was a little girl and, though Betsy believed Mama, it was hard to image her tall, beautiful mother was ever as little as that.  Mama said that a father had written the story for his little boy a long time ago.  So Mama had painted the story on the walls for her. 

She knew that the story was supposed to be mainly about Toad and, indeed, she thought he was very funny but secretly, she liked Ratty the most.  Ratty was so nice to Mole, letting him live with him, showing him the ways of the river and the wild wood, and making such wonderful picnic baskets for them even as he worried that it wouldn’t be enough.  Mother had painted the riverbank and the little boat and the picnic on the wall directly at the foot of Betsy’s crib.  When she tried very hard she could dream herself into the picture now and feel the breeze and hear the lapping water, and see Mole nibbling delicately at a little pie.  (Was that a keesh?)  And Ratty, leaning back in his odd clothing (Who wears a suit on a picnic? And why did he have short pants?) and sipping a bottle of lemonade. 

All at once Betsy’s eyes wandered to the door in the hall.  On it was a long hanging Mama called the alphabet menagerie.  Betsy could sing her alphabet and began to hum a little:  “ABCDEFG . . .” to herself.  Mother said it was a menagerie because each letter was worn by an animal.  Mother said each animal’s name and the sound of that name started with the letter that it wore or held.  She had figured out that her own name, Betsy McGee Forester Day began with four of those letters:  B M F D.  She knew that because her mother often shortened her name to BMFD and four of the letters in the alphabet song were BMFD.  Yesterday she had decided that B was for Bear and Betsy.  M was for Mole and McGee.  (The Mole looked a little like Moley in Wind in the Willows but wasn’t as sweet and serious.)  F was for Fox and Forester and D was for Dog and Day.  By the time she had figured that out naptime was over.

  

If It Be Not Now . . . Chapter 3

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          “Honey, I’m home!” Before she could toss her keys, bag, and mail on the hall table, feet could be heard pounding down the carpeted stairs.  “How,” she thought, “is it possible for such small furry feet to make so much noise?”  Two flame-point Siamese twined themselves daintily around her ankles.

          “OK, guys, is that love or hunger?”  A yowl preceded the dash to the kitchen and she followed obediently behind.  Having kibbled their bowls, she ice-cubed a frosty glass and poured a more than generous portion of icy Ketel One into it.  Four cocktail onions followed (well, she’d missed lunch—better not drink on an empty stomach) and she was on her way to the little deck just off the kitchen.  The kitchen she had furnished for practicality, the garden with love.  The hydrangeas were in still in bloom but becoming a little frowzy with the end of summer but the wildly varied pansy-beds had survived and were flourishing.  The full-bellied hostas were begun to look a little ragged around the edges.  The black-eyed Susans were threatening to displace the climbing honeysuckle but together they still looked rather comfortable together.

       Maggie kicked off her heels (how she hated meeting days in the Ivory Tower) and lowered herself gratefully into the gravity chair she had recently had delivered.  How could a woman who clicked past the Home Shopping networks with disdain buy virtually everything except groceries and toiletries online?  Because she could, dammit!  Truly she hated shopping with a passion reserved for few other human enterprises.

        The first sip made itself powerfully felt.   She went back into the kitchen for a plate of cheese and crackers and, as a last thought, added an apple.  There.  All food groups represented.

     She had barely sliced a strip of Gouda when the doorbell rang.  She momentarily considered the socially approved strategy of going to open it—for a moment.  And then making use of the noted projection range that three decades of acting and of teaching large classes of obstreperous students had granted her she yodeled:  “I’m out back!  Come on around!”

      In a moment she was surprised to see Ted Kramer peering uncertainly over the garden gate.  Ted usually conformed to the traditionally personality profile of the professor stage design.  Good-looking in an unassuming way, he was a very quiet presence in faculty meetings, rarely contributing or calling attention to himself in any way, unless immediately involved in the issues under discussion, such as the need for a new light board or the unusual increases in the cost of colored gels.  She could not remember a time when a fellow faculty member had turned up at her door without having made a previous appointment.  He was the last person she had expected to see. 

      “Ted!  How nice to see you!  I don’t think I’ve seen you since your return from the Williamsburg Festival.  Please, come on in.  It’s just a latch.”

     “I’m sorry.  Perhaps I shouldn’t have come.  You are clearly relaxing after a long day.  I shouldn’t intrude.”  He started to leave but she stopped him in mid-flight with a laugh. 

          “Please!  I’ve been almost a hermit this summer.  I am so glad to have a real adult to chat with rather than the talking heads on MSNBC I spend so much time conversing with unsatisfactorily.”

          “Oh.  Do you email them or Twitter.”

          “Neither.  I just yell at the screen when they annoy me beyond endurance.  Now come one in.  Oh, are you pro or anti cat?  If anti as so many people are, I’ll cage up the felines.”

          “I don’t have a cat at the moment but I am very much a cat person.  They won’t bother me at all.”

          “Moo is asleep under the big maple tree at the bottom of the garden and probably won’t bother you but Shoo will undoubtedly make a bee-line for your lap as soon as you sit.  Can I get you a drink?”

          “Just water.  I have some more work tonight to get ready for Show and Tell tomorrow.”          “Have a seat and help yourself to the cheese and crackers.  I’ll be back in a moment.”

          By the time she got back with a tall glass of iced water with lemon and a more substantial serving of cheese, crackers, and assorted fruit she discovered her prediction had come true.  Shoo was settled comfortably in Kevin’s lap and the trembling purr issuing from her confirmed that he indeed was a cat person that knew how to stroke and where.

          After they had both eaten and drunk a little while in comfortable silence she asked,  “So, to what do I owe the pleasure of this visit?”

“I don’t know . . . maybe I shouldn’t have come.”

“But you are here so . . .”

“All right, stop me if I’m out of line.  I haven’t been doing this for very long and . . .”

“And I have so . . .”

“So if my being here and asking some questions is inappropriate I want you to tell me.”

          “Ted, we’ve only known each other a couple of years but have I ever given you the impression that I have a hard time speaking my mind?”

          “No, Doctor, Professor . . . Maggie.  First of all, I know that it would have made more sense for me to wait till tomorrow and make an appointment but . . .”

          “But you’re worried about something and it’s getting in the way of your being able to eat, sleep, or work.”

          “Yeah!  How did you . . .”

          “I teach undergraduates.  Not very articulate undergraduates.  If I weren’t able to read facial expressions and behavior I wouldn’t be a very good director or teacher.”

          “See, that’s the problem.  I’ve only been teaching a couple of years and I’ve always taught undergraduates.  The two new design grad students were waiting for me when I came in today.  I guess I hadn’t given much thought to how my relationship to this new project was going to work.”

          “Fred didn’t explain it before you went on vacation?”

          “Well, sure.  He said I would be doing an independent study with them the first semester.  That they would be shadowing and assisting me on the first production and then I would advise them through their first year projects.”

          “Yes, that’s right.  So what’s the problem?”

          “I . . . they are almost as old as I am!  I think the lighting designer . . .”

          “Kevin.”

          “Yeah.  He’s probably worked with more complex lighting systems than I have.  He’s been working in Vegas for a couple of years.  He was one of the Master Electricians for Cirque du Soleil.  How am I supposed to teach him anything?  And . . . the design girl . . .”

          “Martha.”

          “Yeah, Martha.  She renders better than I do.  I went through their resumes and portfolios and I started thinking they should be teaching me.”

          “Of course they should.  And you will be wise to let them.  Listen, Ted, I get it.  I do.  It’s much easier teaching undergraduates.  At first they know almost nothing and it gives you a powerful feeling of authority.  These people have come here for what is called second tier training.  Either because they hope to teach one day and they know they’ll need a terminal degree or, their careers haven’t developed as well as they’d hoped and they know that an advanced degree is rapidly becoming to the profession what the sorting hat is at Hogwarts.  A way of weeding out dozens of applicants without the necessity of considering their capabilities.  A few, like Vanessa come because they just feel they need to know more.”

          “But that still doesn’t tell me how I’m supposed to teach them.  How to get their respect.”

          “You don’t have to get their respect—assume you already have it.  You have the three little letters after your name that they covet so they assume that you know more.  And you do.  I was on your search committee.  You weren’t hired because of your mastery over lighting equipment or how well you render but because of your mind.”

          “My mind?”

          “Well, perhaps your aesthetic would be more accurate.  Not only do you design really well as your portfolio attests but you have a very sophisticated ability to turn a play into a visual and aural context.  And you are able to communicate that aesthetic in plain English and without pontification.  Just talk to them.  Answer their questions about your designs, ask questions about theirs, don’t talk down to them but don’t imagine they know as much as you do because they don’t.  You can all three benefit from the interaction with each other over the next three years.  Being a professor can be a very isolating proposition.  Oh, you have colleagues but they are all specialists, chosen for the way as you were for you complement each other.  And design teachers are even more isolated.  Grad students can provide a very pleasant and productive cohort.  And, lucky for you, you are nearly age mates.  You’ve grown up listening to the same music, seeing the same films.  You will be able to use allusions so much more effortlessly than I can given the great gap between my age and theirs.  Go out for a drink or two and swap stories about shows you’ve done, disasters you’ve avoided . . . or not.  Pretty sure this time next week you’ll discover that having grad students is the best thing that’s happened to you since you’ve been here.” “You must think I’m an idiot.”           “No, the reason I know what you don’t is because whatever problems you’ve had or will have as an artist/teacher I’ve had.  And even though it was a while ago those problems were painful enough that I remember them well.”         “Thanks.  I feel a lot better.  Well,” he said lowering the protesting Shoo to the deck, “I guess I’d better go.”        “Your more than welcome to stay awhile.”       “I’ve got more work to do on the set tonight and now I think I can do it.” “Let me know in a week or two how it’s going.”      “I will.  And thanks again,” he said while letting himself out of the latch gate.  Having been disturbed and not yet ready to abandon the sybaritic comfort only humans are able to provide, Shoo had leapt lightly into Maggie’s lap.  “Shoosie, I hope I did the right thing.  I know it’s not as easy as I said but he needs to start the process with them making a good impression.  Maybe if he thinks it’s going to be a sure thing, he will.  Time will tell.”

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