【The Âtre 】：訓練與表演

The Âtre Issue 16 (October 2024) https://www.the-atre.com/

近幾年，已有一些藝術學院為學生安排演員訓練課程。

學生們進行演員訓練，有著不同於專業演員的需求；倘若上課的學生們才16、17歲，該如何向學生們解釋演員訓練的必要性，委實不易。

藝術學院課堂的學生們或許也會對演員訓練持有好奇心，但很多時候，學生們更關心的也許是如何考獲高分。學生們也許能夠理解演員訓練之必要，卻未必能夠深切感受到其重要性。

且很多時候，連成年人參與演員訓練工作坊都僅希望在工作坊中學習一套「技能」，我們又怎能怪身處學院的學生們只求高分的想法？

相對於其他表演形式—— 例如舞蹈—— 一些劇場演員未必能夠了解舞台劇演員所需要的體力和體能，學生亦然。有的演員訓練以為演員訓練出強大能量為目的，學生們卻不一定能夠理解其用意，因為舞台上有諸如麥克風等現代科技的幫忙，怎麼看都不覺得需要進行甚麼能量訓練啊。

一般年輕演員受影視影響，或許會把影視的表演要求照搬到舞台表演；一般觀眾亦受影視影響，亦把影視的表演要求作為看劇場表演的要求。要向學生們解釋演員訓練的必要，著實費力。

如何解釋，在表演之前，演員首先需重審，怎麼站、怎麼走？如何在開始說台詞之前，首先處理呼吸、處理自己的心？

在執導年輕人們時，導師正好可以與學生們一起探索演員訓練之必要。何謂演員訓練？沒有訓練，難道就無法演戲嗎？演員需要什麼樣的訓練？

也遇過一些劇場工作者，說是聽聞劇中演員們受過哪一套哪一門哪一派的演員訓練，因此興致勃勃去看戲，結果竟然失望地走出劇院，說是怎麼看了整齣戲都不見任何演員訓練的痕跡呢。

那是必然的。足球員平時訓練壓腿、訓練原地跑步，但總不成在踢球時一直都壓腿和原地跑步啊。原形畢露，不是表演的目的。

表演雖然是排練出來的，但終究是見招拆招。兵無常勢，每場演出都不一樣，訓練是讓演員練習如何面對無常。水無常形，訓練是讓演員練習如何因地制流。讀書有書呆子，練武有武呆子，也有被演員訓練的形式與套路禁錮的演員，將自己困在訓練裡，忘了天地與生命的遼闊。

因此，即便是專業的劇場工作者，也可以趁機與學生們一起思考這個大課題，導師應引導學生思考如何在訓練與表演之間搭起橋樑。

歷代的劇場大師，留下了那麼多那麼豐富的演員訓練體系，我們這一代，在保留與傳承之間，在破除與創新之間，放不下又跳不出，不生不滅，不人不鬼。

這時候可以看看學生。他們的表演稚嫩，卻是渾然天成，无斧凿痕。看著看著，也就有所領悟了。

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The Âtre Issue 16 (October 2024) https://www.the-atre.com/

“Bridging Training and Performance”

Text/ Neo Hai Bin

In recent years, some arts institutions have introduced actor training programs for students. Students have different needs from professional actors, and it is often not easy to explain the necessity for actor training to these young students. 

While theatre students may be curious about actor training, they are often more concerned with getting high grades; while they may appreciate the necessity of actor training, they may not fully understand the significance of training. Come to think of it, there are adult actors who attend actor training workshops solely to acquire a set of “skills” to bring home, so we can hardly blame students for only wanting to get good grades.

Compared to other forms of performance-- such as dance-- some theater actors may not realize the physical strength and stamina required of a stage actor, and neither do students. There are actor training systems that emphasize building strong energy for actors, but with modern technology (such as microphones), it certainly seems that there is no need for any sort of training at all. 

Many young actors may be influenced by films and TV, and may adopt the acting requirements for stage acting. Likewise, audience could also be influenced by movies, and may adopt the acting requirements of films as the requirements for theater performances. It would indeed be difficult to explain to the students the need for actor training— how do we explain, that before performing, an actor must first re-examine how he or she stands and walks? How do we explain that before performing, the actor needs to deal with our breathing and our intentions before we even deliver our lines?

It is a great opportunity for instructors to explore the need for actor training with their students: What is actor training? Is it actually impossible to act without training? What kind of training does an actor need?

Some theater practitioners would attend theatre plays with great excitement because they had heard that the actors in the play had received training under a certain discipline or system, only to walked out of the theater in disappointment, lamenting on how they did not manage to see any trace of actors training on stage at all. Well, a footballer is trained to do leg presses and sprints, but s/he should not be doing leg presses and sprints while playing football. It is definitely not the purpose of the performance to flex one's trainings.

Though a performance is rehearsed, it is still a matter of responding to the situation as it unfolds. Every performance is different. Training is for the actors to practise dealing with the impermanence of events. Water has no constant shape, and in the same way, the actor trains in order to practise how to adapt to different conditions. There are bookworms, and then there are nerds-- actors who are imprisoned by the of actor training trap themselves within the forms, forgetting the vastness of the universe, and of life.

Therefore, even professional theater practitioners can take the opportunity to think about this important subject with their students, by guiding them to think about the bridge between training and performance.

Generations of theater maestros have left behind so many enriching training systems for actors. Yet, practitioners of out times grapple between preservation and inheritance, between destruction and innovation, unable to let go or to jump out of the box.  

Locked in shackles, perhaps this would be the time for us to learn from young students. Their performances are crude, but without traces of techniques and methods-- organic and natural. One gains so much from watching and learning from them.