Why masks?
I have felt drawn to masks ever since university, when my Commedia dell’arte instructor brought a box of leather half-masks to class. The students eagerly tried them on in front of full-length mirrors, adjusting our facial expressions and body postures as we attempted to bring the stock characters of Pantalone and Arlecchino to life. The characters we saw in the mirror seemed to possess powerful emotions and personalities that were unleashed by our movements.
Our experience with these masks can be compared to the way an Indonesian mask performer contemplates the mask even before he tries it on. Theatre scholar John Emigh watched the artist Kakul at work and described the technique in his book, Masked Performance: The Play of Self and Other in Ritual and Theatre:
‘Kakul…would turn [the mask first one way, then another, and make it look up and down. He would play with the movement, adjusting the speed and the sharpness of definition, until he was satisfied that he had found how the mask moved best; how it wanted to move. Only then would he put the mask on his face and begin to move his body, bringing the mask to life…Always, his words would be about the demands of the mask.’
In both cases – with or without a mirror – the mask is perceived as wanting to move a certain way; it makes demands on the actor, as if it possesses a will of its own. A student of mine recently said that he felt his mask was ‘irresistibly’ drawing him in, encouraging him to create a character. Rather than ignoring such impressions, the acting teacher can encourage students to describe their emotions and sensations while working with masks, helping them to recognise similarities between their work and the work of artists around the world.
The Character Checklist
Here are some things an acting teacher might ask her students to discover about their mask:
- Face (What expression do you wear under the mask? How do you position your lips and jaw to make the character seem alive?)
- Character pose (Find a pose or gesture that expresses your character)
- Walk (How does your character move its body?)
- Voice (Does your character grunt, sigh, or growl? Do they use words? Do they have a favourite expression? A name?)
- Social need (What does your character want from other characters? To be feared? To be hugged?)
This list can be simplified or expanded according to the age and interest of the group. Mirrors are not essential.
The Talk Show game
When I began to use half-masks in drama workshops, I wanted every student to have a mask that they had made, so I developed this quick and simple design. I copied a photograph of a face from a fashion magazine, glued it to a piece of card stock, and cut very small peep holes. A notch cut from the bottom of the card allowed it to rest on the actor's nose. The detailed eyes and eyebrows of the photocopy produced an uncanny feeling that one was looking at a living being – someone other than the actor. When I began to create original designs, I made them slightly larger than life and included the detailed eyes and eyebrows that made the photo masks so expressive.
I brought my first two photo masks to a child's birthday party and asked if anyone wanted to play a guest on my talk show. I wore one mask, and the guests took turns wearing the other one. Each time a new actor put it on, it looked like a completely different character! I asked leading questions, such as ‘Is it true that when you came to town to act in a local movie, you fell off your horse?’ When I ran out of things to ask, I asked the audience if they had questions.
I have played this game with students of all ages, and it is full of surprises. Once a mask appeared who could hardly pronounce more than ‘ck-ck-ck!!’ This was her name and, to the audience's delight, her answer to every question. Even though the answer was always the same, she seemed to consider each question thoughtfully, and had us anticipating a different answer each time.
I apply two rules during mask exercises. First, stay in character and use the character's voice; do not speak in your own voice while you are wearing the mask. Second, whenever you speak to an actor wearing a mask, address the character, not the actor. These rules support the illusion of the mask having presence, or spirit.
The Buddy Exercise
A student of mine once came out of an improvisation with a mask and remarked, ‘I'm back! What happened?’ To feel that you are someone or somewhere else or have lost control or your memory while wearing a mask is not unusual. The Buddy Exercise creates a safe situation for masks to open themselves to intense creative experiences, and even to lose control.
In the Buddy Exercise, one person acts as a guide, or buddy, and leads their masked partner around, introducing them to their immediate environment. Leave the safety of the studio and you enter a suddenly unfamiliar world of the theatre building or school, where you will encounter stairs, hallways, elevators, artwork, unusual objects, and people.
I tell actors: think of your mask self as a nascent being, or a visitor from another realm. Everything is new! Nothing is familiar! You may not even know how to speak yet. Don't rush anything.
The buddy encourages the mask to explore and discover their environment as if for the first time, but her primary job is to keep the actor in mask safe. If the mask gets carried away beyond the actor's control, or appears to be anxious, the buddy should ask the masked actor to remove their mask and stop the exercise.
John Emigh reports watching a performance in India in which masked actors went into a trance and were restrained with ropes to keep them from acting violently. In attempting to describe their own experiences, students often choose words like trance, or possession. Such concepts may seem to belong more to mysterious ancient rituals than to the drama studio. We are not trying to provoke a loss of control, or recreate the mask ceremonies of India, but we can develop an appreciation for the concepts that animate some of the world's richest performance traditions.
Should we be more cautious about altered states of consciousness? Will an actor who feels possessed by the spirit of the mask be traumatised, or suffer a break with reality? Although no one can guarantee that a student in an acting class will never get upset, I have found that actors working with masks are far more likely to report feelings of excitement and euphoria than distress.
The use of a buddy in character exploration exercises protects the actor from negative experiences that might come with feeling a loss of control in public. By protecting the actor, we allow for deep or intense experiences to occur, rather than resisting them.
Closing thoughts
Activities like the Character Checklist, the Talk Show Game, and the Buddy Exercise can help younger students to develop a voice and a social identity, build confidence, invent and act out stories, connect with an audience, and have fun. For the advanced actor, these exercises offer the opportunity to develop a physical technique, to relax onstage and to achieve an economy of expression.
Experiences with masks also invite discussions about a range of cultural and artistic traditions. Recognising commonalities between the work of artists from different cultures is a way to increase understanding and appreciation.
Finally, setting up an encounter between the artist's consciousness and the spirit of the mask gives students a unique chance to transform themselves: to feel things intensely and process those feelings through discussion. This feeling of transformation is a big part of what makes creative work rewarding.
Further Reading:
Masked Performance: The Play of Self and Other in Ritual and Theatre by John Emigh (University of Pennsylvania Press) – Emigh's book reads like a travel adventure story, but he is more than a tourist; he participates in the theatre forms he describes.
Impro by Keith Johnstone (Methuen Drama) – this manifesto by a brilliant teacher is worth returning to again and again. It has a fascinating chapter called ‘Masks and Trance’. Available on The Internet Archive at www.archive.org.
Maskmaking by Carole Sivin (Davis Publications) – a great book that will inspire you to make your own masks.