Acting Your Dreams: Using Acting Techniques to Interpret Your Dreams (5 page)

Point of View
is an interesting study and just to scratch the surface would take hundreds of
pages. An actor, who has the ability to look at, and move from one vantage
point to another, will find that this ability is a great asset, not just in
acting or dream interpretation, but also in life.

Point of View
is, very simply, the way we see something. It’s our own vantage point: that
position from which something is evaluated. Our Point of View is shaped by who
we are: our gender, our age, where we grew up, our education, marital status,
our social upbringing… the list is almost endless. The challenge each actor
faces is to move past relying on their own viewpoint, and seek to understand
the situation from the many other facets that may be coming into play. One
saying goes: “Each man can interpret another’s experience only by his own.”
This is where the tension in working with Point of View comes from.

The easiest way
to illustrate this is with the picture below.

·
        
Look at the picture
with your right eye closed.

·
        
Now look at the
picture with your left eye closed.

Did it change?
The most noticeable difference would be where the picture was in reference to
your eyes. With the right eye closed, the picture probably moved a bit to the
left. With the left eye closed, the picture moved to the right.

·
        
Now turn the book
upside down and look at it. Does it look different?

·
        
How do you imagine a
colorblind person might see it?

·
        
What if you were
looking at it from the other side of the room?

·
        
Perhaps you could
stand up and bend over so that you were looking through your legs.

A cat lover may
find this picture “oh so precious,” while someone who doesn’t particularly care
for cats may wish to shoo the cat off the piano. A concert pianist may be
thinking of all the hair that’s getting into the keys and the damage being done
to the instrument. A photographer might notice things like composition and
lighting (the cat being just incidental). A printer may think about how
expensive it is to use color photographs in a workbook such as this. Still
others will think, “What a waste of time.” Someone with an allergy to cats may
wish to sneeze just looking at the picture. It’s all a matter of perspective…
your perspective.

That’s Point of
View. No matter what any character in your dream may do, they all work from
their own point of view, and it’s going to be different from yours. This is
true in life, this is true in acting, and this is true in dreaming. Every
character in your dreams is going to have a slightly different vantage point,
and therefore a different reason for their actions. Some may have a radically
different point of view from what you thought possible.

Often times we
may fear a creature in our dreams. But if we just looked at the dream from that
creature’s point of view, we might find it far less intimidating. Jeremy Taylor
tells of a man who was being chased by a fire-breathing dragon. At one point
during the chase, the man turned around and asked the dragon, “What do you
want?” The dragon looked at him in surprise and said, “I’m your smoking habit.”
And at that moment, the dragon turned into brown, greasy glob. In those brief
moments, the man saw himself from another point of view. He saw his smoking
habit from another point of view. Maybe he even saw his smoking habit as his
body saw it.

Mission #9

1.
     
Look at each of your
dream characters from their point of view.

2.
     
Rewrite the dream
from the character’s point of view. For example, I could rewrite the dream from
James Bond’s Point of View, and then rewrite it from “Somebody’s” point of view.

3.
     
Ask each character what they’re trying
to do.

4.
     
Consciously re-dream
the dream from each character’s Point of View.

Words create
emotion. To understand the power of words we need only watch other’s reaction
to our words, or take note on how someone else’s words affect us. The old
saying, “Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me” has
never been true, and the older we get the more aware we become of this fact. In
the book of Proverbs there’s a saying that “life and death are in the power of
the tongue.” Another axiom regarding the power of words is “the pen is mightier
than the sword.” Truly there is no greater power than words and the images and
feelings they create. How many times have we said something to somebody that we
would give anything to take back, even years later, even after we’d cleaned it
all up with them?

With words we
flatter, defend ourselves, express our love, share feelings, do battle, and try
to change the world. Words are symbols upon which we drape powerful emotions.
It was just as much words as it was weapons that won the War of American
Independence. Guns and men would have had little effect if it hadn’t been for
the words of men like Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson. It
was words that inspired men to fight, to “Live free or die.”

Words spring up
from the wellspring of our souls. They tell the world who and what we are
whether we’re aware of that or not. By listening to a person speak you can
become familiar with their internal processes. You can determine whether this
person has good communication skills. Most of us have friends that we hate to
be around because all they do is talk, but if we would listen, they would speak
volumes to us.

When an actor
is reading a script, they must not decide too early how a phrase is to be read;
otherwise it will be useless to work on their inner life, which creates the
motivation for saying the line in the first place. In life we do not plan what
we’re going to say, or even how we’re going to sat it. We speak in accordance
with our feelings and the situation at hand. We do not plan how we are going to
respond to a cutting comment or a jibe. Many times we will in fact walk away
from that verbal exchange saying, “I wish I had said…” But as it happened in
real time, we could not prepare for it. Even if we are in a situation where we
can plan our responses, such as a job interview, the conversation is still
going to take several turns that will only allow us to stick to an outline.

The same is
true of dreams. Dream scripts are often improvisations, and while they may come
across as carefully scripted, there’s a certain amount of play it as it goes.
That is not to say that your Dreamwright is making it up as it goes along, it’s
doing both. The Dreamwright knows how to use dialog, monologue, and
improvisation or extemporaneous speaking in such a way so that your Dreamplay
is fresh and alive.

Words inspire
imagery and create emotion and the Dreamwright knows that. Because it knows the
power of words, the Dreamwright will organize the words in just such a way as
to force a reaction from us. This reaction may be fear, anger, frustration or
whatever that word calls for. If someone in a dream says something that really
hurts your feelings, you can believe that it’s on purpose. The Dreamwright is
trying to get something very important across and it knows the power of the words
it chose.

Intonation

Intonation
refers to the rise and fall of pitch in the voice during speech. When someone
is angry his or her intonation tends to rise. When they are in love, their
intonation drops and they have a more sultry tone. Ben Stein is a man well
noted for his lack of intonation. He plays the monotonic teacher in the teenage
classic Ferris Bueller’s Day Off; the teacher who called: “Bueller… Bueller…
Bueller…”

Sometimes
intonation is subtle while at other times it’s not. It can range all over the
board, but when we’re carrying on a conversation with anyone, we can easily pick
up on their intonation, whether we consciously realize it or not. A good
example of the subtle intonation would be the DJ’s voice on the radio. They
talk to us, inform us, and still maintain a comfortable and relaxed sound.

In life our
intonation discloses our attitudes. If you’re describing your boss to a friend
and you happen to strongly dislike this person, your intonation will reveal
that. If you’re passionate about your job, your intonation will show that as
well. Engage anyone you know in a conversation about computers and listen to
the intonation.

An “up tone” on
the end of a sentence signals a question. A “down tone” on the end of a
sentence signals the end of the sentence. A gasp signals surprise. A breath in
a sentence signals a break. There are so many ways that these “incidentals” can
be added to a group of words to help us recognize intonation.

Melody

Melody ties in
with intonation as it represents the basic tone of a word or phrase. It can be
soft and gentle, fast and harsh, monotone, or all over the place with no real
melody at all. The most obvious use of melody is found Shakespearean theater. As
the characters run through their lines we hear the melody as if they are
singing their lines. This feeling of movement is due to Shakespeare’s use of
Iambic Pentameter. Poetry is another great example of melody. When a television
or radio advertisement comes on, the voice is usually melodic as it tries to
convince us that our lives will be worthless without the product being
advertised.

Sub-Text

Subtext refers
to “what isn’t being said” during “what is being said.” You might have heard it
called reading between the lines. This is common in our communication with each
other. Sometimes it’s a backhanded compliment. The words were nice but it
seemed they were meant to convey something else. The value of the word is not
always in the word itself, but in the subtext around it. Things are often implied
which are not being said. A good example of this type of communication is the
old “inside joke.” We’ve all heard someone start laughing, and then look at us
and say “sorry, it was an inside joke.”

Even though someone
may say something straight forward, there is always a deeper meaning. The best
example of subtext comes from the Easter story told in church on Easter Sunday.
Mary had come to adorn the body of Christ after his crucifixion and burial but
when she got to the tomb the body was gone. She was weeping in the garden when
someone asked her why. Her reply was that they had taken her Lord. Then he said
to her one word… “Mary.” It was only one word but Mary knew it straight away.
There’s no way of knowing how much subtext was behind that word, but she
recognized the way he said her name even though she didn’t recognize the man in
front of her.

Monologue

Sometimes the
characters in a screenplay talk to themselves. This is called a monologue. A
monologue is a concentrated process of thinking aloud, expressing the
character's mood, his thoughts and feelings, even his inner conflicts. I have
friends who often talk in monologue. They love to talk and they will talk
regardless of whoever’s in front of them. In such a case they’re not really
talking to anyone in particular, they’re having a monologue with themselves and
using me as the starting point.

In a literary
context, a monologue is a speech in which the character reveals something about
his or herself. The monologue can be an actor speaking to himself, such as
Hamlet’s “To be or not to be.” It can be one character talking to another
character such as a criminal who confesses to the police how and why he killed
his victim. These monologues are invaluable in moving the story along and a
good Dreamwright knows just how to use them.

Monologues
usually come as narration. Often, our dream have a narrator moving the story
along. It usually sounds like us—talking to ourselves. These monologues will
tell us volumes about what is going on.

Dialogue

A dialogue is a
conversation between two or more people. Very simply put, it’s me talking to
you and you talking to me. In dreams you will find plenty of dialogue. I
remember observing two people having a conversation, and they were basically
talking over each other, each person talking and not listening to each other. I
thought it was rather funny. That wasn’t dialogue. That was two monologues
happening at the same time. It’s important that we realize that dialogue
involves the interplay of the characters speaking to each other.

By recording
the dialog in your dream, you will learn more about the characters and their
interaction with each other. If the dialogue is strained, it could infer some
unresolved yet uncomfortable conflicts between the characters. If it is loud
and angry, that will tell you that there are very strong emotions between the
two characters. The best way to understand a relationship between two people is
to focus on their dialog, keeping in mind that they will bring into play
intonation, and enunciation, and they will use an incredible amount of subtext
during the course of their conversation.

Enunciation

Enunciation is
a very specific statement or pronunciation of the words. When we watch Brian
Williams on television doing the news, we see that he enunciates very carefully
so that we can understand what he’s saying. When trying to talk to someone who
doesn’t speak our native tongue well, we will find ourselves enunciating
carefully so that we can be understood.

Others do not
enunciate so well. Some people talk in such a way that they don’t make sense.
They either ramble, or use a lot of “ers” in their sentences, or they
substitute pronouns for nouns. Instead of saying “will you bring me the phone?”
they say something like “get me that thing…”

How a character
uses enunciation will help us learn how to communicate with them. If we, in
real life, tend to use sloppy enunciation, then some of our dream characters
may as well. In this case, our Dreamwright may be trying to help us communicate
more clearly with others. Sloppy enunciation can be a source of conflict in
relationships, and if you’re seeing a lot of it in your dreams, then you might
also take a look at how you interact with people.

Denotative
Definitions of a Word

The Denotative
definition is the literal definition of a word, i.e. a “hand.” If you refer to
a hand here, you’re speaking of the actual hand at the end of the arm, the one
that you can hold up in front of your face. The old saying… “I can’t see my
hand in front of my face.” We could call this the dictionary or Denotative
definition.

A fun mnemonic
for this word would be to use a slangy musical term. We could call them de-notes.
In music, that would be the actual note you play when playing a musical melody.

Connotative
Definitions of a Word

The Connotative
definition is the emotional definition or emotional sense of a word. So when I
use the word hand, it could have other meanings. It can be disciplinarian,
arthritic, clenching, grasping, holding, or any combination of all these. Hands
can be warm, gentle and caressing, or they can be harsh and ugly, bringing
pain. Can you lend me a hand? Always looking for a handout. I can beat you
hands down. Hand me that axe will you? This is a pretty handy little gadget.
I’ve got to hand it to you. Try to play the hand you’re dealt. All hands on
deck. One hand washes the other. If your right hand offends you cut it off.
Don’t let the right hand know what the left hand is doing.

A fun mnemonic
for this word would be co-notes, or the notes that go alongside the notes or
harmonies that fill in the chord in music. So you’ve got de-notes, the actual
note on a scale, and co-notes.

Imagery

What kind of
imagery do the words bring up? This has less to do with the actual words and
more to do with the images they conjure when you use them. Going back to our
previous example, if I use the word hand, and you conjure up an old and
decrepit arthritic hand, one that you saw on your grandmother, then that is the
imagery of that word.

Your
Dreamwright will purposely use words that bring up certain images either
consciously or subconsciously. Sometimes all it takes is looking at a specific
word in the Dreamplay to find the key that will unravel its meaning for you.

Rhythm

Rhythm is a
subtle thing. It can be described as the meter of the words as they’re spoken.
When someone is frightened, their words tend to speed up and their pitch rises.
When someone is in love, their rhythm slows down and their pitch drops. Brian
Williams has a rhythm as he delivers us the news. Many comedians have garnered
laughs imitating the rhythm of Captain Kirk and his exaggerated pauses in the
middle of sentences. Speaking of comedians, ever heard the phrase “timing is
everything?” Again, listen to any Shakespearian play and you will hear obvious
examples of rhythm. Poetry is another form of writing that relies heavily on
rhythm.