Acting Your Dreams: Using Acting Techniques to Interpret Your Dreams (4 page)

Now that we
have the cast, we want to look at all of the props in our dream. A prop is a
moveable item that is essential to the scene. It could be a table, a
flashlight, a sofa, a gun… any inanimate object that is added to the scene
either for esthetics or to be used by an actor.

In this
breakdown the props are:

—Red sports car

—Black dump
truck (the one that looks like the train from Golden eye)

— Table

—Writing Form

—White,
laminated, 3x5 Card

—Card with the
red visor

—Marlboro Reds
(Even though these aren’t actually in the Dreamplay, they do—or will play a role
in the story.)

—We can also
infer based on other props that there is a chair since I’m sitting at the
table.

—Since I’m
filling out a form, I’m either using a pen, or a pencil, so I’ll say “writing
implement.”

Mission #5

Write down your props.

Pay attention
to the color in your dream. Often we don’t seem to remember colors in our
dreams but evidence suggests that we all dream in color. Color tends to fade
quickly as we wake, so when a color stands out it’s significant.

Even the lack
of color can be a significant insight. If you only remember in black and white,
then write that down. Maybe you’re dreaming about something that your dreaming
mind sees in black and white or maybe you’re being shown that “things aren’t
always black and white.” The Dreamwright will use color or the lack of color to
make some profound observations about whatever situation you may be dreaming
of.

The
prominent colors here are:

—Red for the
sports car

—Black for the
dump truck

—But let’s not
forget the name in the dream… Goldeneye. This name is relevant to the dream so
gold is a relevant color.

—White of the
card

—Notice again
the Marlboro “Reds” and the red visor. Red is the prominent color in this dream
and this may prove relevant at some point.

Don’t worry
about things such as the dream fridge. Yes, most of them are black or silver,
but since no particular color stood out in the dream there’s no reason to
pursue it. The same is true of the form I’m filling out or the chair I’m
sitting on. If, on the other hand, you notice that there should be color and there
isn’t, then you will want to make a note of that.

Mission #6

Write down your dream’s colors. If you
don’t remember any color, this is also significant so write that down. Note
whether your Dreamplay was black and white, gray, or any other variations you
remember.

In a script,
the actor approaches everything he or she reads in terms of actions. The entire
story could be broken down into a series of actions. When an action takes
place, even the simplest of tasks, there must be a purpose for that action. The
same is true in the Dreamplay. A dream is a series of actions, one action after
the other. And every action has a purpose: to move the story along to its
conclusion. Even if it appears that “nothing” is happening, or “nothing” is
moving, i.e. you have “inaction,” what you really have is the action of holding
steady or staying put. To be inactive is a choice not to act and that in itself
is action. The nature of the universe is movement, and to stop that movement
means you have to force inaction. This is action.

In a script,
each character’s actions are based on certain predispositions of their
personality. These are called Units of Action and there are many different
Units that an actor must be aware of. Each of these particular Units of action
will play a significant role in the story as we work to understand our dream
stories and dream characters.

Through
Line of Action:

The “Through
Line of Action” in a screenplay is very significant. From the beginning of the
story to the end of the story there is a goal that drives the plot. To put in
the terms of the great Stanislavski, the main character in a story will have to
deal with a variety of obstacles and setbacks to reach that goal. This is the “Through
Line of Action.” This goal involves the story and the characters in it. In
Monty Python’s “Search for the Holy Grail,” the Through Line of Action is very
simple: King Arthur and his knights must find the Holy Grail. Everything that
the knights do to find the grail, whether it be face the rabbit, defeat the
knights of Ni, rescue Galahad from the Castle Anthrax or cross the bridge over
the River Death, all hang on one line. The Through Line of Action is to find
the Holy Grail.

In my dream the
Through Line of Action doesn’t seem to be very clear. There is a lot of chasing
and spying with no obvious direction to the dream. In this instance, the way
for me to establish a Through Line of Action in this story might be to pretend
I’m recommending the movie to a good friend. During the discourse of my
conversation, I will learn that the Through Line of Action for this Dreamplay
is to communicate information without disclosing any secrets. When I looked at
this dream further I did in fact realize that I had been trying to reveal
myself to some friends without actually “revealing” myself.

Action—Active:

Here the
characters of your Dreamplay are making deliberate choices in regard to the
situation as it happens rather than letting the situation determine their
actions. Another word for Active Action could be Pro-Active. Someone who lives
by the creed “be prepared” is also working under the Active Action unit. In the
Batman movies, you could say that Batman and the villains are using Active
Action unit, and the victims are usually using the Passive Action Unit.

Action—Passive:

The characters
of the Dreamplay are reacting to what is happening to, and around them rather
than taking a deliberate action. Inaction also falls into this category. This
is the person standing on the street yelling, “Superman, help us!”

Action—Automatic
(Subconscious):

The actions of
the Dreamplay’s characters are natural or automatic and they do not think about
them. This is very much affected by the dreamer’s personality. If you are a
proactive person, then you will automatically act to prevent a crisis and may
not think twice about it. If you are a reactive person, the same is true. You
will automatically react to something—and maybe even feel victimized by it.

Action—Deliberate
(Conscious):

The Dreamplay
character's actions are either deliberate actions to help them achieve a goal,
cope with a situation, or respond to another action in a manner that would
differ from their usual response. Deliberate action will not be actions that a
character would normally take in a given situation, and therefore, must be
thought out or planned… “deliberately.” This often happens when a character is
in a situation they have never been in before.

I’ve given you
these three units of action here but it’s not necessary that you record each
type of action. In the case of the Dreamplay it may even bog down the analysis.
But you may find that you’re consistently dreaming dreams where you can do
nothing but react to crisis, and your dream is trying to tell you to create
some new Automatic actions. What I want to show you here is how action works.
By understanding passive and active action you can understand how your
Dreamwright sees your ability to act.

A classic
example in a dream is an attempt from the dreamer to get help from another dream
character. Once in a while you’ll find yourself in trouble and call out for
help only to get nothing. The dream character you call out to responds with a
shrug, refuses help outright, or completely ignores you. This can be a
significant unit of action. Your Dreamwright may be making a comment on what it
sees as your ability to act—particularly to engage help.

In this dream
we’ll look at action in general, and we may take note of the form of action
too. Here is what the dream looks like described as a series of actions. Again,
we are looking at these actions in the present tense as if they’re happening
now.

—Bond—Speeding
down the road

—Bond—Jumping
into the water

—Ben—Standing
by the side of the road.

—Dump
truck—Screeching to a halt

—Ben—Sitting at
a table

—Ben—Filling
out a form

—Bond—Speaking—Asking
me if I’m going to the store

—Bond—Talking
in code

—Ben—Ascertaining
that Bond is talking in code

—Ben—Responding
back in code

—Ben—Speaking—Yes
I am

—Bond—Speaking—Asking
me if I would pick something up for him

—Ben—Agreeing
to pick up something from the store

—Bond—Handing
me a white, laminated, 3x5 card

—Bond—Thinking
better of that

—Bond—Handing
me another card with the red visor

—Ben—Ascertaining
again that Bond is speaking in Code

—Ben—Keeping to
the code

—Ben—Acknowledging
my receipt of the card

—Ben—Speaking—A
package of Marlboro Reds

—Ben—Pulling
the red visor down so I can read the code

—Ben—Reading
the code back to Bond

—Ben—Making up
sentences that start with each new word of the code

—Ben &
Bond—Reading together

—Ben &
Bond—Speaking together—Is Jacob well?

You will notice
that every action, whether it was alluded to or spoken of outright, is
mentioned here. For example: “speaking.” Because of the nature of dialogue, if
something is said, then it is spoken. That is an action. Thinking is an action.
Ascertaining is a form of thinking so it is also an action and so it’s included
in the list.

Now let’s tie
that all together into one action sentence and see what it looks like. This
sentence isn’t going to look like a properly formed grammatically correct
sentence, so don’t worry about punctuation. My sentence would read…

Speeding
jumping standing screeching sitting filling speaking talking ascertaining
responding speaking speaking agreeing handing thinking handing ascertaining
keeping acknowledging speaking pulling reading making reading speaking.

Sometimes, as
you’re filling in the action, you may notice certain patterns. You may notice,
for example, that there is both physical action and mental action in this
dream. That would seem to involve several faculties. The word ‘speaking’ shows
up often, as does the word ‘ascertain.’ As I pursue the dream further, these
actions will tell me more.

In this case,
it is true of me that I try to solve my problems by using logic or trying to
talk my way into or out of situations. I often talk to myself, or sometimes
“God.” That I notice there’s so much speaking going on is significant to me
because that is how I like to resolve issues. Ironically, though, and further
analysis of the dream showed that not only was I trying to resolve an issue
through speaking, I was also afraid of giving too much away, and I was afraid
that ‘somebody’ was listening.

Mission #7

1.
     
See if you can find
the Through Line of Action in your dream.

2.
     
Write down all the action in your dream.

3.
     
Once you have
finished that, combine all the action into a single sentence.

Trace a line, which runs through the
various actions of any given character. Do this by breaking down the story into
a basic plot, and then watching how everything is done in keeping with the
plot.

It’s the
journalist’s creed:

Who?

What?

When?

Where?

Why?

How?

Characterization
and the Character Bio

Every character
has a history. That history predates the character we meet on the screen and
has everything to do with who the character is by the time we meet them. Often
times we will know very little about the character going into the story.
Sometimes a voice, a narrator, either the character or a storyteller will tell
us something about the person we are about to meet. But most writers consider
that cliché and they prefer not to use that technique if they don’t have to.
Instead, the screenwriter tries other options to introduce us.

The character
will make or break any story. The success of the story hangs on our ability to
believe in the characters and their mission. Names like Luke Skywalker, Clarice
Starling, Hannibal Lector, Indiana Jones, James Bond, ET, Harry Potter, Dorothy
and many more are all known better than the actors who played them. These were
characters who reached into our collective psyche and made themselves a part of
our pop culture. These characters introduced us to a whole new paradigm. Whether
we realized it or not, we were drawn into the story by the characters.

Throughout a
story, the characters have some sort of goal or purpose that makes it a story
in the first place. They must overcome something or they must make an important
discovery. In Lord of the Rings, Frodo must overcome the evil Lord Mauldrin by
returning the Ring of Power that his uncle Bilbo found on a previous expedition.
Throughout the story, as we watch the events take place, we get to know the
character. We watch as Frodo wrestles with himself and with the other
characters in the story—even the ring itself. This is what characterization is
all about and it takes a lot of work on the part of the actor to make this
happen.

Occasionally we
will hear about a character before they actually make their appearance, and we may
know them once they step into the action. In the movie, The Princess Bride, we
hear about the Dread Pirate Roberts, though we don’t discover until quite near
the end of the movie who he is. Through the dialog of other characters, we
learn “he is nothing to be trifled with.” In the Wizard of Oz we learn that the
Wizard is a great magician who can help Dorothy get back to her home. In fact,
in this movie it is the character, The Wizard, that creates the Through Line of
Action. Dorothy and her friends are on a mission to find this Wizard and each
character has something that they hope to garner from him. It’s a bit of a
disappointment when they learn that he is only hiding behind a curtain to make
himself appear bigger and more powerful than he is.

These character
appearances can happen in our Dreamplay. When a character enters our dream
stage we don’t always know who they are, but they do a marvelous job of
convincing us. For instance, we may dream of a wolf wearing pink pedal pushers
growling at us and trying to eat us. In the Dreamplay we don’t even question
why this creature is so bent on our destruction. If a dream character claims to
be a long lost relative we don’t question them. If they claim to be us, even
though they have webbed feet, three fingers, and a tail, we don’t question
them. If they tell us they want to help us, then we accept that. Our dream
characters are astonishingly good with characterization.

When looking
over a dream, it’s a good idea to look closely at these characters. For
instance, do they remind you of someone you know in waking life? One lady
dreamt of a hippopotamus that reminded her of her husband. The “hungry hippo”
ran through the house demanding food and threatening her. When she examined the
image more closely, she became aware that her husband’s constant appetite and
his attitude toward food had started to frighten her.

It is also
important that we view our dream characters in terms of actions. Every
character in the dream is doing something. It’s chasing us, teaching us,
frustrating us, or any number of other actions. Maybe it undergoes a
metamorphosis from one creature to another. When working with characterization
you will learn a lot about the character by watching its actions.

Just as in real
life, the characters in dreams will adjust to the other characters. If one
character is talking to a stupid person, they adjust so that they can
communicate. If they are taking to a child, they adjust to that child's level
of understanding. If they are dealing with a shrewd person, they adjust
themselves so that they are more cautious. If the “someone” is speaking in
code, then the character will adjust and speak in code too, if he knows what
that code is.

The great Carl
Jung would ask the dreamer, “What does an angel mean to you?” And by the
dreamer’s explanation he could extract the possible meaning of a dream symbol.
This would also be true of dream people. He would ask “Who is this person in
real life?” and that would help him understand why that person showed up in the
dream, and what they might be trying to communicate. Gayle Delaney says to her
clients “pretend I come from another planet. Who is James Bond? Tell me
everything you can about him.”

When we look at
characterization, we must look for subtleties in the characters as well as their
overt character traits. In life a true hero is no more perfect than anyone
else. Neither is he always tall, dark and handsome. Conversely, villains in
life are rarely obvious in their villainy. Indeed, it is often their
attractiveness that hides their true nature and then highlights their evilness
when discovered. Another interesting twist is that often the villain will look
like a hero or vise versa. As we dreamers delve deeper into our dream characters,
we must remember this. Many characteristics are as subtle as rustling leaves
but when uncovered are as powerful as the strongest wind.

With that in
mind, now would be a good time to bring up three very common dream characters
talked about in most dream therapies: the top dog, the underdog, and the saboteur.
In the movies we call them the protagonist, the antagonist, and the conflict.
The protagonist has a goal, and the antagonist has a goal that somehow
interferes with the protagonist, therefore creating friction that the
protagonist must overcome. The disparity that the protagonist must overcome is
called the conflict, or in the case of the Dreamplay, the saboteur.

These three
characters appear in many dreams and take on many different forms. Movies are
rife with them, and so are our dreams. The underdog is usually some helpless
character that must fight the top dog to get what it wants. In the movie ET, ET
and Elliot must fight the government and time to get him home.

In the
Dreamplay these characters are not always so easy to distinguish. Nor is the
top dog always the villain and the underdog always the good guy. Both seem to
have good qualities and bad qualities that make it somewhat necessary to look
carefully before deciding on who’s the good guy and who’s the bad guy. It is
through examining the characters that we will learn more about them and their
goals. The top dog can be recognized by the use of threats to get what he or
she wants, whereas the underdog tends to whine and take on the persona of
victim.

The saboteur
can be a tricky character to recognize. It could be the top dog, the underdog,
or completely separate entity. Very often we may not even know that the
saboteur is even there. The best way to recognize the saboteur is to note if
there is anything in the dream that you are actively going after. If there is,
and something continues to prevent you from achieving your goal, then you have
probably been hit by the saboteur.

There are many
questions you could ask regarding each character. The list I’ve provided is by
no means extensive. Perhaps you’ve discovered some that aren’t listed here.
Don’t be afraid to ask any question that comes to mind regarding your
characters. Even if the answer will make you uncomfortable, the answer is worth
knowing; especially when working with a dream that has brought up strong
emotions or has made a profound impression.

Some possible
characterization questions to ask of your dream characters are listed below.

·
        
Who is the character
in real life?

·
        
Who is the character
in my dream?

·
        
What does the
character do in real life? (This is a little different than “what is the
character’s job.” This could mean certain habits or mannerisms. It could also
refer to the way he laughs or that she cries often. It could also be mannerisms,
which may make us laugh or frustrate us.)

·
        
What does the
character do in my dream? (Are they similar or dissimilar to the character that
we know in “real life”?)

·
        
What is the
character’s goal in the dream?

·
        
What are some of the
overt character traits?

·
        
What are some of the
subtle character traits?

·
        
When and how does
the character begin to reveal him or herself (or itself)?

·
        
Does the character
know that he or she is revealing him or herself?

·
        
Where is the
character when he or she (or it) reveals themselves?

·
        
Where is the
character in reference to me? (Is he beside me? Behind me? Facing me? Sneaking
up on me?)

·
        
Where does the
character fit in to the rest of the dream? (Is it a tornado on a sunny day?
Maybe it's a baby in the middle of a busy street. Looking at these differences
can open up whole new understandings of the dream.)

·
        
Why does the
character take whatever action they’re taking? (If you don’t know the answer,
then ask yourself why do you think he or she (or it) is behaving this way?)

·
        
How does the
character go about achieving his or her goals? (Does the character play fair?
Does he cheat? Does she move ahead no matter what’s in the way? Will he hurt
whoever gets in his way?)

·
        
How does the
character make you feel in the dream?

·
        
How do you respond
to the character? (Are you frightened but stand up to him or her (or it)? Are
you oblivious of the character’s presence? Do you run away from him or her even
though you know you shouldn’t?)

·
        
Does the character
resemble any real situation in my life? (You have also asked if the dream
itself resembled any situation in your life. But this is just the character
alone. Does the character alone resemble any situation in your life?)

Mission #8

1.
     
Ask the above
questions about each character in your dream.

2.
     
Ask the above
questions about each of your props.

3.
     
Ask the above questions about each of
the colors or emotions that you may have discovered.

a.
      
Is there a top dog?

b.
     
If there is a top
dog, is it a person or dream creature?

c.
      
Identify the top
dog.

4.
     
Is there an underdog?

a.
      
If there is an
underdog, is it a person or dream creature?

b.
     
Identify the
underdog

5.
     
Is there a saboteur?

a.
      
If there is, who or
what is that saboteur?

6.
     
Who is the
protagonist of your dream?

7.
     
Who is the
antagonist of your dream?