ryday life, people are always concentrated on something, whether it be an inanimate object, a thought, or a physical feeling. When onstage, the actor must always have his concentration on the reality of the stage. He must be so involved with the truth of the play that the audience is drawn into his world."Suppose that you are playing. The curtain goes up and yourfirst problem is to listen to the sound of a departing car. You mustdo it in such a way that the thousand people in the theater who at that moment are each concentrating on some particular object-one on the stock exchange, one on home worries, one on politics,one on a dinner or the pretty girl in the next chair- in such a way that they know and feel immediately that their concentrationis less important than yours, though you are concentrating onlyon the sound of a departing car.Nobody dares to disturb a painter at his work, and it is the actors own fault if he allows the public to interfere with his creation." (Boleslavski, 26)Concentration allows the body and the mind to relax and become responsive to the action and characters onstage. This is what draws the audience in, what makes them feel as if what they are experiencing is "real." This is what actors refer to as "being in the moment," the most desirable state for a convincing performance. If an actor is relaxed and his energy is concentrated on an object, it also creates the illusion that the action is happening for the first time. Strasberg states that although the conditions of acting demand that you know beforehand the outcome of events, convincing acting demands that you should appear not to know. Concentration allows this illusion to take shape. (See Appendix A)Another aspect of this system that is linked to concentration is the actor's imagination. No person on the stage can be convincing without this talent. "The actor must feel the challenge physically as well as intellectually because the imagination...
